The McGregor Chronicles

My husband, Larry's first attempt at science fiction is now a reality. The McGregor Chronicles: Book 1 – Saving Mike is now available on Kindle and in paperback on Amazon.

Science fiction has always been his favorite genre for reading, but he’s never tried writing it until now. He might not have attempted it at this time except a member of our writing group decided on the genre. He was able to give her some tips for her book, and an idea of his own came to him.

As the story progressed, a romantic element appeared. Keep in mind, Larry is a plotter. Well, he used to be. He always planned his stories out from first chapter to last ahead of writing. But since we have been collaborating, he has learned to trust his characters. Unfortunately, they sometimes have minds of their own!

This book is light action/adventure featuring members of a spacefaring dynasty. Future books in the series will focus on other family members. Book 2 – Escape From Eden is completed and awaiting edit. He has begun Book 3 – Alien Invasion.

His latest project in conjunction with this first book has been to build a model of his spaceship. (All of the technical information in the book is based on real science. Once a space geek, always a space geek.)

His model making began after he saw the movie version of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. He came home and built the sets out of old scraps he founding the garage. Then he lined the bathtub with these ‘sets’ and spent hours playing out the movie.

When he first began in engineering, a scale model was built for every new project. He loved wandering through the model shop checking out all of them.

CADD removed the need for models except in one industry: theme parks. While he worked on Universal Studios Japan in Hollywood, he often stopped by to see the scale model of the park.

It was moved to our offices in the World Trade Center in Osaka where everyone could see it. The model became a sales tool to interest vendors, who wished to sell their goods in the park, and for investors.

In our book 31 Months in Japan: The Building of a Theme Park, the chapter called “From Model to Scene…” tells about how he and I and his boss rebuilt the model for the Jurassic Park waterfall when it arrived in Japan. The rockwork expert liked the model so well he had the center part shipped back to the US after the project was completed, so I guess we did a good job reconstructing it. All of Larry’s childhood model making finally paid off.

I must admit, I’m not a great sci-fi reader. I enjoyed the Star Wars movies and the Star Trek TV show. In fact, we had dinner every Wednesday night with friends so we could watch the new episodes together. And this week, when ‘Mr. Spock’ died, I must admit, I cried.

Do you like sci-fi? If so, you might enjoy The McGregor Chronicles. Not a big fan of the genre? You might want to try this one. It could make you a believer—at least in the author, Larry K. Collins.