Time Travel

I seem to be spending a lot of time thinking about time travel and often try to figure out how to use time travel in my stories. Even the story I am working on which is high fantasy was going to have some time travel in it. Those scenes never made it into the story and likely won't. I'll have to leave it for another story.

In my way of thinking with my belief in God I doubt we will ever be able to time travel. This doesn't stop me from dreaming about it and writing stories about it. If time travel were possible I am of the belief that we couldn't change the past as all we would accomplish is being a part of that past even if history hadn't recorded our part in it.

So if someone were to try to prevent the assassination of president Abraham Lincoln they would fail because they did fail as we all remember that he was assassinated. One scenario that would work is if a switch took place but in that case the real Abraham Lincoln went into hiding or was whisked away to some other time, never to return.

I do not like the multiple dimensions or alternate realities themes or that if you were the time traveler you would remember how it was but everyone else would not. It seems to me that if technology can be used to time travel that there still would only be this one earth with the people on it and that no matter how hard one tries you couldn't really change the past.

This wouldn't mean I couldn't go back in time and interact with people. I could even by stocks in a company I knew would be around in my time. I could buy coins I knew would become valuable. I'm a coin collector and would try to get some 1909 S VDB coins along with gold coins. The way I see it if I did that, it already happened, and so I didn't change anything. However, up until the time I traveled back in time I probably wouldn't know about the stocks nor where the coins I'd bought were stored. Most likely I'd just bring them back with me to the future and cash out. Of course, if everyone could do this then we'd probably be living in a much more chaotic time now than we currently have.

I started this morning by tweeting about time traveling with this tweet: If you could time travel, when and where would you go? Why? To be honest, I am trying to find ways to make friends on twitter and through this blog besides simply tweeting every follower I have and asking you want to be my friend. It's not the same as having a good conversation about things that interest us. So I posed that question.

I can answer it better here with more than 140 characters. I am sure I would travel back in time as well as go to the future. I know one of my first, if not first trip, would be to go to the future and see if there was a colony or exploration trips to the moon or Mars and see if I could get on one of them. I might have to do some traveling to the past to buy things I knew would bring me wealth in the future so that I would have the money to get on an expedition.

I would likely give some serious thought to see if there were any way to fix my failed marriage before it failed, but that would only be if I believed the past could be changed - although that might be the thing I tried to change even if I were convinced that it wasn't possible.

Also I would go back in time to meet and talk with Jesus before his crucifixion. That I'm sure would be a very interesting conversation, especially as I would expect him to know I was from the future.

I think if time travel were something that I could do on a regular basis, whenever I wanted to, I'd end up using it too much to extend my days so that I could get more done which would have the effect of shortening my life span because I'd be living for say 48 hours in a 24 hour time period because I'd be in the same 24 hour period of time more than once in different places. I don't think I'd want to meet and talk to myself and that is one area that boggles my mind as to how such an encounter would play out.

Too Many Changes?

It seems in a short span of time many changes have come to me. Some, perhaps all, are my own fault - in one way or another. I often feel I have too little control over the changes and wish I could have nice long periods of time where everything just went smoothly and I could move peacefully along with my life. It seems that won't happen in my life, who knows, it might be boring. I'd like to give it a try anyway.

It seems since school for my four children has started (first week of September) that my writing time has vanished. I find I write best in the mornings when I am refreshed from a good nights rest. I thought to be able to write in the morning after dropping off my oldest, Willem, at seminary. That didn't happen as my third oldest, Liem, doesn't want to walk to the bus stop alone. It is good that I am getting more time to talk with each of my children one on one, but has been horrible for my writing. I thought to be able to commute using slug lines (instant carpools) and the subway which would have allowed me to write on a lap top for about two to three hours per day, including an hour or so in the morning. That didn't happen because by the time the bus comes for my second oldest, Adonis, it's already 7 AM and then I have to drop off Sharleen at day care. By that time the lot I would go to is full and there are no more people waiting to pick up passengers so they can go in the high occupancy vehicle lanes.

