robby's stuff

Street Kids

2026-10-11T15:08:06.000+01:00

One character profile that keeps popping up in my books is street kids. They could even constitute a sub-genre.

I don’t just mean kids that play outside all the time and get dirty. I mean, truly homeless, from very young to teenage, unattached, fiercely independent, ones that have become so used to sleeping anywhere they can find to sleep, and make their own way, that they prefer it that way. They make their living by stealing, begging, or even doing jobs like polishing shoes or cleaning windscreens at intersections. Too often, they’re drug addicts.

They may have come from untenable home situations, fleeing from abusive parents, kicked out, or just plain orphaned. Whatever the case, they’ve crossed over from being typical children who crave the security and warmth of a home, to preferring total independence.

My first time becoming aware of children like that was watching a short documentary film by the Salesian Fathers, titled Gaminos. It followed the activities of a Father of that Order, in Columbia, who would go out and make contact with those types of children. He explains in the video, the mindset of such children, and that to begin to help them in any way, one has to approach them carefully. Being fiercely independent, they easily become suspicious of anyone, especially one that looks like they could try to lure them into situations where they’d take control. Many of them have been deeply hurt by abusive control, and they think that’s what having parents is all about.

So, he becomes friends with them, builds their trust, helps them in useful, and sometimes life-saving ways.

Once they’re ready, he invites them to stay in a shelter, one where they can leave any time they want. They can come in, be fed, have a safe place to sleep, but also be free to leave the moment they feel too cramped. That’s important, because the moment you try to force one to stay, word will get around, and you will have lost that valuable trust.

But some do move on from that to more immersive situations, where they can receive education, or learn a useful trade.

Later on, in my missionary career, I had one such child living with me for a week. Our small ministry team had rented a house for our church planting effort, and we found an older drug addict and a young boy sleeping in the premises.

The two weren’t related, so we told the boy he could stay with us. He did, for a week.

I sort of knew what to expect from having watched that documentary a few years earlier, and I was plotting my way forward as to how to help him along. I began giving him reading lessons, and began to think of him as a son.

Then, he ran away again. That broke my heart.

Maybe I wasn’t emotionally ready for that. But the concept has continued to inspire my imagination.

Later again, I went to work at a shelter for homeless children and AIDS Hospice in the Klong Toey Slum in Bangkok. That was a centre similar to the one operated by the Salesian Fathers in the documentary, except this was run by a Redemptorist, Father Joe Maier. That was Mercy Centre, or Human Development Foundation.

I was there a year until my funding ended, but that was one of the more rewarding jobs I’ve ever had. My original task was translating children’s case histories from Thai into English, but when I began puttering around in the art room with some of the kids, working with ceramic sculpture, Father Joe liked what he saw, and decided I should spend at least as much time in the art room as with translation.

How it affected my literary career: I got serious about writing fiction about 35 or so years ago, just a few years after the experience with the homeless boy.

That first book was titled, The Emissary, a fictionalised rendering of Paul’s second Missionary Journey. The writing of the first draft took about six months, but then, I went back and began researching it, editing and rewriting as I did. That process took about ten years. The book never got published - I sort of gave up on the book itself - but the study was of tremendous value to me, teaching me the Judaism of the Apostle Paul, or The Emissary. A lot of that research has been useful in other books, such as Eetoo. Also, it deepened my understanding of the Christian Faith, and practically made me into a Messianic Goy. My Bible study course, The Shechinah: it’s All About God Dwelling Among Humanity, has come out of that, as well as some of my other Bible teaching books.

Just a few facts about The Emissary: I gave up on any prospects of publishing it after about ten years, though I valued what it did for me. However, very recently, I’ve picked it up again, and have decided to give it another go. Watch this space for more news on that.

Another thing: one of the characters is a street kid of the type I’ve been describing. His name is Onestos.

But that’s all I’ll say about him for now, except to remind you, I invented him as a character just about four years after my experience with the boy that spent a week with us. For all intents and purposes, he is that boy.

Then, came Pepe. He was the child of Mercy Centre. My first ideas of writing that one came to me while I was working there. A few of the elements from the real life of Klong Toey Slum and Mercy Centre were inspirations for many of the settings in Pepe, such as Dockyards Community, which like Klong Toey Slum, is close to the Harbour. However, as the disclaimer says, this is a work of fiction. Any resemblance of any character to anyone alive or dead, is all in your head (or something like that). Father Antonio, in the story, may look like a younger version of Father Joe, but again, Any resemblance of any character to anyone alive or dead is a complete coincidence. Mercy House in the story is not Mercy Centre, as it doesn’t include an AIDS hospice, and it’s located in Dockyards Community, located, not in Bangkok, but in La Fonta, the beautiful coastal capital of Cardovia, which is a fictional country on the Mediterranean.

I said all that in one breath.

Pepe was a lot of fun to write. He was brought to his “grandmother” when he was two years old, along with an infant, the actual granddaughter of the grandma. He had mistaken the infant he was holding with Po, of the Teletubbies, so the little girl grew up thinking her name was Po. Pepe and Po are again orphaned when a fire devours their part of the slum community, which Grandma doesn’t survive. So, they live on the streets. Pepe knows he has to take care of Po, and his greatest fear is of losing her.

Nobody knows who Pepe really is, except an old man named Atsuko, who mysteriously pops in and out of their life at just the right moments to save them from some calamity or other. He also talks Pepe and Po into moving to Mercy House.

Who Pepe really is, is also the reason some very powerful people want him dead. But I’ll stop here before the spoilers begin.

It’s futuristic cyberpunk. There’s also a teenage hacker who becomes their best friend.

The hacker is from a very well-to-do family, and normally hangs with friends who consider the likes of Pepe and Po as “low lifers”. The first part of the book follows both their lives through various experiences which bring them closer together until they’ve become best friends. Finally, the hacker realises who Pepe really is.

But again, there are the spoilers peeping around the corner.

Get it here

Then, in The Eurasian, the main characters are travelling through a dystopian future American Midwest. In what was once Arizona, they meet a family of orphans, Annie ‘ol Iron, and her two little brothers Scattered Shower and Light Breeze. Mr. Iron, who had the creative imagination in naming his kids, had been knocked off by the mafia. Their mother was forced into prostitution, while Annie and her two brothers got away in their dad’s pickup truck, which had a canopy over the back, and seats for carrying passengers. Ever since, she has been driving that along an inter-city route, carrying passengers and goods, like a bus/taxi. She’s a 12-year-old bus driver, and her 9-year-old brother, Scattered Shower, sits next to her, holding a loaded revolver for their protection. Light Breeze is only five years old.

Quora questions

2026-09-23T21:00:32.103+01:00

...a good outlet for expressing yourself

Now and then, I answer a question that gets shot at me on Quora. Not often, mind. Many questions are weird, like one that was answered by a couple of people last week: “King Richard III was an African American. Why does that fact upset British people?” As we know, the only Americans that existed in Richard III’s time were Native Americans. As England, Europe and Africa hadn’t been discovered yet, Richard III couldn’t have even been Cherokee or Navajo, let alone African American. But I’ve seen a lot of questions like that on Quora, and even sillier.

But you will also find a lot of good writing prompts if you get into the right categories.

An invitation to answer a slightly more sensible question appeared in my mailbox the other day, and even though the question itself was a bit unclear, I decided to answer it.

Here’s the question:

If Christians aren’t bound by the law, why is it still important to follow it, especially when it comes to ensuring justice for the poor and needy?

And my answer:

Being made free from the law goes hand in hand with Christian transformation. When a person comes to repentance and faith in Jesus, they become born again. That’s not simply a new status of being exempt from laws, rather, it’s a transformation of one’s whole being. In becoming a believer, one makes the decision to accept and commit to God’s agenda for this earth, or the Kingdom of God as the Bible calls it. Once in the Kingdom of God by faith, the transformation begins to happen by the Holy Spirit - from God breathing on us and renewing us. That includes becoming full of compassion for the poor and needy, as well as other healthy desires that begin to replace the ones that were killing us, like hate, jealousy and greed. The Bible states that when we’ve been thus born again, then, we’re free from the requirements of the law.

However, the message we hear too often is, “Do you want to go to heaven? Then, say this prayer. Have you said that prayer? Good! No you’re on your way to heaven! It doesn’t matter what you do! “

That is NOT the gospel message. Because we’ve too often made it about escaping hell and going to heaven, we’ve presented an easy gospel for them - not the true gospel of the Bible, which is about becoming a part of God’s agenda. That’s why the so-called Christian world of the West is so weak and enemic.

People who have been truly transformed by their faith will naturally be showing compassion on the poor and needy, and seeking justice. That’s why they’re not under law. They don’t need it.

So, if you’re looking for more outlets for your writing, you could do worse than surf over to Quora.com.

Elijah and the Snakes

2026-09-15T17:41:30.778+01:00

The odd mixture of science fiction and fringe folk religion

If you opened this book expecting a Space Opera and First Contact novel, you might need to read the title and subtitle to reassure yourself after reading the first few paragraphs. You’d be on the right track, of course. It is a Space Opera/First Contact story. But the first few paragraphs would have told you that Elijah Dove, the name on the front cover, was given to the child by his grandmother, a fiery preacher woman of Harlan County, Kentucky, who handled snakes. She said that the child would prophesy in the spirit of Elijah of old, and sure enough, he practically launches the interstellar age with his prophecies.

So, why the unlikely combination of space exploration fiction and fringe folk religion? Why Snakes?

As we mentioned in an earlier emailing, snakes are a metaphor for all that is wrong with the church, and with humanity.

We also talked about an odd individual named Sitting Lamb, also known as the Wandering Jew. This narrative does a completely different take on the old story of the Wandering Jew. He simply shows up places as a test of how they treat strangers, how some of the highest institutions of religion are failing on a most basic point - receiving the poor and the strangers. During the Middle Ages, he was the gauge of their antisemitism.

So, how do snakes tie in?

I’ll paste a couple of quotes from the book. The prophecies of Elijah Dove may touch a nerve with today’s society as well:

They arrived at the front door of the church, and there was a familiar, though quite out of place figure standing at the front steps.

