I know their story continues in my mind (seriously … I’ll be tempted to go back to them sometime in the future and see how they’re getting on!) … and in your mind. I’d love to read what you come up with. I’d love you to post your fan-fiction on the Internet and see where you take them. For instance, you might decide that Maddy went back to join the others, or that she did go back to live with Adam. (Was that a portal in 1994, or just a gust of wind? Hmm … Your call.)
So … I hand the baton over to you. After all, Liam, Maddy, Bob and Becks are now our characters – not just mine but yours too. They’re our mutual friends.
The TimeRiders website (www.time-riders.co.uk) will, by the time you read this, have a fully functioning fan-fiction section where you can upload your story and read those of other fans, where you’ll be able to like and comment and provide feedback to each other.
Who knows …? Perhaps in writing the further TimeRiders adventures, you’ll get a taste for storytelling and one day be an author whose books I’ll be avidly reading. From tiny acorns an’ all that …
OK, so I guess I’d better sign off soon. Otherwise I’ll probably get all emotional; there’ll be tears and we’ll both feel awkward and uncomfortable.
Just a few thank-yous from me. Thanks to: Shannon Cullen and Wendy Shakespeare, my faithful and reliable editorial team; Deborah Chaffey, best friend, partner and consistent beta reader; Jake, my son, first-ever reader and continuity spotter. And, finally, Mum and Dad … whatever you put in my baby milk must have worked.
I want to leave you with this last thought. If you go and read up on the head-scratching physics of time, you’ll discover it’s not a straight line we walk down; actually it’s an endless loop. Which means … if you think about it … the future’s already happened. And, if the future’s already happened, maybe that future will contain the technology for time travel. If so … then that can only mean one thing. Somebody may already have done it … travelled back.
Which means, this world, this reality we all know so well … maybe this is a ‘wrong’ reality? Maybe this is a contaminated timeline. I mean, how the heck would we know if it wasn’t!
Just sayin’.
Alex Scarrow
NB: I’m still waiting for you to decode that message in the dedication of The Day of the Predator. Now, what are you waiting for? It’s easy.
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First published 2014
Text copyright © Alex Scarrow, 2014
Cover credit: Cover Design by James Fraser Photography by Neil Spence
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ISBN: 978-0-141-96868-1
Alex Scarrow, TimeRiders
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