It’s Sugar Time!

This week, I’ve been revisiting an old friend of sorts. Back in 2002, Hadrosaur Productions recorded an audio edition of three short stories by Joy V. Smith and released them under the collective title, Sugar Time. There was a fourth story, which we published in Hadrosaur Tales magazine. Talking to Joy, we decided it was high time to bring out all four stories in a single edition. We’ve released them in print and ebook formats. The beautiful new cover is by Laura Givens.

Here’s the blurb from the back of the book:

Her name is Sugar. Sugar Sweet. But never EVER call her ‘Sweetie.’

When Sugar’s Uncle Max falls ill and his collaborators disappear, she investigates the old Victorian mansion where he conducted his research. She soon finds the collaborators—or what’s left of them—along with an angry Neanderthal. She also finds her uncle’s research project, a working time machine. Sugar must act quickly to unlock the secret of time travel so she can set things right and protect her uncle’s research.

Sugar Time collects Joy V. Smith’s Sugar Sweet stories into one volume.

I had a lot of fun going back and re-reading these stories. A couple of elements make these stories stand out from the usual time travel stories. First is an element of mystery. In particular, Sugar meets two creatures from the past that her uncle called Chessies. They are cat-like creatures whose eyes can disappear into their fur and resemble a certain famous feline from Alice and Wonderland. These are creatures not in the fossil record and it’s not until the end that Sugar figures out the true story of their origin.

Another thing that stands out about Sugar Time is the period of time Sugar explores. In many time travel stories, we see people travel through human history. Every now and then, you’ll find a story that takes you to the time of dinosaurs. Joy will take you to the Pleistocene Epoch to see Neanderthals and Saber-tooth cats. It’s quite a thrill ride, and one you don’t want to miss.

The ebook edition of Sugar Time is currently available at Amazon, Smashwords, and Kobo, with more vendors coming soon.

The print edition of Sugar Time is available via Amazon and Hadrosaur Productions.

And, of course, the audio CD is still available through Hadrosaur Productions and well worth a listen. It still has the old cover, but Laura Givens made that one over, too. The new audio cover will be debuting as soon as I run the next batch of disks.