I had the pleasure of acquiring and editing Wendy Nikel’s time travel novella, The Continuum, for World Weaver Press last year and next week I get to watch it get released into the world. I am very excited to see it get into the hands of readers so I asked Wendy if, to celebrate and sort of lead-up to that happening, we could do something on my blog.
Wendy has been using the hashtag #TimeTravelTues to pose a time travel related question to Twitter for weeks now so over the next few days I’m going to share five of those questions, Wendy’s answer to them, my answer to them… and maybe a short excerpt or two. And I’m curious to know what your answer to the questions would be as well.
Today’s question was… well, it almost broke my brain is what it did LOL
#TimeTravelTues — What historical event would be most interesting to observe? (Observations only! No changing the past!)
“There are two main historical events of the turn of the twentieth century that have fascinated me: the sinking of the Titanic and the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago. And since one involves the sinking of a ship and tragic loss of life and the other involves Houdini and the first Ferris Wheel, well… one of these obviously makes a better choice for a vacation in the past.”
“Oh dude, I don’t freaking know. A great number of the specific historical periods or events that fascinate me do so in part because of how horrific they were, how brutal. I don’t actually want to experience them. So then I thought, well, maybe I’ll just pick something that happened at a time or place that I’d like to write about, as research. Narrowing that down also proved to be a nightmare… but I’ve been working on a story for over a decade now that involves the eruption of Krakatoa in 1883. I shouldn’t want to see that up close and personal, I don’t think, but perhaps the resulting sunsets which are legendary for their vividness all over the world because of the smoke in the air? I think that might be worth a trip to the past for…”
What historical event would you chose to observe?
While you ponder that, here’s one final excerpt from The Continuum before the book comes out on Tuesday. If you enjoy it, consider pre-ordering a copy to support a small press, a skilled author and me. Her editor. 🙂
Excerpt from The Continuum:
The spinning slows. Suddenly, everything stops.
My legs flail, searching for solid ground, until I plunge abruptly into dank, smelly water. I gasp, and my mouth fills with brine. I’m being dragged in one direction, but instinct pulls me the opposite way. I kick against my heavy skirts and break the surface. For one dizzying moment I’m utterly confused. The concrete slabs of the nearby docks sharpen my fuzzy memory.
1912.
Southampton.
The Titanic.
I Extracted while on the gangplank—a gangplank that doesn’t exist in 2012. This is exactly why our travelers are encouraged to use pre-approved Extraction locations. The Wormhole dumps travelers at the same place they’ve left from, which can make for some awkward (or dangerous) entrances.
Across the way, Marie does a frantic doggie-paddle towards the steel rungs leading up to the dock. With labored strokes, I swim after her, clutching the sphere in one hand. When I reach her, she’s still clinging to the bottom rung, too exhausted to climb to safety.
“Hang on.” I slip my Wormhole Device into my handbag and pull my dripping body up to the dock. Water streams out around me, forming a dark puddle on the concrete. The evening sun, balancing on the very edge of the horizon, casts an eerie glow on the water.
“Okay. Come on up—”
My encouragement is drowned out by the sound of retching. Lovely.
Order it now:
Or ask your local library to add it to their catalogue!
