Time Travel Touring

Hello, all! First off, a bit of housekeeping: I know I've been tagged with a few things over the last few months, and I am going to get to those soon- but I can't recall all of them. So if you know you've tagged me with something this summer, could you please remind me of what it is in the comments? Thanks. And now that that's over with, we can get to the real point of this post: time-travel.

 

I'm pretty sure everyone is at least somewhat fascinated with the idea of time travel and its potential. While it could be dangerous and also very difficult to use it as a superhero-type power (assuming you don't want to accidentally break history), as a personal ability? So cool- there are so many times and places you could go. And today, I'm talking about the top seven places I’d travel to if I had time-travel ability. (For the purposes of this post: there are no limits to said ability, except that I can’t significantly change history. And, for convenience’s sake, we’ll assume that the ability to blend in wherever I end up is included in the time-travel power. ‘Cause, you know, limits make for a good story . . . but if we’re going for if-onlys, why not pull out all the stops?)

Time Travel Touring

1. Ancient Egypt, early 15th century B.C. The exact year and century doesn't matter so much with this one- any period of ancient Egypt would be cool to visit. But if I'm going to go, I might as well do it when I could see some of the events of Exodus . . . though I might get out of there once the plagues start getting serious. There's some things I'd rather read about than experience, y'know?
   
   
   
2. Oxford, England, sometime in the 1940s (and then again in 1955). I give you all three guesses as to why, and the first two don't count- of course if I have time travel powers I'm going to go back and actually meet C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien and maybe accidentally-on-purpose eavesdrop on an Inklings meeting or two (or even on some of their classes at Oxford!). And then I'd hop forward a decade and see if I can get my hands on first-edition (or early edition, at least) copies of LOTR and The Chronicles of Narnia- and, while I'm at it, I'd see if I could get those copies autographed too. Plus, if I felt like it, I could see if I could track down Diana Wynne Jones while she was taking classes at Oxford- she wouldn't have started writing yet, but it would still be cool to meet her.
   
   
3. Medieval Europe. As with modern Europe, there's no one specific location (or event) I'd particularly want to see- I'd rather travel from place to place (and time to time) and visit whatever catches my interest. I'd visit some castles and tournaments, for certain, and see if I could sit in on some significant events (most of which I can't think of off the top of my head just now) and generally do in-person story research. I would be a little bit scared to visit this time as well, not out of fear of death or injury but because I wouldn't want to let go of my fantasies. But I'd still go in the end.
   
   
4. New Zealand, early 2000s and 2011-2012. Specifically, onto the set of the Lord of the Rings  and Hobbit films, where I'd get a behind-the-scenes, in-person look at the process and then sneak myself into a costume to play the occasional extra in whatever scenes I could manage! Admittedly, I'm slightly iffy on whether or not it would be entirely legal . . . but it would definitely be fun.
   
   
5. Judea, 1st century A.D. Because what's a time-traveling tour without visiting the time when Jesus walked the earth and taught the people face-to-face? I'm honestly not sure I'd manage to approach Him, even if I visited that time- I wouldn't know what to do or say. But it would be amazing to hear Him speak and see His miracles.
6. Jerusalem and Judea, various points in David and Solomon's reigns (between 1010 and 931 B.C.). Actually tied with the time of Jesus for the Biblical era I'd most like to see: Jerusalem at its height, during the reigns of David and Solomon! And while I was there, I'd try to be there for some of the significant events- go back a bit to see David defeat Goliath, watch as the Ark was brought home to the Tabernacle, and sit in on some of the Temple dedication ceremony. Plus, of course, I'd explore the city on a few different ordinary days.
   
   
7. The American Frontier/Old West, 1800s. Because as someone who grew up on the Little House books and similar stories, and still finds the frontier and old west era fascinating, I couldn't not stop in on that time. As with Medieval Europe, there's no particular place and time within this region and era where I'd particularly want to go; I'd just travel around and see what I could see. (That being said, I'd probably try to meet Laura Ingalls, because why not?)
   

Too bad there's only seven slots on the list- other times and places that didn't quite make it on there include Victorian-era England, ancient Greece and Rome (though the latter I could probably do while visiting Judea), various locations during the Revolutionary War and the early years of the the USA (including Philadelphia, