Since I was a little girl I’ve been fascinated by the idea
of time travel. The idea that I could somehow go back into the past, and see
for myself the biggest events in history and know for sure exactly how they
played out intrigued and thrilled me.
But when it came to creating the transatlantic time
travelling adventure that is ‘The Summer of Impossible Things’ it wasn’t the
those big historical moments that concerned me, but instead the small and
intimate choices ordinary people make, that have the power to shape lives for
generations to come. Because its true that the actions of our parents and
grandparents shape out lives and our children’s lives, and so on, in ways that
we can hardly imagine,
So, how to tackle time travel? That was the question.
I knew I didn’t want a time machine, as beguiling as the
idea is, (and who doesn’t love a TARDIS) it didn’t feel right for what I wanted
to achieve, so instead of looking outward at technology that doesn’t exist, I
decided to look inwards, and wonder what it would be like if the potential for
travelling through time and alternate dimensions exists within.
While the claim that we only use 10% of our brains is
actually an urban myth (humans use pretty much all of their brains) there is
still much to discovered in our understanding of neuroscience. And when I see
gaps in understanding in science I like to fill those gaps with stories. What
if, I asked myself, all of us have an ability to move within space and time hidden
deep inside out brains, it just that it hasn’t evolved yet? And what if my
heroine, Luna, is the first to uncover this hidden potential.
Then I set out to find out more about what we do know about
space and time, reading all the books I could on how science understands the concept
of Time, and the Universe and I was pretty pleased to discover that we know for
certain so very little of our observable universe, and that even our
understanding of time breaks down around certain anomalies like black holes and
dark matter. More gaps for me to fill with stories, I thought cheerfully.
Out of these childhood passions, ideas and research I
conjured up ‘The Summer of Impossible Things.’ It is a time travel story, and I
hope you will find that as beguiling and exciting as I did while I was writing
it. But it’s also, at its heart, a love story, not just between a woman or a
man (although there is a swooney romance in this book) but between a woman and
her mother and her sister.
Because there is one universal force that science so far isn’t
studying; Love.
And I believe that Love has the power to change to the
world, if we are brave enough to let it.
So tell me, how brave are you?
Well Rowan I'm not very brave, but I did love the book, as you can tell from my review last week. Thank you so much for sharing your interest in time travel with us.
How far would you go to save the person you love?
Luna is about to do everything she can to save her mother's life.
Even if it means sacrificing her own.
Please follow along with the rest of the blog tour, to hear more about Impossible Things!
