OMG, A CUL8R TIME TRAVEL ADVENTURE

SYNOPSIS

Four teenagers travel back in time to save a life and solve a mystery. Will they be successful? Will they make it back?

OMG begins when Kelly, whose parents died in a car accident, moves from Texas during early summer to live with her Aunt Jane who is an assistant district attorney. Kelly quickly becomes friends with her quirky next door neighbor Scott who has a reputation as the school’s number one geek.

Scott’s best friend is Austin, the hot and popular quarterback. Even though he runs with the cool crowd, he has stayed loyal to Scott. He joins Scott and Kelly as they embark on an adventure after Scott invents a way to travel back in time.

Zoey is on the cheer squad and hangs with the popular kids. She barely even notices that Scott and Kelly exist, but she is very focused on getting Austin’s attention.

Through a twist of technology, they go back in time to help a girl who pleads for their help. They solve the mystery, but are then faced with the dilemma of whether or not to right a wrong or to let history stand. The four end up on the time travel adventure of their lives.

So why time travel? Why not leave everything set in today’s world? Wouldn’t that be more logical?

That’s a great question. There are three reasons. First, by taking the characters back in time it sets up the proverbial fish out of water scenario that becomes entertaining in itself.Second, it becomes a form of a history lesson when you realize that there was a time when luggage didn’t have wheels, cell phones didn’t exist, schools didn’t have armed guards and information flowed so slowly that the slower speed of life could become and ally when trying to save a life.

Third, if the meat of the stories were set in the current day the reader would be too easily tempted to visualize the story and plot from their 21st century glasses instead of say 1966 when OMG took place.

Time travel allowed us to take some of today’s most difficult events in a teen’s life and entertain them with real world intellect and skills and set them on course to solve a mystery and accomplish a worthwhile mission in a time before they were born.

You have a bit of paranormal influence in the CUL8R stories. What does that do to help set the stage or move the story along?

A critic could label this series, as Hollywood would say “It’s Back to the Future” meets “90210”. We didn’t want the reason they risked their lives to time travel to 1966 to be so trivial as an accidental time travel event and the second and third act conceived and concerned with avoiding a time travel paradox to save his own future. We wanted to keep the overarching humor of today’s teens dealing with being adults in a time that they only heard of from maybe their grandparents. We used the paranormal influences to make the reason they travel back real, important and worthy of them risking their lives to right the wrong. To make it more believable we involved some of the history and rumors of Thomas Edison who was a winter resident in Fort Myers Florida near where the CUL8R Series takes place.

Click here to buy the KIndle Edition of "OMG, A CUL8R Time Travel Adventure". To fnd out more about the author and the series, visit   http://www.cul8rseries.com

Frontier Incursion: A Sci-Fi Novel that Animal Lovers Will Love

“Frontier Incursion” is a science fiction novel written for young adults. It’s about a young girl named Shanna, who has just attained her dream of being part of the Scout Corps, a group tasked with studying Frontier, a planet that their ancestors had discovered centuries ago. But Frontier is threatened by hostile forces, and Shanna and her compatriots need to do what they can to help save it.

Now, I am neither young nor a sci-fi fan, but I am happy to say that I enjoyed the book. As a work of fiction, I think it ranks among some of the most interesting ones I’ve read.

The book’s strongest point, I would say, is the author’s clean style of writing. I’ve noticed that many fantasy writers have a tendency to use too many words to describe too many things, but this book mercifully spares me from that. Ms. Rogers budgets her words like a prudent manager; still, she is able to pull you into the story. The narrative moves quickly, and you feel the characters, you get wide-eyed at the fascinating world that the characters see, and you believe the situations that the characters find themselves in.

One of the things that make this book special is its uncommon empathy for animals. Among the book’s highlighted characters are the starcats, a set of intelligent and regal pantherlike creatures who end up playing an important role in the scouts’ mission. Right now, I am in love with starcats. You simply don’t find a lot of books that have this kind of heart for animals these days, so I think animal lovers would enjoy this novel very much.

As a parent, I appreciate that this book was written with young adults well in mind. You see, our family shares one Kindle account, and my kids can access everything I download. Now some books, although I enjoy reading them myself, I would not feel comfortable having them displayed in my Kindle library, where they can be seen and read by my impressionable teenagers. But this is one book I would actually want them to read. The language is robust but clean. The story is adventurous but not crass. There are good values without any preaching. I dare say my kids will enjoy it too!

