Chapter 1 (partial)

Now that I had Spain under my control, I had to appoint leaders. I selected five of my military officers to be Counts. They were men I trusted and who had performed well in the field.

These five could have been cut out with a cookie cutter. All little over six-foot tall, blond hair, blue eyed. Hitler would have loved them. Instead, they were mine.

I divided Spain into five counties. The new counts were to select barons from their forces that they felt could do the job. Each baron was to have a janissary group assigned to them to maintain law and order in their new baronies.

The newly formed janissary groups were divided up so that there were no relatives in the same group and as few as men from the same geographic area as possible. This was to make revolts less likely in each barony.

What I didn't realize at the time was that I was creating dissent in Cornwall. There were barons and counts there who thought that their younger sons or brothers would be receiving honors. Some had gone so far as to take out loans in anticipation of reaping the riches of Spain.

Spain wasn't that rich at the moment. They had been fighting internal battles and then had to stand against the Moorish invasion. The country was in disarray to say the least. Now that the major powers had been defeated the local warlords begin to come to their senses and ask to become part of my Spain. Those that didn't became subjects anyway, just a lot more painfully.

Cast in Time Book 6 Available in January 2025!

An Engineer finds himself in an Alternate reality, Cornwall, in the year 715 A.D. He awakens in the body of a young Baron. James Fletcher continues on his world conquest. He has realized that nothing short of world domination will allow him to live in peace.

No matter how he expands the new neighbors will covet his goods and lands. Now it is Italy that is being conquered while James is doing a grand tour of all his territories. With heavier than aircraft it is smooth sailing, well almost.

Earl E. (Ed) Nelson

I have always wanted to be an author. I had my first rejection slip in about 1965. Wish I had saved it. For many years the only writing I did was technical as pesky things like three children, nine grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren came along.

My technical writing was in the field of quality in several different journals. I worked in the field of quality for over fifty years, starting as a line inspector and ending up as a Vice-President of Quality and elected a Fellow of the American Society for Quality.

Then a wonderful thing happened. I lost my job and was out of work for almost eight months. To keep from going crazy I wrote. I posted my stories on an online site, and lo and behold people read them and said nice things. Fast forward about eight years and I am retired and writing for the fun of it.

A lot of what is in my stories is based on my life experiences, gasp! Give or take a lie or two that is. The one fortunate thing in my career is that I got to travel worldwide and have been to most of the locations I write about.

In my younger days, I tried hot air ballooning, sky diving, white water rafting, spelunking, and target shooting. I have collected stamps, drove in road rallies, lowly rated by the US Chess federation. I built a Kentucky long rifle and a dueling pistol. I am a licensed HAM radio operator. My hobby is having hobbies.

My true passion is reading. Trapped in a hotel room I would read the telephone book. The TV would not be turned on. I have averaged 200 books a year for the last sixty years. I knew those long flights were good for something.

BTW I was born in the middle of an air raid in England during World War II, the house next door was destroyed and our windows were blown out. That is probably the most interesting thing I have been involved with. Mum never forgave me. Happily married for 56 years I hope my wife doesn’t catch on to what a goof I am.