Time to Lie, on #LisaBurtonRadio

Hey there all you time bandits and meddlers of history. Welcome all of you young people trying to find a place in the modern world. You’ve landed on Lisa Burton Radio, the only show that brings you characters from the books you love.

I’m your host, Lisa the robot girl, and my special guest today is Landon Bridges. He’s a college student who thinks he may have stumbled upon something that will unlock the secret of time travel. “Welcome to the show, Landon.”

“Hello Lisa! Thanks for having me.”

“Okay Landon, Let’s get into the science of this thing. How is time travel actually going to work?”

“Here’s the thing Lisa, hold on to your hat, everyone can time travel. My theory, and I believe this to be accurate, is that because the brain is both a biochemical and electrical machine, all neural activity results in electrical signals that are of a specific frequency.

“Because of that, all of us have our own frequency, or rather, our brains have their own unique, genetic electrical signature. You know how you have to tune a radio to a particular frequency to hear what a specific station is broadcasting? Our brain is permanently tuned to our own frequency. You know how they say TV signals broadcast through the air don’t dissipate, but continue to travel into outer space forever? My theory is that the chemical-electrical signature, or signal, that your brain creates at a specific moment in time doesn’t dissipate or cease to exist. I think it continues to revolve around its locus of origin, your brain. If you imagine a past situation vividly enough, your brain is likely to have the same chemical and electrical signals that it did the first time, and voila! You find yourself tuned to that moment in your past. Unfortunately, because your future doesn’t exist yet, there’s no way to travel to the future.”

“It sounds really interesting. What will you do first? That seems to be a popular thought.”

“Time travel is tricky. If you change something in the past, you might return to a future you don’t want. It’s that whole butterfly effect thing. Eventually I’d love to become good enough to prevent some terrible disasters and things like that.”

“What do you hope to encounter there?”

“Before I tackle the big stuff, I’d like to iron out a few wrinkles in my own life. I lost my Dad when I was young and well, that really screwed me up. I’m a guy with Daddy issues. It’s a miracle I didn’t grow up to become a stripper. I’d really like to go back and save his life.”

“Have you put any thought into whether this is a one way trip or not? Maybe your technology will be completely out of sink in another time.”

“That’s the beauty of my time travel method! No technology needed. Your brain is the time machine! As long as you don’t get amnesia while you’re in the past. The only technology problem is that when you get to the past your cell phone doesn’t work because the sim card in it didn’t exist. There’s no calling for help in the past!”

“Hold that thought. We have a caller today. Hello, caller. You’re on the air with Lisa and Landon.”

“Yeah, I’m Future Landon too, only I’m stuck in my past and his present. I need Landon not to screw everything up so I can get back to a future that I recognize.”

“Wow, sounds like you don’t age well. How about it Landon? Will you accept advice from your future self?”

“Listen Lisa, this guy is half my problem. Every time I go back into my, our, past to fix something, he tries to stop me. I don’t know what he did growing up, but I’m trying to change things so I don’t turn into the huge asshole that he… I seem to be. Oops. Sorry about the language. If that’s a problem, I can go back in time and not say that.”

“No, that’s OK Landon. That’s what we want. The raw, honest truth. But, ignoring advice from your future self sounds risky to me. Your older self has more experience and if he says something is a bad thing, wouldn’t it be in your best interest to listen?”

“You know Lisa, just because he’s from my future doesn’t mean he’s right about everything. Our ancestors believed the world was flat and were afraid of electricity. All progress comes with an element of risk. He’s a miserable old bastard that doesn’t want me to have any fun. Just because he screwed up his life, it doesn’t mean that I’m going to make the same mistakes.”

“Listen you little punk! I’m from your future. You want to know why I’m miserable? It’s because of all the stupid shit I did when I was your age. I’m trying to stop you, to help me! Do you want to lose Siobhan the way I did?”

“Whoa! Hold on! Who’s Siobhan? Landon, do you have a love interest you’re not telling us about?”

“Yes, Siobhan is my girlfriend and he seems to be doing his best to screw that up too.”

“Listen fellas, you both may have all the time in the world, but my radio show doesn’t time travel, yet. Whatever you decide, Landon, I wish you all the best. Our audience can find out about Landon’s choices in the book Time To Lie, by Phil Taylor. I’ll post all the pertinents on the website after the show.

“Don’t forget to use those sharing buttons today. I’m sure Phil and Landon would do it for you, when your character appears on the next Lisa Burton Radio.”

***

Remember that time you dated that complete nutcase and said to yourself, I wish Future Me would have come back and warned me about this. Remember when you and your drunk friends said, If it’s such a bad idea, someone would come back from the future and stop us, right before it blew up in your face and got you in trouble? It would be great to have someone from the future to guide your life, wouldn’t it?

Landon Bridges’ life hasn’t always been perfect, but now he’s in college and determined to make a fresh start. Things are going great, until He shows up. 

A mysterious stranger intervenes to help Landon out of a terrible, possibly life changing situation, but what does he want? Why does he keep showing up? Who is he? Landon’s esteemed professor suddenly seems like a flake. Landon’s briefly idyllic college world seems to be spinning out of control. Landon, in trying to regain his sanity and his grip on reality, discovers that he has talents and allies that he never imagined. But is what they’re telling him the truth? 

Phil Taylor is a father of three, husband to one, and life-long smart ass to many. He has a Master’s degree in Psychology and spent many years working in the field of mental health before realizing that stringing words together might be a little bit more fun. His other two fiction novels, White Picket Prisons and The Sneaker Tree are dedicated to the life-long friends that shaped his life. His humor blog, The Phil Factor, at thirteen years, is one of the longest running blogs in the world.

The truth is just the lie we’ve chosen to believe, and yours may be different than mine.

Purchase Link: Available in Kindle, paperback and Audible: https://www.amazon.com/Time-Landon-Bridges-Story-Book-ebook/dp/B075BDTBZB/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

 

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