Frontier Incursion: Breathtaking and Spirited Sci-Fi for Kids

When I started reading Leonie Rogers’ “Frontier Incursion,” I had no idea I would enjoy the book so much, but I did. The story moved fast, the plot was intriguing, the main character was spirited, and the setting was just breathtaking.

But I’m getting ahead of myself here. Let me give you a very quick summary of the story.

Shanna, the main character, is a new member of this organization called the Scout Corps. The group’s assignment is to learn as much as they can about a planet that their ancestors landed in hundreds of years ago. Now Shanna has this special gift: she is able to train Starcats, a large and majestic cat species that accompanies every scout. When their home planet comes under attack, the Shanna and the other scouts do everything they can to protect their home and drive the invaders away.

As I read the book, I found myself practically gaping at this awesome extraterrestrial world that the author had built. It felt like I was exploring a new planet myself, marveling at all the amazing plants and animals that the author described.

Shanna, the main character, is probably one of the strongest aspects of the book. Readers will find it easy to like her and identify with her. She is gutsy but humble. She faces troubles squarely and never gives up.

For the most part, the plot moved along at a very nice speed. The only thing that interrupted the cadence for me was the short paragraphs that the author would add once in a while to give the reader a glimpse of what the story villains were up to.

Certainly, I can imagine how these little peeks could have been used to make the story more interesting. But I feel they were ineffectively used by the author – they added nothing to the story – and in fact, the story would probably have been better without them.

Nonetheless, this is a minor fault, and “Frontier Incursion” remains exciting and enjoyable despite it. The characters are great, the pace is spot-on, and the plot had me glued to my seat. A sequel? Yes, please.

(Review by Guest blogger: Beatrice Adams)

OMG: Adventure-Packed Sci-Fi Mystery for Young Adults

If you could go back in time to solve a mystery, save a life, and right a wrong, would you do it – even if you weren’t sure you could return to your own time, or that you would be changing history as we know it?

OMG is the first novel of the CUL8R time travel series. The story features four smart and independent teenagers Kelly, Scott, Zoey, and Austin, who travel to the past to accomplish an important mission while dealing with their own issues in their own lives.

The story begins with Kelly starting out her new life in Florida. She has just moved in with her aunt after she lost her parents to a car accident. Her whole world has completely changed, her comfort zone (as little as it had been) is gone, and –completely unknown to her – her greatest adventure is just about to start.

She meets Scott, the boy next door. Far from being a heartthrob, Scott is actually best known as the school’s top geek. His best friend Austin, however, is a heartthrob. Austin is their school’s quarterback, and unsurprisingly, all the girls find him super-cool and super-hot at the same time. Nonetheless, Austin never abandoned Scott.

Zoey is one of the girls that have their eyes on Austin. She’s one of the cheerleaders, a member of the so-called “jet set.” Though she would never give kids like Kelly and Scott the time of the day, she would give past, present, and future to Austin if he’d take it. She has no idea how close she’d get to literally doing that.

The big adventure begins when Scott finds a way to go back in time. He, Austin, Kelly, and Zoey travel to the past, where they help a girl solve a mystery and get a chance to make things right. However, they end up with a big dilemma: should they right the wrong that they discovered and end up changing history; or should they turn a blind eye, leave things as they are, and preserve the history that they know?

Throughout the novel, the reader is treated to a fast-paced narrative, a brain-tickling mystery, relatable teen issues, and an interesting (and educational) peek into a time when phones were wired to the wall, luggage was actually lugged instead of rolled, mail took days to reach the recipient, and the slower pace of life could actually help you save a life.

As a bonus, you get to meet Thomas Edison (yes, the Thomas Edison) up close and personal and learn about some pretty interesting rumors that hounded him in those days.

It’s a story that is sure to hook you in, and the best part of it is that it’s only the first of the series. In other words, the fun is just beginning.

This series of time travel books is written for teens by experienced writer Kathy Clark. Ms. Clark has written over twenty titles, sold more than 3 million books, and has another book series, Denver After Dark, that is nominated for two 2013 book awards.

To learn more about OMG and the other books in the series, go to www.cul8rseries.com.