• October 3, 2022
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First Chapter: The Rescue by Sher J. Stultz #FirstChapter #ChapterOne

The Rescue

Title: The Rescue: The Timestream Travelers Chronicles (Book One) Author: Sher J. Stultz Publisher: Independent Pages: 290 Genre: YA Scifi/Adventure/Mystery

Blurb:

It all starts when the sheets go slack, and Aeneas vanishes! He and his two best friends, C.J. and Tabitha are spellbound as they watch the video feed of his disappearance and witness him climbing through his bedroom window an hour later, wearing different socks. Aeneas Entwistle, a slightly above average eighth grader is about to discover that the mystery of waking up with different socks is much more than just a prank. Adding to that dilemma, Aeneas is struggling with new feelings for Tabitha and loses his cool during her birthday party. Meanwhile, Aeneas’s twenty-something daughter, Cassie has traveled thirty-eight years from the future hoping to find any small detail that might help locate her missing father. Enlisting Harold, the Entwistle’s quirky housekeeper, Cassie works to rescue a middle-aged Aeneas, who vanishes into the timestream when a 7.2 earthquake strikes northwest Washington in May of 2053. But Cassie’s presence in the past might have unforeseen consequences for everyone in her circle. As she struggles to find her father, a carefully guarded family secret is revealed, and Cassie must choose between altering the past or violating the shamanic rules of time travel! “Author Sher J. Stultz weaves an intricate plot filled with unexpected twists and turns that hooks you in from the first page and refuses to let go until the end. Moving at a blistering pace, the narrative is full of intrigue, mystery, and a sense of wonder that you find in well-written adventure tales. The characters are colorful and full of life. Their distinct quirks and idiosyncrasies only make them more appealing to the reader. I adored the friendship between Aeneas, Tabitha, and C.J. I also found myself enjoying the dynamic between Cassie and Harold. Recommended to young adult sci-fi/fantasy lovers.”Reviewed By Pikasho Deka for Readers’ Favorite Book Information Release Date: January 2022 Publisher:  Independent Soft Cover: ISBN:979-8455440540; 290 pages; $14.99; eBook $3.99 Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B09P7ND264

Chapter One

Chapter 1: Not Your Average Entwistle  Entwistle Farm, Walla Walla, Washington, July 1986 William’s whole body shook, causing his teeth to chatter in his head like a jackhammer. He was freezing, even though it was summer. William picked himself up off the hardwood floor and leaned against his upstairs bedroom windowsill. Heat shimmered over rows of crops in the fields behind their house. “Not this again,” he groaned. William had been caught in a stream of energy, trapped in his own memories of the past. When he was inside the stream he would wish with all his might he was home, and an unseen force would jerk him back. A familiar sound reached his ears. His brother Archie was calling him to come downstairs. Archie and Larry were going out to the barn to test Larry’s new invention, a small remote-controlled plane with a camera attached. William yelled back to his brothers, “I’m gonna shower.” William tried to walk, but his legs were like jelly. He stumbled into the bathroom, gingerly stepped into the shower, and turned the nozzle. He rested his head against the tiles and let warm water fall on his body. ~~~~~ West Seattle, Washington, October 2015 Aeneas Entwistle stretched his legs and glanced down at his feet. Two different socks again. He pulled off each sock, carefully examined the patterns and thought back to the night before. He’d stayed up late finishing his geometry homework, but he was certain when he went to bed that his socks had been green, with the Seattle skyline etched in white. Yet attached to his feet were a bright red sock scattered with blue dots and a black sock with a pattern that looked like falling snow. The decision before him now was whether he wanted to make a mad dash for the bathroom without changing his socks and risk a sighting by his younger sister or his older brother or stash them at the bottom of his sock drawer. In a house full of geniuses, any unexplained phenomenon like waking up with socks of unknown origin was bound to cause suspicion, invite comment, or draw, as it were, too much unwanted attention to oneself. One of the geniuses might even take it upon themselves to hook up a machine to monitor his REM cycle or tag him with a tracking device. Aeneas had to be vigilant to escape their notice. Having just turned fourteen, Aeneas wanted less, not more attention from his overachieving siblings. With this in mind, the socks were kept secret from everyone except his two best friends, Tabitha and C.J. Aeneas was not a genius like the rest of his family. He was a bright, funny, athletic teen who loved games of all kinds and played for the sheer fun of it rather than to win. His parents were shocked to find, after several different IQ tests were administered, that genetic diversity had endowed their middle child with only above-average intelligence. Miranda confided to Archie, “Surely there must be some mistake. Aeneas can’t just be above average.” Archie smiled and replied with a shrug, “What about my younger brother William?” Miranda sighed. There was no arguing that. Archie had two brothers, one a genius and the other, not. Miranda and Archie were scientists holding PhDs in both chemistry and chemical engineering. After their wedding they decided to settle in Seattle’s Industrial District and hired an architect to help them retrofit an old warehouse into a state-of-the-art laboratory. They were considered innovators by their peers and frequently published scientific articles in prestigious academic journals. Soon after Aeneas’s older brother was born, Archie decided to convert the adjacent warehouse from a spare laboratory into a livable loft, because their family was beginning to grow. For a few years they resided there quite happily. From the time Aeneas could walk, he loved to play soccer and spent hours a day practicing inside the loft when it was too rainy for his mom or dad to bundle up his baby sister and take them to the park. However, after a series of mishaps involving broken glassware, a small explosion and loss of power for two city blocks, Aeneas at the tender age of four suggested to his father that they buy a house near a park where he could practice soccer without causing a blackout. Aeneas was beloved by his parents even though he wasn’t brainy like his siblings. He was, in fact, quite astute in ways his parents began to appreciate. One day Aeneas had spotted a house for sale a few blocks from Hiawatha Playfield in West Seattle when he was attending a birthday party of a friend from Montessori school and insisted his father go see it. Archie took one tour of the house and decided that his young son was shrewd about practical matters. They were a family of five now, and a home was needed. Archie called the realtor, offered a good cash price and the Entwistle family moved in a week later. Archie and Miranda had always had enough money to buy a home, a very nice home, but their priorities were occupied with testing chemical compounds that would reduce carbon dioxide emissions and serve as sustainable fuels, so buying a house simply never crossed their minds. Throughout his life, Aeneas assisted his parents in practical ways, such as buying a house, and even later when the whole family became extremely busy, proposing a housekeeper to prepare regular meals and tackle their mountains of laundry. But Aeneas was keenly aware that his interests and the interests of his family were diverging, so he kept a few secrets. Some were small, like his stash of comic books hidden under neatly folded hoodies at the top of his closet, and others were big, like waking up with two different socks. And the socks… Well, they didn’t need to be up for scrutiny.  

About the Author

Sher Stultz

Sher Stultz lives with her family in the Puyallup river valley. The Timestream Travelers Chronicles is her debut series. Her inspiration for this series came from teaching middle school science and her deep curiosity with genetics and time travel. As a science teacher for seventeen years, she is always delighted to bump into former students and learn about the new adventures in their lives. In her spare time, she kayaks, dances, practices yoga, and goes camping or hiking. In the summertime Sher grows pollinator gardens for bees and hummingbirds, attends outdoor concerts, and reads in her hammock. An ardent conversationalist, Sher enjoys many genres of books and music and will happily converse with anyone on a variety of topics! Her first novel, The Rescue has been warmly received, garnering an indie B.R.A.G. Medallion, a Bookfest gold medal, and was cited as Pacific Book Awards Finalist. Book two in the Timestream series is slated for release in early 2023. Website: https://www.timestreamtravelerchronicles.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/timestreamtraveler/     

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