Rogue's Angels Present: Fly Twice Backward by David McCracken

 Please welcome David McCracken author of Fly Twice Backward

David McCracken will be awarding a $25 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.

Fly Twice Backward

by David McCracken

 

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GENRE: Alt-history/sci-fi

 

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INTERVIEW:

3. How did you come up with your idea for your novel?

First I had the general idea of going back in time, and then the rest just developed as I saw the needs of the story. Actually a seed was planted in me in childhood, in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court.
4. What expertise did you bring to your writing?

I’ve been a teacher, programmer, economist, sailor, bluegrass seed stripper, and general ne’r do well—um, student.

5. What would you want your readers to know about you that might not be in your bio?

It’s all in my science fiction autobiography, except: “child of The Enlightenment,” celebrant of sensation, and curiosity, ‘satiable curtiosity’ as Rudyard Kipling’s elephant’s child put I (or was that his vexed parents?). Well, those are all there, too.

6. As far as your writing goes, what are your future plans? 

I’d like to do a series of stories for children making real the ideas of democracy.

7. If you could be one of the characters from this book, who would it be and why?

 

I amone of the characters, myself extended. I’d just like to be the extension made real: wise, heroic and significant.

8. Can you give us a sneak peek into this book?

It’s a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma, in the words of Winston Churchill. One reviewer said what I’ve thought, that it should be read more than once. I hope people will read it reflectively, not just racing to find out how it turns out.

9. Do you belong to a critique group? If so how does this help or hinder your writing?

I’ve belonged to a couple of good critique groups. It was satisfying to see fine work others had done, but often frustrating because of some who’d read only a few pages inside the story commenting as if they should know things right away that I’d developed earlier or later, over many, many pages. I got thrown out of another group when I got very angry at the poor reading too many were doing, being too literal or not paying good enough attention to keep track of what was going on.

12. Do you outline your books or just start writing?

I do both, thinking out where a complex situation is going or originated, and letting other situations just develop, sometimes wondering how much of it I’d planned before I saw it.

13. How do you maintain your creativity?

If I get stuck, I often try to come up with something unexpected or jump to another part of the story for a while, or permanently.

14. Who is your favorite character in the book. Can you tell us why?

Aleesa, a strong brave, loyal woman. Her name is taken from the Paint Your Wagon song, “I still see Elisa”.) That’s a recurring theme for Kondraty, her Ukrainian husband who rose to be a Soviet general trying to destroy the Soviet Union, and who’d been circumstantially forced to be apart from her for too many years.

16. Anything else you might want to add?

I didn’t have a clue how much work would be involved in marketing my book. I believe it’s good enough to be read by many people, and it’s gotten a lot of rave reviews from those who did, but I don’t suppose it ever will be widely read, because I write better than I market. That’s OK. I finished it, the biggest project I ever attempted, and I’m proud of it. By self-publishing, I wrote it just the way I wanted it.

 

BLURB:

 

You wake back in early adolescence, adult memories intact, including ones that could make you very wealthy now. Your birth family is here, alive again, but your later families are gone, perhaps forever. What has happened, what should you do about coming problems like violence, ignorance, pollution, and global warming? You realize one key connects most, the fundamentalist strains of all the major religions, disdaining science, equality, and social welfare. You see that there are some things you can change, some you can’t, and one you don’t dare to.

 

Fellow idealists help you spend your growing fortune well--such as an artistic Zoroastrian prince in the Iranian oil industry, a rising officer in the Soviet army working to find a way to destroy his corrupt government, a Bahai woman struggling against Islamic brutality, a Peruvian leader working for a liberal future, and a snake-handling Christian minister, grappling with doubts, sexuality, and destiny. They are supported by an ally who develops essential psychic powers. The group faces familiar-looking corrupt politicians, religious leaders, and corporate czars, but there is an ancient force in the background, promoting greed, violence, hate, and fear.

 

This exciting, emotional, thoughtful, humorous, and even romantic sci-fi novel weaves progressivism, music, movies, and literature into a struggle spanning the globe. Vivid characters propel the action back up through an alternative history toward an uncertain destination. Experience the unique story and its novel telling.

 

 

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NOTE: The book is on sale for $0.99.

 

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EXCERPT:

 

Waiting for breakfast, reading the Sunday paper at the table, I realize Mom’s not heading for the kitchen: Oh, oh! It’s church day. Mass. Fasting. Acolyting! What’m I going to do about that?

 

“Mom, am I supposed to serve today?”

 

“Of course!”

 

“Well, I can’t. I have no idea how to do that anymore. I guess we need to call Padre and tell him I’m sick.”

 

“No, David, we’re not playing that game today!”

 

“Mom, I hate to say this now, but I have no choice. I don’t know how to serve, so I can’t do it, and, frankly, I’m not ever going to do it. I’m an agnostic, a Unitarian, actually.”

 

She’s slamming the pots I washed and put in the drainer last night as she puts them into the cabinet under the counter. “That’s ridiculous. You don’t know enough to be an agnostic.”

 

Fortunately, Dad has come in and heard this exchange.

 

“Nev, whether his story is true or not, or he knows enough or not, he has a right not to go. He was old enough to be confirmed, so he’s old enough to choose. I’ll serve in his place.”

 

“Lie about being sick, on Sunday?”

 

“Mom, it’s a temporizer. I can’t reveal to him why I’m not going to today, much less why I’ll never again do it, and I know you wouldn’t want me to be open about it. I might not even be here next Sunday.” I chuckle. “Maybe I’ll have fallen back to age four, with Dad off in the Navy!” What a sharp look I get!

 

“We need a few days to sort this out, Nev.”

 

 

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AUTHOR Bio and Links:

 

David McCracken was born in Louisville, KY, in 1940. Raised mostly in Winchester, KY, he now lives in Northern Virginia, with his third and final wife. He has three children, two stepchildren, and six grandchildren.

 

After three years in the U.S. Navy following a lackluster academic start, he graduated from the University of Kentucky in 1963, in Diplomacy and International Commerce. He then worked as a Latin American country desk officer in the U.S. Department of Commerce until he returned to school to earn an M.A. in Elementary Education in 1970 from Murray State University, having always been intending to teach. Eventually realizing his children qualified for reduced-price lunches based on his own teaching salary, he studied computer programming at Northern Virginia Community College and worked as a programmer until shifting back into elementary teaching.

 

He began working on what became Fly Twice Backward in 1983 and finally finished it in 2019! At 79, David strongly doubts he'll be doing another novel of such scope and complexity, but is preparing to work on a children's science fiction novel with a progressive bent, being a devout progressive in politics and religion, as well as a lover of learning.

 

http://sbpra.com/davidmccracken/

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/702749.David_McCracken

Buy Link:  https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07Z4KRLQZ/

 

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GIVEAWAY INFORMATION and RAFFLECOPTER CODE

 

David McCracken will be awarding a $25 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.

 

RAFFLECOPTER:

 

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/28e4345f3430