A Volcanic Time Traveler's Valentine's Day

A story from across time, space and volcanic islands in the Tyrrhenian Sea with love from your author and illustrator perched on the edge of infinity.

If you're in the Time Traveler's Adventure Club, today is the day you finally get to open your packages! People from all over the world backed my Kickstarter project, Time in a Bottle Mystery Jars. The Time Traveler's Adventure Club was one of the reward levels. Backers at that level are opening their packages today at 3 pm EST. I don't want to ruin the surprises they'll find inside, but I'd like to share a glimpse with all of you. The following is an illustrated version that includes part of the story they will be receiving along with their Mystery Jars and special 3D printed artifacts from deep within the sea.

To make Time in a Bottle Mystery Jars, I collected photographic slides from people all over the world. To make Time Traveler's Adventure Club Mystery Jars, I captured a moment in time from my own life and wrote a story about it for backers.

On top of super volcano Mount Epomeo on my home island of Ischia. I didn't know until this trip that my family has been in the business of art, science and commerce since the 15th century. My great-grandparents are from volcanic islands in the Tyrrhenian Sea, and last September I made a quest to get their birth certificates.

But let's start at the beginning.

The trip began in Venice.

There are no words to describe the pink light of Venice, the way it seems like you're sitting on the edge of the world and everything beyond the perimeter melts away or is made entirely of dreams.

We wandered between the pavilions at the Venice Biennale, not just seeing but also hearing, smelling and feeling the art created by people from all around the world.

Produce from a boat bobbing in the lagoon.

We stopped in Rome.

James in the golden Roman twilight before the molten orange witching hour.

In Florence we visited Galileo's telescopes and an exhibit about the advent of navigation. We spent hours talking about art, science, business and the future of the world.

Florence is filled with the history of science.

And lots of people. And gelato. And a double rainbow that spread across the sky from the Galileo Museum to the bridge of gold. It was the first time in my life that I ever saw a rainbow that literally ended at the gold.

Not just a single pot of gold, either. An entire commercial district, shown above, with tiny shops full of gems and chains.

The time came for us to continue on to Ischia, where my great-grandfather was born.

In 1948, Truman Capote stayed in Ischia. In the essay he wrote, he speaks of a woman named Giaconda. I went to the hotel and discovered Giocanda! I interviewed her about what it was like to have Truman Capote at the hotel. It was the most fun she ever had in all the years she's been running the place, she said. Her daughter had a copy of his essay handy and read it to us in italian, translating it into English as she went.

To get to my great-grandmother's island, we commissioned a ride from Mimi, shown here. On the three hour trip out, the sea was so choppy that James and I both started to hallucinate sea creatures.

We finally arrived at the Roman port in Ventotene.

Everything about the island, where the sirens once perched on black rocks amid the emerald water, charmed us instantly.

The entire world seemed to take place from somewhere else.

Visible from the shore is the now abandoned Santo Stefano prison island on a neighboring hunk of volcanic rock. The prison was built to emulate Dante's circles of hell. I thought about my great-grandparents, who had the courage to leave their islands to create a better life for their family in NYC, where I was born and raised.

After I had both birth certificates safely in my possession, we climbed the volcano, Mount Epomeo, back on Ischia. The volcano is a reminder that everything in life is cyclical--love, nature and even business. We had dinner that night between Venus and the shadow of the volcano's silhouette, talking about the infinite cosmos and our place in it.

This Valentine is dedicated to James Jorasch, who took all of the pictures I used to illustrate this story, to all the members of the Time Traveler's Adventure Club who supported my art, and all of the readers on LinkedIn from around the world who make it worthwhile to capture my thoughts and post them here.

Thank you all for your interest and enthusiasm.

Valentine's Day is a great opportunity to say I love you for it.