‘Sitting Lamb! You’re here as well!’

‘They won’t let me in,’ he said.

‘I’m really not surprised,’ said Dad softly, as he looked about at the people.

‘There is one place in this area that has been seeking for me. You must take me there.’

‘Where is that?’ said Elijah.

‘The congregation where you were named Elijah. They will receive me. They have been begging for me.’

Elijah was stunned.

…

They drove down the narrow winding road through some forest, until they came to the small clearing where there were three houses, one being the church, and one a general store. Behind the church was a shed, where Elijah remembered they kept the snakes…

When they got out of the car, they could hear the sound. People were crying out, weeping, groaning…

When they got to the door, a man Elijah recognised approached them. ‘You’re welcome to join us, but if it’s preach’n you come for, there probably won’t be any. They’ve been at this for at least three days a week for a whole month now.’

‘That’s okay,’ said Elijah. ‘We just wanted to come.’

‘There will be preaching today,’ said Sitting Lamb.

‘You going to preach?’ asked Elijah.

‘No. You will.’

Elijah had never preached before. He looked at him.

…

As they stepped into the church, those closest to the door, and to the aisle turned. Some of them stretched their hands out, a few shaking Sitting Lamb’s hand all at once…as they led them up the aisle to the front.

‘You are very welcome here,’ one said to Sitting Lamb.

‘Is this little Elijah?’ said an old woman.

‘Yes, I believe it is!’

‘Come, say a few words,’ said another.

‘We’ve been seeking God, and we felt someone would come today to begin revival.’

Elijah was sent to the front. He stood there, gazing at them all.

‘I’m — er — Elijah Dove…’

He noticed that Sitting Lamb was behind him with his hand on his back. A few people had their smartphones out, and were recording him.

‘… I’m the grandson of Amilia Dove. She was a woman of God, who prophesied the Word of God. She named me Elijah, saying I would move in the Spirit of Elijah.

‘Of all things Elijah did, all I’ve done so far is hide in the desert.

‘My grandmother spoke the Word of God. She knew God. But she handled snakes. The Bible says, they will take up serpents, and they will not be harmed. But the Bible didn’t command us to embrace serpents.

‘She took up a serpent. It turned its head around, and it bit her.’

Then, he began speaking more loudly and emphatically. ‘What’s wrong with the church today, the Bride of Christ, she has embraced serpents, and they’ve turned their head and bitten her.

‘The Bible says, Render to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and to God what belongs to God. The Bible says, Obey those in authority, but it also says, We must obey God rather than man.

‘The Bride of Christ has rendered to Caesar what belongs to God. In so doing, the Bride of Christ has embraced Caesar, that seven-headed serpent, and it’s turned its seven heads around, and it’s bitten her.

‘By trying to play politics and influence those in power; to enact laws that are designed to make the world safe for our own kind; to alleviate persecution, to be rewarded by Caesar for giving to God; we have embraced the serpent. Jesus said, In this world you will suffer persecution, but fear not. I have overcome the world. The seven-headed serpent comes to sap our vitality, and we have embraced it, when we should be overcoming by the Blood of the Lamb and the Word of our Testimony.

‘In embracing the seven-headed serpent, we have called for laws to oppress the immigrants, when the Bible tells us, Do not oppress the strangers among you, for you were once strangers in the land of Egypt.

‘In embracing the seven-headed serpent, we have oppressed those of other colours and other races and ethnic groups, when scripture says, If you show respect of persons, you sin.

‘In embracing the seven-headed serpent, we drove the Indians off their land, and slaughtered whole villages of them, when scripture says, Love your neighbour as yourself.

‘In embracing the seven-headed serpent, we have fought among ourselves as Catholics, Protestants, Anabaptists, Baptists, Pentecostals, when scripture tells us to Love one another as I have loved you.

‘In embracing the seven-headed serpent, we have fought and sought to kill our enemies, when the scripture tells us to Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, pray for those who persecute you and despitefully use you…

To continue with this passage would give away spoilers. I’ll just skip to another part of the narrative and continue with parts of a similar one:

‘God told Moses to throw down the rod before Pharaoh, and it became a serpent. He picked it up again, and it again became a staff. But beware lest you pick up the staff of Pharaoh instead of the Rod of God. That can also turn into a snake. The staff of Pharaoh is a staff that splinters and pierces the hand of anyone who leans on it, as did the arm of Pharaoh, of whom Isaiah warned, Beware lest you trust in him.…

‘The promises of God are yea and Amen, but the Bride of Christ has put her trust in the promises of politicians — on the staff that splinters and pierces the hand of anyone who leans on it…

‘...It was said by our Master, You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them and their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you..., but it has become so among us. Yes, we must be accountable to one another, but as equals. If we are accountable only to those above us, beware lest the one at the top, in loving preeminence has forgotten how to wash his disciple’s feet, has disregarded the garments of righteousness, but instead dons sheep’s clothing while he has transformed into a ravenous wolf, and thus, the serpent’s head that turns and bites the hand of the Bride of Christ.

‘So, seek God for discernment, lest something that God did not tell you to take up, turn its head around and bite you.’

The book is not all soap-box material, but there’s more where that came from. It is, after all, a science fiction novel. There are aliens, some good, some bad, Elijah makes one trip to another planet and back in an alien craft, there’s intrigue as various agencies compete with each other for technology and resources. The fabled Men in Black even make an appearance (but certainly not agents J and K).

But, there’s probably enough in there to hang me as a heretic. Why not find out for yourself, and download a copy?

Again, this series is now available from more than one source, both Amazon for your Kindle and print editions, and Books2Read.com for your other devices, like Kobo, iPad, etc.

Go here to download the ePub edition for most devices (or laptop):

Books2Read.com

Or one of these for Kindle:

Amazon US : Amazon UK : Amazon Canada : Amazon Australia

Or just go to my website where you’ll find all the links:

www.RobbyCharters.co.uk

Elijah, Rats and Asteroids

2026-09-07T21:41:59.553+01:00

A Map of the Rat Queen Universe

Even though Elijah Dove is not the first volume in the Rat Queen series, it comes first chronologically. As the prequel, you actually can read that before the other ones, but the series was designed to start with The Rat Queen, about the little girl in a rat infested space station that thought she was a rat, and how rat-kind began to evolve higher intelligence.

That comes first because it follows the train of thought of the author (that’s me), as I was coming up with the story, followed by its sequel, then another sequel, and then a prequel, and finally the very first prequel, Elijah Dove.

A few of the books include a dim memory of a mysterious person named Elijah who called fire down from the sun, which ended the technological age for Old Earth. So, I decided to write about him, showing how he was nothing more than a simple bloke from a backward rural area, and how he remained just a simple bloke in spite of his great achievements. That’s called humility.

But the series begins much later in history with a planet about to be destroyed by an asteroid, with people trying to evacuate; how Elton ends up on a ship by himself along with a baby girl, as the auto sequencer accidentally trips on, and the ship takes off with only the two on board. After a year of flying aimlessly through space at near light speed, they’re captured by galactics. Elton is taken prisoner and wee Becky, now about one and a half, gets lost in the air vents of the space station.

If you want, you can read that first chapter free here.

By beginning at the first in the series, The Rat Queen, you begin learning galactic history and geography gradually, along with the main characters. You slowly begin to become aware that there’s a galactic war on humanity, and that one of the weapons of mass destruction is asteroids and comets.

As we grasp more of the whole picture, we become aware that there are a number of galactic species, or nations, most of which have it in for humans. That’s because of the way humans have been acting since they went into space.

If you begin with Elijah Dove, you learn your history from the opposite end. You’ll see Elijah Dove warning them not to act like that, as that will turn the whole galaxy against them, and humanity could become extinct.

And see? He told them so.

But when all else seems lost, hope for humanity comes from the rats. Thanks to Becky, a sympathetic galactic being, and a space-time anomaly, rat-kind begins evolving into a higher intelligence. You really have to read the first in the series to understand all that.

Not all the galactic nations have it in for humanity. There’s one group called the Pzinskiti. They never went to war with humanity, but are generally the ones that appreciate life in any form it comes in, including human.

“Pzinskiti”, is the plural form of “Pzinsk”. It’s a Pzinsk that first begins to show Elijah the facts of life of living in the galaxy. He was the galactic ambassador to Earth, and his office was located at Area 51.

Both this Pzinsk, and another one who appears later in the series, fit the role of the “Gandalf/Dumbledore figure” that I talked about in a earlier email. He passes on a lot of good things to Elijah, including a list of which star systems have habitable planets recommended for humans, and which ones are off limits. The ones that are off limits are reserved for other galactic nations. Elijah’s mandate is to make sure every human agency going to space knows which parts of the galaxy are off limits. In return, they also know which planets are deemed suitable for them. There’s plenty to go around.

But do they listen?

There are other space creatures as well, some that are not so nice.

Later in Elijah’s career, the Pzinskiti are replaced by one of those of a not-so-nice species as ambassadors to Earth. These are the Kriirgiti. They are generally quite nasty. However, the one named Strrruptl seems nice at first. But we realise quickly, he’s putting on a front to deceive.

Galactics enjoy a long life expectancy. Strrruptl also appears in the original trilogy a few hundred years later, as a powerful villain. There’s also another Pzinsk, named Plron, who helps Becky along, and even does something to her head to enhance her ability to squeak and understand rat-squeaks, which begins the uplift of rat-kind.

Plron also appears in the first prequel, The Planet.

The Planet also begins with the destruction of a world - actually one of the first planets that humans began sending people to settle. This is about three hundred or so years after Elijah Dove’s time, so life has gone on just fine in the meantime. Those living on the planets usually don’t travel much and don’t receive much news of what happens in the rest of the galaxy. They only learn at the last minute (or few months) that a stray asteroid is in a collision course.

