Sandra Edwards: Incredible Dreams

Please welcome today Sandra Edwards, an award-winning author of contemporary, time travel, and romance fiction.  Today, we're talking about time travel.  Just for fun, there's a poll on the right sidebar: if you get a time travel machine under the Christmas tree, when would you go?  Sandra's character, Izzy, travels to the mid-20th Century.  Read on for Sandra's thoughts on writing and time travel.  Where would you go?

· Welcome, Sandra.  When did you start writing, and why?

I actually started writing when I was about 13 after receiving an English assignment to write a short story. When all my classmates stories were half a page (at most, with very large handwriting) and mine was in excess of five pages, I knew I was on to something.

· What is your favorite part of writing? What comes most easily to you? Characters, plot, setting, themes?

I love many aspects of the writing process, but when the seeds of a new idea spark to life inside my head is kind of special. Creating characters comes easiest for me. A solid plot to stick them in takes a bit more effort.

· What do you find most difficult?

The revision process. Titles. And oftentimes, character names.

· Where do you get your story ideas from?

Everywhere. Everything I hear and see sparks a “what if” moment for my muse. Music is very inspirational, too.

· Incredible Dreams centers around Izzy Miller, a ghost whisperer who, in the course of exorcising the spirit of a dead military man, finds a way back to his time. What gave you the idea for Incredible Dreams?

A combination of my fascination with ghost stories, time travel and the 1940s.

· Did the book start with the concept of time travel, or did that evolve as you wrote?

Yes, I knew time travel would play a factor from the get-go, as someone would need to “go back in time” to save a life.

· Could the story have been written without time travel?

No, not this story. Maybe another story, but not this one.

· What method does Izzy use to move through time?

Her dreams.

· Did you do any research on actual scientific theories, or did you read other fiction involving time travel in order to write Incredible Dreams?

I’ve read a lot of time travels, but they weren’t a factor in the creation of Incredible Dreams. This is one of those rare instances where a title came to me almost immediately and it brought the time travel method with it.

I have another project that I’m working on that I have done quite a bit of scientific research on the theories of Quantum Physics to develop the time travel method I’ll use for the series.

· Why do you think time travel is so fascinating to readers and authors alike? Is there a way that time travel serves something in story lines that couldn't be accomplished any other way? (For instance, time travel stories involve adapting to other cultures and are invariably fish out of water stories. We don't need to go to a different century to address those themes.) But are there themes or issues that can only be addressed by going to a different time?

Time travels might be a fish out of water tale (I’ve never looked at it like that, but you’re right), but for me the fascination has more to do with the fantasy element that characters who travel through time are able to do something that we (the readers) are told is impossible.

· What are some of your favorite time travel novels?

The End of Eternity by Isaac Asimov

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle

Out of Time by Monique Martin

· Tell us about some of your other novels.

Crazy For You is a rags to riches tale set against the backdrop of the 80s, movie stars and rock-n-roll. Broken Wings (book one in the Soul Searchers series) is the story of a con-artist who's been hired to locate a buried treasure and finds more than she bargains for.

· What are you currently working on?

I’m wrapping up book two in the Soul Searchers series titled Vegas, Baby. The story picks up where Broken Wings left off.

Thanks for being here today, Sandra!

More about Sandra:

Incredible Dreams is the story of a modern-day ghost whisperer who travels through time to save the life of a WWII fighter pilot and ends up jeopardizing her own existence. Izzy Miller prefers to call herself a spiritual therapist because she thinks it makes her sound more professional than plain old ghost-whisperer. She expects her latest project to be quick and easy because exorcising military personnel is pretty routine. But there's nothing easy or routine about Captain Jack Baker-he's a rather forgetful spirit and somewhat mischievous. And even though he's intrigued by the US Government's latest attempt to remove him from the only place he can ever remember being...he has no intentions of going anywhere. Plans to exorcise Jack are quickly sidelined when Izzy discovers a portal into the past inside her dreams and sets out to change his fate. Trouble is...when she gets back there, she can't remember anything but her name. She still sees ghosts, but is far less accepting of her gift. And, to make matters worse, a demonic force pretending to be the forgetful heroine's sister has her own plans-to steal Izzy's soul.

Sandra is an award-winning author of romance. She has eclectic tastes, penning tales in a variety of genres such as paranormal (mostly time travel and reincarnation), contemporary and suspense. She lives in the U.S. (west coast) with her husband, two kids, four dogs and one very temperamental feline. Sandra's books often push the envelope and step outside the boundaries of conventional romance. For more info on Sandra's books, visit her website at http://www.sandrawrites.com/

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