D.L. Orton

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About D.L. Orton
THE AWARD-WINNING AUTHOR D. L. ORTON lives in the Rocky Mountains where she and her husband are raising three boys, a golden retriever, two Siberian cats, and an extremely long-lived Triops.
In her spare time, she's building a time machine so that someone can go back and do the laundry.
Ms. Orton is a graduate of Stanford University's Writers Workshop and has received numerous literary awards including two Indie Book Awards, the BookLife Prize in Fiction, a USA Best Book Award, and an International Book Award. She was recently shortlisted for the Hoffer Book Award Grand Prize and was selected by Publishers Weekly as one of "The Best of the Best" Indie authors.
Visit her website at DLOrton.com to find out more!
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Author Updates
Titles By D.L. Orton
If she ever wants to see him again, she'll have to take the risk.
"Engaging, Funny, Romantic & Harrowing"
~Publishers Weekly Starred Review
After reconnecting with the one-that-got-away—and then losing him in a pandemic—middle-aged Iz struggles to survive in a remote mountain cabin. As loneliness and despair set in, she finds hope in caring for abandoned pets—until a man appears and offers her a one-way trip to the past.
With humanity teetering on the edge, she gives up everything in an attempt to alter the dystopian present—and see her missing lover once more.
As time runs out, she's whisked into a coffin-like machine set to plunge deep into her past. (A neural net insists she is humankind's best hope. No one knows why.) They neglect to mention the time machine has been activated once before—with deadly results.
Miraculously, she awakens on a pristine beach—buck naked and suffering radiation-like side-effects—but 20 years younger! With only hours to live, she must persuade a young man to modify their future relationship and thereby set off a chain of events that will prevent the pandemic.
Our young hero falls hard for her (what guy could resist a smart, middle-aged woman in a newly acquired vixen's body?) until she blurts out that she's from the future and here to "fix" him.
Turns out, it's not him that needs fixing; it's her—and it's far too late for that.
Or is it?
Content Warning
This book contains material that may be disturbing to some and, in movie form, would be rated NC-17 for strong language, nudity, sexual situations, and violence. It includes attempted sexual assault, abduction, intense physical danger, miscarriage, confinement, a pandemic, religious fanaticism (Christian), government incompetence bordering on malice, mistreated animals, gun violence, near drowning, and (human) death.
Genre Warning
Crossing in Time is a smart, character-driven love story told from 3 points of view (in 1st-person, present tense): our plucky heroine's, her steadfast lover's, and a gay British physicist's. At times, the gentle reader must keep track of 3 intertwining storylines. If you prefer your fiction to be light, this is probably not the book for you. (But the audiobook might be. The dual narrators are effing awesome.)
Although the book contains a love story, it does not have a Happily Ever After ending and is not a genre romance: There's no alpha male or damsel in distress. If you're inclined to assume smart, head-strong women are annoying—or thoughtful, empathetic men are weak—this is likely not the book for you.
Even though the story contains a time machine, no laws of physics are violated. But if you're looking for hard sci-fi that focuses on gadgets and world-building (or you dislike the word breast, for instance), skip this one.
This is NOT a YA novel. If you can't imagine being in love with someone you haven't seen in 20 years, pick another book.
Also, there's profanity, blaspheme, alcohol consumption, frosted donuts, and a bowling alley (but no smoking—except for the time machine.
If someone took everything you live for, how far would you go to get it back?
When a faulty time machine deposits Diego at the top of a towering evergreen, he knows he's in the wrong place—but has no idea he's also in the wrong time. Naked and shivering in the primeval forest, he attempts to climb down—but slips, whacks his head on a branch, and tumbles into oblivion.
He awakens inside a darkened room, crippled and disheartened, and must come to grips with the realization that he is marooned in a bleak alternate future. In this universe, what remains of the human race is trapped inside a handful of aging biodomes. With his mission failed, his world destroyed, and the one woman he loves dead, he can find no reason to go on living.
Except Lani, the emotionally scarred doctor who must put Diego's broken body back together, refuses to let him die, and as Diego heals, their relationship becomes... complicated. He struggles to let go of the past but is unable to get Isabel out of his head—or his heart. Just when it seems he may be able to find some measure of happiness in a world teetering on the edge of extinction...
Another note arrives from his past: Isabel is alive—but not for long. Find the time machine, and go home before it's too late...
~ Hoffer Book Award Grand Prize shortlist
~ Colorado Book Award finalist
From award-winning author D. L. ORTON comes book three in the Between Two Evils series...
Shannon fights to stay alive inside a rogue biodome and discovers something totally unexpected... Peter. Lani is forced into the role of the reluctant heroine but rediscovers her street-kid mojo and sets out to find everything she's lost. Diego receives another dirty sock (and a note) from the poorly aimed fireball express: "The window between universes is closing." If Diego has any hope of getting back to Iz, he must get to the Magic Kingdom and power up the time machine before it's too late.
What could possibly go wrong?
Including stories from some of the most talented Speculative Fiction and Magical Realism authors around, UnCommon Origins will revisit the oldest questions in the universe:
Where did we come from?
and
What comes next?
Featuring:
The Hanging Gardens of Brooklyn by Rhoads Brazos
Aplanetary by Holly Heisey, Author
Glass Heart by Sacha Hope
Cultural Gleanings by Deanne Charlton
Fringling by J.D. Harpley - Astral Scribe
Poseidon's Tears by E.L. Johnson
The Curl of Emma Jean by Michele Tracy Berger
The Price by Samuel Peralta
Growing Simon by Jo West
The Terrible Discovery of Professor Charles Cooper by Jonathan Cromack
The Last Star by D.L. Orton
My Darlings by P.K. Tyler
The Tombstone Man and the Coming of the Tigress by Nillu Nasser Stelter
In The Periphery by Erica Ruhe
Exhale by Laxmi Hariharan
Ifrit by Brent Meske
Swim With The Beavers by Robert Allen Lupton
The Least Child by Daniel Arthur Smith
Consciousness by Zig Zag Claybourne
Her by Rebecca Poole
The Apple by Shebat Legion
Becoming Mage by Melanie Lamaga
FROM AWARD-WINNING AUTHOR D. L. ORTON comes a funny, provocative, and sensual collection of short stories. Laugh, cry, and linger over these brief but intense glimpses into the lives of two hesitant young lovers, a billion-year-old AI and his female companion, a human-dolphin friendship, a lonely divorcée who believes she's too old to fall in love, and much more...
The Last Star
Two beings watch the last star in our universe wink out and discover the answer to how it all ends. And, perhaps, how it all begins.
Just Friends
Friends since they carried Scooby Doo lunch boxes in second grade, two college students take the awkward, irreversible, and perilous step away from just friends.
Phoenix
If you think your roommate is bad, then try living with a practical-joke-playing, drop-dead-gorgeous, celebrity femme fatale. No one is safe from her wiles—least of all you.
My Kingdom for a Double Espresso
Is sex just a physical thing for guys? You know you're in trouble when your girlfriend tosses that one out after you make the mistake of falling asleep on her...
Down in Flames
Personal tragedy played against a background of public disaster leaves one woman stuck in a very personal hell—and hoping for a second chance.
Willing
Right now, at this very instant, you are older than you have ever been—and younger than you will ever be again. There will never be a better time to find love.
The Idiot's Guide to Writing Workshops
(Or How to Review a Manuscript & Not Risk Getting Run Over in the Hotel Parking Lot)
The Devil and a Hard Place
After all the time spent apart—all the doubts, all the denial, all the lonely nights—a love that refuses to die draws them back together like moths to a flame. (Warning! This story contains adult content!)