young adult book

stbookcoverDon’t we all wish we could steal time? Have a few extra hours or go back and do something over? Or travel far beyond your own timeline to places unknown? I chose this title for the next book in my series because I loved the thought that time travel is like stealing time.

If you could steal time, what would you do? Go back in your own life and do something different? Or maybe pick a period from long ago that you wish you could visit? How about traveling to the future? So many directions to go.

After time traveling, you return to your present life. It’s the same day as when you left. No time lost. That’s how I came up with the thought that the extra time you got when you traveled was like stealing time.

One of my main characters longed to go back in time just once more. Here’s what she said when she arrived.

“Oh, I have all the memories, from now and the present.” Anna stopped twirling and hugged Kate tightly. “I don’t want to waste a minute. I feel like a thief in the night, robbing someone else’s life. I need to get started.”

Stealing Time. Wouldn’t it be great?

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When someone passes away, are they gone from your life? I read about dream visits and began to notice the difference in my dreams.

A normal dream is when the person is just IN the dream. You notice them in the background or they’re part of the crowd.  You don’t interact.

If you have a conversation with them, touch them and talk with them, you’ve had a dream visit, a rare occurrence. They are supposed to be really visiting you. Cool, huh? They are few and far between and if you ever have one, cherish it.

Since I am older, of course I have people in my life that passed on. But at a young age, I lost quite a few people who were close to me…the main one being my dad. Another blow was my best friend seven years ago. Quiet unexpected at her young age.

I had a wonderful dream a few years back…one that sent me on my research. I was on a boat or ship and people were standing at a railing looking out over the sea. I saw someone walk up to the rail. She was very beautiful.  She was wearing a sky blue top with matching pants. Her hair was almost white blonde, shoulder length. I thought I knew her. I said to myself that it could be my best friend, but somewhere in the back of my mind I had my doubts. I was afraid to walk up to her because I was scared she’d disappear before I found out. I wanted the moment to last for as long as possible. Then again, I felt the need to walk up to her and see if it was her. I approached cautiously and she turned and looked at me. It was her. I asked if I could hug her and she said, “Of course”.  I did and then the dream faded as all dreams do.

When I began to write my series, I included a character that had past away. He only exists in the past and the people who travel back in time get to see him. He doesn’t know that he was part of their lives in the present but they are happy just to see him.

I wanted the character to stand for someone we all wished we still had in our lives whether it was a favorite grandmother or someone we lost too soon.

My characters didn’t have to rely on a dream visit to see their loved one. All they had to do is read their special book, fall asleep and they’d be there with him. Back in time.

Wish it could be that easy.

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Time travel…earth-11015_640

In 1895 H.G. Wells wrote of it in The Time Machine and it still piques our interest more than one hundred years later. The Time Traveler’s Wife is a recent addition to the genre and even became a movie.

Waiting for Dusk slowly grew and changed into a time travel novel in my mind. My original idea included a dream world and reality. As I continued on, I thought, “Why not make this real?”

The first thing I discovered was that time travel needs rules. You definitely need them and have to stick by them. There can be amendments and add-ons but the mainframe has to be set in stone–how the character gets there and how they return.

I don’t want to give away too many spoilers but since my second book is named, Call of the Canyon, I can tell you that Katie goes back to the Grand Canyon in 1927.

Since Waiting for Dusk is a young adult romance novel, time travel becomes an important part of the story. It’s the only way she can get to see the boy she loves.

In the beginning, she doesn’t know she’s time traveling and it becomes one of the major plot points of the book. Katie slowly begins to realize she’s not dreaming and that this world she visits could be real.

Call of the Canyon continues the story of Katie and Drew.  It explores more in depth the affects of time travel on people’s lives. Their biggest worry is not to change history; just be observers. Somehow that doesn’t quite work out. It’s difficult to go somewhere and not interfere, participate or make suggestions. As soon as that happens, history changes.

Questions also arise about age and returning to the same time period over and over again. Will there be multiples of one person? Do people remember you if they met you before? Do you stay the same age? Since my characters return to only one period in time, these questions needed to be addressed.

With the resurgence of the “Doctor Who” BBC television show, time travel is becoming popular again. In my third and final book of the series, Stealing Time, there’s a shout out to the show. Fans, I hope, will chuckle at the subtle reference.

Many people wish they could travel through time. Some would choose the past and others the distant future. Although we realize this could never happen, we can’t help wonder if there’s a slight possibility. And that’s why we read. To escape. To explore strange new worlds. To seek out new life and new civilizations. To boldly go where no man has gone before. To go back in time. To see the future. To time travel.

 

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I recently took one of those “Which Disney Princess are you?” tests. I know…eye roll. I don’t do those often but when something Disney pops up, it’s hard to resist. I have always loved Disney since I was a little girl.

The test revealed I was part Belle and part Pocahontas. Since I love nature and books are my thing, I’m okay with that. Still, I had to chuckle at the thought. Two polar opposites.

