Tag Archives: Time Travel Week

Time Travel Week: When would you go?

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:

World Weaver Press

Amazon

Kobo

iTunes/Apple iBooks

Barnes & Noble

Or ask your local library to add it to their catalogue!

Time Travel Week: Method of Travel

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. Please feel free to answer here or on Twitter using the hashtag 🙂

I got to take a journey down nostalgia road as I answered today’s question… and that’s a sort of time travel all its own, eh? 😉

#TimeTravelTues — What’s the best method of time travel?

“In Jack Finney’s novel, Time And Again, the main character Simon Morley uses hypnotism to travel into the past, and I’ve always thought this was a fascinating method of time travel. Unlike many methods, you don’t need a fancy machine or magic potion or high-tech wormhole — just the power of the human mind. I also love that, with this method, time travel could be a skill that anyone could learn.”

“The worst method of time travel has got to be ‘randomly’ such as in The Time Traveler’s Wife, and when I started thinking of the best ways I began with things you go into–Deloreans, TARDISes, phone booths, accidental time machines–but it very quickly became apparant that my favourite methods of time travel involve things you can hold in your hand. Though the time-turner from Harry Potter was a very close second, in the end I had to pick the omni from Voyagers! Because man, did I ever love that show when I was a kid. Here are the opening credits with the omni in case you’ve never seen it:


Order it now:

World Weaver Press

Amazon

Kobo

iTunes/Apple iBooks

Barnes & Noble

Or ask your local library to add it to their catalogue!

Time Travel Week: Modern Invention

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. Please feel free to answer here or on Twitter using the hashtag 🙂

Today’s question was really, really hard for me…

#TimeTravelTues — What modern invention would be most useful while visiting the past?

“My single-serve French press. Since the first coffee press wasn’t patented until 1929, it seems like it’d be a good idea to have one of those handy if I went adventuring into the past. Like my main character in THE CONTINUUM, Elise, I’m a big fan of my morning cup of joe and think that being able to keep up my morning ritual would make time travel a lot more enjoyable.”

“Ah, dude. I dunno. I guess it depends on how far into the past I’m traveling, and where. I mean, is there electricity? What’s the weather? I’ve often thought one of the most difficult things about living in the days before central heating one of the worst parts of living in a temperate climate would be trying to stay warm in which case a space heater might be lovely, but only if I could power it. Also, indoor plumbing… amirite?”


Excerpt from The Continuum by Wendy Nikel:

I flash my warmest smile and carefully consider my accent before speaking. “I wish to speak with Miss van Grete.”

It isn’t her real name, of course. Not that anyone in 1912 would recognize the twenty-something pop star, but one can never be too careful when touring the past.

“Who’s calling?” the maid asks.

“My name is Elise Morley. Marie and I knew one another in New York, and when I read of her engagement in the paper this morning, I simply had to stop by and congratulate her personally. Is she home?”

I pull the clipping from today’s Daily Telegraph from between the pages of my notebook. It’s proof of the client’s infractions, starting with the fact that she’s still here when she ought to have already returned from her little vacation. When I Jumped back to 1912 New York to Retrieve her, I discovered she’d relocated to London, where she’d somehow convinced an influential businessman that she was his long-lost niece. What’s worse, she also won the heart of a local gentleman, known for his scientific genius and his family’s sizeable fortune.

Her blatant disregard for the Rules is the worst I’ve ever seen.

The maid nudges the door open further, but her slight frame still blocks my view. “Very sorry, miss. She left with her fiancé yesterday. He’s arranged a trip for the two of them as a surprise engagement gift.”

A new hire, then, obviously. Any seasoned domestic servant would know better than to gossip with her employers’ callers.

“Will they return soon?”

“Afraid not. They’re bound for America, so he might ask her father for her hand in marriage face to face.”

Curious, considering her father hasn’t been born yet.

“Of course! How very proper. I do hate that I missed an opportunity to see her, though.” Again, I silently fume. “When do they depart?”

