{"id":1103,"date":"2013-10-09T06:00:32","date_gmt":"2013-10-09T13:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bestfantasynovel.com\/?p=1103"},"modified":"2013-10-09T06:00:32","modified_gmt":"2013-10-09T13:00:32","slug":"linear-shift-part-one-by-paul-b-kohler","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/2013\/10\/09\/linear-shift-part-one-by-paul-b-kohler\/","title":{"rendered":"Linear Shift (Part One) by Paul B. Kohler"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n

No one said time travel would be easy.<\/p>\n

Peter Cooper, a widowed father of two whose life is crumbling around him\u2014until a bizarre encounter with a desperate Army general launches him on a risky mission: to go back to 1942 and change a moment in time. The repercussions will almost certainly alter the conclusion of World War II. But will the ripple effects stop there? And what kind of life will Peter return to?<\/p>\n

Unknown Consequences: A successful mission may not have the success he had intended.<\/p>\n

Linear Shift<\/i> is a serialized novel, with 4 total parts planned. This is part 1.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
Download Linear Shift<\/i>\u00a0from Amazon<\/a>.<\/p>\n
<\/div>\n

Excerpt<\/h4>\n

\u201cWhy are you telling me this now?\u201d Peter demanded. \u201cWhy didn\u2019t you tell me this back then, if it\u2019s so important to you? I\u2019m no longer in the army and I\u2019m not going back. What does it matter anymore?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWould it have made a difference if I\u2019d told you this twenty-two years ago when you enlisted? Would you have stayed in the army longer with this information? Would you have still married? Would you still have become an architect? Would Mary still have died in an auto accident?\u201d<\/p>\n

All these questions floated through the air, but Peter flinched at the mention of Mary. Mary was his wife\u2019s given name, and anyone that knew her called her Minnie. Hearing her name spoken out loud felt like an ice pick in the heart.<\/p>\n

Peter was confused and irritated. \u201cWhat\u2019s the point of all this?\u201d he asked, angrily.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeter, I clearly have more knowledge about you than just the basics. I know you are about to lose this house. I know your kids are barely passing their classes. I know you were laid off, and are currently looking for work. What if I told you that I could drastically change your circumstances, almost instantly?\u201d<\/p>\n

Peter was a proud man. To hear a stranger plainly spell out everything that he was struggling with almost brought him to tears. He had failed, and he was embarrassed. He was far too ashamed to ask for help from anyone.<\/p>\n

\u201cAre you sure I can\u2019t get you something to drink? I\u2019m going to get myself a scotch.\u201d Peter stood without waiting for the general to reply and walked to the bar cabinet. He pulled out the bottle of Glenfiddich and two glasses. He returned to his seat and poured out two fingers each.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeter, this is not the answer to your problems,\u201d said the general as he took the glass from Peter.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt might not be the answer, but it might help ease the process.\u201d<\/p>\n

Peter brought the glass to his lips and tilted it back until the glass was again empty. The general sipped at his glass and returned it to the table. Peter poured himself another and leaned back, glass in hand.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, what do I have to do to get this \u2018help\u2019 that you\u2019re offering?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore I can really tell you more about that, I have to have your word that you will not divulge any of the information that we are to discuss to anyone. Not even your children\u2014although I don\u2019t think they would believe any of it. I have to be clear here: no one. No one at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Peter held up his hand, his pinky finger pressed against his thumb and said with mock solemnity, \u201cScout\u2019s honor.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sorry Peter, but I\u2019ll need more than that. I have a confidentiality agreement that you would need to sign. What I am about to tell you is beyond top-secret-level clearance.\u201d The general opened his attach\u00e9 case and removed a file folder with the words \u201cEYES ONLY\u201d on the cover. From it, he slid out two sheets of finely typed paper. He handed one of them to Peter, then sat back in his chair and again sipped his scotch. As Peter read over the forms, the general finally took his eyes off of Peter and scanned the living room. He was quite surprised to find the house in good order, considering all of Peter\u2019s troubles, including raising two teenage children alone.<\/p>\n

After several minutes of silent reading, Peter looked up at the general and said, \u201cThis must be seriously top secret if the army would go to these extremes, were I to talk. Do you have a pen?\u201d<\/p>\n

The general produced a blue-marbled Mont Blanc pen and Peter signed the document before returning it to the general.<\/p>\n

\u201cActually, Peter, this isn\u2019t an army operation. It\u2019s an unclassified branch of the government that only a very select few even know exists. It\u2019s so clandestine that I\u2019m currently not at liberty to inform you of its call sign. The document that you just signed will only afford you just enough information to make a rational decision whether or not to assist us; no more than that. If you agree, there will be several more documents that will need to be signed along the way. Do you understand?\u201d<\/p>\n

Peter nodded.<\/p>\n

\u201cGood. Now that we have an understanding, and your signature, we are inviting you to join a small team of exclusively selected civilians, others such as yourself, to travel back in time. Back to 1942, France to be precise.\u201d<\/p>\n

Learn more about Paul on his website<\/a>, Twitter<\/a> and Facebook<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

No one said time travel would be easy. Peter Cooper, a widowed father of two whose life is crumbling around him\u2014until a bizarre encounter with a desperate Army general launches him on a risky mission: to go back to 1942 and change a moment in time. The repercussions will almost certainly alter the conclusion of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1104,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[161,162,449,451],"tags":[701,702,714],"class_list":["post-1103","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-excerpt","category-excerpts","category-science-fiction","category-scifi","tag-science-fiction","tag-scifi","tag-time-travel"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1103","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1103"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1103\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}