Fast Fact
Author: Chess Desalls
Genre: YA, fantasy, time travel
Books: Travel Glasses from The Call to Search Everywhen series
Bio
I recently authored the first two installments of the YA time travel serial series, The Call to Search Everywhen. I’m a longtime reader of fantasy and sci-fi novels, particularly classics and young adult fiction. There’s nothing quite like a good fairy tale or fable. When I’m not writing I enjoy traveling, reading and trying to stay in tune on my flute.
Accomplishments
I work and write outside of my creative writing. My work has led to both academic and industry publications. I’m a contributing editor for my local writing club’s monthly newsletter. I also received a first place award for best short fiction from the California Writers Club, South Bay branch.
Blurb
Calla Winston’s mobile devices sit in a corner of her room, covered in dust. Weeks ago, she shared photos and laughs with her best online friend. Now, after having felt the sting of betrayal, she prefers being hidden and friendless. She equates privacy with security and technology with pain.
Then she meets Valcas, an otherworldly time traveler who traverses time and space with a pair of altered sunglasses. When an ethereal being knocks Calla to the ground near her family’s lakeside cottage, Valcas uses the Travel Glasses to help her escape. He offers his further protection in exchange for a promise. Intrigued by Valcas and the possibility of time travel, Calla accepts. That is until she learns that his search for her was no mere coincidence.
Calla sets off on her own, taking the Travel Glasses with her. Torn between searching for her estranged father and reuniting with the rest of her family, she tracks down the inventor of the Travel Glasses in hopes of discovering more about Valcas’ past and motivations. The Travel Glasses take Calla’s mistrust of technology to all new levels. But without them, she’ll never make it back home. With Valcas hot on her trail, Calla hopes to find what she’s looking for before he catches up.
The Call to Search Everywhen is a serial series of novel-length installments. Travel Glasses is YA fantasy filled with metafiction and other literary twistiness. It’s a thought-provoking narrative about trust, relationships, reality and illusion.
Review
“This book is really unique and unlike anything I’ve read” ~ Goodreads reviewer
“The sci-fi aspect of the novel was perfectly executed, everything was wonderfully explained and it felt real to me, it felt very possible, less fictitious. The TSTA, glasses, rules, bright light, nowheres and everything made sense to me. Best of it all, this is a theme I haven’t hear of. Its not a copy of any other sci-fi novel I have ever heard of, and trust me, I’ve heard of a lot.” ~ Goodreads/Amazon reviewer
“I also enjoyed the originality of the devices and means of time travel in this book.” ~ Goodreads/Amazon reviewer
“The story of the travel glasses is very original and inventive, props to the author for coming up with this story and keeping it believable.” ~ Goodreads reviewer
“Time travel, mystery, romance and plenty of adventure, this book captivated me with interesting characters and a plot that was unlike anything I had ever read before.” ~ Goodreads reviewer
“Its a really fun read, very unusual and with some novels like this I’ve a shedload of questions that never get answered, but here – each time I think ” I wonder why/how/who/what?” the answer comes, and not through that horrible device so often used of simply telling the reader the answers, but by Calla thinking her way through, using logic to find them, or by looking at what’s happening to her, or sometimes just asking questions of another traveller. That makes the story so much more realistic, more interesting than what often happens, where we just read pages of text giving the reader the answer.” ~ Amazon top reviewer
Excerpt
The fireplace glowed and crackled behind me as the light of the flames reflected off of Valcas’ lenses. I sipped tea while sitting cross-legged on a sleeping bag.
“Time travel is possible and has been in operation for a long time,” he began. “There are at least two known methods of travel. This,” he said as he removed his glasses and handed them to me. “Is my way.”
Valcas’ sunglasses did not look extraordinary. They were large enough to block light from the front and sides. Both the frames and lenses were of a similar black opaque material, light and smooth like plastic. The tops and sides of each rounded rectangular lens were shuttered. I turned the glasses in my hands, looking them over, expecting to see a power switch and control buttons. There weren’t any. Still holding the glasses in my hands, I looked up at Valcas—I was finally going to see his eyes. When I did, I froze.
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