I check my PITTA-issued watch, which displays not only the current time and date, but also the time and date in my own present. April 9. I’m running out of time.

“Noon tomorrow. Out of Southampton.” She beams at me and leans in closer, as if imparting a great secret. “They will be crossing on the Titanic!”

Order it now:

World Weaver Press

Amazon

Kobo

iTunes/Apple iBooks

Barnes & Noble

Or ask your local library to add it to their catalogue!

Time Travel Week: Underrated Movies

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 the pleasure of watching 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. Please feel free to answer here or on Twitter using the hashtag 🙂

I also recently spontaneously updated the theme on my blog. Turns out that was a bad idea and now I can’t get tables and stuff to work properly. Since changing up this entire website is on the to-do list for this year, though, I’m just going to live with it for now. Which means you get a very, uh, linear style blog post which just seems wrong for something about time travel. Sorry?

#TimeTravelTues — What’s your favorite underrated time travel movie?

“I’m struggling right now. Not because I can’t think of time travel movies that I love, but because I can think of too many of them. And I don’t think many of them are underrated. Uh… okay, it’s a tough call but I’m going to pick Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure. For no real reason beyond the fact that I can. I haven’t watched it in probably twenty years but quotable bits from it are entrenched in my vernacular and I just loved its campy, goofy goodness. Be excellent to each other.”

“One highly underrated time travel film that I remember watching as a kid is The Flight of the Navigator. The story revolves around a boy who’s brought forward in time eight years by an alien being. I rewatched it recently and was surprised at how well it held up. I mean, sure, you can tell it was obviously filmed in the mid-eighties, but it’s still a fun and clever story.”


What is your favourite underrated time travel movie? We want to hear about it! Leave a comment, use the hashtag #TimeTravelTues or just hit us up on social media 🙂

Read it now:

World Weaver Press

Amazon

Kobo

iTunes/Apple iBooks

Barnes & Noble

Or ask your local library to add it to their catalogue!

Time Travel Week: Discontinued Items

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 the pleasure of watching 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. Please feel free to answer here or on Twitter using the hashtag 🙂

#TimeTravelTues — What discontinued item/product would you go back in time to enjoy?

“I was a Starbucks barista during the era of the Tazoberry blended drink (the precursor to the Tazoberry Creme Frappuchino), and I sometimes find myself craving one of those. I’d often make my own with one pump of raspberry syrup, and it was a great drink for a summer afternoon.”

“Back when the live action Flintstone’s movie came out Crush had a limited edition pop flavour called Bedrock Berry. I loved it (especially with cherry whiskey). As I remember it, it was sort of like Tahiti Treat, but not quite. Om nom nom nom!”

Excerpt from The Continuum:

THE PLACE IN TIME TRAVEL AGENCY’S

TEN ESSENTIAL RULES OF TIME TRAVEL

1. Travelers must return to their original era as scheduled.
2. Travelers are prohibited from Jumping to any time they have already experienced.
3. Travel dates must be prior to the traveler’s birth.
4. Travel within the Black Dates is prohibited.*
5. Only pre-approved objects may be taken into the past.
6. Travelers are prohibited from disclosing information about PITTA or its excursions.
7. Travelers are prohibited from disclosing any foreknowledge to people of the past.
8. Travelers must avoid all unnecessary fraternization with people of past eras.
9. Extractions must occur in secure, unobservable locations.
10. After Extraction, clients must immediately return their Wormhole Devices to PITTA headquarters.

*for complete list of Black Dates, see PITTA handbook Appendix B


Care to guess how many of these rules get broken in the book? How about guessing which ones? LOL If you’re not quite feeling adventurous enough to gamble on that, how about just sharing what one discontinued item you would travel to the past for?

Read it now:

World Weaver Press

Amazon

Kobo

iTunes/Apple iBooks

Barnes & Noble

Or ask your local library to add it to their catalogue!