132 ratings | 40 reviews | avg rating:4.73

more photos (2)

Charles Justus Garard’s Followers (12)

Charles’s Bookshelves

to-read (4)
currently-reading (1)
read (136)
have-read-this-book-several-times-a (4)
i-have-taught-this-norton-critical (1)
this-is-the-greatest-i-really-ident (1)

Charles’s Friends (75)

Samuel Brower

175 books | 371 friends

Tamara

1,108 books | 5,056 friends

Roger Ley

109 books | 263 friends

Mike Russell

1,209 books | 1,647 friends

Mike

1,432 books | 261 friends

Weldon Burge

1,682 books | 2,816 friends

Wesley Thomas

1,562 books | 447 friends

Rob Bignell

3,170 books | 5,012 friends

More friends…

Charles Justus Garard

Goodreads Author

Born

in Washington DC, The United States

Website

http://www.the-alternate-world-of-cjg.com

Twitter

chukk0913

Genre

Science Fiction, Paranormal, Horror

Influences

Author Page: http://www.amazon.com/Charles-Justus-...

...more

Member Since

August 2013

URL

https://www.goodreads.com/goodreadscomcharles_garard

edit data

"I grew up on the front row of my father's small-town movie theatres, watching horror and science-fiction films."

So says Charles Justus Garard.

"My favorites were such films as IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE and THE CREATURE OF THE BLACK LAGOON (both in 3-D). The only time-travel sci-fi time travel I remember seeing in Dad's theatres was WORLD WITHOUT END and BEYOND THE TIME BARRIER. So why did I become interested in time travel? Maybe it was because of my obsession with my past and the wish that I could change it in order to create more pleasant memories. That's one for a shrink to deal with, you might be thinking.

"However, I also sketched comic books that resembled some of the horror and sci-fi films I'd seen and even, with friends, cranked out

"I grew up on the front row of my father's small-town movie theatres, watching horror and science-fiction films."

So says Charles Justus Garard.

"My favorites were such films as IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE and THE CREATURE OF THE BLACK LAGOON (both in 3-D). The only time-travel sci-fi time travel I remember seeing in Dad's theatres was WORLD WITHOUT END and BEYOND THE TIME BARRIER. So why did I become interested in time travel? Maybe it was because of my obsession with my past and the wish that I could change it in order to create more pleasant memories. That's one for a shrink to deal with, you might be thinking.

"However, I also sketched comic books that resembled some of the horror and sci-fi films I'd seen and even, with friends, cranked out 8mm horror movies. The paranormal trilogy novels currently on Amazon-Kindle, however, represent an attempt to grow up and show not just simple heroes like scientists and paranormal investigators doing battle with simple monsters but complex people with deep problems other than the creatures they must defeat if they are to survive. I wanted to give readers a sense of place, a sense of everyday characters with troubling personal issues and doomed relationships as well as memories and dreams that could be used against them.

"With OF TIME AND THE DREAMER, I wanted to give readers something to ponder: Would they, if they could visit their own pasts, make changes? What if that past happened to be in an alternate dimension where any changes made would not change the present or future of this world -- this dimension?"
______________________________________

Dr. Garard is a former literature, film, and writing professor who taught for many years in southern Illinois and Atlanta, GA, before going to teach for seven years in China. His PhD in Modern British literature with minors in American literature and film studies was earned at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale while his MA and BA in English were earned from Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville and McKendree College, Lebanon IL, respectively.
____________________________________

"I've been fortunate in that I have been able to teach a lot of different courses at different colleges and universities, including British and World literature (my favorite because I get to teach the classics like Homer), mythology, all levels of writing (including graduate levels in China), Shakespeare, History of the English Language, and film studies (which usually means film history)."

He grew up, as did his brothers and sisters, in the environment of the small-town movie theatre business because his father owned three theatres in three small western Illinois communities. "Two of these towns figure as backgrounds for a couple of my novels. I never lost my love for movies, but, for some reason, seeing all those on the big screen influenced me to want to create my own stories, and I have spent my life struggling with fiction -- revising, rewriting, submitting, etc. You know the drill. It is not an easy road to travel, but somehow I could not get off that road."