And who is destroying the planets? In the course of the series, we learn that it’s another species called the Kozootiti. They are antisocial creatures, who have special abilities to control gravity. They look like the cross between a giant centipede and a spider. The impression of one of my very young characters is, … the likes of which, had he seen it at two inches long in the bathroom at night, it would have made him scream. They have compound eyes, but only one of the receptacles in each eye is what we’d call visual. Thus, they have severe tunnel vision, which enables young humans to evade their line of sight. The other receptacles receive other energy waves and even gravity.

While the Kozootiti oppose humanity by brute force, there’s another that uses more subtle ways. They are the Nagashiti. They are actually native to Earth, but were, for the most part destroyed at the climax of a galactic war, when the Kozootiti sent the asteroid that destroyed the dinosaurs, to whom the Nagashiti are related. Thus, they the Nagashiti are bitter enemies of the Kozootiti, as well as of humanity.

Some Nagashiti survived, mostly in outer space. While the Kozootiti use brute force, the Nagashiti use deceit, flattery and cunning. It was one of them that convinced Eve to take the forbidden fruit.

Where do we learn this? From the sun.

Stars are sentient. I bet you didn’t know that. They remember all the way back to the Big Bang, when God said, “Let there be light”. The sun remembers being that light, and then becoming many instances of himself as God said further, “Let light be separated from darkness,” and gravity waves began pulling light into various pools that became galaxies and individual stars. The Sun remembers all of history past and future from where he sits. In the chapter titled, The Chronicle of the Sun (in the original trilogy), he describes it to Plron, who needs wisdom in helping humanity overcome the diabolical plans of Strrruptl.

And the sun remembers Elijah Dove. He remembers being commanded to emit a solar flare that destroyed all of Earth’s high-tech communications. That also destroyed the Kozootiti ship that was poised to send yet another asteroid to destroy the Earth. The destruction from the massive EMP put an end to nation states of Earth, putting humans back into the dark ages (there’s some technology, just not enough synergy to keep it all going). Thus, they were no longer a threat to the galactics. So life went on quietly, as another ice age began, until humans and highly evolved rats began filtering back to Earth.

One recent change I’ve made is, the whole Rat Queen series is now available in ePub format from almost all the venues, Smashwords, iTunes, Kobo, B&N, etc, through Books2Read.com, as well as Amazon. However, they’re no longer a free read with Kindle Unlimited (that’s the choice I had to make). You can link to all of them from my website, www.RobbyCharters.co.uk

Elijah and the Wandering Jew

2026-09-04T20:28:00.299+01:00

This post will follow with the same theme as my last one, however, bringing it back to my books, especially my latest one.

Elijah Dove, as his name implies, is a prophet. At least he begins to do prophetic things during the course of the narrative. His grandmother was a wild preacher woman who handled snakes. She named him Elijah, saying he would move in the spirit of Elijah of old.

Some of the prophecies go along with what I said in my last newsletter.

In the story, he is taking a break from his work in Aria 51, camping in the Nevada desert. He’s made friends with a Navajo Franciscan priest named Maxwell who comes to visit him, and mentors him a bit. Then, they meet another, a very old man who calls himself the Wandering Jew, however, we soon find we’ve had that story all backwards.

I’ll quote from the story, which I hope builds on the theme of my previous email. I wrote it with my author’s inspiration, so I’ll stop short of saying it’s prophetic.

But here’s the quote, beginning where Elijah hands him a bowl of chilli that he’s cooked over an open fire:

‘Thank you very much. Very hospitable, indeed. You won’t lose your reward. Now, do you want to know the true story of the Wandering Jew?’

‘I’d be interested,’ said Maxwell.

‘A prince, who would one day be king, went to woo the woman he loved. But the question he had about her was, if he went to her as a prince, how would he know she truly loved him? Would it truly be him that she loves, or would it be his riches, or the life of a queen, or the prospect of living in a sumptuous palace? So he went to her in the guise of a tramp, for if she could be drawn to love him as a tramp, then her love would be true, and she would genuinely love him as king as well.’

‘That — is an interesting story,’ said Maxwell, slowly.

Elijah was sure this story went deep. There was more to this man than met the eye.

‘Who is this woman?’ asked Maxwell.

‘One whom I have been trying for a long time to win her love. I hope that you two can help.’

‘How would we help?’ asked Elijah.

‘Do as your namesake. Eli Yahu means The Lord is God. When he called fire down, as you will do, the people all called out, “The Lord is God, the Lord is God, Eli Yahu, Eli Yahu.”’

Maxwell must have told him my name, thought Elijah.

‘But mind you, they weren’t chanting his name, but responding to God. See that no one chants your name, but only glorifies the Name of the Lord. Don’t bask in the glory, but do as Elijah of old did. Each time he said or did anything major, calling for a famine or calling fire down, he withdrew into the wilderness. Many, today, would stay and bask in the fame and glory. Elijah disappeared and couldn’t be found.’

‘If I remember correctly,’ said Maxwell, ‘they were out to kill Elijah.’

‘In this age, likewise. If they cannot exploit you, they will seek to kill you.’

‘What you’re saying, is that the prophets of today are being exploited?’

‘When is the last time you heard a prophet speak out against King Herod? There was one who did, and his head became an attraction at the king’s birthday party. These prophets of recent times prophesied that Herod would be re-elected. When that didn’t come to pass, they prophesied that the one who was elected would die of a stroke.

‘When was the last time you heard a prophet call the elders of the people snakes? There was one who did. He, also, came in the spirit of Elijah of Old. He could have basked in the popularity with which they sought to exploit him, but instead, he called out the snakes. Beware of the snakes.

‘You, Elijah Dove, were so named by your grandmother, who spoke in the name of the Lord. But she played with snakes. The snake in her hand turned its head and bit her.

‘Yes, it is written that those who believe will take up serpents, but they were not commanded to embrace them. Many things were not commanded, but my bride has embraced them — snakes. Yes, it is written, Render to Caesar, but my bride has embraced Caesar — the very snake that turned its head and bit my prophets who were handling it. The love of the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye and the pride of life are also snakes that my bride has handled. You, Elijah, must cleanse my bride of snakes.’

So, Elijah receives his calling.

“Snakes” become a metaphor for all that is wrong in the church. Later on, Elijah drives the snakes out of Appalachia. I won’t say exactly how, that would be a spoiler.

The name the Wandering Jew goes by is Sitting Lamb. Here’s another quote that describes his favourite activity:

They parked half a block away, and walked to the church. From a distance Elijah saw a man standing at the door, dressed in old clothes. His hair and face looked even older, and very dark from a lot of sun.

Then, he knew him. The Wandering Jew!

They went to the door. Elijah asked, ‘Sitting Lamb! Good to see you! What are you doing out this way?’

‘I stand at the door and I knock.’

Anthony spoke up, ‘Well, come on in! You’re certainly welcome. Why don’t you sit with us?’

‘Thank you very much. I think I will.’

It turns out that the church isn’t as warm and inviting as Elijah remembered it being before, which is why the Wandering Jew has been standing outside, but that’s about to change.

Another one, back in Elijah’s home town:

They arrived at the front door of the church, and there was a familiar, though quite out of place figure standing at the front steps.

‘Sitting Lamb! You’re here as well!’

‘They won’t let me in,’ he said.

‘I’m really not surprised,’ said Dad softly, as he looked about at the people.

‘There is one place in this area that has been seeking for me. You must take me there.’

‘Where is that?’ said Elijah.

‘The congregation where you were named Elijah. They will receive me. They have been begging for me.’

Elijah was stunned.

They arrive at that church and find the whole congregation agonising in prayer for revival.

Later, he also meets him in Africa.

It’s a surreal literary device that helps with fiction about the prophetic.

That’s not all there is to the novel, of course. It is science fiction - an earth-bound prequel to a space opera series. He works at Area 51, and he is involved in humanity’s ascent into interstellar space. His interaction with aliens also provides a whole other aspect to this story, making it verge on apocalyptic.

I should say here, this isn’t the first novel I wrote that had the Wandering Jew as a character. In The Zondon, one of my first novels, he also appears, with the same backstory. That book also has spaceships and aliens.

I might talk about that one sometime.

But here’s the link to Elijah Dove:

Amazon US: Amazon UK: Amazon Canada: Amazon Australia:

The Lifeboat - a Kingdom of God Manifesto

2026-08-30T13:18:36.831+01:00

Warning Label: This is where I preach!

Some say the grass in the town commons is overgrazed. They say that each shepherd knows that and has rushed to fatten their flocks while there is still grass in the commons. They say that this is the cause of the grass being reduced to dust, and that access to the town commons must be restricted.

The town commons is the sum of all the Earth’s resources, so it follows that being restricted from the town commons means there is no grass for one’s flocks - anywhere.

Some say the Earth is a lifeboat, and they say that humanity has outgrown it. They say there isn’t enough room in the lifeboat for all. They say that empathy and compassion are no longer conducive to human survival. They say we should shoot the refugees in the water lest they climb aboard - that we must take the axe and chop the fingers of those clinging to the side.

“There is only room in the lifeboat for beautiful people like you and me,” they say.

As resources diminish, as the grass is eaten down to the root, the only solution will become obvious to all. Then it will be either the survival of the fittest, or the survival of none.

[Footnote: Cory Doctorow lets us in on where this thinking came from, and how it’s beginning to creep in: “The Tragedy of the Commons”: how ecofascism was smuggled into mainstream thought]

That is what they say, but not us.

Our allegiance is not to the system that they hope to save, but to the Kingdom of God

Though Kingdom of God is yet to come, it is already here among us, in our midst.

The Kingdom of God is our lifeboat. There is room for all in our lifeboat. Boarding the lifeboat is not restricted to any particular population, nationality or race. Just as five loaves and three fish could feed 5000, so every ethnic group, every national origin, every man, woman and child, will fit if they climb in.

As Jesus Christ, our shepherd, leads His flock into the town commons, the grass is forever green and plentiful and sufficient for all who will follow.

The Kingdom of God is not enforced from the top down like earthly kingdoms, but shared from person to person as those with the life of the Breath of God reach to those around.

The Kingdom of God in our midst, is not based on any nationality, any particular race, colour of skin, or any particular ethnic group, nor political party. The Kingdom of God doesn’t represent any political ideology.