I hope this doesn't sound like I am complaining, just explaining how things are going for me. If I'm extremely best one of you who reads this will have a suggestion that will work for me on how to make time to write. I'm currently on the second draft of my story which goes very well when I actually sit down and work on it. In the evenings when I get home there is too much noise and/or I don't feel like writing and so I just sit on the computer and play games, the latest distraction there is Minecraft. Part of my problem these days after work is that I feel too tired to work on my story. Maybe that is a psychological change that I need to change again.

As for the story itself, I've made some fundamental changes that tighten it up and make it flow better. Unfortunately, by writing a couple minor characters out of the story it leaves some trickle effect changes that I have to fix because they are no longer included in the story. Plus I managed to find a way to change a chapter I liked to make it fit better and help the story along instead of it getting cut from the story. I would have cut it if it came to that, but I think this works better. It too, is causing trickle effect changes in the beginning chapters of my story.

On a brighter note, Amanda is making good progress with the cover for my book. At first I was worried that my book would be ready for publication before the cover was ready which is why I found a cover artist earlier. Well, now I think she'll have the cover ready months before I have the novel ready, unless I can etch out of my schedule time to revise on a regular basis. Hasn't happened yet, but could happen any day now. It could be as simple as needing a goal just as I had goals until I finished the first draft. I did have other goals after that and they were working fine until my schedule got thrown out of whack by the start of school and adjustments to my commute schedule not working the way I had hoped.

For those who read this please share what has worked for you to make writing time when you have to manage a household (I'm single), children (I have custody of my four children ages 16 to 10.), full time job, and three hour commute. I seem to get many ideas of what to write and how to write it but draw a blank when figuring out when I can write.

A Jawa defends his position of saving R2D2 from rusting in the desert

I have four Jawa Star Wars action figures from the 1970's. I've played with them while playing with my children and our Lego bricks. They still have the personalities from when I played with them when I was a child. Two of them are less serious, misunderstand many things in a funny way, and sometimes a bit reckless.

So my son, Adonis, and I were discussing various things while on our way to the sitters. I was using my Jawa voice and he asked why Jawa's have such a high pitched squeeky voice. I told him because of how they spoke in the first Star Wars movie I saw (now labeled Star Wars IV) and mimicked what they said when the one Jawa told all the others to come out and pick up R2D2 after one of them zapped him. And then the conversation switched and went something like this.

Son: You stole R2D2.
Jawa: No we didn't, we saved him from rusting in the desert.
Son: That's stealing.
Jawa: If we hadn't of come along when we did he would have rusted in the desert.
Son: You still stole him.
Jawa: From who?
Son: From Anakin Skywalker.
Jawa: Anakin Skywalker wasn't their owner anymore.
Son: When Darth Vader came on board the ship he was looking for them.
Jawa: He was looking for them because he wanted the plans not because he owned them. Princess Leia was their owner.

At that point the conversation turned to Anakin being able to own them even though he was dead because he was wearing clothes from Star Wars II or III. It sounded better while we were having the mock argument as we were speaking very quickly and sometimes trying to talk over each other as the Jawas have a tendency to do that and in Adonis' opinion they talk too much.

We are fans of Star Wars and get into various interesting conversations with me pretending to be one of the Jawas. Two of my other children, Liem and Sharleen, started pretending to be Jawas a few months ago and get into it too at times speaking in high pitched voices.

Another common point of discussion is the fact that the Jawas often crash Lego vehicles such as cars, trucks, space ships, planes, helicopters. It's always an accident or because two of them are fighting over who gets to drive. So today the Jawa said he hadn't crashed anything and that he was a good driver. Adonis added the word yet to imply that he would crash at some point today.

I want a space colony on the moon!

