My first series was The Broken Fleet which went to four volumes. It happens in an alternate timeline of 2018, the main characters are military men who travel back five years in the first volume, turning them into twins since they meet versions of themselves who are five years younger. They joke about the name Twins of an Alternate Universe, then decide to live it and name their fleet and businesses as the Tau. The series covers the next two decades after that event. Mostly written in 2012 and 2013.

After my experience with my first book I decided to write just for myself and forget about trying to sell them or become a successful author. The lifestyle required to push your own books was distasteful and I far preferred living in my own head and creating adventures.

I thought I was finished with the Tau Fleet after the four volumes of the Broken Fleet series, then Admiral Robert Kosciusko demanded his own series. He wanted to go prevent WWII and be the Big Daddy of a new Tau Fleet. I felt it was an opportunity to write the perfect book for me, a pure space opera with a big cast, big ideas, and big battles, mixing in some humor and human feelings to suit my taste. His story took eight volumes to play out and began in Tau Past - 1920. He raised a family and as his empire grew he came up against other powers in the galaxy.

Written in 2014 and 2015. I did not plan to sell it or even publish it, but it now seems selfish to let it die and wasteful as well since there is a big hole in the SF market where it would fit nicely, IMHO.

This series had other characters who demanded their own books. Lothar von Richthofen was recruited by the new Tau Fleet in 1920 and later fell out with the Admiral, requiring a four volume series to recount his adventures in exile in the 10th century.

Another character who demanded her own book was the daughter of one of his admirals, Suma Ortega, a Malay girl who became an Ensign in the Fleet just as Earth suffers a devastating attack. Her story is related in Tau Past - Winter, written in early 2017.

This attack spawned a new series as Admiral Kosciusko decides to venture further into the past and stop similar attacks in other timelines. As Tau Past concludes the Admiral takes his son Nikolai with him on this quest.

Nikolai offers his followers the opportunity to lead their own expeditions into the past. This leads to another series as one of his officers, Karl Pieszczoch, leads his own expedition to a timeline just a few years previously to restore Poland to greatness.

House of Pieszczoch begins as a prelude in 1817 while Karl is still serving Nikolai as one of his Councilors, then skips back with the travelers to the main story in 1809. Written in 2019.

In 2020 I began a new series, Otto Chmura, about a Pole who took advantage of the time traveling technology available in the Pieszczoch regime to mount his own expedition into the past. I'd been thinking for some time now about the implications and possibilities for a time traveler to do as they please in the past with their seemingly magic technology. Otto takes the advanced science that the Kosciuskos had brought to timelines in the past and uses it to entertain himself, confuse others, and grow his own family.

In the middle of the Moiraland series I was sort of blocked. I started looking around for inspiration. Some of my characters can be counted on to argue for their own adventures to continue. In this case I got to wondering what their kids might turn out like, given the world I had left their parents in. Ox and Snake are sons of the Warlord Karl Pieszczoch from House of Pieszczoch. They popped out of my head almost fully formed, then those two young men got going in a wild adventure. I believe my wife got tired of hearing how much pleasure this was to write.

One of the characters in the Otto series, a young girl named Moira Philips, grew into her own series after she gained the power to time travel from Otto. She decides to go into the past and save Ireland from English domination. Moiraland is her story, partly, but it is also the story of what happens when you have technology that seems like magic to the people of 1640 Ireland. There are a few fights in her story and many differences of opinion, but she prefers to use her technological powers to act like a goddess and subdue any resistance with her obvious divinity. She and her followers have a lot of fun.

Ox and Snake, the first volume in the Improbable Empire series, kind of butted into line while I was in the middle of writing the Moiraland series. They could not wait to get going and I could not ignore them until their book was done. I thought it was a stand alone novel and was happy with that. I finished up Moiraland and then the boys ambushed me again. Their story was far from over, they claimed. I could only agree since odd scenarios began filling my head. I hope my readers will forgive me for the non-linear order.

The Improbable Empire is about the larger environment, it introduces new characters and Ox and Snake move off the center stage as it progresses. I’m about half way through Volume Three, Improbable Mission, as I write this in March of 2024, so if you’re enjoying the story you should not have to wait too long for the next one.

My purpose as always is to entertain. I like to set the rules and let the story evolve as naturally as possible. I don’t go deep into the science unless it’s part of the story. I just posit that people who can invent time travel have most other technology problems solved. The only limits must be their own assumptions and the expectations of others. Those can be formidable limits, just as in our own timeline; if you want to keep your self respect how far can you go? My answer is pretty far. Hope you enjoy Improbable Empire.