No political philosophy defines us, whether it be conservative, liberal, labour, democrat, republican, nationalist, loyalist, communist, socialist, fascist, libertarian or anarchist. Our lives belong to Christ.

We do render to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, but the rest belongs to God. We honour the king, but not as the defender of our faith, for King Messiah is our defender. Our purpose is not to make any earthly nation “great again”, but the Kingdom of God, which includes every nation, tribe and tongue. Our allegiance is to the Kingdom of God. Wherever there is a conflict of interest, we must obey God rather than man. We therefore do not hold back from helping those in need, feeding the hungry, giving shelter, advocating for justice, and proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom, even if human government forbids it.

The Kingdom of God isn’t defined by any movement or denomination of Christianity, whether Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox, Reformed, Anabaptist, Lutheran, Anglican, Presbyterian, Baptist, Methodist, Quakers, Moravians, Pentecostal, Messianic, nor Rabbinical Judaism - none of them. Though many movements were inspired by a vision of the Kingdom of God, none have ever seen enough of the whole picture to be able to say their movement defines it. Nor have we seen the whole picture. Inasmuch as those who have gone before were inspired by a vision of the Kingdom of God, we can learn from each.

All who accept the Lordship of Jesus, the Messiah, and who are conformed to His death and resurrection, are a part of this Kingdom, even as they fellowship and labour alongside their fellow congregants of the various movements. And, sadly, many who are members of the movements and denominations, have never submitted to Messiah, the King, and therefore, are not a part of the Kingdom of God.

Our call is, The Kingdom of God is here. Repent and believe this proclamation

The Professor Gets a History Lesson

2026-08-18T19:40:08.606+01:00

The Sequels to Rats in the Cellar

We’re still talking about my Rats in the Cellar series. So far, we’ve talked mostly about the first book in the series.

The second, third and fourth aren’t just more of the same. They’re not even about the same character. The original Oscar, A.K.A. Francis still makes an appearance, but the second in the series follows the one named Louis, the bad boy. He has developed a fiercely independent outlook, and plays nasty pranks on his doppels once he tires of them. We read about a couple of his nasties in the first book.

Can you imagine being blamed for a very horrible prank that was done by someone who looked exactly like you - whom no one but you two knew existed? That’s how Louis got his kicks.

He has developed the mentality of a typical homeless street kid - except he’s not “homeless” in the way we think of it. He’s always in the same house, but moving on to a different universe when he tires of the old, while burning his bridges after him.

But the cat knows how to deal with him, and he mends his ways, and becomes a lifesaver to another of his doppels, one who takes the name of Blake.

“Doppel”, by the way, is a rarely used word in the English language. You’ve probably heard it as “doppelgänger”, someone who is either exactly like you, maybe a second you, maybe a clone. Louis and Blake end up together as twins, adopted by a different family who happens to own their house in a different universe. That’s a “happily ever after” for them.

We also meet other new characters. Remember, in a previous emailing, I said that the “Gandalf/Dumbledore figure” in this series is the cat? Actually, the cat isn’t the only one. In the second in the series, we’re introduced to another, in the form of a four or five-year-old boy, sort of an angelic creature. Just as the cat still acts like a cat, because, as the little boy describes it, he really is a cat, the boy carries his wisdom with the liveliness and emotions of a five-year-old boy. Then, we meet more creatures of the same order in the third and fourth instalments.

The third in the series is where we meet the scientist, Dr. James McSporrin, who originally built the old house and created the multiverse portal. He had successfully invented a time machine. The initial prototype didn’t actually travel itself, it only sent the person using it, while it stayed put. He tested it, intending to go only two weeks into the past. He took a few things along, intended to hole up in a hotel, and then work on the machine some more when he got back.

It sent him to the 18th century.

We learn of him through an old diary, in which he has recorded the history of his adventures. The diary entries are read by the adoptive father of Louis and Blake, in between further adventures of the Oscar doppels in the present day.

Dr. McSporrin, though an atheist, is impressed by how the abolition movement of 18th and 19th century England is fuelled by Evangelical Christians, who were then referred to then as “Nonconformists”. Back in his own century, he had perceived the Evangelicals as being the biggest hindrance to social change.

He also makes a mistake that he forever regrets, confiding in some of his students that he’s from the future. They had sort of guessed it anyway, and they caught him off guard when they suddenly asked him. With the help of his students he manages to build another time machine, an improved version that will actually travel itself.

But a couple of his unscrupulous students, ones with family connections with the slave trade, steal the machine, and manage to erase the abolition movement from history - at least from that timeline. They murder various ones in their cradles, like William Wilberforce, William Pitt, Thomas Pain, Hannah Moore, and anyone else who rises up to fill their vacuum, until they’ve achieved a timeline that’s totally under their control, a dystopia.

In the pages of that diary, we follow how Dr. McSporrin was tormented by the thought of having doomed his world to such an evil future, and was almost driven to suicide. He also meets others whom we’re pretty sure are our own cat and little boy and the others.

The house with the parallel universe portal was an attempt by Dr. McSporrin and his one good faithful student (a fan of Thomas Pain), to establish a link between the dark dystopian timeline and the other in which they were born.

One of the Oscar doppels stumbles into that bleak dystopian universe. But I’ll stop before any spoilers slip out. I’ll only say that there’s a fifth creature, this one immensely evil, who goes by the name Jack Rippley. There’s some spiritual warfare, which also involves more singing by the Oscar choir.

The fourth book in the series came to me after even I thought the series was finished. The end of the third book didn’t leave room for a sequel. But an idea came anyway; this time, a time travel story. Dr. McSporrin takes an active role in this one, not just from the pages of a dairy.

Dr. McSporrin has been tasked with the shutting down of the multiverse portal, as it has now fulfilled it’s purpose. He solicits the help of one of the Oscars, the same one who had stumbled into the bleak world. Some mix-ups happen, the two are stranded in a dead end universe, and while trying to fix things the universe splits again, and suddenly there’s two Dr McSporrin and two Oscars. But the Dr McSporrin’s do find that two heads are better than one, and they find a way out. On the way home, the two Oscars get lost in Victorian London, and are forced into child labour. It’s the Whitechapel district of London of 1890, where William Booth and his Salvation Army are active, and so is Jack the Ripper. In the end, Oscar finally arrives home as twins. I won’t spoil it any more, except that the ending is very satisfying

Again, you can download the books here…

Amazon US Amazon UK Amazon Canada Amazon Australia.

The Gospel According to the Cat

2026-08-16T15:58:34.707+01:00

Though, as my bio states, I’m sold out to the Kingdom of God (in other words, Christian), I find that an “in-your-face” approach isn’t always the best way to express it. It’s about presenting the beauty of the message in an inviting way, which hopefully draws them closer to view more of that beauty. That expression may not appear to be Christian at all, simply because it’s done without the traditional trappings and paraphernalia that they’ve come to associate with Christianity - which, to be honest, I also find tiresome at times. The only thing forcing them to stay should be their own fascination with the products of my artistic imagination. Though at some point, they may realise that they’ve been “preached to” without knowing it, it should elicit a response like, “Okay, that’s one way of looking at it,” or something similar. At any time, they should feel that it’s okay to leave without feeling like my religious sensibilities have been hurt – without even a hint of, “You step out that door to a Christless eternity!” They know the invitation is always open to come back later for more. .

For that reason, my books tend to be targeted to secular audiences. Once you get into them, you will detect Biblical themes. Some are more obviously Christian from the start, just not “in-your-face” with the message

C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien were both Cristian authors. Lewis was more obvious about it in his narratives, though his style was still not “in-your- face”. Tolkien was more subtle. Reading Tolkien, one comes away with the awareness that the world can be changed by the small and insignificant, and that kindness and compassion are forces more powerful than military might and raw energy. No wonder the Hippy culture of the sixties loved it!

I’m sure both Lewis and Tolkien would love my cat. Now, we don’t have a cat in our house as my wife is allergic to animal hair; I’m talking about the feline character in Rats in the Cellar.

You’d think that putting a cat into a story about rats would indicate a dangerous situation (even if “rats” is only a metaphor). C.S.Lewis threw a lion in with a group of children. By the lions own admission, he wasn’t even a tame one. So, what could go wrong in my story?

Plenty. In the first chapter, the cat gets Oscar lost in the multiverse. Later, the cat leads the boys in and out of places that are definitely not child-safe. Once, he darts across a busy highway at a blind curve, with Oscar following. “Not a safe thing to do unless accompanied by a wise cat.”

Of course, the cat knows what he’s doing. Sometimes the seemingly safest places to be are actually the most dangerous and vice versa.

The cat can also purr. As I said in my previous email, the purring generates a change of mood, and sometimes induces mental images. When the cat curls up next to Oscar at night, Oscar dreams that he can purr. He dreams that he’s purring for his young cousins, who are going through an especially traumatic period, and the purring does for them what the cat’s purr does for him.

But boys can’t purr. That thought crosses his mind the next day when he just happens to find himself with the same young cousins. The four-year-old says, “Mummy tried to kill daddy.” The two boys talk about how Daddy punched Mummy in the nose, and how Mummy went at him with a knife, before the police came and took her away. Then the seven-year-old (the oldest of the four), can’t handle it any more.

“It’ll be alright,” Oscar tries to comfort her.

“No, it won’t!” sobs Becky. “You’re just saying that!”

Oscar knows she’s right. The situation is hopeless, and all he can give are empty words.

Later, as the boys are fighting and things are out of control, he remembers the dream, that he’s purring to the children.

Boys can’t purr. But, they can sing.

Oscar’s favourite school activity, when school isn’t closed, is voice practice. The music instructor, Boz, gives the boys singing lessons, developing their male soprano voices.

Their favourite song is one Boz wrote himself.

Remember what I said about characters named Boz appearing in any of my stories; it’s me making a cameo appearance. However, in this case, the only thing he and I have in common is that we wrote that song.

The song is based on the Beatitudes: Blessed are the poor… etc.

As Oscar is standing in the room with the two boys fighting over the toys, the four-year-old bouncing on the settee, and Becky not on speaking terms with the world, he remembers the song.

