Time as an Author

School of Deaths is now available in paperback. It's exciting to see my first novel in print at last. It's also strange to feel disconnected in a way from this incarnation of the work.

While I love the book, and am still immensely proud of it, I wrote School of Deaths four years ago. I'm very excited about Daughter of Deaths, the novel I'm working on now. I wake up thinking about it, and can't wait for others to read it. Yet, it's far away from publication. I feel like each novel I write has definitely improved from the novels before. It's funny to hand someone a paperback and know that they're about to start a journey that I'm at a completely different point on.  Daughter of Deaths won't be available for years. School of Deaths was written years ago, and there's a novel in between the two. While I imagine all series authors have a similar disconnect with time, it's interesting to experience it firsthand.

Ultimately, time is relevant for an author and a reader. The first time you read a story, it's brand new to you. My students will perform Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream next spring, and the story will be brand new for the audiences, while it was written and performed centuries ago. How would Shakespeare imagine his stories performed today? How will my novels be interpreted in centuries to come?    

Are Writers Timelords?

Last June, I wrote a blog piece comparing writers to Voldemort, the notorious villain of the Harry Potter novels. That blog can be found HERE.

Today, I look at an equally possible, and similarly nerdy connection: are writers actually timelords?

Timelords are a group of aliens featured in the BBC sci-fi show Doctor Who. The protagonist of the long-lived series is a timelord himself, constantly helping humans. Timelords come from a planet called Gallifrey, and are an ancient and very tech-savvy race. They have only one real "superpower," which is the ability to regenerate, instantly healing themselves and turning into a new person (allowing for multiple actors to play a single role). 

Aside from their ability to regenerate, and their two hearts, timelords are basically just like people. Their name derives from their ability to go anywhere in the universe and to any time, using a device called a TARDIS (Time And Relative Dimension In Space), which is a fancy box that can bring you anywhere. As I said, very tech-savvy. 

So how do writers fit in?

Well, let's start with the timelords' ability to heal and regenerate. Every writer has faced rejection. A traditionally published author has about as much chance of success as you have of becoming a world-famous Hollywood actor, maybe even less. Yes, there are new options now, like self-publishing. But for those who go the traditional route, as I did, rejection comes swiftly. Each agent or publisher who turns you down, sometimes after only reading a two paragraph blurb, hurts your pride. An author who can't heal himself, allowing a new face to come forward, won't succeed.

And let's not forget the writer's TARDIS. Timelords can go anywhere or to any time. They've got a box that brings them places. Well writers have a box as well. In fact, I'm typing on my box right now. This magic box allows me to explore any place in space or time, or even places that only previously existed in my imagination. In fact, writers are perhaps more powerful than timelords- since a writer is limited only by the margins of his or her imagination. 

Writers show us the world, sometimes to give us an escape, sometimes to help change things. Our motivations are identical to the Doctor's motives. What writer doesn't want to grab their readers in the night, and whisk them away on an amazing adventure? Something funny, but dark; incredible, yet honest.  

And let's not forget that writers have a lot of heart. Maybe even two hearts...

Each story I write is a new adventure, a new journey. Each time I face disappointment, I throw on a new face, and heal myself. And the power of my imagination, keeps plugging away at this magic little box, a box that can take me anywhere...