Falling Forward - Paperback

by David D. Potenziani (Author)

An injured whooping crane appears out of thin air at the Sewanee Sanctuary in rural Wisconsin. The sanctuary trains whooping cranes how to migrate along the eastern part of North America. The appearance of the bird is just the first strange appearance of beings and artifacts from other places and times, however. The mystery brings together an unlikely group of scientists who seek to understand the phenomenon. They find themselves racing against an emerging deadline and fighting the resistance of government officials who fail to comprehend the stakes. Finally, they take matters into their own hands in an attempt to avert disaster.

Author Biography

David Potenziani often introduces himself as a recovering historian. He finished graduate school while still in his twenties, early enough to realize that he did not have the "research gene". His second career was programming computers and developing databases for paying (and a few non-paying) clients. He landed at the University of North Carolina to do a gig as a programmer in the School of Public Health and stayed for almost two decades. He led information technology groups and biosurveillance development efforts during that time. Now, he works in global health assisting in open source software development. His career writing fiction was sudden and surprising. While listening to a radio report on whooping crane migrations, he thought, "What if a strange bird just appeared one day?" The idea remained in his mind the next morning, and he began writing. He finished the first chapter before lunch. His editor, who conveniently lives with him, liked it. With that modest encouragement, he kept writing and writing and writing. His first novel, Falling Forward, is the result.