UPDATE: The winners are…Pansy Patel, Sue Payton, and Debra Guyette!
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I participated in Delilah’s last Boys Behaving Badly anthology, so when I saw her call for a new collection, I knew I wanted to join in on the fun. The theme of first responders was intriguing, and it made me start thinking. I considered stories about firefighters, paramedics, and fast-water rescuers, but my brainstorming wasn’t generating any ideas I felt like pursuing. I wanted to write something different, but what?

That’s when I started thinking about the theme differently. What do first responders do? They rescue people, they save them. Save… I started playing around with that word. Saving grace… Saving money… Saving time… Hm. Time is a big thing for me; I never have enough of it. But how could that apply to first responders? Bad timing, the countdown timer on a bomb, out of time…

Then it hit me—time travel. Now, we were talking.

Time travel had so many possibilities, and I’d never written a futuristic story. My writer’s brain finally kicked into gear. I’d found a concept that I liked. Everything moved pretty quickly after that, and I soon had a plot, characters, and a romance.

This isn’t how I always come up with ideas, but the stream of consciousness approach worked this time. I’m happy it did, because I don’t know how else I might have come up with a story like this. I hope you have as much fun reading it as I had writing it. I can’t wait to see what you think. Hm, maybe I should jump in my time-travel machine and go to June 30 to find out!

Excerpt from “Saving Time”

When a scientist working on cracking the mystery of time travel falls through a wormhole, a Time Enforcer rushes to save her.

Everly curled her toes inside her boots to fight off the chill as she waited for the line of workers ahead of her to pass through the security checkpoint. Impatient, she glanced at the heavy sky overhead. More clouds than smog today. She wanted to be inside before the acid rain began.

Huddling deeper into her jacket, she concentrated on the idea that had come to her overnight, the one that might help her break through the roadblock in her research. The line lurched, and she shuffled forward another step.

She was eager to test out the concept, if she could ever get inside.

The red numbers on the clock above the checkpoint glowed, standing out against the gray of the weather. Finally, she pushed through the turnstile that detected the chip implanted in her hip. She hurried across campus to her laboratory, making it just as the clock ticked to 8:00.

Time was of utmost importance around here.

She glanced around to see if anyone noticed her nearly-late arrival. The staff allowed into the high-security lab was small: five researchers and—her gaze settled on Sgt. Devlin—two time enforcers.

His back was to her as he walked his rounds, but warmth ran through her all the way to her chilled toes. That predatory stride of his got to her every time. He glanced at the clock on the wall before he took up his post beside the time portal, his steel-gray gaze looking everywhere but at her.

He’d noticed.

Contest

If you’re like me, you save time by listening to audiobooks as you commute, do yard work, or exercise. I can help you out with that. Comment on this post for a chance to win a free audiobook of my story, Haunted Hearts. 3 random winners will be chosen and notified on release day, June 30. (Winners limited to the U.S. or U.K.)