Talk with a Time Travel Trio: Part Two
Welcome to Part 2 of our Talk with a Time Travel Trio, featuring Angela Rose, Dennis Higgins, and Laura Vosika.
Welcome blog hoppers! If you'd like to go to the Blog Hop and Giveaway, scroll down to the post below or make a direct jump. In keeping with the Scottish theme of my blog, I'm giving away a beautiful hardcover copy of Jim Hewitson's Scottish Miscellany, a collection of fascinating information about all things Scottish. At the bottom of Talking with a Time Travel Trio Part One, you'll find the list of links to other blogs. All you need to do to enter is leave a comment letting me know how to reach you in case you win. If you like, tell us what era you'd visit, if you could time travel. And--if you're so inclined--why!
Who is your favorite time travel author?
DENNIS: See above, Richard Matheson and Jack Finney.
LAURA: I also really liked Jack Finney's time travel novels. I think maybe my all time favorite is Michael Creighton's Timeline. I particularly like that he gives a very realistic portrayal of the time. We see the researchers enamored of the romance of the time, and then we see the brutality of the time close up. We also see that question answered, both in the character who has become trapped in the past and the character who chooses to stay: what do they become, living in a very different set of circumstances?
DENNIS: I am also a Michael Creighton fan. Timeline was brilliant.
ANGELA: The aforementioned…..Melissa Mayhue and Veronica Wolff.
What kind of research did you do on time travel?
DENNIS: All of the time travel in my stories comes from my imagination. What I did have to research was the subject matter of my books. In other words, I had to research the various time periods. In order to write Parallel Roads (Lost on Route 66), I actually travelled a good portion of the decommissioned, yet historic route. That book was set in the present as well as 1946, so I had to research life in that one particular year for events, attitudes and speech patterns. Some of this just comes to me and I’m not sure why. I’m not a huge believer in the supernatural, but often I feel like I channel the time periods, somehow.
LAURA: I've done a bit of research both on time travel in literature--the history of authors using time travel, and the methods they use--and a bit of research on scientific looks into the possibilities. There are scientists who take it quite seriously and have some ideas about how it could be done. I also did a fair amount of reading on a phenomena known as time slips, in which--at least if the stories aren't hoaxes--there are those who believe they've accidentally slipped into the past.
ANGELA: I prefer it when people travel into the past rather than to the future. Although, I do enjoy a bit of both. I always do an extensive search of the time period my hero or heroine is traveling too. I love using stories that are based on true facts as inspiration.
DENNIS: I have read about people experiencing time slips with keen interest. I have a friend who swears he experienced it. I also prefer the past, Angela. There just seems to be more romance and intrigue there.
LAURA: Angela, I also prefer the past for my 'time travel experiences.' I think it's because I'm curious about actual events, and how they affected people.
What is the mode of travel in your novels?
DENNIS: My answer is a little bit unique on this one. There are multiple components to being able to travel in time in my novels. First, a person has to be born with the God-given ability, but then they must know the secret, which is contained in the simple element of water. The water that is all around us and within us every day, is the same water that has existed in every time period since the Earth was formed. It is the conduit to every possible time period. So it is the same water as my character’s Kevin and Cheryl encounter down Route 66 in 1946, or Katya and Cyrus encounter during the great Chicago Fire of 1871 and even the Kennedy assassination of 1963. One could say that when Shawn Kleiner found himself in the world of medieval Scotland from your Blue Bells Chronicles, Laura, the same water was present as in the modern Lock Ness. That same water existed in the time period in which James came to Robin Summers, via Zahir the Genie in All Bottled Up in your story, Angela. I am not saying this was Shaun and James’s mode of transportation, just that the same water was in all these time periods. But it is water, along with concentration that my character’s use as their main mode of travel.
LAURA: Fascinating theory! To an extent, I used something similar--the idea that Shawn and Niall switch when they are both in a castle that existed both then and now. Of course, that's not the only time they switch. They also cross between time when a re-enactment of a historic battle (Bannockburn) occurs at the same date and place as the historic battle. The real answer, though, seems to be that the time switches only happen when Shawn and Niall are in those locations together, on the same dates. So as not to give away spoilers, I'll only say that the answer, for them, seems to involve a particular item and an ancient prophecy. But I leave it to the reader to decide, is it time travel that they can control, or is it the work of more powerful forces?
ANGELA: So far it’s been a genie’s bottle, ancient books or journals.
DENNIS: I love all of these modes of travel. Truly fascinating.
Do you think in future works (no pun intended) you might use a different method?
DENNIS: Sure, it’s possible. I don’t like to limit myself.
ANGELA: Absolutely! That’s what I love about time travel, uncovering different portals to the past!
LAURA: I'd have to agree. Anything is possible. When I finish The Blue Bells Chronicles (which I expect to conclude with the fifth book), I'll be getting back to another Work In Progress, tentatively titled The Castle of Dromore. Like The Blue Bells Chronicles, it's a story of modern and medieval Scotland, of past and present touching one another. But it's more via haunting and visions, than actual time travel.
DENNIS: The Castle of Dromore sounds fascinating.
LAURA: Thanks, Dennis! I'm looking forward to getting back to it!
Coming on January 20: Part Three of Four
Introducing the Authors:
Angela Rose
Ms. Rose loves reading, writing, history, romance and all things Scottish! She is a member of Romance Writers of America, as well as its local chapter the Heart of Carolina and the Triangle Writer’s Group, both located in Raleigh, NC. All Bottled Up is her first time travel/romance. Look for her next book, a full-length Time Travel/Romance, Once Upon A Highlander coming soon.
Dennis Higgins
Laura Vosika
Dennis Higgins is world traveler and distant relative of Davy Crockett. A native of Chicago, Illinois, he has always possessed a romance with things of the past that are gone but not forgotten. He now lives in the suburbs with his lovely wife, two dogs and three birds.
Among his influences are: Richard Matheson, Jack Finney, Dean Koontz, Joan Wester Anderson, Peter S. Beagle and Audrey Neffenegger . The Time Pilgrims series is exciting and treasured and loved by young adult, new adult as well as adults.
Laura Vosika
Laura Vosika grew up in the military, visiting salt mines, castles in Europe, and the historic sites of America’s East Coast. In addition to writing, she has worked as a freelance musician on flute, harp, and trombone, and teaches private music lessons. She is the mother of nine children.
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