Book record · Former Barking Rain Press title
The Chronocar
by Steve Bellinger
A present-day Chicago student builds a time machine from a forgotten early-1900s paper by physicist Simmie Johnson, the son of a slave, and travels to 1919, arriving at the time of the city's race riot. Published by Barking Rain Press in 2015; reissued by the author in 2019.
This book was once published by Barking Rain Press, which announced its closure in 2019. This site is not that publisher and does not sell books. See “Finding the book today” below.
Premise
The Chronocar starts with Simmie Johnson, a gifted physicist and the son of a slave, who earned his doctorate at Tuskegee Institute. In the early 1900s he publishes a paper on time travel that includes plans for a machine he calls the Chronocar. No one at the time can build it, so his work is forgotten.
About a century later, Tony Carpenter, a student at Illinois Tech, comes across the paper and builds the machine. He travels to 1919 to meet Johnson, who is living in Chicago’s Black Belt, and he arrives as the city’s 1919 race riot erupts. The question the publisher’s description leaves open is whether Tony can protect the people he meets there without changing the future he came from. This summary stays within that description.
Publication history
Barking Rain Press announced the novel on 29 July 2015 as the debut of Chicago author Steve Bellinger. It came out as a 148-page trade paperback (ISBN 978-1-941295-18-2) and as an eBook in ePub, Kindle and PDF formats (ISBN 978-1-941295-19-9). Open Library dates the paperback to 7 July 2015. The publisher filed it under science fiction and time travel, African American urban fiction, and time-travel romance. The release described Barking Rain Press as a non-profit fiction publisher and an imprint of BRP Publishing Group, based in the Portland/Vancouver area.
Barking Rain Press announced its closure in 2019. In September 2019 an independently published paperback appeared, retitled The Chronocar: An Urban Adventure In Time (129 pages, ISBN 978-1-690827-91-7). Edition listings credit that version to the author.
This page is an independent record. Barking Rain Press no longer sells this or any other book.
Reading notes
These notes come from desk research using the publisher’s announcement and edition records. They are not a reading report.
The premise uses a time-travel structure that runs in two directions. One character’s idea goes unrecognised in his own time, and another character’s journey brings it back to its source. Setting the arrival during the 1919 Chicago race riot links the science-fiction device to a real historical event. The publisher’s categories point to a story that is speculative fiction, Black urban fiction and a story of personal connection all at once.
The central dilemma is the familiar time-travel question of whether helping people in the past puts the traveller’s own present at risk. Here that question is tied to friendship and to a period of racial violence, not to abstract paradoxes. The 2019 retitling as “An Urban Adventure In Time” puts the urban setting first.
Finding the book today
The Barking Rain Press edition is out of print. The author’s 2019 independent edition, The Chronocar: An Urban Adventure In Time, is the later version to look for. Library catalogues and WorldCat can find either edition by title, author or ISBN (9781941295182 for the 2015 paperback, 9781690827917 for the 2019 paperback). This page doesn’t give prices or say where the book is sold.
Finding the book today
The 2015 Barking Rain Press edition is out of print. The author reissued the novel himself in 2019 as The Chronocar: An Urban Adventure In Time (ISBN 9781690827917); library catalogues and WorldCat list both editions.
Discussion questions
- Simmie Johnson's work is forgotten because the technology to build his machine doesn't yet exist. What other reasons might history have had for overlooking a Black scientist, the son of a slave, in the early 1900s?
- Tony travels back to meet the man whose idea he has brought to life. What does it mean to meet the people whose work made yours possible?
- He arrives at the time of the 1919 riot. Why might a time-travel story choose a real and violent historical event as its destination?
- Tony has to weigh protecting new friends against the risk of changing his own future. How do time-travel stories usually handle that dilemma, and what are the stakes here?
- The publisher listed the book under both science fiction and urban fiction. What does each label lead a reader to expect?
- Johnson's paper describes a machine nobody could build in his lifetime. What does the novel's premise suggest about ideas that arrive before their time?
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Sources
- Now in Print & eBook: 'The Chronocar' by Debut Chicago Author Steve Bellinger, PR.com (Barking Rain Press release, 29 July 2015). Accessed 2026-11-12.
- The Chronocar (Open Library, ISBN 9781941295182), Open Library. Accessed 2026-11-12.
- The Chronocar: An Urban Adventure In Time (Open Library, ISBN 9781690827917), Open Library. Accessed 2026-11-12.
- The Chronocar editions (Author Wars), Author Wars. Accessed 2026-11-12.
- Steve Bellinger (BookGoodies), BookGoodies. Accessed 2026-11-12.
- When Things Go South When You're North: The End of Barking Rain Press, Judy Penz Sheluk. Accessed 2026-11-12.