If you're reading this, it may mean I don't exist any more. Time travel's like that. Here today, erased tomorrow. 16-year-old Madison Bryant is escaping an awkward romance when she leaps into her friend Riley's latest invention—a time machine—as it blasts off on its maiden voyage to Ancient Egypt. Setting down by the Nile in a swirl of sand, the pair plan to stay for a day or two and observe, not interact with anyone. But when a local girl invites them to her family home, they're drawn into village dramas and can't resist using knowledge from the future to help. An epidemic of dental troubles? Riley introduces toothpaste to the ancient culture. The vizier's teenage son drowning in a hippo-filled river? Maddy rescues him using life-saving techniques acquired on a Sydney beach. Sure, she's read time travel stories with those warnings about not changing the past in case it changes the future in unpredictable ways. But they don't apply to her. She's just an ordinary girl—a mere speck of sand in the vast desert of time. And nothing she does could ever change the course of history. Could it? A high-stakes fast-paced journey through the mysterious world of Ancient Egypt.
Author
I am the author of a six-book YA time travel series, called The Time Travel Chronicles. Secrets of the Nile, book one in the series, will be released on 18 July, 2023. I hope to release books two and three by the end of the year and the final three in 2024. Creating this series has been the most fun I’ve ever had as a writer. It took me over a decade to write, involved researching five historical periods and tapping out over half a million words! The process for each book began with research. I spent a couple of months reading as much as I could on each new period and taking notes. I usually filled an A4 notebook and more with details—not of historic events or real characters—but of the way people lived. I focused on the food, the homes, the social order, courting rituals, the general vibe of a place, ferreting out as many true details (especially the gory ones) as I could find. Only when I felt I had inhaled the essence of each period did I sit down to write. Once I had a completed manuscript, I edited it multiple times, before giving it to my family to read—they’re all good writers and structural editors. They gave me notes. Then my script editor went over it…more notes. And some people from my writing group looked at parts of it…notes, notes, notes. I also had input from my writing teachers at the Faber Academy. Plus sensitivity readers when cultural issues arose. The proof reader mopped up what was left! And so…after that looong process of writing and revising, I’m now here, preparing to launch my first baby out into the world.
