The following article was extracted from the Fairfield Plantation News and Views. The article was provided to me by Frank Allan Rogers, and tells the story of how he wrote Twice Upon a Time. Following the news article is my full review of the story.
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Can a man from the 21st century survive in 1847?
Murdered on his birthday, August Myles finds crossing over is nothing like he'd
ever heard, read, or imagined, and learns he has not earned a ticket to
Paradise. In a grand experiment, the members of the Divine Council gave August
another chance. Or did they?
With all the limitations of a mortal, he is sent
back in time with an impossible mission – an adventure filled with triumph and
tragedy, courage and fear, happiness and heartbreak, sex and violence - a grueling
journey on the Oregon Trail. The mission is brutal and demanding, even on a
horse named Aristotle. “This trip ain't all fun, Mr. Myles,” the wagon master
told him. “It's back-breaking work day in and day out on a trail worn by ornery
animals, busted wagons, and broken dreams. It beats the life out of good,
God-fearin' people, and there's grave markers along the way for a lot of brave
souls who gave it all they had. Sometimes, good ain't good enough.”
Along with the limitations, August is also burdened
with all the needs and passions of a mortal. He must battle the advances of two
gorgeous women during long months and close encounters on the trail, though
wagon-train life offers few chances for privacy. One woman just wants to seduce
him. Another falls in love. But for August Myles, carnal knowledge is
forbidden. Is there no justice?
Solstice Publishing has just released Twice Upon
a Time, the second novel by author Frank Allan Rogers, following Upon a Crazy
Horse in 2009. “I’m not the fastest writer around,” Frank says with a grin. “My
goal is not to see how many books I can write, but to create stories that
people enjoy, with characters they can’t forget. My greatest satisfaction is
when someone says, I couldn’t put it down and I didn’t want it to
end.”
He explains that creating a fictional world that
seems believable, filled with things, places, animals, and people all from the
author’s imagination demands hard work, passion, and dedication – a thousand
cups of coffee and many long nights on the computer keyboard.
“In my head, I have to live in the time and place
of the story,” he offered. “I have to see the trees, grass, and flowers, the
streets, homes, and other buildings. I have to become each character I invent,
and I read the dialogue aloud to make sure it sounds like real talking.”
“When I was writing Upon a Crazy Horse, I was
involved in a scene with thunder, lightning, and heavy rain. When I finished
the scene, I left my computer to go to the mailbox. I grabbed my rain jacket on
the way out, and as I reached the door, I realized we had a bright, sunny day
outside – no storm.”
“I wanted Twice Upon a Time to be as realistic and
authentic as I could make it, to take the readers back in time, let them see
America in 1847, make them endure the hardships and celebrate the triumphs of
those rugged pioneers. So I tried to learn everything I could about life on the
Oregon Trail, what it feels like to have a covered wagon for your home, and
everything you own rides in that wagon as you trudge across a strange land full
of hazards, countless obstacles, insects, disease, and often hostile people who
resent the intrusion on their homeland. And you risk everything including the
lives of your family in search of a dream.”
Research took more time than writing, and Frank
is grateful for all the help he received. He discovered Elaine Juska Joseph, an
Amish lady in Connecticut who is an expert on draft animals and how those
animals impacted the mass migration across the continent. She was very generous
with her time and knowledge, and so were the people at the Booth Western Art
Museum in Cartersville.
“In the museum’s basement, a vast library contains
thousands of books, paintings, and DVD’s with information about The
Old West,” the author said. “I logged several hours in that place, lost in an author’s
paradise.” Liz Gentry, the chief librarian, was a great help, and never seemed
to tire from the endless questions and requests.
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| With Frank Allan Rogers and Mary Thibeault Rogers |
Frank was also in touch with the Overland Trails
Museum in Independence, Missouri, and he read lots of diaries kept by people
who made the trip. Most diaries didn’t help, but some were golden. He bought
books about foods, cookware, clothing, weapons, tools, American Indian tribes,
and anything connected with the places and time period of the story. He and his
wife, artist Mary Rogers, worked at a Cowboy Cook-off in New Mexico and ate food
cooked in a Dutch oven, the cookware used on the trails. Frank bought and built
a scale-model covered wagon kit so he could become familiar with the various
parts that made up the home emigrants lived in for months. “I know what covered
wagons cost in 1847,” he says. “I know what they were made of, the parts that
wore out first, and that most of them were built by Weston’s Wagon Shop in
Independence.”
The author also says he gained a new respect for
the determination, discipline, and undaunted courage of those who braved the
journey west, and he learned why the Oregon Trail was referred to as the
world’s longest graveyard. Approximately ten percent of those who started the
journey died along the way. In spite of the odds, Oregon fever spread like a
real virus, and an often-repeated phrase of that time period says a lot about
the people who were afflicted: If Hell lay in the west, Americans would trample
across Heaven to get there.
“It’s a powerful setting for a dramatic story,”
the author says. “From the start, I knew it would take a real commitment, but I
drew inspiration from those who traveled the real trail.” More than two years,
and 346 pages later, Frank Allan Rogers created Twice Upon a Time.
The book is available by special order from most bookstores,
and is sold online by Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other sites as an e-book
or printed copy. Autographed copies are available directly from the author.
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Review by James L. Hatch
Ever read a novel so good that when you finished you missed
the characters, like you might miss a friend who moved to another city? Twice
Upon a Time is like that. I absolutely loved the book, and was genuinely sorry
to reach the end. Don’t get me wrong. The ending was wonderful. That’s not it.
I actually missed the people in the story. I missed having them as a part of my
life, even though I only had them for the short time I was enmeshed in the
story. Frank Allan Rogers is a master at presenting his characters in such a
life-like way that the people become part of you … and you become part of them.
Twice Upon a Time had a wonderful paranormal component that
moves the plot between the current day and the mid-1800s; however, the 1800s
part of the story, a wagon train trip to Oregon, stands solidly on its own – it
is that good. I don’t consider myself a historian, but I suspect Mr. Rogers did
considerable homework in bringing the arduous and dangerous trip from Missouri
to Oregon to life. The struggles and hardships encountered were artfully
balanced against the strength and resolve of “Bonner’s Disciples”, the people
making the trip.
I am at a loss as to whether I should present any of the
plot as part of this review. I don’t want to spoil anything because it all
leads to an incredible ending, one that will leave even the strongest individual
with a tear in his or her eye. What I can say is that the elements that lead to
the conclusion are presented throughout the story in such subtle ways that I
did not guess the ending, even though, in retrospect, Mr. Rogers was enticing
me with clues all along. I loved that.
While the wagon train saga involved me emotionally with the
main characters, I will also say that the paranormal component was a pleasure
to read. It presented some heady philosophical concepts with such skill that
they did not interrupt the flow of the story. The hero, August Myles, was
assigned an impossible mission and he fought a good fight, but he was, after
all, only human. How he comes to terms with the devil in the end is a
cliffhanger without question. You won’t be able to put this book down.
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Thanks for reading,
James L. Hatch
amazon.com/author/jameshatch
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