J.A. Enfield

To my delight, I’ve just learned that Time Alleys Book 1, An Ambush of Years, won an IPPY Awards silver medal for Best Juvenile/Young Adult Fiction Ebook. Thanks, IPPY!

Maria at Bear Mountain Books has graciously given me a chance to discuss time travel stories—what I enjoy as a reader and a viewer, what I want to accomplish as an author. Please have a look at my guest post and the rest of Bear Mountain Books while you’re there. And please let me know if you have any thoughts on my post, or on time travel fiction more generally. Δ

I’d like to try to cash in on Mother’s Day in the U.S. by drawing an implausible connection between today’s holiday and the Time Alleys books and then implying that you’d somehow be doing mothers everywhere a service by buying the books. I mean, I probably won’t. It would be tacky. But I’d surely like to. (Sorry. Happy Mother’s Day!)

Seems like we’re entering a time in which small acts of kindness will be more important than ever. So I wanted to thank Maria at Bear Mountain Books for taking the time to give a thoughtful review of An Ambush of Years, which isn’t even the kind of book she usually reads. It’s also a good time to remind myself that it’s important to do little things like leave customer reviews of books I like…

Just got an advance copy of very nice review of Book 3 from Midwest Book Review calls Book 3 “[e]ngrossing in its twists and turns, complex in its confrontations and evolving discoveries, and thoroughly gripping in its romp through time and characters."

Kirkus Reviews just called Book 3 of Time Alleys “[a] moving finish to a compelling YA SF series”!

So I'm having a contest, and the winners get a free Time Alleys ebook. If you’ve read enough of the Time Alleys books, you’ll know that Mick and his friends sometimes need to decipher messages from the dons. This contest gives you a shot at cracking some dons' messages that appear in Time Alleys but are solved only "offstage," meaning that readers don't get to see the full solutions.

My last post discussed my efforts to create a Time Alleys world that feels vivid and real. This post digs a bit deeper into a paradox mentioned in that previous post: with historical fiction, the more thoroughly one creates the feeling of reality for the story’s world, the more one needs to revise or erase bits of actual reality ..... In Time Alleys, that was particularly true of the Institute...

Yes, this is a post about nerdy obsessions and fantasy worldbuilding. But there’s a hand-drawn map, so it’s got to be interesting. Right?

In the spirit of the season, below are some short Christmasy excerpts from the first chapter of The Fires of Birth, the final book of the Time Alleys trilogy, which is now available in ebook and paperback. Again, those excerpts are from The Fires of Birth, the final book of the Time Alleys trilogy, which is now available for purchase—just as the first two books are available for…

All three books in the Time Alleys trilogy are now available for your reading pleasure. For everybody’s reading pleasure, really. You’re living in wondrous times. Click below for links to purchase the Time Alleys books.

BUY BOOK 3 The third book of the Time Alleys trilogy, The Fires of Birth, is now available in ebook and paperback. Enjoy! Buying options via WordPress link below for those interested.

“Last week when I said that many believe that the capital of China has the most [time] alleys in the world, you asked, ‘How come it’s Beijing?’”Miss Emmet to Mick (An Ambush of Years, Chapter 14) Mick Conway, the young protagonist of the Time Alleys series, gets yanked through a “time alley” from present-day Chicago and dropped in mid-Victorian London. Over the course of the series, to protect…

I’m continuing to post updates about reviews of the Time Alleys books from time to time, mostly because of the fanatical outpouring of approval for the high quality animation above. Fine, nobody has praised the animation. But they have praised the books, including for being well-written, for creating a compelling world with complex and relatable characters, and for keeping the plot moving while…

I’m going to post new versions of my “Praise” page from time to time, as events warrant. And today they do indeed warrant. Kirkus Reviews just gave a starred review to The Flickering Bridge (Time Alleys Book 2). I’m pretty excited! REVIEW EXCERPTS: Enfield excels at fantastical, grounded worldbuilding, presenting a historically accurate London populated with rich, diverse characters…