Switching

spacer

Every week or two, Terry wakes up in a different time. She’s been ‘switching’ — that’s her word for time traveling — for the past eight months, and she has no recollection of her life before then. She doesn’t know who she is, why she’s time traveling, how to get home, or even when home is.

Then Terry meets some fellow travelers and finds out she’s not alone… and that there might be a way to get home. But the others have their own agendas, and Terry needs to be careful where she places her trust. She finds herself falling for one traveler, but a terrible secret bars his way home. Another traveler is growing desperate, and he doesn’t care who he uses in his attempt to get home… even if it puts them all in danger. Can Terry find a way home before he tries something dangerous? Or will he prevent her from getting home at all?

Preview

Read the first three chapters.

(You can also send the Kindle preview to your e-reader or mobile device from Amazon.com.)

Where to buy

spacer The e-book is available on Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk,  Barnes and Noble, iTunes, Sony, Kobo, and Diesel.

The paperback is available on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk.

Reviews

The first review is up on Amazon! You can read it here:

Couldn’t put it down! by Leanne (U.S.A.)

I love YA, but any time travel book I’d ever read involved a female character going back to medieval, Victorian, or corset-times (why do they all do that?). This book is different because the main character, Terry, is stuck bouncing around in time… but she only travels within a 3-decade span: from 1975 to 2005. Not only that, but she has no idea why, and can’t remember anything before the time travel started 8 months ago. Her sole focus is on finding her way home… but she doesn’t know WHEN home is or how to get there! Terry’s got a lot working against her… headaches, memory problems, “switching” (that’s her word for time traveling) every couple weeks or even every few days, and no way of finding out what’s going on. Then finally… she meets another time traveler.

The plot kept me hooked from the get-go, because unlike most YA books, I had absolutely NO idea where this one was going! But I don’t want to talk much about the plot because I don’t want to give away any spoilers!

Terry is a GREAT character. She is one tough cookie, very wry and sarcastic, and totally relatable. I loved how the main focus of the book wasn’t the time travel itself, but Terry’s REALITY, which is survival. Imagine if this was happening to you… would your focus really be on the bigger issue of `what is time travel all about?’or would it be: where to sleep, how to get food, how to stay warm? Terry is of course homeless, and the author really nails how miserable this would be. Terry is hungry all the time, she’s learned how to steal (but hates doing it), and is desperately lonely.

I don’t want to give away the actual plot, so let me just say… it will keep you turning the pages! A very bittersweet ending, too, which continued to keep the book very `real’. This is the `realest’ time travel book I ever read; the author even has a plausible explanation for Terry’s Switching! And there are laugh-out-loud funny parts too… I LOVED Terry and will re-read this soon.

Oh, and the e-book has some cool extras too… a neat article about how the author “found” her character, and some cool photos too!

Book Extras

The Alternative Cover

When I was designing the cover, there were two backgrounds I couldn’t decide between, so I put it out to a vote! Funny thing, the votes were SO closely split… no wonder I couldn’t make up my mind! But Cover A won out. The interesting thing is, males tended to prefer Cover C, and females Cover C. But the people (both males and females) who preferred Cover C felt very strongly about that one… so it was a tough choice! But one reader pointed out that C looked a bit dystopian, which is not what the story is about. Here are the two contenders together:
spacer

Jody’s Vision Board

When I’m writing, I often gather up photos of people and things that look like they could be in the story. They help me to ‘stay in the story’… and to keep writing! The most important ones are characters Below is my ‘original Terry’; she’s a bit older than the character, but that fierce look inspired me — even though it’s from a hair product ad!

spacer

The original Terry

And here’s the Terry that I found for my cover — she’s so close to what I’d envisioned, I could hardly believe it. I even love that it’s a mug shot; something that could easily happen to Terry!

spacer

The final Terry (copyright iStockphoto)

My characters are so real to me that I’ll even see them in out-of story contexts… this one could be a grown-up Terry! I imagine Terry keeping her street-kid toughness, even in the way she dresses.

spacer

An older Terry

And then here are some other pieces from the book (WARNING: may contains spoilers!)

spacer

Terry’s camouflage shorts

spacer

The rock that reminded Terry of  Joshua’s eyes

spacer

…or this one…

spacer

Titanium crystals

spacer

An x-ray of a clavicle with an orthopedic implant

spacer

An EEG (from Wikipedia commons)

spacer

The Live 8 logo

And then these ones made me laugh:

spacer

Seventies lounge wear – proof that the 70s were the decade of bad taste!

spacer

You have to have seen Back to the Future to get this one…

spacer

spacer

LOL!