Dr. Zo - A Quick-Reading Fun Time Travel Series for Young Readers

Dr. Zo is a brilliant and forward-thinking scientist who resides in the not-so-distant future. With a mind brimming with curiosity and a passion for unraveling the mysteries of the universe, she has dedicated her life to pushing the boundaries of scientific exploration. From an early age, Dr. Zo displayed an exceptional intellect and an insatiable thirst for knowledge. Her insatiable curiosity led her to pursue multiple disciplines, ranging from physics and mathematics to biology and cosmology. Equipped with a relentless determination to make groundbreaking discoveries, she swiftly earned a reputation as a prodigious scientific mind. Driven by an unquenchable desire to uncover the unknown, Dr. Zo has taken a daring leap by experimenting with time travel technology. Believing that the key to expanding our understanding of the universe lies in the ability to navigate time, she has constructed a remarkable bracelet time machine. With her time machine at her disposal, Dr. Zo sends her younger self on an extraordinary journey, allowing her to travel through the annals of history to retrieve important time crystals.

Please give us a short introduction to what TimeOuts Titanic is about.

The TimeOuts is a short, action-packed, easy-to-read book about three kids (Zoey, Noah, and Destiny). The kids are chosen by Zoey’s future self (Dr. Zo) to travel back in time and retrieve a time crystal.

What inspired you to start this series? Was there anything in particular that made you want to tackle this?

There are two reasons I wrote the series. The first is that I love science fiction and time travel, and I feel there is very little science fiction in children’s literature these days. The space is mostly filled with fantasy topics. The second reason I wrote the book was that so many children’s books weigh more than the kids do. I want young readers to feel like they can accomplish reading in bite-sized morsels and not have to tackle a 500-page tome.

Tell us more about dr. Zo

Dr. Zo is a pen name.

This is from the acknowledgments:

When an author publishes a book, they have so many people to thank. This is especially the case when the book is faxed to you from the future into a rusty old fax machine sitting under a pile of books and old papers in the back of my office.

I owe a debt of gratitude to my fax machine and the miraculous future technology Dr. Zo employs to communicate with it. Let me be clear: I have no more understanding of the words I just wrote than you do. It’s mind-boggling.

To Dr. Zo, I owe a debt of gratitude for trusting me with the task of bringing her works to life in this time zone. Maybe one day I’ll figure out why she picked me for such an honorable task. It might just be that I had the only working fax machine left in the Americas.

Why did you pick the Titanic as the first point in history to time-travel to in your series?

I’m not sure why we are all fascinated with the Titanic, but we are. I have a degree in history and was looking forward to placing characters in a place in time that was familiar and exciting.

What do you hope your young readers will take away from this?

It may be a little too much to hope that young readers will walk away with a deep understanding of the history of the early 20th century, but I hope they do get a feel for what it was like to be on a large steam ship. My biggest hope is to have young readers fall in love with reading.

Readers say your characters are very believable and realistic. How did you pull this off? Are they inspired by anybody you know?

I remember listening to Judy Blume talk about her writing and she said she remembered what it was like to be a kid and felt like the whole world of adults was ridiculous. I feel the same. The adults in this story are unhelpful at best and the kids have to navigate the problems they face alone.

How much research did this book require from you to make the history part of it ring true?

I did a lot of research, from watching the famous Titanic movie to reading first-hand accounts that helped create an accurate timetable. I also studied the layout of the ship and the furnishings.

This is the first book in a series. Can it be read as a standalone? How do the other books in this series tie in with this one?

This book can be read as a standalone, but there are a planned 12 books in the series. The kids visit Pompeii next and then on to the Hindenburg.

Do you have any interesting writing habits? What is an average writing day like for you?

I often dream the story and then wake up early and write. I usually try to shoot for 500-1000 words a day and then have the afternoons off to putter around the house.

What are you working on right now?

I’m writing the fourth book right now – it has to do with pirates and a tsunami.