Eight-year-old Mike Rockwell's world no longer makes sense. His father is gone, his friends tease him for being fat, and the TV show he just watched comes "true." Too much TV, his mother says. Forty years later Mike, the Chief of Plastic Surgery at the LA County Burn Unit, is successful and happily married until his wife and daughter die in a car crash. Mike drops out and moves to Lake Havasu, Arizona, where he spends his time revering the past and fixing antique TV's. An odd coincidence awakens Mike's childhood memories. The same episodes of Father Knows Best that had come true forty years ago, are coming true once again. As this cryptic message becomes increasingly hard to ignore, Mike is convinced that a massive solar storm followed by a colossal coronal mass ejection of plasma will knock out all modern communication, satellites, and computer chips, hurling Earth back to the Brylcreem days of the 1950s. Old TV reruns can't predict what is about to happen as Mike comes face to face with the reality of his past and present.
About the Author: Although it is 10 p.m., and Paul Bernstein, M.D., has spent four hours in surgery, his evening is not over. Bernstein will go home, sit down at his computer, and spend the next two hours working on his latest novel. This is just a glimpse of the energy and dedication this graduate of UCSD School of Medicine pours into his twin passions: providing the best possible care for his patients as Medical Director of the largest Medical Group in San Diego, and sharing great stories through his fiction. These passions came together when Bernstein published Courage to Heal, a historical novel telling the true story of Dr. Sidney Garfield, who along with industrialist Henry Kaiser, who created the first health maintenance organization and forever changed American medicine. Bernstein's love of history fueled his desire to tell Garfield's story. In fact, Bernstein was a history major when he attended UCLA, but chose a medical career because of his passion to help others. "I was in the medical school's second graduating class, and it was an exciting time to be at UCSD," Bernstein recalls. "They had just brought in world renowned scientific and medical experts to start the school and our class was so small, we worked with them on a one-on-one basis. Bernstein began writing fiction a two decades ago. After years of taking classes, joining writers' groups and spending countless hours at his craft, Bernstein's "Courage to Heal" was published to strong reviews and several awards. His novel, Flashblind, also won awards in the New York, Southern California, San Diego, and San Francisco book festivals. ForeWord Magazine reviewed it as "a first rate medical thriller that has it all: action, intrigue, suspense, and even a bit of romance. Solid characterization, believable dialogue, and a healthy dose of realism drive this medical drama." San Diego Book Award winner, Rock Bottom, received an ABNA review: "An enviro-thriller that gets into the heart of...the best way to save the environment. Vivid scenes...unique and interesting." In addition to having served as the Chairman of the Head and Neck Division of the American Cancer Society, he has appeared regularly on ABC, NBC, CBS, and cable as a medical expert, medical historian and futurist.