by Cramer, John
Acknowledgments
THIS novel was a long time in the making. It was originally intended to be a hard science fiction novel, set in Waxahachie and about people doing high energy physics, that would take advantage of the publicity and interest surrounding the construction of the world’s largest particle accelerator, the Superconducting Super Collider, which was to go into operation in about 2000. The SSC was about 80% complete when the U. S. Congress canceled the project in 1993. I was unable to even look at the unfinished manuscript for about a year after that event. Ultimately, it was rewritten from scratch. Needless to say, the present form of this novel was shaped as much by the cancellation as by the original writing project.
This book was originally published in hardcover and trade paperback editions in June 1997 by Avon Books and as an AvoNova mass market paperback at the same time. This eBook edition has been produced in 2012 and 2013, using Adobe InDesign.
I am deeply indebted to many people for their help and advice during the approximately 5 year period that this work was in progress. I particularly want to thank my wife Pauline for all her help and encouragement.
I’d like to thank the following people (listed alphabetically) for valuable scientific and technical discussions contributing to this novel: Gordon Baker, Greg Bear, Gregory Benford, David Clements, Robert Forward, Anthony Garrett, Geoff Landis, Henry Lubatti, Vonda McIntyre, Mike Morris, Grazyna Odyniec, Ken Young, and Matt Visser.
I’d like to thank the following people (listed alphabetically) for taking the time to talk with Pauline and me during our visit to Waxahachie: Wendell Bigham, Wendell Chen, Helen Edwards, Les Faciane, Gil Gilchrise, Ronnie and Sylvia Hastings, Richard Holleyfield, Buck Jordan, Jim Owens, Stephen and Claire Ann Pierce, Ken Reed, Wil Reuter, and Barnie Taylor.
I would like to thank the following people (listed alphabetically) for reading various versions of the manuscript and making valuable suggestions: Amanda Baker, Jennifer Brehl, David Clements, Karen Cramer, Kathryn Cramer, Pauline Cramer, John Douglas, Geoff Harries, Mark Howe, Henry Lubatti, Susan Protter, Karen Savage, Janet Seyboth, and Richard Seymour. I also want to thank Vonda McIntyre and and Dave Smeds for help with the eBook edition.
John Cramer
Seattle, Washington
About the Author
JOHN CRAMER is a Professor Emeritus of Physics at the University of Washington in Seattle. Although he formally retired from his UW teaching position on January 1, 2010, he teaches an introductory physics course one quarter of each year, and he continues physics research in ultra-relativistic heavy ion physics, participating in the STAR experiment at the RHIC facility of Brookhaven National Laboratory (Long Island, NY). He is also actively pursuing a UW-based experiment in quantum optics that tests for the possibility that quantum nonlocality can be used for communication. He has received considerable media attention for the “time travel” aspects of this work. This experiment, if successful, would imply that entanglement can be used to send a superluminal or “instantaneous” signal between two distant locations (or perhaps backwards in time to the apparatus to itself).
John is an experimental physicist. He has published over 200 physics research papers in peer-reviewed physics journals. As an experimental physicist, John approaches theoretical physics from an experimentalist viewpoint, writing physics papers on Foundations of Quantum Mechanics, Bose-Einstein Interferometry, etc. He is known as the originator of the Transactional Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics, which he considers to be a superior alternative to the orthodox Copenhagen Interpretation and the so-called Many-Worlds interpretation. See http://faculty.washington.edu/jcramer/TI/tiqm_1986.pdf .
John has written “hard” science fiction and is the author of two published novels: Twistor, [William Morrow, Mar ’89; AvoNova, Nov ’91; Jun ’97] and Einstein’s Bridge [Avon Jun 97; Avon Eos May 98] John is also a science writer, and writes a bimonthly science-fact column “The Alternate View”, for Analog Science Fiction and Fact magazine. John has written over 160 columns, all of which are available on the web at http://www.npl.washington.edu/av .
John was born and grew up in Houston, Texas. He majored in physics at Rice University in Houston (Ph D.1961). John and his wife Pauline have three children and six grandchildren. Their daughter Kathryn Cramer is a well-known writer, critic, and SF and Fantasy editor and anthologist. John and Pauline have two Shetland Sheepdogs. John and his dogs compete in many AKC agility trials, and three of his dogs have achieved one or more AKC Master Agility Championship (MACH) titles.
About Twistor
another novel of hard science fiction
by John Cramer
MY OTHER hard SF novel is Twstor, and it’s also available as a eBook from Book View Café.
eBook Publication date: August 20, 2013; Price: $4.99; ISBN: 978-1-61138-299-0
A condensed-matter physics experiment in a university physics laboratory produces an unexpected breakthrough, when the apparatus begins swapping normal matter with “shadow matter”. Industrial espionage goes awry and young physicist David Harrison and two small children find themselves inside a giant tree in an alternate Earth populated by strange, wonderful, and dangerous six-legged wildlife. David and the children must find a way back, while dealing with the local fauna and peeking and poking at the Earth they left to thwart the agents who caused their problems.
John Cramer
Seattle, Washington
About Book View Café
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