A World Gone Reverse – by J. R. Kruze – Editor’s Notes

Published: Jan 2019

Characters: Chaz, Hami, Carol, Jean, Rochelle (Chuck’s daughter), unnamed villains

Main Story Structure: Mystery

Secondary Structure: Romance

Theme: Ideas and concepts are timeless.

Main Setting: Food truck, “Chuck’s Place”

Co-author: S. H. Marpel

Sequel to: Ham & Chaz

Related Fiction: Tales of the Lazurai

Related Non-Fiction: Strangest Secret Library, Books by Joseph Murphy, Books by Christian Larson

Book Pitch:

When the hamburgers all disappeared, along with the buns I was warming, I thought I was seeing things.

But when my spatula went through the cast-iron grill top – I had to let it go out of reflex. No way was I going after it. I’d been burned too many times.

It wasn’t like I had a choice after that. Because the grill itself dropped out through the bottom of the rolling coach we were cooking from that summer.

I looked up at Hami, my order-taker, business partner, and lover – only to see her fall through the floor as well. She had a look of shock on her face and was trying to say something, but frozen in time.

Then the coach disappeared, and I fell with it – but only as far as the pavement it used to be parked on. I could see the asphalt beneath my feet at least.

Until it turned to some sort of foamy waves lapping on a beach I’d never seen before. Green hard-packed sand. Green water. And a long white line that went down this beach like it was some sort of dual-lane highway.

In the distance, this shimmery circle thing. Down that “highway”.

Oh, what the hell. Nothing else out here but sand and water. Might as well check it out…

Book Excerpt:

No matter who I thought of through that pendant, no one was answering. Not Hami, not Jean, not any of the Lazurai, and no one at the Library. I couldn’t get anyone to contact me, let alone come to help me with this scene.

I was almost up to that shimmery circle now. It looked like something out of a Sci-Fi movie. Or maybe out of one of those Virtual Reality games where you ported to some other section of the game.

It just stood there, tempting me. Taunting me.

The bottom third of its gray metal edge was sunk into the green sand. Somehow, the water covered its edges on each side, so just maybe it could be “dialed” in from somewhere else. But for now, it was stuck in its shimmery mode, just beckoning me to take a trip through it.

Not so fast.

Looking around, I found a smallish green pebble and chucked it through with a sidearm pitch. And not too soon after had to duck as it came zinging back through.

So I just stood there and waited. If that was automatic, then there was no sense stepping into it. If someone threw it back, then I’d get something else coming through any time now.

Which prompted me to step to the side. My flat-bottomed white boat-shoe tennies were already soaked, so standing in ankle deep water was nothing. At least the water was cool – but not cold. This was some sort of sub-tropic scene. Like maybe San Diego or something.

Still, it was darkening now. And no place to lay down to sleep tonight unless I wanted to wake up looking like a prune tomorrow from the water that lay over almost everything here.

Didn’t have to wait long. Some note inside a plastic bag, attached to a weight of some sort arrived. Landing just barely beyond the edge of the circle’s shimmer.

I slowly stepped toward it. Not wanting someone or something to grab me from beyond the short distance from the bag to that mystery beyond. Bent down, crouched, and managed to grab it before scooting a dozen feet away. Just out of reach, I hoped.

Then opened up the plastic bag. It had been wired on to some sort of small wooden chunk, kinda rounded off like it had been weathered. A piece of walnut or something.

As I pulled out the note and began unfolding it, I was only hoping I could read whatever language it was written in.

And my eyes opened wide when I found I could…

Editor’s Notes – Links:

You’ve already seen Hami and Chaz in an earlier book, called “Ham and Chaz“. It was a paranormal romance but not like your usual paranormal romance as it was a couple of straight teenagers who had supernatural abilities. Which is different from some of these other “shifter” romances that are mostly boilerplate.

