Interactive FAQ
This page is for asking questions of the author, a little like a discussion board, only without all the logging-in nonsense. Whenever a question is being answered, it will appear as a reply from me, the author, to your comment. If the question will not be answered, a reason will generally be provided to you personally (I require email addresses for all comments). Another option is to email me directly. I may opt to post the question and answer here, or I may just reply to you directly, depending on whether or not I think it is worth posting. No matter what, your email address will not be shared unless you choose to share it.
There are three main topics: About the Author, About the Story, and About Basic Astronomy. Examples are below to get you started, but you’ll need to go to each individual page to actual ask any questions.
Please note: this entire Web site is a work-in-progress. I update it about every 2 weeks with a new part of the story. If you want to know when there is an update, please use the links provided on the right to follow the story on various social networking sites, subscribe to receive updates by email, or link to the RSS feed provided.
Samples:
caughtsomewhereintime asked, “Why do you write online instead of seeking a publisher?”
While books are interesting, there is a lot of work involved in seeking publication, and that is something that I am not interested in at this time. I have a pretty full plate already. Besides, I do not plan to be a professional author, and most science-fiction available at the bookstore is paperback only. I like hard-covers myself.
caughtsomewhereintime asked, “What’s with all the terminology that I don’t understand, and who is this Novikov guy anyway?
Great question! The terminology that I have invented will either be self explanatory (in my opinion) or will be explained at some point during the story. “Intermomentary” is a word I made up that means what it sounds like: “between moments.” Intermomentary travel is movement from one moment in time to another. I had to make up a word for it, because the English language does not yet support my methods of time travel. As for Novikov, he is a real scientist who is credited with many theories on time travel. My “Novikov’s effect” is based loosely on the self-consistency principle formulated by Igor Dmitriyevich Novikov in the 1980’s. The principle basically states that the probability of any paradox created by time travel is zero, meaning you can’t go back in time and make your mother accidentally fall in love with you instead of your dad (like in the movie “Back to the Future”). Novikov’s effect is the repercussions of a paradox’s inability to exist.
caughtsomewhereintime asked, “Why is the moon sometimes visible during the day, and sometimes at night?”
That’s because it takes about 28 days for the Moon to go around the Earth. This means that the Earth turns all the way around 28 times (once per day) while the Moon goes around it only once. If you look at the moon at 9:00 one night and see it out your front window just past a tree (for example), one day later at exactly the same time the Moon will be in a slightly different place. This is because the Moon will have moved 1/28th of the way around the Earth during that one day. If you want to see the Moon in the same place in the sky day after day, you will have to look at that one spot in the sky (out the front window just past the tree for example) about 51 and a half minutes earlier each day (because 51.4 minutes is 1/28th of a day). It’ll be there at 9:00pm one day, 8:09pm the next day, 7:17pm the next day, etc. After a week it’ll be out during the afternoon, and a week after that it will be out in the morning. The phases will change too, because the Moon changes its angle relative to the Earth and Sun as it goes around us.
It’s easy to think about it like this: If I see the Moon in the morning, it’s chasing the Sun and will catch it in a few days. But if I see it in the evening, it’s already caught the sun and is running away again until it starts catching back up to it in the morning next month.
