Marlene Dotterer - Shipbuilder

He stared at the notebook as she made her slow way to the door. His hypothesis predicted this, but it made no conjecture about the consequences. Nothing was in there about the people and the lives affected by time travel. Perhaps it was fitting that his own life was disrupted by this. He looked up to ask her a question, but she was gone, the door closed. His own hand shook a bit, as he reached to turn the cover of the book.

Marlene Dotterer grew up as a desert rat in Tucson, Arizona. In 1990, she loaded her five children into the family station wagon, and drove north-west to the foggy San Francisco Bay Area. To stay warm, she tackled many enterprises, earning a degree in geology, working for a national laboratory, and running her own business as a personal chef. She is a frustrated gardener, loves to cook, and teaches natural childbirth classes. She says she writes, “to silence the voices,” obsessed with the possibilities of other worlds and other times.

She is married to The Best Husband in the World, and lives in Pleasant Hill, California.

Her website is http://www.marlenedotterer.wordpress.com

Please visit for a peek at the next book in The Time Travel Journals series:

There is a wealth of Titanic information in the world. I spent over a year plowing through a lot of it. Shan F. Bullock’s little book, “Thomas Andrews, Shipbuilder,” was the source of my inspiration. M.A. Kibble’s website, “Thomas Andrews, Builder of the Ship of Dreams,” while not a new site, is still the definitive page for information about Thomas Andrews. The people at Encyclopedia Titanica are always ready for advice or debate, and always good for a laugh. The Titanic Inquiry Project, with every word of both the British and American inquiries scanned into the World Wide Web, is a wonder of the electronic age. The Belfast Titanic Society is a constant source of inspiration. And jealousy. I always wish I was there. I am grateful to all the people who contribute to these sites.

Closer to home (sort of), I send humble thanks to the members of the Online Writers Workshop for Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror. Amy Raby, Jesse Bangs, David Fortier, Rhonda Garcia, and Greg Byrne deserve several pitchers of beer for their faithful reading of forty chapters and three revisions. You guys made a real writer of me.

Special thanks to Daniel Hawkes, who never doubted I could do it, and whose thoughtful editing of the first version made it a book to be proud of. And also to Stefan Finsterle, who provided a review of the final draft that was the equal of any peer review given to a scientific colleague. You guys rock.

My most heartfelt thanks, and all my love, go to Rick, “the Best Husband in the World.” He didn’t know he married a writer, but he persevered when these strangers took up residence in our house via my obsessed mind, and I disappeared nightly behind my computer screen. For better or worse, indeed. I love you, darling.

And finally, to Thomas Andrews, February 7, 1873 — April 15, 1912. He had no idea of the inspiration he would provide to so many people through the ages. He just lived his life with all the goodness and joy instilled within him by nature and a loving family. I wish he could have had a full span of years. I hope he would be pleased with my feeble attempt to give him another chance at life.

Copyright 2011 by Marlene Dotterer

Cover design by Laura Shinn

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be resold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Requests for permission to make copies of any part of the work should be submitted online at www.marlenedotterer.wordpress.com/contact.

While based on historical events, this is a work of fiction. Characters, places, organizations, events, and dialogue are the products of the author’s imagination and may differ from the historical record.