Friends,

I started this blog on June 14, 2009, when I realized the market for long stories, Novelettes, and Novellas (roughly 8,000-42,000 words) had completely dried up. Sadly, whenever I sit down with an idea for a short story, my wee-little-brain quickly realizes it is too long and complex for the word short. It is not generally novel length, but even editing it down to the nubs it is still too long to be a short story, at least of marketable size.

Oh, there are some literary and university magazines that might consider something longer (if you are a well known author whose name can go on the cover), but I don’t generally write that sort of story. I’m sorry. I have no interest in beautiful sentences with lovely characters who do nothing. So I started this blog with the story Ghosts (about 27,000 words) because I figured it was better read than dead. (Ghosts. That’s a joke, folks).

By 2011, some 14 years ago for those who are slow in math, I had worked out the basic ideas for the Avalon stories and I began by posting The Pilot Episode (30,000 words) in May. It took 12 years to write 9 seasons and the prequel. The ending season, season 9, at least in beta-reading form, was posted in 2023 and will be available for purchase as soon as I get certain details straightened out.

Meanwhile, it occurred to me that 14 years is a long time. Some readers were babies when The Pilot Episode posted, not to mention seasons one (2012), two (2013), and three (2015). Plus, these early stories were posted before I started adding pictures to help suggest the characters and action as the story progressed. I think the pictures help, especially when the story is chopped into 2000 word bits and spread over several weeks.

I am beginning with the pilot episode. I hope at some point to post / blog the prequel, but not today. The first three seasons will follow, though in between there may be continuing stories of the Kairos, the Traveler in time, the Watcher over history, and now that the Heart of Time 1 The Golden Door has posted, there may also be further stories of the children of the Kairos and their search for the broken pieces of the heart and of course there will be the occasional long story. Whatever the case, let us begin with the pilot episode and see where it leads us. Enjoy, and Happy Reading.—MGK.

Avalon, The Pilot Episode

MGK Books, Second Edition

Revised and Expanded (version 2.2)

Table of Contents

Part I: Various Nefarious

Thief, Kidnapper, Father.

Meanwhile, Back on Earth

The Tower of Bricks

Humanity

Part II: Missing Person

Mission Team

Avalon

The Heart of Time

The Middle of the Night

Before the Beginning

Part III: The Beginning of History

Myths and Legends

Ararat

The Plains of Shinar

Nimrod

Babel

Kairos

Bokarus

Avalon, Moving into the Future

Avalon, The Pilot Episode, Introduction

Avalon is designed as a television show in written form, with each episode forming a chapter, and thirteen chapters making a whole season, or a book.  Like any good television show, seeing one full episode (or reading one full chapter) should give enough information to grasp who these characters are, the relationship between them, as well as understanding that this is a time travel adventure, where this small group of people are attempting to get back to the twenty-first century.

Thrown back to the beginning of history, the travelers from Avalon must get home the hard way—through the time gates that surround the many lives of the Kairos, the Traveler in time, the Watcher over history.  The time zones are dangerous.  The Kairos never lives a quiet life.  And the travelers understand that they are not the only ones lost in time.  Other people, beings, and creatures are surviving around the edges of the time zones, and some have picked up their scent.  Some are following them, and some are hunting them.  The travelers face a long, hard road to get everyone back to the twenty-first century, alive.

The pilot episode immediately follows the prequel, Invasion of Memories, which is available from your favorite on-line retailer under the author name M G Kizzia.  But the Pilot is a good place to start.

Only one warning.  I have never been good at the distinction between science fiction and fantasy.  It is like the amulet that leads the travelers from one time gate to the next.  It is a marvelous combination of sophisticated technology and magic.  Thus, you will find science fiction in these episodes, like space aliens and their technological wonders.  You may also find elves, spirits, ancient gods, mythical creatures, and magic of all sorts.  And sometimes, you will find aliens and elves in the same story.  Be prepared.

Thank you for reading.

–MGK

Cast

Robert Lockhart, a former policeman, now assistant director of the men in black, the one organization on earth in the twenty-first century that deals with strange and impossible things.  He is charged with leading this expedition through time. though he has no idea how he is going to get everyone home—in one piece.

Boston (Mary Riley), a Massachusetts redneck, rodeo rider, and technological genius who finished her PhD at age 23.  A “man in black,” she loves all the adventure, and all the spiritual creatures they encounter, which suggests she may be a bit strange.

Benjamin Lincoln, a former C. I. A. office geek, now a man in black, he determines to keep a record of their journey.  He tends to worry, and is not the bravest soul, but sometimes that is an asset.

Alexis Lincoln, an elf who became human to marry Benjamin; also went to work for the men in black”.  She retained her healing magic when she became human, but magic has its limits.  For example, it can’t make her father happy with her choices.

Roland, Alexis’ younger brother, a full blood elf and gifted hunter.  He came to keep his father Mingus under control and out of his sister’s face.  He discovers there is something in humanity worth saving and protecting.  He knows many of the creatures in the spirit world that they face, including the nasty ones inclined to rise-up out of the dark.

Mingus, father of Alexis and Roland, an elder elf.  He ran the history department in Avalon for over 300 years.  He knows the time zones and the lives of the Kairos but tends to keep his opinions to himself.  And he believes his children are being ruined by so much human interaction.

Doctor Procter, a half-human, half-elf who worked with Mingus in the Avalon history department for years.  The old man, with the long, white beard, also knows the many lives of the Kairos, but at first, he speaks in half-sentence, and soon, the others can hardly get a word out of him.  He carries the amulet, a sophisticated combination electronic GPS and magical device that shows the way from one time gate to the next.

Lieutenant Katie Harper, a marine and a PhD out of the pentagon whose specialty is ancient and medieval cultures and technologies.  She is torn between her duty to the marines, to her boss at Groom Lake, and her desire to be part of this larger universe she is discovering.

Captain Decker, a seal trained marine special operations officer who will do all he can to keep everyone alive, even if it means shooting his way back to the twenty-first century.  He is a skeptic who does not believe half of what they experience—even if he does not know what else to believe.

The Kairos.  But that is a different person in each time zone.