At the beginning of the story, they’re back out in a food truck which it their same settings as their original book. But you have to understand a few things in this, because this is based on the Lazurai concept that came from J.R. Kruze book called “The Lazurai“. And it was originally a stand-alone book. But then later on I found out that this was going to be a great element for a C. C. Brower book, “The Hooman Saga” because it answered a question Where did these elementals come from in that story?

And this is why I’m telling you these things interlink with the other universes.

This book this book then goes into alternate point of view. A typical romance starts off with the girl talking, which it’s supposed to. You know that’s expected. It’s all about the girl in a romance. So the girl starts it off. The guy talks, the girl talks and so we see this back and forth. It keeps you go on and so is another trick to keep you reading.

Jean shows up. He’s an elemental Lazurai himself. And he was their mentor and got them together as a couple. But in chapter 5 we see Carol meeting Hami first. Jean calls Carol in. Carol is from “Time Bent“, an earlier S. H. Marpel book.

So Carol comes in. She’s just finished off her training at the Academy. Now the Academy is a Ghost Hunters Academy. And this is first mentioned in an earlier romance by Marpel called. The Ghost Who Loved. .

The shimmering circle is of the course borrowed from “Star Gate” but it’s also out of “Ready Player One”. I’m just telling you where all the things come from.

Carol is a Time Bender or “time tourist” as she describes it the first book – that she would actually just travel through time checking things out.

We have to see “Time Bent” to see how she does that of course. I’m just telling you where you can look to get more information and more background on what these guys are doing.

Now in that “Time Bent“, Carol talks about how the author (Stark) left out a major problem in the Ghost Hunters Series which is they didn’t have any big villains that continued in the story arc. They have all these different characters come and go. The characters mention that in When Fireballs Collide where there was somebody behind those fireballs.

Somebody is getting the fireballs thrown from behind that ghost – The Ghost Hunters are trying to solve the problem of the ghost. But then that mystery enemy/villain disappears – doesn’t show up again. I think it’s mentioned once after that, kinda slightly, but not as a big thing. Now here, it’s a big thing. They’ve got an organized group of people with gizmo’s.

“Chuck’s Place” comes back in, and that’s again a reference to the original Lazurai story. And so that’s there.

Rochelle was named after the Rochelle that runs the nursing college who originally saved that family, Chuck and his wife, and they had a kid and they named the kid Rochelle. So that’s where that comes from.

So now we’ve got the villain back. We’ve got an unknown enemy group that’s hunting them, hunting all the ghost hunters. So that leaves it open to another whole show.

Carol has now gotten all of her abilities back. As it says in the book, she’s a cross between Tess which is from the Marpel book of the same name and Kruze’s Lazurai because she was treated by Betty. Who comes out of a C. C. Brower book: “The Lazurai Emergence.” Which has Jean and Hami in it and Marpel’s writer-detective, John Earl Stark. And that’s where Stark also becomes a Lazurai.

So you see how this universe goes – and this is the reason I’m doing these – is to tell you the whole story about everything that happens in these worlds. So it is quite, quite interesting.

And the beater truck again that shows up in the in the Lazurai series when Rochelle goes to “Cagga (Kruze’s”The Lazurai Returns“.) That’s was where she rescues a detective who’s sick inside Chicago. And has to get them both out again. That’s the first you see where they can transmute elements from one thing to another.

OK. So did I give you enough hints about this scene?

This is why I started this podcast series because it’s exactly what this deal is. These universes are huge. These characters have complex back stories.

In these books, the characters come and go, they tell me their stories. I write them down and publish them. And so that’s the real trick. But I get so excited telling people about these books – I said to myself, Look, I’ve just got to talk these out. I’ve just got to tell people the universes of these stories.

OK?

So – see you next time.

Update: Hami makes a comment in the book: Or someone wants ‘take-out’ to feed an army on the moon. Literally. This is a reference to the Hooman Saga Book Two, Part 2 . Hami and her restaurant-saloon appear in The Hooman Saga: Part One as well as other Ghost Hunter series

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