Coleen Kwan

I'm joining the Teaser Tuesday meme and posting an excerpt from my steampunk romance, ASHER'S DILEMMA.

In this excerpt, Asher has travelled back in time and is reunited with Minerva, who is unaware of what has happened.

I’ve always loved the concept of time travel. One of my favourite movies is Back To The Future. I loved the crazy professor , the DeLorean time machine, and the “flux capacitor” which magically made the time machine work. I also loved how neatly interwoven the past and present were, and how, when Marty McFly returns from the past, the present has been altered because of his actions.

So when I began writing Asher’s Dilemma I thought I had time travel all sorted out in my head. Turns out, once you accept that time travel is possible, the door is opened to all sorts of mental gymnastics. I spent hours pondering the various scenarios, wondering what would happen to X if Y did this to him in the past? Would X disappear? Be wiped out from history? Travel to another dimension?

As I investigated time travel, I found scads of information on the subject. I found I had to choose a model of time travel from one of three broad choices:
(1) There is only one single fixed history which is unchangeable
(2) History is flexible and subject to change
(3) There are multiple co-existing timelines.

Even after I’d chosen my model, I had to work out my storyline to fit in with it. Many roundabout arguments with myself and headaches ensued. Every now and then I had to remind myself that I was writing fiction, not a scientific thesis! It’s a strange experience striving to be logical about something that is unproven, illogical, and—most people would say— impossible.

Hopefully, readers will enjoy Asher’s Dilemma, time travel glitches not withstanding.

The Back To The Future Blog Hop was a winner all round! Time travel is such a fun concept, and I discovered a lot of wonderful new books.

Thank you to everyone who visited my blog and left a comment. Using random.org I have picked a winner:


Congratulations, Jessica. I'll be in touch with you about your prize.

Ever since he awoke one day on the floor of his workshop with a brain-splitting headache, Asher Quigley has been haunted by fleeting visions of a beautiful woman everywhere he looks—a woman he’s sure he knows, but can’t recall. In spite of this he has finished his most wondrous invention yet, one that will literally make history: a time machine. But before he can complete his exacting calculations a bizarre accident causes the device to be activated, with him inside! He awakes to find himself in his lab, eight months in the past, and suddenly he remembers her…

Asher knows that something in the near future causes Minerva Lambkin, the woman who turned down his marriage proposal, to be erased from existence. And he’s sure it has something to do with his device. Alone in a familiar world where he doesn’t belong, he’ll have to find a way to destroy the time machine to save the woman he loves from extinction. Even if that means erasing his own future.


Check out other participants in the Back to the Future Blog Hop for more chances to win great prizes.



My second steampunk romance, Asher's Dilemma, has just been released. This book is a sort-of sequel to Asher's Invention but can be read as a stand-alone book. The story involves time travel, steampunk gadgets, and a bitter sweet love triangle.

My second steampunk romance, Asher's Dilemma, goes on sale 7 January. I love the moodiness of this cover!


Ever since he awoke one day on the floor of his workshop with a brain-splitting headache, Asher Quigley has been haunted by fleeting visions of a beautiful woman everywhere he looks—a woman he's sure he knows, but can't recall. In spite of this he has finished his most wondrous invention yet, one that will literally make history: a time machine. But before he can complete his exacting calculations a bizarre accident causes the device to be activated, with him inside! He awakes to find himself in his lab, eight months in the past, and suddenly he remembers her…

Asher knows that something in the near future causes Minerva Lambkin, the woman who turned down his marriage proposal, to be erased from existence. And he's sure it has something to do with his device. Alone in a familiar world where he doesn't belong, he'll have to find a way to destroy the time machine to save the woman he loves from extinction. Even if that means erasing his own future.

33,000 words