Parallel worlds, as well as time portals, are central to the premise of volume one of this novel titled, THE NEXT PHASE CHRONICLES, The Coming of the Magi.
Three singularly gifted dimensional travelers arrive from another time and dimension to appear in three centuries: One A.D., the 18th century, and the 21st century. Laurie Foston suffers a memory loss and is drawn through a time portal in route by stagecoach from New York to Maine in 1795 with a fellow passenger, Mrs. Harold Tyler, who seems to already know her. They are both headed for the same destination, the Fairchild Mansion in Davenport, Maine. to the mansion of a wealthy shipping merchant. Laurie is unaware that she is the victim of a dimensional time shift.
Patrick and Margaret Fairchild are good family-oriented people, haunted by a secret tragedy in their past. One of their twin boys fell overboard on a ship bound for America. A time traveler has gone to another dimension in a moment of empathy and brought back the infant from an alternate time continuum. This causes a failure of structural integrity for immediate family members in both dimensions until it is corrected.
The way to correct the problem engendered is for the son to be taken back through the portal and allowed to remain there long enough to reunite with his missing signature. However, he and other members of his family become dizzy when near him because the closer they get to him, the more unstable the structure of their common dimension in the here and now.
Patrick Fairchild is the wealthiest merchant in town but knows that money cannot buy peace of mind. His family consists of his sister, Agatha, two brothers, Charles and George, his wife, Margaret, and his son and daughter, Bart and Sarah. He and his family, together with Captain Winston Colbert, embark on the journey of their lives in a quest for the peace that eludes him. Patrick gives Colbert a message from the British Consular General to give to a passenger known as Sir Balthasar. The message is, “They are ready for the next phase.” Phase is not a word in common usage in the 18th Century and the captain is perplexed over what this could possibly mean, but keeps the message a secret, nevertheless. Captain Colbert has picked up a man and two children in a lifeboat in the middle of the Atlantic, and he unknowingly brings Bart Fairchild’s twin to Davenport, Maine. This puts them all in danger with the threat of a collapsing time rift.
The manipulation to go through the portal is facilitated by the three extraordinary men, Sir Gaspar, Sir Balthasar and Sir Melchior. These sages from another time formulate the plans necessary to persuade the Fairchild family into going on board the ship in order that they may go through the time portal together. Captain Colbert is assigned to a ship on its maiden voyage and inexplicably picks up members of the Fairchild family on his return run, because, unbeknownst to him, they are all required to go through a time portal to correct the time rift. Will all who travel through the portal lose their memory of it?
Meanwhile an ancillary plot develops.
Laurie goes through a discovered passageway in the Fairchild mansion and finds a ship moored in a cavern with slaves aboard it. Since slave trading is illegal in the New England states in 1795, she is caught in a labyrinth of malevolent machinations involving the triangular slave trade.
Many plots interwoven together begin to unfold as the truth of the identity of the three men remain a mystery to those around them and a surprising twist brings a close to this first volume, and opens the door to future chronicles.
SYNOPSIS
December 18, 2006: The Morning Show with Mary Beth Conley on channel 3 in Memphis viewing area at 9:00 am.
December 18, 2006 Booksigning at Walden Bookstore at Wolfchase Galleria from 6 - 8pm.
December 19, 2006 official release date.
Waldenbooks Wolfchase Gallery:
January 27, 2007, February 10, 2007, February 24, 2007,
Barnes and Nobles Wolfchase Gallery March 10, 2007
Waldenbooks Nashville Tn March 24th 2007
Bretano's Memphis Tn 1-3 pm May 19
Waldenbooks Wolfchase Memphis TN June 2, 2007 June 23, 2007
Waldenbooks Brentwood Tn August 4, 2007
Update: This book is under revision by the publisher for easier reading. Customers are important and books should be written for the public the way they want it.For those customers who participated in the feedback survey on Amazon, I thank you from the bottom of my heart!
You will need to check this page for updates for when the book will be ready for the new edition!
Cheryl Haynes aka Laurie Foston 03/01/2010.
August 2007 through January 2008. Amazon.com survey feedback!