I've been following the news reports on the radio about the space shuttle program coming to an end. Tomorrow the Atlantis returns to earth never again to leave it. And it's the last flight. I think it is sad that space exploration hasn't progressed further than it has. And to leave it like this and not have something in place already, I shake my head. I'm sure there are some who will say it's too expensive and that there are better things to spend money on. I agree there are many worthy projects to spend money on and so many that would benefit people right now.

That doesn't stop me from thinking how neat it would be to have a colony on the moon and to send people to Mars and possibly set up a colony there too. A large space station, like a little city, orbiting the earth would be nice too. And I would love to be able to visit such a space station or one of those colonies.

At the very least it would be nice of the countries of the world would cooperate, or corporations for that matter, and send people to the moon again. If for no other reason than to show everyone that the US did get there in the 1960's and put to rest all the nonsense about it being a hoax.

The US should at least replace the space shuttle with something to take astronauts to the international space station even if there is no ambition to return to the moon or go on to Mars.

Friendships

As I go about the Internet trying to become known in my way and finding people to help me with my novel I am creating friendships that I hope will last a long time. Since high school I have not forged any long lasting friendships in person except perhaps at my work. There are people I know that I trust and I am friends with but at this point I doubt I will be in contact with them once I or they move.

I am still in contact with two friends from when I was in school. One I have known since middle school, the other since elementary school. We e-mail each other every few months.

I am sure some of this is the way I am and the way life changed after high school. Other than right now there is no other place I have lived longer except where I grew up. I've lived in the same house in Virginia for just over six year. Where I grew up I lived in that house in Utah for eleven years continuously.

I have some friends I only know from conversations via the Internet. Some of these I have known for about five years now.

Too me, communicating on a regular basis opens up the possibility of creating friendships. As I communicate with people and ask them to beta read my book, edit my book, and/or design the cover for my book, I hope that some of them become my friends. Most of those who volunteered to beta read my book are my friends. I realize that me hiring editors and cover designers means I have a business relationship with them, but in my mind I consider them as friends. They have chosen to help me the best they can. The depth of the friendship is something different and since I have just met them on the Internet in the past few weeks there is not much depth there yet.

It seems to me it is easier for me to make friend via the Internet than in person. I am divorced with custody of my four children and so most evenings are spent at home out of necessity. Saturdays is when I do my grocery shopping and other errands. Sometimes I don't get a chance to take a break and relax on Saturdays until the evening. Sundays I spend at church and then home relaxing. So all that leaves little time for me to strengthen friendships with people who live near me. Oh, and I almost forgot to mention I spend three hours a day commuting to and from work.

I want to find time to go visit peoples blogs and write comments. I want to participate on kindleboards more. When I do visit blogs I often can't seem to think of anything to say and the same thing seems to happen on kindleboards. There are so many wonderful people there that know so much more than me about self publishing and I learn a lot from them and for that I am thankful.

I believe I will have many more friends as time progresses, but for me it happens very slowly.

More Idea's Already?

So, now that my first draft is done I have all kinds of ideas flowing into my head for book two in the series as well as for other books, including sci-fi. Good grief. I want to finish this book first and get it published then work on book two. I am generally good at staying focused.

So far I am almost one fourth of the way through the first round of revisions. At this rate I should be finished by the end of July. I think I'll have my story ready for beta readers about mid August. As I complete each fourth of my book I am sending it off to Arkali (Yep the one at kindleboards.com) for editing. This way I will be able to include her suggestions and corrections before giving my story to my beta readers. I am surprised at how many people I have found that are willing to beta read my story. I even have a teenager and pre teen that will be reading it (not counting my children who may decide to beta read for me). I believe I will have changes made based on beta readers by the end of September and expect to turn my story over to its final editor in early October. Cherie Reich at Hazard Editing will be doing the final edit.

Now if I can just keep those story ideas at bay until I get all that done, I will be doing good.

First Draft Completed

I finished the first draft of the first novel in my series about dragons.  I added a chapter showing one of the main characters during a time of happiness.  It was actually meant to be part of another chapter but became its own chapter.

Now I think I'll read through the entire story and then start the first round of revisions.