He begins singing it, and that begins to make a difference. It actually does have the same effect as the cat’s purring.

Here’s the quote from the book:

As he sang, he knew that so much of it might have sounded like a pipe dream, what with all that was happening, the war, the riots, the actual hunger and poverty, even the state of these kids. But this wasn’t the hollow sounding “It’ll be okay” that he told Becky earlier. Somehow, as he sang, he knew each word was meant to be.

Somehow, so did Becky. So did her younger siblings. The whole mood changed. The cat has bestowed on Oscar the gift of singing. That’s how I portray faith - Kingdom of God faith.

That was just Oscar, singing it solo. Later in the book, the many instances of Oscar make for a whole choir. How much more hope would that bring?

The cat knows that.

The song itself is based on a tune that I composed when I was 17. Though I’m by no means a professional in that field, I did manage to create a Midi file, using Muse-Score, and then I created a YouTube video showing the lyrics as the music plays. If you want to listen to it, you can find it Here

Again, you can download the books here…

Nightengale Blues

2026-08-07T23:25:23.000+01:00

He said he was expert in making a nest
But look at the place! It's such a mess!
Got eggs on the way, I need some rest

I've got the Nightingale Bluuuuuuues

Rock-a-bye three babies in our treetop
They show me their tonsils whenever I stop
So I'm hunting for worms until I drop

I've got the Nightingale Bluuuuuuues

Tried to teach the kids to sing real sweet
But our son says “Coo coo” instead of “Tweet tweet”
What the neighbours are saying I won't repeat

I've got the Nightingale Bluuuuuuuues

I'm not a nurse I'm a nightingale
And my name's not Florence, but I'll never quail
So that's my life, I've sung you my tale

I've got the Nightingale Bluuuuuuuues

Experimenting with Multiverse

2026-08-02T15:34:42.843+01:00

After I wrote my heart out about the Time Orphan universe, I was plagued by yet another “what if”: What if a little boy wandered into a forbidden part of his house, and got pulled into a parallel universe?

Not a Narnia universe, but more like in Dr. Hugh Everrett’s Many Worlds Theory - a world almost identical to the one you just left.

Thus began my adventures in writing Rats in the Cellar.

At this point, I have to make a vigorous denial: I don’t have an obsession with rats. I don’t own a pet rat, I don’t fantacise about rats - at least I didn’t then, as I wasn’t actually writing about rats.

Had I known that I would later write a series titled The Rat Queen, I would have named this series differently. The Rat Queen is about rats. In Rats in the Cellar, they’re only a metaphor.

Rats in the Cellar is about nine-year-old boys - or one nine-year-old boy - one nine-year-old boy in multiple universes, therefore, many nine-year-old boys, all named Oscar Wilde Dougherty.

The thing about nine-year-old boys is, that’s the prime age in which they could just as easily be a whining mama’s boy or a street-wise survivalist. In the many instances of the Dougherty household throughout the multiverse, the Oscar Wilde Doughertys cover the whole spectrum in between. They’re eachother’s best friends, eachother’s worst enemies, they’re a threat to each other's security, and there to give a helping hand. I’m talking about all the different instances of Oscar.

And why are there so many instances of the same boy?

They discover the portal in the forbidden part of the house - actually two, one down in the cellar, and one in the attic. They've been warned to keep away from both places, but it's an easy warning to heed, because both parts of the house send “bad vibes”. Later, we find this is “cosmic static”, caused by the friction of time-lines rubbing against each other. The genius who built it found that he could use the cosmic static as a power source to keep the portals forever switched on. But I’m getting way ahead of myself.

But the cosmic static makes the two parts of the housefeel feel spooky, so no one ever ventures into the cellar or to the third floor.

Once having gone thorugh a portal, getting back isn’t straightforward. You can’t just turn around and re-enter the world you just left. There is a way to get back, but you have to do it in five steps, in the right order, which isn’t always easy for a nine-year-old. They’s why they’re lost.

As I said, they’re eachother’s best friends or worst enemies. They develop traditions, rules of the game. They pick alternative names to be known by so they don’t get confused (by opening a phone directory and randomly pointing). There’s a room in the cellar where they can sleep in any instance of their house, and they’re sworn to secrecy about that room. And they steal food from the kitchen. That’s why they’re called “Rats in the Cellar”.

To throw in a bit more fun, it’s a dystopian future. Most western counties are no longer united, there are national borders where there didn’t use to be, some are at war, some have nukes, there’s political unrest, and governments don’t have enough resources to keep the police department going. There are police, but they only protect those that pay a special “police tax”. And the rich are still oppressing the poor.

Yet more fun - or horror - whatever: Oscar’s Uncle Milton is supposed to be in prison, but in some universes, the prison has broken open, and he’s terrorising the family. He’s a sex offender of the worst type, and some instances of him have found their way into the multiverse.

But justice is met in a satisfying way.

Then, there’s the cat. While there are many instances of Oscar, Uncle Milton and others, there’s only one of the cat. It’s a very wise cat.

In my assessment of various fictional narratives, one type of character is the “Gandalf/Dumbledore” figgure. I probably don’t need to say that’s the wisend, supportive, elder figure who helps move the plot along. In Rats in the Cellar, it’s the cat.

It appears to be just an ordinary cat. It doesn’t talk, but it can generate visual images by its purring. Sometimes the purring just sets the mood. As I said, it’s a very wise cat. There are other wise creatures as well, which appear in the sequels.

But in the first book in the series, the cat has a plan, which leads to the climax of the first installment.

Anyway, here’s where you can download the first Rats in the Cellar novella:

I may write more about this next time.

Experimenting with Time Travel

2026-07-23T21:08:26.536+01:00

If something was fun to write, I think that means that it should be fun to read as well.

Orphans of Space-Time was certainly fun to write.

Actually, I had fun with all my books - or I wouldn’t have managed to complete them.

But in Orphans of Space-Time, I got to try out a few unusual ideas, and attempt to answer a few unique “what if” questions,

The original idea for the book was, in fact, a question posed by my son as an idea for a story: What if the main character is able to remember it when a time traveller has gone to the past and committed a murder? That became the premise for the first story in the series.

The book, by the way, is really a set of stories ranging from short stories to novellas, but they fit together as sequels and prequels – a whole series in one cover.

Each story answers a “what if” question.

One day, after having writen the first couple of stories, I was walking past a road-works near our house, and I got another idea, which went into the story titled, The Murder Victim Who Was Still Alive.

What if they found a child buried under the pavement that they’re digging up, who has only been dead a few hours? What if you found out that the same child is still alive and well? The detective involved in this case is forced into believing in time-travel, as he realises that this child is about to be murdered. How do you prevent such a murder from happening?

Another question that begs to be asked is, what if a major historical event happened differently, such as Rome never becoming an empire? What would happen to the world that we know, and things like rise and spread of Christianity?

I flip that question on its head, with a rogue time traveller asking instead, “What would happen to the civilised empires of the East, if one of the barbaric nations of the west, say for example Rome, became a major empire that pushed back on the Parthian empire? What if Hannibal's conquering of Rome had not succeeded? What would happen to the spread of Christianity?” Lots of plot twists in that novelette; titled, The Great Time Shift.

Another one is autobiographical, about my 8-year-old self. As usual, I name myself Boz. Boz is one of the narrative points of view, the other is Ben Scully, the name I gave to my best friend.

Here’s where I have to confess that I was a horrible kid at that age. When under peer pressure, I wasn't beyond bullying, even if I was bullied a few times myself. But the incident that the story is built around (besides the Cuban Missile Crises and the Kennedy assassination) was my deciding to turn against my best friend. I just simply dropped him as a friend!

In the story, Ben Scully was the time perceptive one, and was having trouble getting details sorted out regarding both the missile cries and then the Kennedy assassination a year later (both events involved time travellers}. In real life that I actually remember, he was only an ordinary lad – which would explain why his future self didn't show up to teach me the importance of friendships.

I wish he had, but of course, this is real life, where I've written that story to atone for my being so horrible. But apart from the last couple of scenes, all the details written from Boz’s point of view are accurate to the best of my memory. As for the setting, the only clue is that the area is well represented on the Monopoly board. That's A Couple of Years in the Early Life of a Time Traveller.

The final “what if” question is one in which you have to be well versed in the Time Orphan universe to ask or understand. That's why it's at the very end, and isn't released as a stand-alone, even though it's of standard novella length.

The premise: if you jump from a disconnected timeline, showing up in the new timeline where another instance of yourself already lives quite happily, if the two of you come too close together, you'll merge into one, with the memories of both timelines having equal clarity.

The question: an unscrupulous, murderous time traveller goes back and murders his mother when his younger self is only 4 years old. The 4-year-old grows up in a very good environment, becomes a strong Christian, is transformed by the Holy Spirit and through good training; and then merges with the evil doppel. What happens? Which personality becomes dominant?

I had lots of fun writing The Lives of Eoin Murray.

And I hope you'll have fun reading all the above.

Next time, I'll write about my other time travel series, Rats in the Cellar, based on different premises.

Again, here are the download links:

Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01M1AIZGS

Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01M1AIZGS

Amazon Canada: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B01M1AIZGS

Amazon Australia: https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B01M1AIZGS

The Official Table Of Large Numbers

2026-07-18T11:27:03.101+01:00

In case you ever wondered, the following is the list of names for the higher numbers

One

Ten

Hundred

Thousand

Million

Billion

Trillion

Quadrilion

Quintillion

Sextillian

Septillian

Octillian

Neptillion

Dectillian

ByGillian

ARapscallion

NamedMaxmillian

MadeAMillion

OrWasItABillion

PerhapsItWasTrillion

ButHsWasASilly’un

AndWouldntGiveToAnyOne

WhoNeededHelpButAwayHe’dRun

ToBetItAllOnOnFrillyFun

ToBuyTheWorldAndThenBeDone

OnHisYoyoStringTheWorldHeSpun

ButAllTheseNumbersPointToONE

WhenAllWasSaidAndAllWasDone

HeFoundHeHadNoWhereToRun

SoWhatWasHisEndAndHowAndWhy?

