Jack sat on his deck watching the launch preparations for the next mission to Mars. He was envious of the astronauts traveling to what he considered his Outpost. He had been a part of the first "one-way" mission to Mars and had lived on Mars for over 20 years. Eventually, technology caught up with him and he returned to Earth with the first "round-trip" crew. Now, after a few years of retirement on Earth, he was ready to return home, to Mars. When fate intervened in his favor, Jack manages to stowaway on the spaceship and began his second adventure of a lifetime. Elizabeth began writing the novel, Jack's Outpost, when she received a copy of a Houston Chronicle article entitled "Travel to Mars - on a one-way ticket?" from her Uncle Jack. Jack was 90 years old at the time and a retired employee at NASA. After completing Jack's Outpost, the two continued their snail mail correspondence and wrote the sequel, Return to Outpost.