When Australian Rick James, an engineer and Plant Operations Manager for a major American Motor Company located in Dayton, Ohio, decides to take a vacation back in his native Australia, he little realizes just how much his life is about to change. His Uncle Colin is asking for help with a new product discovery he has made that has the potential to revolutionize the automobile industry. Asking him to travel up to a friend's cattle property where he is using a couple of barns as a development center, he initially only needs Rick's help to engineer some modifications to a prototype automobile engine. This seemingly simple task leads to a much greater involvement as he ends up being a major contributor to his Uncles unique project. Rick is thrust into Colin's project as the discovery takes life and requires him to support his family with expertise which he has to learn from experience. He also struggles to balance loyalty to the family that raised him against that for his employer back in the United States. Then the new product development project is complicated by competitive pressure from an unfriendly corporation. He also is side tracked by his growing feelings for Colin's beautiful ward Jennifer. He enlists the help of some capable friends and looks for involvement from a powerful partner corporation, to successfully begin the journey of validating Colin's product discovery. The joint effort to bring the product to reality is worth completing well. There holds a promise of bringing considerable benefit to the driving public and the reduction of the world's dependence upon oil. Rick also has to make the right decisions and avoid the problems of his own inexperience while he tries to protect Colin's discovery. Not all the help sought and offered is welcome however, and significant problems arise as the family moves forward. The sheer potential of the new product's impact on the automobile industry will significantly impact major corporations and invoke powerful reactions in multiple places, not in the least with the product discovery itself. It is Rick's enthusiasm and Colin's guile that will be needed to smooth the path forward and obtain the success they are looking to achieve.
About the Author: Steve Taylor-Jones Growing up in the era of 'fix it yourself' motorcycle and car ownership of the 1950 - 1970's, in both England and Australia, Steve's knowledge of automobile engines is better than most, but not necessarily expert, as he would be the first to tell you. His interest in business and the detail of how things actually get done on the manufacturing floor has been a lifelong passion. He has been a process worker, a product designer, a business manager, a software consultant, an educator, and a manufacturing consultant; and as he says - all at differing levels of incompetence. Always looking for a story to tell, he enjoys his retirement activities including writing both technical and fictional stories. Powerful Reactions is his first novel and he is busy working on the sequel. He travels each year back to Australia where he spent nearly twenty years of his life, never tiring of the unique lifestyle and fabulous people who live there, not on the least including many friends, children and grandchildren in the cities of Sydney and Brisbane. He lives with his best friend and wife Rebecca in Denver, Colorado.