Just a year ago, Luke Bradley was a relatively unknown historian living in his hometown of Blissville, Arkansas, and struggling to pay his bills. Now he is married to the woman of his dreams — brilliant, gorgeous, sexy and sassy — and they have enough money to go anywhere and do anything they want, not to mention the time-travel devices she invented that can instantly transport them to any time in the past.

Yet major problems cast giant shadows over their seemingly perfect lives. Several people want those time-travel devices, some badly enough to kill for them. Can Luke protect his wife and himself from unknown assassins? Will he find healing for his damaged heart in modern medicine or perhaps in the rituals of an ancient culture? And is it just his heart that needs healing? What will be the cost?

A Time to Learn is the second volume in the Luke's Quest series. The setting alternates among present-day rural Arkansas, a 2,500-year-old mound village on the Mississippi River and 20th Century Paris. This story explores love, romance, adventure, history and shamanism. Once again, Luke finds his life taking unexpected twists and turns, but this time he is not alone.

Karen and Al Collier are a unique writing team. Al experiences severe epileptic seizures and ‘blackouts.’ During these blackouts he sees visions or mental movies, which he later describes to Karen, who then helps him convert these stories into novels. Al’s seizures cause dyslexia and other reading problems as well as writing difficulties. Karen translates and weaves his ramblings into a magical tale.

Prior to the onset of the seizures, Al worked in both print and broadcast journalism as well as being a paranormal investigator.

Karen and Al share a love of history, especially of the ancient Americans, and genealogy. For more information about them visit the web sites: http://www.lukesquest.com or  http://www.alcollier.com.

“I am still waiting for an explanation, dear cousin,” I told him. “Why did you choose to spend time with the man who had just tried to kill my bride and me on our wedding day rather than with family?”

Willie and Bill leaned in to stare at Neville.

“It seems my actions have been misunderstood. If I have offended you and the locals, I do offer my sincere apologies,” he said.

I poured the water into his cup and then mine after having added milk and sugar to mine. He ignored his.

“Apology not accepted,” Willie glared at Neville. I remained silent, not breaking eye contact with Neville.

Bill reached out to pat Willie’s arm. “I think this is a family matter, Willie,” Bill told him.

“In this case, Willie speaks for me, and, I’d bet, the entire town,” I said.

My comments were greeted by some murmurs of agreement and vigorous nods. Neville started to sweat. “Perhaps, we should discuss this in private or at least at a later time, say dinner this evening?”

Before I could answer, Travis rushed into the diner and shouted, “Luke, I’m so sorry! I didn’t know.”

“It’s all right, Travis,” I said, thinking he was referring to Neville.

“No, Luke,” Travis shouted. He looked about to cry. “Lisa’s been kidnapped!”

“What?” I asked, stunned.

“Two men took her at gunpoint just a few minutes ago. They stopped at my house and gave Karen this note,” he explained, handing it to me.

Take no action until you hear from us. You have what we want, and we have what you want. It will take a simple trade to save Lisa’s life.

Josh Brown