How to plan a new sequel to the Back to the Future trilogy in 2026

This is probably the closest I’ve ever come to writing fan fiction, but here goes…

  

The film opens sort of like a documentary about the history of hover-cars. The inventor, it seems, was searching for a way to help his young brother who had been crippled in an accident. His search for a way to give him mobility was what led to hover technology, which was later applied to motor vehicles and skateboards.

The film shows the scene of the accident between a white Rolls-Royce and a black pick-up truck. Both are wrecked. An ambulance is parked nearby, with paramedics surrounding the young boy. Others are assisting the driver of the black pick-up, whom we see is none other than our Marty McFly, who had injured his hand, and is looking absolutely horrified at what has just happened.

 Suddenly the action stops, and then speeds into reverse. The boy flies back into the car, the black pick-up up-rights itself and speeds backwards, while the white Rolls-Royce glides backwards into the side road. Finally, there’s Marty McFly at the wheel of his new car, and Needles, in the other car, challenging him to a road race. Back into normal forward motion, the action proceeds, but it instead it happens just as it did at the end of Back to the Future III, in which the accident didn't happen.

Therefore, the little boy didn’t get paralysed from the waist down. 

Therefore, his older brother didn't invent hover-conversion.

Therefore, we don’t have flying cars today in 2026, and Back to the Future IV is free to follow its natural course.

A few problems still need to be solved, of course. How did Doc Brown get his hover conversion without causing a paradox in the  time-space continuum? 

Maybe he just kept going yet farther and farther into the future until he did come upon hover technology. 

And why have there been no more sequels to the Jaws film? What about holographic animated billboards? Or jackets that automatically dry themselves and tell you when they’re dry?

Maybe the invention of flying cars in that timeline was what inspired the other technology. Perhaps so much effort was made in developing talking jackets and holographic animation that drew the energy away from developing the Internet, so that in that timeline they’re stuck using fax machines instead of sending emails. 

Perhaps, with technology speeding fast-forward, sci-fi films became redundant, and people watched Jaws instead.

But I’ve solved the first problem anyway. Someone else can sort out the rest. 

I’ve got my own time-travel universe to work with.

The Back to the Future films were a landmark in the progression of time travel stories, and have their place right up there with H.G. Wells’ Time Machine, and Dr. Who. They gave us a point of reference for discussing and developing time travel ideas. I thoroughly enjoyed them myself and have watched them countless times. However, it needs to be said that Emit Brown’s theories regarding the danger of a paradox in the space-time continuum, don’t have to be the rule. In my own series of stories in Orphans of Space-Time, it is possible to go back in time, cause your own grandfather’s death at a young age, and still survive. You just become a Time Orphan. 

I’ll explain how that works in another newsletter.

  

Here it is in case you want to download it:

  

Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01M1AIZGS

Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01M1AIZGS

Amazon Canada: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B01M1AIZGS

Amazon Australia: https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B01M1AIZGS

Alice in the Rabbit Hole

One hot afternoon, Alice was resting in her back garden while her older sister read a boring novel. 

She saw a white rabbit hopping by, who took out its pocket watch, and said, ‘I’m late! I’m late, for a very important date!’

Alice’s sister only looked up briefly from her boring novel and mumbled something like, ‘I love the way that rhymes.’

‘But Alice’s curiosity was aroused. ‘Date with whom? Where?’

‘The tea party, of course, and you’d better hurry if you want to make it before the pouring of the tea!’

‘How do I get there?’

‘Follow me down this hole! Quick! And stay in the middle of the hole, don’t get too near the edges!’

Alice’s sister looked up just then. ‘Alice! Don’t even think about it! The mad hatter lives at the end of that hole!’

The rabbit replied, ‘Not so at all! He only appears mad at first, but once you catch his drift, you’ll find him the sanest hatter as ever there was! Coming Alice?’

So the rabbit jumped in, and Alice, after getting up her courage, jumped in after him.’

‘Remember, stay in the middle!’ called the rabbit from further down.

‘Okay, I’ll try.’

It was then that she noticed that around the edges, it was very rough. If she got close, her skirt would surely snag, and stop her fall to the bottom - and to the tea party. 

She also noticed that when she paid attention to any of the snags, she would begin to drift towards it in her fall.

‘Stay in the middle!’ called the rabbit again. ‘Don’t let the snags pull you towards them!’

Indeed, as she stayed in the middle, focusing on what was ahead, she thought she could actually smell the tea, the biscuits and buns.

So she focused on that, but suddenly, one rock she saw jutting out from the edge reminded her very much of Billy, at school, who was always tormenting her, and hiding her things.

Just thinking about him made her upset, and of course, she began drifting towards that rocky snag. 

‘That rock is just ideal to pull out of the side and throw it at Billy next time I see him,’ she said to herself.

‘You can’t afford revenge. Look straight down the hole and think of the tea party that awaits! Forgive Billy!’

So, she looked straight down and thought about the tea party. Then she began drifting back to the middle.

‘But Billy…’ she began to drift back.

‘Forgive him!’

So she said, ‘I forgive you, Billy.’ She looked down towards the tea party. ‘I wish you could come too, if you could only taste what I smell, you’d like it so much you’d stop being such a bully!’

‘That’s right,’ called the rabbit.

They kept falling. Alice was enjoying the fall, like it was a ride through the air, like she was flying. The ever-growing scent of the tea and buns only heightened the feeling.

Then, further down, she spotted another rocky protrusion. There seemed to be people on it – or it made her think of people, she couldn’t tell – who wanted to make a change in the way things were. They were talking about something going on in society, with the leadership, with politics, and saying, ‘This must stop! We must make it stop! YOU can make it stop!’

