Is 63-year-old Nick McKenzie a time traveler or just a crazy old man? This unforgettable journey will stick with you long after you’ve read the final page.
If you’ve read certain of my past posts, you know I’m a fan of time travel fiction. When I started on my co-authoring journey with MK Eidson writing The Longest Survivor, book one of our Head Hoppers GameLit/LitRPG series, neither he nor I thought time travel would play a part in the series. But after some brainstorming and freewriting, we hit on a way to incorporate it, much to my joy. Book two, Undone, is the result. And what a ride it has been. I loved all the back and forth between Mike and myself on this collaboration, bouncing ideas off each other.
The story of Undone is inspired by true events from our lives, more of Mike’s than mine, admittedly, but then he’s more than twice my age and was more willing to explore the tragedies in his life than I was willing to do for mine. We added several purely fictional events too, as you might guess since the book is time travel fiction. It’s also GameLit and LitRPG, although not heavily so, with those elements coming late in the book. There are mentions of Tunnels and Trolls a bit earlier than the true GameLit elements, so if you get to that point, don’t think that’s the extent of the GameLit in the book. You’ll know you’re getting into the meatier GameLit part of the story when you see character sheets popping up. 🙂
The book is available only on Kindle at the moment. Print will come later. Something about waiting for copyright registration. Mike’s taking care of that and says it might still be a couple months. The book is available in the Kindle Unlimited program, for those who are KU members.
The story is intended for a mature audience.
To give you a taste of what lies in store for you in the pages of Undone, here’s an excerpt from Chapter Four. If you want to read even more of the story for free, check out the Look Inside feature on the Undone product page.
The damned Critic is back on the bus. “You used adjectives and adverbs—hallmarks of bad writing. You don’t even deserve one star.”
I don’t wait for the bus to come to a stop or the door to open. “I told you to get off the fucking bus.” Holding the .22 caliber rifle with one hand as though it were a pistol, I aim at his belly and pull the trigger.
A cloud of red feathers spews from his mouth. His body folds over and his hands clutch at his wounded gut. At the next stop, he exits by toppling with no assistance from me.
Stashing the rifle on the luggage rack, I grab my scroll and disembark, stepping on The Critic’s fingers. I laugh at the crunching sound. “Make way for the wizard.”
“I’ll ruin you if it’s the last thing I do,” shouts The Critic. He doesn’t shake a fist with broken digits.
The bus lets me out next to my Ford in the mall parking lot. How convenient. I head inside the mall.
I unroll my scroll for Erica to see the design it bears. At first, she says nothing. Just grimaces and nods her head. “I thought you’d want to talk about this later. At seven? Take a little drive somewhere we can discuss things in private?”
“Oh, I do.” I undress her, except she’s still clothed.
“Maybe you shouldn’t come in here every day.” She taps the end of my nose with her forefinger. “People might talk. Someone might talk to your wife. Do you want that?”
“I suppose it’s not wise.”
“Okay, then. Run along. I’ll find you in the parking lot. A little after seven. Hopefully I won’t have any impromptu meetings at the end of my shift.”
“Where’s your purse?” I glance around, as though it might be lying amongst the merchandise.
“My purse? At the moment, it’s in a locker. Why do you ask? Do you need to borrow some money?”
“Oh, no. No.” Can’t have her thinking I’m hurting for funds. “It’s just, I’d like to see your ID. Your driver’s license. See what kind of picture you take.”
“You’re wondering if I’m eighteen. Little too late for that, don’t you think?” With a wink, she spins on a high heel, shaking her slight hips, and strolls to a customer’s side. “May I help you, miss?” She’s teasing me, and I don’t know whether that’s a good sign or bad.
Here’s an image of one of the characters near the end of the book. Believe it or not, she’s based on me. 🙂 Her name is Slithy. Can you guess what animal her skin coloration patterns is based on?
Play Time With Emila H Thicke 