Dunno, NoOne’sEverCountedThatHigh

#poetry #humour #social

The Time Orphan Universe

2026-07-15T20:36:48.703+01:00

As promised in the previous blog post, we’ll talk more about time travel, namely my book, Orphans of Space-Time.

I need to emphasis it here: Orphans of Space-Time doesn’t follow the rules laid down by Emmet Brown (Back to the Future), nor the Many Worlds theory of Hugh Everrit (I have a different series that subscribes to those rules). I need to emphesis it because, though the rules of the game are clearly spelled out in the narrative, at least two reviewers stated that there was a plot hole because the actions of the time traveller didn’t erase his own existence.

All the editions since, begin with a prelude, simply stating the Three Observable Facts of Time Travel. I’ll paste them in at the end of this email. But first, here’s a storyteller’s description of how it works (You’ll also find this in the book, in the appendix):

So, what happens if you go back in time and kill your own paternal grandfather when he’s 11 years old? In the universe in which these stories are set, you’ll simply return to your own time and find that no one knows you. Your father was never born, and therefore, neither were you.

But you still exist. You're now a time orphan. Contrary to both Drs Hugh Everest and Emmett Brown, you neither created another parallel universe, nor a time-space paradox; simply a new timeline that replaced the previous one. All the people whose birth you erased, such as your brothers and sisters, never existed. Only you do, simply because you established the fact of your existence from a time-location before the critical event.

...And, your older sister, also a time traveller, has survived, even though she was in the timeline as it got erased.

That's because two weeks earlier, she travelled back to try to discover King Arthur, who lived long before you killed your and her grandfather, thus establishing the fact of her existence ever since King Arthur's time.

So there she is, two weeks later, lying in a hammock in her backyard reading Malory’s Mort d’Author, when suddenly… the impression of lying in a hammock in her backyard reading Mort d’Author is only a very dim memory that comes to her while she’s actually sitting in the lobby of the local youth hostel going over her research into her grandfather’s death at age 11.

Returning from her adventure, she had popped back into a house that isn't hers, no hammock in the backyard, and she probably gets arrested for trespassing even though it was her own house in the old timeline (that explanation usually doesn't stand up in court). She has no brothers or sisters, or Father, and you haven't popped back into the new timeline yet. Her mother is married to her old history teacher, and doesn't know her. Her research tells her that her grandfather once existed, but was mysteriously killed at age 11.

But she has the dim recollection of a concurrent timeline which ended with her lying on her hammock reading Mort d’Arthur. It's way too dim to remember events with any clarity.

Of course she remembers her life before she jumped back to find King Arthur. That's because it's her personal timeline, and she’ll always remember that even if no one else does. By jumping so far back in time, she had established her own life as a pre existing fact, so she didn't get erased by the new timeline. However, most of her memories are now of things that never happened.

But now she has popped back into a changed timeline, where she already existed up to the point where you made your time jump to visit wee Grandpa. Because she is now imposing a new memory over the existing memory of those two weeks, causing the original to appear as deja vous.

There’s something about the discontinuation of a timeline that activates the original memory, so she suddenly becomes awar of an alternate sequence of events for those two weeks. While she was sitting in the overstuffed settee in the lobby of the hostel, reviewing her information about her grandfather, she suddenly has the impression she's been lying in her hammock in her own backyard reading Mort d’Arthur. It’s only a residew of memory, unless something happens to trigger a full memory, like, maybe, a dream brought about by thinking hard about something.

Then, you suddenly reappear in her new timeline. She puts two and two together.

Now, you're in trouble!

So, how did you and your sister become time travellers? It started when you both realised you were having dim memories of discontinued timelines - or at least confused by alternative facts regarding recent events. That was the first clue that you had the gift of time travel. From there, there are two ways to become a time traveller:

Through long and rigorous training in concentration techniques,
The use of a small mind focusing device, that was designed in a medieval Japanese Christian monastery in a world in which Rome was conquered by Hannibal Barca, and never rose to be an empire.

So, there you are, having jumped back in time, and tracked down your 11 year old grandfather. He is just inches from you. You are about to grab him, when suddenly, there stands your sister, giving you a look that would wake the dead.

‘Don't. Even. Think. About. It.’ she says, in her most convincing tone.

She grips you by the ear, drags you away from young Grandpa, and time-jumps you back to your own time, where you merge with your selves of the restored timeline. Then she confiscates your mind-focusing device.

Now, do you notice how you and your sister’s personal timelines seem to go both forward, backwards and sideways, weaving in and out through various timelines? Yohan, in the narrative, explained four dimensional space-time, so I won't do it here, except to say there’s also a fifth dimension. That's what enables us to refer to ‘original timeline', ‘new timeline’ and ‘personal timeline’. It seems that in the fifth dimension, from the timetravellor’s point of view, time moves sideways from old to new in a different direction than time in the fourth dimension. A timeline can go on for a million years in the fourth dimension, and yet be short lived in the fifth dimension. How? One person initiates a critical event that starts a new timeline, then his arch-enemy jumps a million years into the future, and then straight back to prevent the first person from initiating the critical event.

The above was reedited from the appendix of the book. There’s more, but to paste it here would provide too many spoilers.

Anyway, here’s how it works, simplified:

The Three Observable Facts of Time Travel

What really happens when you jump back to an earlier time and prevent your own birth? Do you produce a time-space paradox? Do you create another parallel universe?
No, you become a Time Orphan. Other people may cease to exist if their birth was affected by your action, but you go on existing, because you now have a new point of origin, the earliest point of time you travelled to.
If, by jumping backwards in time, you change the course of your own life to the extent that you wouldn't have made the time jump when you did, you produce another instance of yourself, a Time Dopple. Dopples can coexist in the same timeline, as long as they don't come too close together. If they come within each other's event horizon, they merge back into one - one person with two sets of memories. That's because it's against the laws of physics for two instances of the same matter to exist at the same time.
Only certain people have the gift of time perception. Such people remember broken timelines, be it only the residue of a memory, or a deja vous. If they develop that gift, they can become time travellers themselves.

So, Isaac Asimov has his "three laws of robotics", I have my "three facts". All the stories in this collection are based on the Three Observable Facts.

And here’s where to get it:

Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01M1AIZGS

Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01M1AIZGS

Amazon Canada: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B01M1AIZGS

Amazon Australia: https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B01M1AIZGS

How to plan a new sequel to the Back to the Future trilogy in 2026

2026-07-05T18:38:55.424+01:00

This is probably the closest I’ve ever come to writing fan fiction, but here goes…

The film opens sort of like a documentary about the history of hover-cars. The inventor, it seems, was searching for a way to help his young brother who had been crippled in an accident. His search for a way to give him mobility was what led to hover technology, which was later applied to motor vehicles and skateboards.

The film shows the scene of the accident between a white Rolls-Royce and a black pick-up truck. Both are wrecked. An ambulance is parked nearby, with paramedics surrounding the young boy. Others are assisting the driver of the black pick-up, whom we see is none other than our Marty McFly, who had injured his hand, and is looking absolutely horrified at what has just happened.

Suddenly the action stops, and then speeds into reverse. The boy flies back into the car, the black pick-up up-rights itself and speeds backwards, while the white Rolls-Royce glides backwards into the side road. Finally, there’s Marty McFly at the wheel of his new car, and Needles, in the other car, challenging him to a road race. Back into normal forward motion, the action proceeds, but it instead it happens just as it did at the end of Back to the Future III, in which the accident didn't happen.

Therefore, the little boy didn’t get paralysed from the waist down.

Therefore, his older brother didn't invent hover-conversion.

Therefore, we don’t have flying cars today in 2026, and Back to the Future IV is free to follow its natural course.

A few problems still need to be solved, of course. How did Doc Brown get his hover conversion without causing a paradox in the time-space continuum?

Maybe he just kept going yet farther and farther into the future until he did come upon hover technology.

And why have there been no more sequels to the Jaws film? What about holographic animated billboards? Or jackets that automatically dry themselves and tell you when they’re dry?

Maybe the invention of flying cars in that timeline was what inspired the other technology. Perhaps so much effort was made in developing talking jackets and holographic animation that drew the energy away from developing the Internet, so that in that timeline they’re stuck using fax machines instead of sending emails.

Perhaps, with technology speeding fast-forward, sci-fi films became redundant, and people watched Jaws instead.

But I’ve solved the first problem anyway. Someone else can sort out the rest.

I’ve got my own time-travel universe to work with.

The Back to the Future films were a landmark in the progression of time travel stories, and have their place right up there with H.G. Wells’ Time Machine, and Dr. Who. They gave us a point of reference for discussing and developing time travel ideas. I thoroughly enjoyed them myself and have watched them countless times. However, it needs to be said that Emit Brown’s theories regarding the danger of a paradox in the space-time continuum, don’t have to be the rule. In my own series of stories in Orphans of Space-Time, it is possible to go back in time, cause your own grandfather’s death at a young age, and still survive. You just become a Time Orphan.

I’ll explain how that works in another newsletter.

Here it is in case you want to download it:

Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01M1AIZGS

Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01M1AIZGS

Amazon Canada: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B01M1AIZGS

Amazon Australia: https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B01M1AIZGS

Alice in the Rabbit Hole

2026-07-01T18:56:51.461+01:00

One hot afternoon, Alice was resting in her back garden while her older sister read a boring novel.

She saw a white rabbit hopping by, who took out its pocket watch, and said, ‘I’m late! I’m late, for a very important date!’

Alice’s sister only looked up briefly from her boring novel and mumbled something like, ‘I love the way that rhymes.’

‘But Alice’s curiosity was aroused. ‘Date with whom? Where?’

‘The tea party, of course, and you’d better hurry if you want to make it before the pouring of the tea!’

‘How do I get there?’

‘Follow me down this hole! Quick! And stay in the middle of the hole, don’t get too near the edges!’

Alice’s sister looked up just then. ‘Alice! Don’t even think about it! The mad hatter lives at the end of that hole!’

