Winner Declared January "Marking Time" by April White

[Lincoln, Temporal Jester]

By April White

Get your FREE e-book copy at amazon here:
http://www.amazon.com/Marking-Time-Im...

Seventeen-year-old tagger Saira Elian can handle anything... a mother who mysteriously disappears, a stranger who stalks her around London, and even the noble English Grandmother who kicked Saira and her mother out of the family. But when an old graffiti tag in a tube station transports Saira to the 19th Century and she comes face-to-face with Jack the Ripper, she realizes she needs help after all.

Saira meets Archer, a charming student who helps her blend in as much as a tall, modern American teen can in Victorian England. He reveals the existence of the Immortals: Time, Nature, Fate, War and Death, and explains to Saira that it is possible to move between
centuries – if you are a Descendant of Time.

Saira finds unexpected friendships at a boarding school for Immortal Descendants and a complicated love with a young man from the past. But time is running out for her mother, and Saira must embrace her new identity as she hides from Archer a devastating secret about his future that may cost him his life.

Marking Time is book one in the Immortal Descendants series, and takes Saira to Victorian London to meet Jack the Ripper. Book two, Tempting Fate, sends her to the Tower of London in 1554 to meet the Tower's most famous prisoner of the time, Princess Elizabeth Tudor. Comment below with the person you would most like to meet in History, or the historical mystery you would like to see solved.

[April]

By the way, the e-book is free, but comments here will get you entered to win a signed paperback. Thanks, Lincoln!

[Kathryn]

Looks fantastic!

[Nate, First Tiger]

I'd love to meet Leonardo DaVinci. He seemed to be years ahead of his time. It would be interesting to find out why...

[April]

I really toyed with the idea of making Leonardo DaVinci a Seer in book two - and I think he might actually have been one. So, yeah, I'm with you on that, Nathan.

[Lincoln, Temporal Jester]

News of the weird:

Go check out Roswell 1947:

Aliens or Air Force?

[April]

Definitely a Sci Fi guy, Lincoln.

[Lincoln, Temporal Jester]

Has anybody else watching Lost History on the the history channel?

I was thinking going back and finding lost artifacts of American History, but if you could really be a recoverer of lost history why not go way back and recover things globally. Might be neat to see cities that are nothing but ruined foundations.

[April]

Lost History sounds interesting. I miss Cities of the Underworld, which played right into my fascination with anything secret, hidden, and underground.

Consequently, there are a lot of tunnels and secret rooms in my writing.

[Nate, First Tiger]

If someone says anything about secret tunnels or trap doors on the back of a book jacket, I buy the book. It's my Kryptonite.

[April]

Mine, too, Nathan. My 7-year-old has serious plans for behind-the-bookcase entrances and hidden staircases to the tree house he's designing. You know, for when Treehouse Masters knocks on his door and asks to build him one.

[Nate, First Tiger]

He and I would get along. My primary requirement in purchasing a house will be having a layout conducive to secret passages. The bookshelf is always a solid choice. Sounds like he'll have one classy tree house.

[April]

When we were house-hunting, we looked at an old Spanish in the hills with a secret room behind a bookcase that had been built as a speakeasy. And the rum runner tunnels under Venice Beach (in Marking Time) are a real thing. So are the London Bridge catacombs with the plague pit.

[Paul]

There are secret tunnels under Fordham University (where I teach) and under CCNY (where I got most of my BA), and of course over the place under New York City (where I live). One of the reasons I like all three places.

[April]

Suzanne Collins, who wrote The Hunger Games, wrote a middle grade fantasy series about the Underlanders - under New York. It's a fantastic series, and definitely makes one want to explore the tunnels under your city, Paul.

What were the tunnels under Fordham built for - and when?

[Paul]

The campus was founded in 1841, but dramatically expanded in the 1920s. The tunnels - or so they say - were likely built then, to help students get to courses in disparate buildings across campus in inclement weather (snow). They've been closed since at least the 1950s. The tunnels at CCNY were built even earlier, and go under an active street.

The Fordham tunnels figure in my story, "The Last Train to Margaretville" - which I read in this free podcast http://paullev.libsyn.com/the-last-tr...

By the way - I downloaded your book, and look forward to reading it in the next few weeks.

[April]

Thanks so much, Paul - both for the link (which I look forward to listening to), and for downloading Marking Time. I hope you enjoy it.

Also, thanks for the information about the tunnels - I see a rabbit hole of research in my future...

[Lincoln, Temporal Jester]

The Winner is....Paul

Paul Levinson

This paul sorry other paul...

Thanks for all those that participated this month!

[Paul]

Lincoln wrote: "The Winner is....Paul

Paul Levinson

This paul sorry other paul...

Thanks for all those that participated this month!"

Thanks, Lincoln!