At some point in time, or maybe more often than you care to admit, you’ve wanted to take back something you did that turned out badly. Sure you have. You wouldn’t be right in the head if you didn't.
It could be fun, don't you think? Editing your own life.
But if you could, and you did it often, wouldn’t you just be creating a caricature of yourself? Just saying.
Like anything, it would require self-control. How many times can you rewrite that kiss trying to make it perfect? Or practice on a roomful of people until you knock ‘em dead with your charm and wit without losing a moment in time. Like Bill Murray in ‘Groundhog Day’. He could end it, but he didn’t know how. You, on the other hand…
Now, think back. Is there one pivotal moment in your life – a choice made, something said, a lapse of judgment – that forever changed your life trajectory? In the wrong way?
What if you could slip into your younger self knowing what you know now? Literally restart your life at a moment of your choosing, understanding that what happens after that is still entirely up to you. Remember though, just as you can make better choices, you’re free to make more bad ones too. Catch 22.
Time travel is ideally suited for daydreaming. Even though daydreams have no rules, time travel does. Well, we think it does, at least when you consider the technicalities of real time travel. It is possible, by the way. Time travel. Technically speaking.
But unlike time travel, daydreams have no limitations. All you have to do is wander around in your own head. I recommend daydreaming for better mental health, though I’d suggest that you refrain from doing so while driving or operating heavy machinery. Daydreaming at work? Ahh, that’s something else entirely. I do it all the time. Just don't let the boss catch you, unless you work for Google.
Which is why I love time travel stories. I know sci-fi readers want the underpinnings of a story be technically credible, I do too, but what the author does with it from there is for one good reason: to entertain you.
In Fortune from Time, part of my anthology, Under a Blue Sky Sun, the protagonist is recruited by a mad man and an android to skip through time stealing treasures that will never be missed. The trick is to avoid revealing the treachery to anyone, but they needed more muscle and Wayne happened along just at the right time. Little did he know it would become a life-long commitment, but not in a way he expected.
If by some fortunate happenstance you stumble across a box that can take you back in time, would you use it to enrich yourself or solve an old mystery? Or would you get away from it as fast as you can, assuming that the yin and yang of it cuts both ways. You could learn important lessons from the night watchman with higher aspirations in Backstepping Carl.
Perhaps you’d rather just study history for its own sake, only creating permanent interactions when there are no other choices, or when it just feels right. As did Amanda in A Matter of Time or the whimsical The Anti-gravity Train.
What if you were transported in time, but not by your choice; a one-way ticket from an alien culture, as happens in Moon Tricks. When Deek took a poke at Josh McCormack, little did he know that his escape from a serious drubbing would be the last time he saw Josh, or anyone else he ever knew.
Can you understand why time travel is so intriguing? The possibilities are endless and only limited by our imagination. Where else can you go where you can smooth the rough spots in your life and be all that you want to be. Where else can you live in a distant future on planets unknown or crew a ship traversing the galaxy at trans-warp speed?
Fiction is a daydream in printed or digital form. The author’s vision of what was and what will be. You are welcome to come aboard as often as you like. If you choose to ride my starship, I’d be most pleased.
I intend to update this blog monthly for now, but depending on how much you want to converse I can bump that up some. I also have a short story page which I’ll update as often as I can. It will include stories I’ve already written or new projects I’m into, in which case you’re invited to comment. All responses are valuable, but please be polite.
So, since this is my first blog and you’re visiting for the first time, I hope you’ll stop by now and then. Leave your email address and I’ll let you know when something interesting comes up.
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