The rabbit replied, ‘Not so at all! He only appears mad at first, but once you catch his drift, you’ll find him the sanest hatter as ever there was! Coming Alice?’

So the rabbit jumped in, and Alice, after getting up her courage, jumped in after him.’

‘Remember, stay in the middle!’ called the rabbit from further down.

‘Okay, I’ll try.’

It was then that she noticed that around the edges, it was very rough. If she got close, her skirt would surely snag, and stop her fall to the bottom - and to the tea party.

She also noticed that when she paid attention to any of the snags, she would begin to drift towards it in her fall.

‘Stay in the middle!’ called the rabbit again. ‘Don’t let the snags pull you towards them!’

Indeed, as she stayed in the middle, focusing on what was ahead, she thought she could actually smell the tea, the biscuits and buns.

So she focused on that, but suddenly, one rock she saw jutting out from the edge reminded her very much of Billy, at school, who was always tormenting her, and hiding her things.

Just thinking about him made her upset, and of course, she began drifting towards that rocky snag.

‘That rock is just ideal to pull out of the side and throw it at Billy next time I see him,’ she said to herself.

‘You can’t afford revenge. Look straight down the hole and think of the tea party that awaits! Forgive Billy!’

So, she looked straight down and thought about the tea party. Then she began drifting back to the middle.

‘But Billy…’ she began to drift back.

‘Forgive him!’

So she said, ‘I forgive you, Billy.’ She looked down towards the tea party. ‘I wish you could come too, if you could only taste what I smell, you’d like it so much you’d stop being such a bully!’

‘That’s right,’ called the rabbit.

They kept falling. Alice was enjoying the fall, like it was a ride through the air, like she was flying. The ever-growing scent of the tea and buns only heightened the feeling.

Then, further down, she spotted another rocky protrusion. There seemed to be people on it – or it made her think of people, she couldn’t tell – who wanted to make a change in the way things were. They were talking about something going on in society, with the leadership, with politics, and saying, ‘This must stop! We must make it stop! YOU can make it stop!’

‘Oh, yes!,’ said Alice, ‘I must do my part to make this stop, and to make society better. I must join my voice with theirs!’

Of course, she began drifting towards that edge.

‘Alice!’ called the rabbit. ‘The tea party that awaits is so much better than any political party!’

‘Oh yes,’ said Alice, ‘I must focus on the middle, and on the tea party.’

Indeed, the scent from below made Alice think this tea must be blended from the very best of all the exotic teas in the world. If everyone would only sip this tea, it would solve the worlds problems!’

‘Tea party?’ said someone. ‘We have a tea party.’

‘No,’ called the rabbit. ‘Our tea is too fine to be thrown into the Boston Harbour.’

So, Alice continued focusing on the aroma of the tea and the lovely pastries that was now quite distinct.

She wondered if she was properly dressed for the tea party.

She must have been thinking out loud, as, from the next rock, someone answered her, ‘Of course not! That dress is so yesterday! And that phone there, isn’t that model from five years ago? I bet it was your mother’s! (it was) C’mon! Wake up and smell the coffee!’

‘You’re dressed just fine!’ called the rabbit. ‘Don’t fall for consumerism! Smell the tea instead!’

Alice knew he was right. Just the scent of the tea and wonderful delicacies was enough to give her a sense of contentment such that the consumerist dream could never bring.

So, finally, they reached the tea party. It was far grander than what she could catch the scent of on the way down.

And there, at the head of the table, stood the most handsome, elegant gentleman Alice had ever set eyes on, looking at her through eyes that radiated warmth and care. Here was the father Alice never had, the object of many of her dreams and longings. Here, stood the Prince – who made hats for a living.

She realised that she, herself, was now dressed in the most magnificent wedding gown she had ever seen.

‘Mr. Hatter,’ said the white rabbit, ‘May I present to you, your bride.’

Another review of The Planet

2026-05-16T19:31:27.514+01:00

jeyranmain.com/2026/05/13/the-planet-by-robby-charters-book-review-2345/

Robby Charters’ The Planet: Blessed Are the Poor, for Theirs Is the Lift to Space as the Planet Dies is a bold, unsettling, and deeply human science-fiction novel that flips the familiar survival narrative on its head. When a comet is on a direct course to annihilate all life, Captain Steinberg is tasked with evacuating the wealthy elite. A communications failure changes everything. With no time to correct course, Steinberg lands in the first city he sees and fills his ship with society’s forgotten: the poor, the marginalized, the unwanted.

What follows is not a clean escape into space, but a tense moral experiment carried out under extreme pressure. The ship becomes a microcosm of humanity itself — housing orphaned street kids, an autistic savant, a disgraced scientist, a defiant priest, victims and abusers, idealists and extremists. Violence, power struggles, and grief do not disappear once Earth is gone; they follow the survivors into the stars.

Charters excels at writing flawed, believable characters whose motivations clash in uncomfortable ways. Even side characters feel fully realized, which makes every loss and betrayal land with emotional weight. The children in particular stand out — forming fragile alliances and protecting one another in ways that feel painfully real. Their resilience provides some of the novel’s most powerful moments.

The story grows even more complex upon arrival at the destination planet, where a small population lives sustainably, inspired by indigenous philosophies of balance and sufficiency. The sudden arrival of another thousand people — many shaped by consumerism and exploitation — forces an inevitable reckoning. Will humanity repeat its old mistakes, or can it learn to live differently when given a second chance?

Dark, provocative, and surprisingly tender, The Planet is a character-driven sci-fi novel that asks difficult questions about class, morality, survival, and who truly deserves a future. Fans of Adrian Tchaikovsky and Frank Herbert will find much to admire here.

Written by Jeyran Main

2026-05-16T19:29:37.167+01:00

A free read - first chapter revision

2026-05-10T15:45:07.086+01:00

To all who have already read THE RAT QUEEN: Some parts of the first chapter have been re-written with more accurate technical details, and also to make it more compatible with the rest of the series. Just so you won't miss out for not having the very latest edition, the first chapter has been posted here. You're welcome to re-read it.

Or, if you haven't read it yet, and you're considering buying it, you also can have a free read.

Just click on the cover image...

Introducing Elijah Dove

2026-04-10T20:04:00.001+01:00

It's finally out.

From now through Sunday, you can download this for free in kindle format.

Anyway, there's the cover:

And here are the download links:

UK US Canada Australia India

Fun with Dick and Jane

2026-02-22T14:51:00.004+00:00

Dick and Jane meets Star Wars

“Look, look,” said Dick. “See the moon. We have two moons!”

“No, Dick, no,” said Jane. “That is no moon. That is the Death Star.”

“What a pretty Death Star that is,” said Sally.

“The Death Star is pretty, but it is not good. The Death Star is bad!”

“Look at the flash from the Death Star,” said Dick.

“What a pretty flash that is,” said Sally.

“That is a beam,” said Jane. “That is a beam from the Death Star. That beam will kill us.”

Dick didn’t want to die.

Jane didn’t want to die.

Sally didn’t want to die.

Puff didn’t want to die.

Spot didn’t want to die.

“Will we die?” asked Dick to Jane.

Jane didn’t answer because she was dead.

Dick didn’t listen to Jane’s answer because he was dead.

Father also didn’t want to die.

Father ran to the time machine.

Run Father run!

Father went to yesterday.

Father got a big giant mirror. He took the mirror to the sky.

When the Death Star came, there was a mirror in the sky.

Then the beam came from the Death Star. The beam hit the mirror.

The beam went back to the Death star.

No more Death Star.

“Hurray!” said Dick.

“Hurray!” said Jane.

“Bow-wow!” said Spot.

“Mew mew” said Puff.

“What a hero father is,” said Sally.

“Yes, a hero your father is,” said Yoda.

Tomorrow’s reading lesson: Dick and Jane’s new friend, Gollem.

New word to learn: presssiousssss

Currently writing...

2026-02-10T15:31:44.364+00:00

I've been off line a while, and that's because I'm in middle of another novel, also in the Rat Queen/Planet series. Some of my old Kentucky classmates may like this, as the main character is from Harlan County.

Anyway, here's the first chapter as it stands so far:

Elijah’s Beginnings

Author’s note: In spite of how this might seem otherwise, just keep in mind, this is a Science Fiction novel.

Elijah was the name bestowed on the child by his grandmother, who prophesied, ‘You, child, shall go forth in the spirit of Elijah of old, and reunite the hearts of the children to the fathers and mothers, and you will call down fire from the sun.’

Someone said, ‘Don’t you mean, from heaven?’

‘No, I said, from the sun.’

That was at the Sunday morning service of the Holiness Church, up Spit Holler, Harlan County, Kentucky, on his eighth day of life. His parents took him there that morning at Granny’s insistence. They feared her, which is why they consented for him to be called Elijah. But they feared that church even more. They feared what some of the members were capable of when they were in a supercharged state of ecstasy. They feared the snakes they occasionally brought out during services.

Apart from that one Sunday morning, they stayed put in the Baptist church where there was less chance of being bitten.

Elijah’s daddy, Samuel, was the local postmaster. Earlier in his life, someone had talked Granny into sending Sammy to a boarding school in a different county. It turned out to be a pretty good place, so she sent his younger brother, Uncle Fred there beginning the following year.

The dorm parent, who insisted on being called ‘Andy’, noted the fact that the two were fatherless, and took them under his wing. Even during Sam’s final year, when Andy had left the school and become the pastor of a church in the next town, he’d have the boys over for weekends.

Then, Sam went on to college in another county not far off. That’s how Sam and Fred turned out differently than their mother.

To be sure, they all got religion, but while Sam and Fred were going forward at alter calls during ‘Religious Emphasis Week’ organised by their church run school, Grandma was whoop’n it up and dancing up and down the wooden aisle of the old Holiness Church up Spit Hollar.

Uncle Fred married a classmate straight out of high school in his wife’s hometown near where the school was, and brought her home to Harlan County, where they grew beans and sold milk from a few cows they bought. Sam married much later to a neighbour girl that he had been taking a growing interest in during his summers at home. Her father was the old postmaster, so he got a job as a mail carrier, and later inherited his father-in-law’s job.