His mother thought he liked horror movies too much. "I even tried to promote some of those movies myself with gimmicks and artwork in our small theatres. I had a good imagination, but it unfortunately interfered with my school work, causing me to look out the classroom window instead of paying attention to the classroom lectures and textbooks. I did terribly at math, but English seemed to come the easiest to me. No surprise. I barely graduated from high school, but now I have three degrees in English. Go figure. Mom said I was a late bloomer." Ask Sam, his younger brother, what it was like with an older brother who was supposed to babysit him but frightened him by donning a head-covering horror mask and playing gothic music on the family's Hammond organ. "My brother has never forgotten that. He and my sister still bring it up occasionally. You think maybe he i ...more

Learn more
Ask the Author

To ask Charles Justus Garard questions, please sign up.

Combine Editions
Charles Justus Garard’s books

Average rating: 4.0 · 8 ratings · 2 reviews · 13 distinct works

	Dark Neighborhoods (Dark Journeys Trilogy, #1) 4.67 avg rating — 3 ratings — published 2013 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	From Here To Atlantis 3.50 avg rating — 2 ratings — published 2015 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Dark Corridors (Dark Journeys Trilogy, #2) really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 1 rating — published 2013 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Dark Journeys (Dark Journeys Trilogy, #3) really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 1 rating — published 2014 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Of Time And The Dreamer liked it 3.00 avg rating — 1 rating — published 2014 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Circles and Realms 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Forbidden Voices 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Foreigners and Emperors 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	DARK TWILIGHT (The Dark Journeys Series) 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Love, Sex, and Pandemics: An International SMS Novel 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Charles Justus Garard…

49 posts
Charles Justus Garard's Blog

The Alex Barteau Trilogy: FORBIDDEN VOICES . . . FOREIGNERS AND EMPERORS . . . SMS: THE SCAMMERS What would you do if you were a foreigner teaching in China? “Don

[image error]

View more on Charles Justus Garard's website »

Like • 0 comments • flag

Published on October 04, 2018 17:09

View all 49 posts »

Series by Charles Justus Garard

Dark Journeys Trilogy (3 books)
by

Charles Justus Garard (Goodreads Author)

4.40 avg rating — 5 ratings

Charles is Currently Reading

Charles Garard is currently reading

The 12th Planet (Earth Chronicles, #1)

by Zecharia Sitchin

bookshelves: currently-reading

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Jan 26, 2017 09:49AM

rss
Charles’s Recent Updates

Charles Garard rated a book really liked it Planes without Passengers: the Faked Hijackings of 9/11 by Dean T. Hartwell	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
This is a wafer-thin book printed by Amazon, and involves little more than an essay with examples and alternate interpretations of what happened regarding the alleged plane hijackings prior to the actual collision with the World Trade Center building ...more
Sep 23, 2024 10:30AM · like · see review

More of Charles's books…

Charles’s Friend Comments

Comments (showing 1-1) post a comment »

date

newest »

message 1: by Charles (last edited Apr 22, 2014 05:16PM)

Apr 22, 2014 05:15PM

I would like to recommend the ebook NO BULLSH**T GUIDE TO SELF-PUBLISHING by Jennifer Ciotta. She has suffered through the difficulties of self-publishing her ebooks (and print books)and shares with us her errors and warnings in straight-forward no-holds-barred prose. She is not only brutally honest but humorous.

For those of us who have stuck our foot in the door of traditional publishing and been turned down because a certain agent did not find our effort to his or her taste, this is a viable alternative. As they said in the 1960s, she "tells it like it is."

At the rock bottom price as an ebook, what can you lose? At the end of her book, which I read on my Kindle, she supplies her contact email address on Goodreads. There she proves to be as warm and helpful as her photo in POETS AND WRITERS is lovely.

She reminds me of two other Jennifers: Jennifer Connelly and Jennifer Lawrence (whom I had a crush on until she bleached her hair blonde). This Jennifer is not an actress, however, but an intelligent and gutsy author. Her book is worth your time. As we know, as authors we have such precious little of it.

reply | flag