Maybe that’s a good thing. I wouldn’t want to be a daydreaming princess.  Makes you wonder what those fairy tale princesses did in the castle all day. I like to get things done. At least I can picture Belle reading a book or shopping to buy more books to add to her collection. Pocahontas would be planting a garden, feeding the deer and running through the forest for exercise. They’d be doing something.

I couldn’t resist talking about fairy tales in my first book. Katie has just turned sixteen but the little girl inside still sees things through magical eyes. By the end, reality sets in and she realizes everything is not like the fairy tales she read long ago.

We all grow up eventually and see the world in a different way. Maybe that’s why we read…and write…and dream about being fairy tale princesses.

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book-67049_1280People are still reading. People are using the library. So many things are going out of style or out of date. Kids hardly watch television and find their shows on-line. They watch at their convenience. Newspapers are scaling back because sales are dipping. Only old people read it…or so I’ve been told. The younger generation gets everything on-line.

So I was very happy to see the library hasn’t turned into a dinosaur yet. I know they have computers and try to stay up-to-date but let’s admit it, it’s a place filled with books. Books! Not much else.

Don’t you love the feeling of stepping into a library? I always considered it a magical place. You go in with high hopes and come out with unknown treasures. If you don’t like one of the gems you picked, you can close it and move on to the next hoping to find the adventure of a lifetime. Nowhere else in the world can you go and get that same experience without spending a dime.

Let’s keep the younger generation reading…for fun. Not because they have to for a school assignment but because they want to. I know there are young readers out there because they blog about books. Young adult is a popular genre in reading.

Life’s at warp speed these days but I have faith in our younger generation. I think they’ll continue the tradition of reading books and supporting their libraries. Libraries may have to continue to change to keep up, adding more high tech advances inside their walls.

Maybe one day a person will scan the walls searching for the perfect book and just hold up their phone to download it. I know virtual libraries already exist and you don’t have to go to the actual place. I use one to check out books at times. But let’s admit it, there’s nothing like walking into the real thing, being greeted by the scent of a good book. Let’s hope it never goes the way of the dinosaur.

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Grand Canyon HikeMy books recently tagged along on a hiking adventure. They were excited to go and leave home the first time without me. It’s all they could talk about for weeks on end.

Actually they didn’t really have to do the walking; they hitchhiked along in my niece’s backpack. She was kind enough to take them when she and her father hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon. As a favor to me, she took pictures of them along the trail. I’d love to hike it myself, but I don’t think I’d ever make it back out alive or with two good knees. It’s all uphill, I’m told.

On the trip she’d have to carry a backpack filled with 25 to 35 pounds of supplies which turned out to be more like 50. Two more pounds would be added because of the books, but she took them willingly.

Being a talented, creative girl I had no doubt she had big plans for the books. I decided they would provide entertainment for the travelers since there’d be others in the group. I was sure my niece would use any and all ideas…as long as one of them wasn’t to toss the books into the canyon. It turned out the couple that joined them on the trip were seasoned hikers and mountain bikers. They were very fit and forged ahead without the group at times. I’m sure they did want to throw the books into the canyon after all.

She chose a one-day down and two-day back up package. They camped overnight at the bottom of the canyon and then again halfway up Bright Angel Trail at Indian Gardens. It was a trip of a lifetime and one I’m she she’ll never forget.

I am going to end this post with a summary of her trip in her own words:

Holy crap, y’all. We made it. We freaking made it. This was hands down the hardest thing I have EVER done, ever. I literally sobbed when I got to the top.

If this is something you want to do, go for it- but do not underestimate the canyon or overestimate your ability. 

 

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WFDbook            My debut novel, Waiting for Dusk, was recently released and I now have time to reflect on how it came to be. As I wrote, my Swedish roots seemed to take hold and scream out to be written into this book. I grew up hearing about my grandmother and grandfather coming to America, separately, and meeting here. My grandmother found a job working as a maid in a mansion where the lady of the house helped her learn English. My grandfather eventually opened a grocery store.

The kids in the family had a running joke that our mothers swore they didn’t know the language until it was Christmas or they wanted to talk about us without us knowing what they were saying. We learned a few words along the way but like all children, we didn’t want a language lesson. Now we wished we paid attention!

My grandmother was famous for baking and my two favorites were something our family called Mimi bread and Mimi biscuits–which was really cinnamon bread and buns. There was nothing like them. She’d always let us eat the dough, have sugar off a spoon and do all those things you mothers wouldn’t let you do.

My sister reminded me of a story our mother loved to tell about our grandmother. She was a shy, conservative person so she could get totally dressed underneath her nightgown, pull it off and be ready for church.

Between kyssa (kisses) and God Jul (Merry Christmas) we were always good flickas (girls) to our grandmother. The smorgasbord was a tradition passed along by the family to this day, minus some of the old staples of lutfisk and herring!

The grandkids never had the privilege of knowing our grandfather but I hope my tribute to him in my book bodes well.

In honor of both of them, I hold my cup of Swedish coffee high in the air, as a toast. Waiting for Dusk is for you both, John and Alfrida Allison.

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