They would have sent Elijah to the same school Sam and Fred had attended, but it had closed. The boy’s dorm had burnt down during Fred’s last year there - no fault of Fred’s, mind you - and a few years later, the denominational committee decided that the need for a school of that type had passed, and turned it into a social services centre for the community.

So, Elijah attended the local school that housed everyone from first grade through high school in the same building.

In a way, Granny had a bigger hand in raising Elijah than she had Sammy and Freddie. It was a bit of a tug-of-war at times between Granny and Elijah’s parents. If his parents disapproved of the Holiness Church, at least Granny was satisfied that he went to church, though on occasion, he skipped out.

As punishment for skipping out a few Sundays in a row, his Grandmother would take him to the Spit Holler Holiness Church. Thus, he attended that church a total of five times in his life. Once at eight days as described above, three times when his grandmother decided to intervene with his delinquency, and once more after that for her funeral.

The first time, Elijah had grown into a barefoot hill-billy, occasionally getting in trouble for stealing watermelons from old Charlie Combs’s patch. Granny showed up at the door and announced she was taking young Elijah to church, where they were having a revival meeting.

She promised Mummy and Daddy she wouldn’t let him near the snakes.

The visiting preacher, Brother Billy Simpson, preached a hell fire and brimstone sermon that frightened little Elijah out of his mind. He went up at the end, kneeled at the altar, and repented of stealing Charlie Combs’s watermelons.

They didn’t bring out the snakes because Brother Billy didn’t believe in snake handling.

The music was electric - not as in electric guitars or amps, but with a piano thumped very loudly, with a beat that would put any bar or nightclub to shame.

The second time was after Uncle Fred had started taking Elijah coon hunting. Since Uncle Fred wasn’t much of a church going man, he’d occasionally sneak off with him on a Sunday morning. It was on a Sunday that he shot his first coon. They skinned it, and his mother promised to make him a coonskin hat.

Granny showed up a few nights later and announced she was taking Elijah to church again.

That night was a simple midweek prayer meeting, no preaching, but the Spirit moved, so they decided to bring out the snakes.

Elijah disappeared out the back door and hid in the shed in the back and fell asleep. It turned out, that was where they kept the snakes. It was dark, and someone walked into the shed at the end of the meeting carrying the box of them, and plunked them down next to Elijah, and shut the door and locked it.

His screams alerted his granny to his where-abouts.

On the way home, he promised to go to church, as long as he didn’t have to be near snakes again.

A few years later, Elijah had his own pick-up truck that he had patched together himself with parts from three other cars, and that had become a distraction. His grandmother arrived once again to take him to church.

This time, Elijah got the Holy Ghost.

He didn’t even go to the front to tarry for the Spirit’s power. He got it right where he was sitting, far enough from the front just in case they brought out the snakes.

He began bubbling over in other tongues, couldn’t even speak any English to explain himself, and felt drunker than his Uncle Albert.

Of course, he didn’t have to explain himself. Those sitting around him escorted him forcibly to the front, where he carried on with the glossalelia, eyes generally half open, half shut.

He opened his eyes to find he was staring into those of a snake. A voice from somewhere (was it Granny’s?) said, ‘When you next meet one like this, know that you are near your destiny.’

He went out cold.

His grandmother was waiting for him patiently as he picked himself off the floor. The snakes had been put away, and most of the people had left. He didn’t remember much of what she said on the way home, but she seemed very happy.

For a few weeks after that, his experience held him on the straight and narrow. If not a Holiness Pentecostal, at least he was a better Baptist - for a while.

Not long after that, he was back to squealing the tires of his pick-up around blind curves on the mountain roads with his friends. There was just enough oncoming traffic in those parts to make it as exciting as snake handling.

The only other excursion to the Spit Holler Holiness Church was for his grandmother’s funeral, as she died of a snakebite a couple months later.

The grandmother we’ve been describing was the one with the surname of Dove, making her Elijah’s father’s mother. Her own parents were descended from a Charikee lass who had become the wife of a French fur trapper. Elijah’s grandfather, the one with the Dove surname, was Irish, who had been travelling in the area and had a fling with Granny during her wild days - followed by a shotgun wedding. He died not long after Uncle Fred was born, of too much moonshine.

The other half of Elijah’s forebearers were Ulster Scotts, who had followed Daniel Boon through the Cumberland Gap. Most of them were quite respectable, with the exception of Uncle Albert, an alcoholic, who would sometimes tell stories of being abducted by aliens.

Also among his relatives on that side were upstanding members of the Ku Klux Klan.

Granny Dove didn’t much approve of the Ku Klux Klan connections, but she mostly kept her mouth shut. Nobody made a big thing of it anyway. There were no Black people nor Jews in their section of Harlan County to make it an issue, so Elijah grew up blissfully ignorant.

He heard the word ‘nigger’ plenty of times tough. His dad, having been to a liberal arts college, disapproved of it, calling it the ‘N word’. Uncle Fred was a different matter, but whenever he said it, it wasn’t necessarily derogatory.

He said that during his last couple of years of high school, ‘nigger clothes’ were the in thing. He even wore them a few times at family gatherings - his bellbottom britches with a high waist line, his silk shirt with the wide stretchy elastic at the hem that would have shown his tummy if not for the high waist line, the platform leather shoes, his dark glasses - and then he’d strut around as though he were on stage at a rock concert. Some of his favourite tunes of those times was ‘nigger music’, Jimmy Hendrix, et al.

With his friends at school, the word carried feelings ranging from hate to awe and admiration. Someone noted that in the movies, the only actors that didn’t talk with an accent were the ‘niggers’ like Eddie Murphy and Will Smith.

But everybody seemed glad that none lived nearby. Elijah didn’t know if it was good or not. The only time he’d met any was on the basketball court at tournaments.

As for politics, Elijah defaulted to the assumption that anything that’s good for the Christians must be of God, therefore any laws forbidding what the Bible forbids must be laws worth campaigning for. As the country was founded on Christian values, white Christians, who were the sum of what he saw around him, had God’s mandate to rule America.

But Elijah was well aware that his perspective was limited, having hardly seen anything outside Harlan County, except on trips made to tournaments with his school’s basketball team.

The biggest city he’d ever been to was London - not London, England, but London Kentucky, population 7 thousand. The farthest place anyone he knew had spent very much time was, UK, where his coach spent one year. That’s University of Kentucky.

Uncle Fred suggested that a stint in the Army would expand his horizons. Elijah thought that was a grand idea, but first, he would go on a road trip and discover America for himself.

So, upon receiving his High School diploma in the same building in which he learned his ABCs, he set off to discover America.

Availalbe on Kindle Unlimited...

2026-01-02T12:41:00.004+00:00

All the books in the Planet/Rat Queen series are now a free read if you have Kindle Unlimited.

Links to both of the above for both UK and US:

The Planet US | The Rat Queen US
The Planet UK | The Rat Queen UK

I'm afraid this means that none of those books in this series are available in Books2Read, or SmashWords. It's the price I had to pay - sorry.

My Review of The Arden, by L.S. Popovich

2025-12-13T15:28:00.004+00:00

The Arden, by L.S. Popovich

It's a time travel, post apocalyptic novel, in which nature, in the form of a world wide, intelligent forest, has rescued the world from human destruction.

My review:

This is a book that takes you on an exploration. Even learning what the book is about is an exploration. Nothing is as it seems.

As you begin reading, it’s a dystopia. It’s San Francisco of the future, with flying cars and all, but not a place where you want to live. Then, after a very old television set turns out to be a portal into a different world - where nature has risen up and rescued the world from humanity - you’ll think, “Ahh, a fantasy!”

But that wasn’t a wardrobe to Narnia. Every single thing, including the TV set, has a scientific explanation. At the end, you’ll realise it’s hard time-travel science fiction.

...And you'll be exploring a weird, post-apocalyptic, intelligent jungle.

Even the way that all the trees and other aspects of nature seem to be on the same page, that also had a beginning. I won’t say more or it would be a spoiler. Same with the green moon. And the monster isn’t what you think it is.

The three flat-mates that travelled through the portal are different from one another in ways that almost complement each other as a dysfunctional unit, each with their unique hang-ups. Each reacts differently to the new world, and learn lessons they think the other should learn. But their friendship becomes strong in spite of how horribly they appear to betray each other.

I loved this. I’m giving it five stars.

A five star review for The Planet

2025-12-07T21:11:00.001+00:00

I just received a five star review of my new book. You can click to it here, or else read it below...

The review goes by:

Amazon Customer

I enjoyed reading, The Planet by Robby Charters, and in my opinion, I felt this story is a gripping, surprising sci-fi adventure that flips the survival narrative on its head.

When a comet threatens Earth, a space-lift meant for the wealthy is unexpectedly filled with society’s outcasts instead — street kids, down-and-outers, an autistic savant, a disgraced scientist, and even dangerous criminals.
I enjoyed the way the author showed Captain Steinberg quickly proving that compassion — not money — is what makes someone worthy of survival.

Then the story gets tense, emotional, and often inspiring, showing a journey as these unlikely passengers face violence, moral dilemmas, and unexpected alliances on their way to a new world.

In my opinion, the author Robby Charters excels at creating flawed but deeply human characters, and the twists, conflicts, and moments of heart kept me hooked to the end.

All in all, I felt this book was very well done. Highly recommended.

It was my pleasure to receive an advance copy of this book, and that does not in any way affect my opinion of this extraordinary and exceptional book.

Now available on Amazon, THE PLANET

2025-11-22T22:03:00.001+00:00

It's finally finished, and published it on Amazon KDP today.

I've noticed that some books have extremely long sub titles, so I decided to use a haiku. All the chapter titles also include a haiku.

Here's the link...

For your information, this is a prequel to the Rat Queen series. Also, I decided to make one of my old novelettes into a prequel to this one. That is The Last shall be First, which you can find in my short fiction collection, The Wrong Time. That's a free download that you should have been offered coming to this blog site, or by visiting my website.

Anyway, do have a read...