‘Oh, yes!,’ said Alice, ‘I must do my part to make this stop, and to make society better. I must join my voice with theirs!’

Of course, she began drifting towards that edge.

‘Alice!’ called the rabbit. ‘The tea party that awaits is so much better than any political party!’

‘Oh yes,’ said Alice, ‘I must focus on the middle, and on the tea party.’

Indeed, the scent from below made Alice think this tea must be blended from the very best of all the exotic teas in the world. If everyone would only sip this tea, it would solve the worlds problems!’

‘Tea party?’ said someone. ‘We have a tea party.’

‘No,’ called the rabbit. ‘Our tea is too fine to be thrown into the Boston Harbour.’

So, Alice continued focusing on the aroma of the tea and the lovely pastries that was now quite distinct.

She wondered if she was properly dressed for the tea party.

She must have been thinking out loud, as, from the next rock, someone answered her, ‘Of course not! That dress is so yesterday! And that phone there, isn’t that model from five years ago? I bet it was your mother’s! (it was) C’mon! Wake up and smell the coffee!’

‘You’re dressed just fine!’ called the rabbit. ‘Don’t fall for consumerism! Smell the tea instead!’ 

Alice knew he was right. Just the scent of the tea and wonderful delicacies was enough to give her a sense of contentment such that the consumerist dream could never bring.

So, finally, they reached the tea party. It was far grander than what she could catch the scent of on the way down.

And there, at the head of the table, stood the most handsome, elegant gentleman Alice had ever set eyes on, looking at her through eyes that radiated warmth and care. Here was the father Alice never had, the object of many of her dreams and longings. Here, stood the Prince – who made hats for a living.

She realised that she, herself, was now dressed in the most magnificent wedding gown she had ever seen.

‘Mr. Hatter,’ said the white rabbit, ‘May I present to you, your bride.’

Another review of The Planet

jeyranmain.com/2026/05/13/the-planet-by-robby-charters-book-review-2345/

 

Robby Charters’ The Planet: Blessed Are the Poor, for Theirs Is the Lift to Space as the Planet Dies is a bold, unsettling, and deeply human science-fiction novel that flips the familiar survival narrative on its head. When a comet is on a direct course to annihilate all life, Captain Steinberg is tasked with evacuating the wealthy elite. A communications failure changes everything. With no time to correct course, Steinberg lands in the first city he sees and fills his ship with society’s forgotten: the poor, the marginalized, the unwanted.

What follows is not a clean escape into space, but a tense moral experiment carried out under extreme pressure. The ship becomes a microcosm of humanity itself — housing orphaned street kids, an autistic savant, a disgraced scientist, a defiant priest, victims and abusers, idealists and extremists. Violence, power struggles, and grief do not disappear once Earth is gone; they follow the survivors into the stars.

Charters excels at writing flawed, believable characters whose motivations clash in uncomfortable ways. Even side characters feel fully realized, which makes every loss and betrayal land with emotional weight. The children in particular stand out — forming fragile alliances and protecting one another in ways that feel painfully real. Their resilience provides some of the novel’s most powerful moments.

The story grows even more complex upon arrival at the destination planet, where a small population lives sustainably, inspired by indigenous philosophies of balance and sufficiency. The sudden arrival of another thousand people — many shaped by consumerism and exploitation — forces an inevitable reckoning. Will humanity repeat its old mistakes, or can it learn to live differently when given a second chance?

Dark, provocative, and surprisingly tender, The Planet is a character-driven sci-fi novel that asks difficult questions about class, morality, survival, and who truly deserves a future. Fans of Adrian Tchaikovsky and Frank Herbert will find much to admire here.

Written by Jeyran Main

 

A free read - first chapter revision

To all who have already read THE RAT QUEEN: Some parts of the first chapter have been re-written with more accurate technical details, and also to make it more compatible with the rest of the series. Just so you won't miss out for not having the very latest edition, the first chapter has been posted here. You're welcome to re-read it. 

Or, if you haven't read it yet, and you're considering buying it, you also can have a free read.

Just click on the cover image... 

Introducing Elijah Dove

It's finally out. 

From now through Sunday, you can download this for free in kindle format.

Anyway, there's the cover: 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And here are the download links:

UK  US  Canada  Australia  India

Fun with Dick and Jane

Dick and Jane meets Star Wars




“Look, look,” said Dick. “See the moon. We have two moons!”

“No, Dick, no,” said Jane. “That is no moon. That is the Death Star.”

“What a pretty Death Star that is,” said Sally.

“The Death Star is pretty, but it is not good. The Death Star is bad!”

“Look at the flash from the Death Star,” said Dick.

“What a pretty flash that is,” said Sally.

“That is a beam,” said Jane. “That is a beam from the Death Star. That beam will kill us.”

Dick didn’t want to die.

Jane didn’t want to die.

Sally didn’t want to die.

Puff didn’t want to die.

Spot didn’t want to die.

“Will we die?” asked Dick to Jane.

Jane didn’t answer because she was dead.

Dick didn’t listen to Jane’s answer because he was dead.

Father also didn’t want to die.

Father ran to the time machine.

Run Father run!

Father went to yesterday.

Father got a big giant mirror. He took the mirror to the sky.

When the Death Star came, there was a mirror in the sky.

Then the beam came from the Death Star. The beam hit the mirror.

The beam went back to the Death star.

No more Death Star.

“Hurray!” said Dick.

“Hurray!” said Jane.

“Bow-wow!” said Spot.

“Mew mew” said Puff.

“What a hero father is,” said Sally.

“Yes, a hero your father is,” said Yoda.




Tomorrow’s reading lesson: Dick and Jane’s new friend, Gollem.

New word to learn: presssiousssss