As Dreams Are Made On

pinterest

we are such stuff as dreams are made on,

and our little life is rounded with a sleep.

- shakespeare, the tempest

I considered doing a post on the Assassin next, since people wanted it so badly (and since I actually know what I want to say on that subject).  But that wouldn't be orderly and anyhow, I like to keep everyone guessing, so I decided instead to address the question of Tempus Regina's setting.  It came up a couple times, and it seems there is as much confusion about that as there was - and probably still is - about the whole time travel business.  Hopefully I can give a clearer answer this time.

...does Tempus Regina take place in the real world, or an imaginary one? You've referenced Victorian England, but on the other hand I've gotten the sense that it's fantasy.

[elisabeth grace foley] 

&
 
do any of your characters originally come from outside of our own planet earth? 
[joy]

Elisabeth, you've hit the proverbial hammer on the head.  Tempus Regina is technically "historical fantasy," which means the answer is yes and yes.  It deals with real time periods (Victorian England, for example) and even some real people, but  it also incorporates time travel and dragons and, yes, also some "magic," so it obviously can't be marketed as straight historical fiction.  It's funky.

The best example of the genre that occurs to me off the top of my head is Anne McCaffrey's Black Horses for the King, a mostly historical novel set during the time after the abandonment of Britain by Rome, when the man who became the legendary King Arthur probably lived.  But we don't actually know that he lived at all, and since the story deals with legends, it's "historical fantasy."  And Tempus Regina is even more fantasy-driven than that.

In answer to Joy, the story takes place entirely in the real world; there is no inter-dimensional travel, not even of the vague That Hideous Strength brand.  Everyone is from Here, though whether everyone is human is debatable.  This also somewhat answers the question about religion in the story, but I'm planning on giving that its own post, since it demands fuller explanation.

...so is Regina in any way related to the Arthurian legends? ...is there any connection between Morgaine and Morgan le Fay?  I hope not.  I love Morgaine.

[anne-girl]

Tempus Regina is, like Black Horses for the King, a novel of legends - a novel of the stuff that "dreams are made on."  When she travels back in time - when she finds herself burdened with the role of time queen - Regina is tangled up in the threads of the two most fantastic and enduring legends of Western culture. Which legends those are is, for the moment, open to speculation...though I will say that those of you putting money on Arthurian legend are more likely to see a return on the investment.

As for Morgaine, she is, well, Morgaine.  And not as likeable as her Beautiful People appearance has (it seems) led many to believe.  In fact she's quite annoying and I'd like to hit her with a frying pan.  Interpret that as you will.

On the Fifth Element

pinterest: tempus regina

Goodness, but you readers have a heap of questions!  I've enjoyed watching them flood in, and I'm trying to keep track of them in an orderly way so none fall through the cracks.  If I miss any, be sure to give me a sharp jab with the elbow.  (I'm particularly gratified to see the Assassin getting so much attention - though I still refuse a straight answer to any questions about his identity, his love-interest or -interests, who he works for, and probably his goal.  Which I think may have weeded out half the questions.  He will, however, be getting a post of his own soon with a few half-answers for you, so don't despair!)

I'm not taking the questions in chronological order, but I am trying to give them some sort of order and reply to the similar ones at once.  The most foundational seemed to be the question of time-travel, so I thought I would address those first and see if I could clear the matter up a little.

how does Regina travel back in time?

[kelsey]

My word.  I've never actually said.  Huh!  Anyhow, the time-traveling device in Tempus Regina is an object that looks like a pocket watch and which is "set" much as one might set a typical clock; apart from the perfection of the workmanship, there is at first glance nothing very remarkable about it.  Its history is explored in a little more detail within the scope of the story, of course.

I don't remember why I chose a pocket watch, except perhaps that I've always been fascinated with them.  There is something enchanting, something mysterious and magical, about the working of all those tiny gears for keeping track of time - even more mysterious and magical after reading a book like Longitude or watching, as I just did recently, as vivid a movie as Hugo.  It's astounding to see the lengths to which men have gone in order to chart the skies and the passing of time, amazing to just glance at their ingenuity in capturing something so vast.  And then to shrink all of that intricacy down to something the size of a pocket watch: that confounds me. 

re: the time-travel, do you adhere to any strict rules and/or address the cause-effect paradoxes involved, or in true Whovian fashion do you just use the concept and ignore the paradoxes until one of them happens to make a convenient plot hook?

[chewie]

You would ask this.  You would.

Short answer: Mostly I ignore.  It's so much easier.

Long answer: I can honestly say that since I don't watch Doctor Who, any similarities are both unintentional and very unfortunate.  At least there aren't any blue boxes involved.  I should probably take out the sonic screwdriver during the editing process, though...

There is a helpful graphic (which looks as though it might have been created by the XKCD guy, though I don't think it was) on Pinterest that outlines three theories of time travel.  Theory Number One is the Fixed Timeline, wherein the characters may travel back in time, but the future they leave remains unchanged and cannot be changed by their actions in the "past."  Their actions are already a part of history and cannot be finally altered.  Theory Number Two is the Dynamic Timeline, where the actions of characters who have gone back in time have definite effects on the future they've left.  Kill your grandmother, you die too.  That sort of jazz.  Theory Number Three is Multiverse and deals with parallel/alternate timelines, and I don't mess with that, so we'll leave it alone.

Tempus Regina is primarily a fixed timeline story, where actions are integrated, as it were, into history.  However, there is also tension between that and the possibility of a dynamic timeline, since certain characters cannot know how their actions will affect the future (or if the actions will have an effect at all).  Can a character die before being born?  If someone kills her own father, will she be destroying herself?  What's happening to Kay while Regina is gallivanting in the past?

Based on our own linear thinking, I don't believe time travel would be possible because of all the paradoxes it creates.  You're faced with one at every turn.  Time "travel" would have to be, not actual physical travel, but a mental ability to "see" all times without actually affecting them.  Even if you try to get around the linear idea (there are two competing theories presented in Tempus Regina, neither of which I actually adopt, though I would enjoy seeing readers duke it out over them), you would still only end up with some sort of cosmic pretzel as proposed in the extremely highbrow "Kate & Leopold." 

...so yes, for the most part I ignore.