It Was Another Dark And Stormy Night: Witch Time

By John Chapman

You're not going to believe this short story. It's the tale of how I was infected with timebots. I could die, have them removed and then be restored to life by Alex Pierson (aka Jack the Ripper) or take a trip through time to Maryland in 1785 and rescue a witch. Time travel - here I come.
Almost forgot to tell you - My trip was arranged by T.A.C.O. (Time AntiChronoclasm Organisation) and in it you'll learn about B.E.L.L. (no clue what that stands for). The trip lasts three seconds / three months / 230 years - Yes I had trouble with that too.
It won't take you long to read - about 30 minutes.

• Language: English
• Publisher: John Chapman
• Release date: Mar 7, 2021
• ISBN: 9781005547073

John Chapman

We started the 'A Vested Interest' series in 2007 and it took over a year before I came up with an ending we were happy with. At 170,000 words A Vested Interest was too long though for a printed book. We cut it heavily but still ended with a 140,000 word book. There was no alternative, we had to split it into a two book series. Doing that, we thought, would allow us to put back some of the content we had cut and expand the second book (Dark Secrets) a little.Well that was the plan. We ended up splitting the second book and making a trilogy by adding 'No Secrets'. The original ending didn't quite fit now so we moved it into a fourth book - Stones, Stars and Solutions.And so it goes on. We are now writing book 10 and 11 of the series. Shelia has written a spin-off 'Blood of the Rainbow' trilogy. Altogether it's 2 million words so far! In terms of time, we've only covered a few months. There is an end in sight but not for another 5,000 years. Maybe I'll get to use my original ending then?About the AuthorsJohn and Shelia Chapman are a husband and wife team who met on Internet and crossed the Atlantic to be together. John, an English ex-science and computer teacher contributed the technology and 'nasty' bits while Shelia drew on her medical experience in the USA and produced the romance. The humour? That came from real life.

Book preview

It Was Another Dark and Stormy Night

Another Short and Unbelievable Story

By John Chapman

This edition 1.0 ©2015

Hexham

John Chapman has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.

This book is a work of fiction and, except in the case of historical fact, any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

Copyright ©2015 John Chapman

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions.

ISBN-13: 9781005547073

This book uses UK English, so expect words like ‘favourite’, ‘colour’ and ‘metre’, temperatures in Celsius and expressions such as ‘I put it in my car boot’… but then… I may use US spelling and expressions.

Oh well – you’ll see

.

My thanks go to my wife, Shelia, who took time from her writing to edit this story.

Falsehood flies, and the truth comes limping after it; so that when men come to be undeceiv’d, it is too late; the jest is over, and the tale has had its effect.

Johnathan Swift in The Examiner 1710

I’ve been told by one of the characters in this story that you won’t believe this. However, enough of these stories will stick in someone’s mind for it to trigger an idea. That alone will cause the founding of TACO, the Time Agency Chronoclasm Organisation, which controls time travel.

Chapter 1

It wasn’t a dark and stormy night.

I know what you were expecting. That first line was not supposed to include the wasn’t. There had been quite a few dark nights since I met Alex Pearin, the time traveller, but it wasn’t night yet and it was still quite light. Come to think of it, aren’t all nights dark? Well, maybe not if you live in northern Finland in the summer. Anyway – it wasn’t night and it wasn’t stormy. In fact, it was early evening, the sun hadn’t quite set and the weather was warm.

Having set the scene by describing the weather in detail, something an author should never do because it should be ‘show not tell,’ I suppose