Once Upon Another Time

Kate MacKenzie is a young, recently widowed biology teacher in modern-day Seattle. When her grandfather suffers a heart attack, she rushes home to his bedside in Colorado. She wonders whether to stay in the Northwest or move back to the Rockies and take over her grandparents' antique business. While out snowshoeing, she builds a fire in a cave and rests while a storm rages outside. When a bear startles her, she backs away and falls down a passage into another time, where a Ute Indian named Victor befriends her. But now she's trapped in 1863. As this intriguing story unfolds, Kate struggles to survive in the dangerous world of territorial Colorado while she tries to return to the 21st century. Summoning her courage, she explores white and native cultures, develops friendships, finds romance, and maintains hope despite the uncertainty of time travel.

Diane Sawatzki earned a bachelor’s degree in biology from the University of Colorado. She’s been a park naturalist, nuclear medicine technologist, secondary science and math teacher, and freelance writer. While researching and writing video scripts for historical documentaries, she developed a keen interest in local history, and a tale of frontier Colorado began to emerge. The result was Diane’s first novel, Once Upon Another Time, a time-travel historical adventure set in the Pikes Peak region in 1863. A librarian with the Pikes Peak Library District, Diane lives along the foothills of the Palmer Divide with her husband Jim, and is currently working on a sequel.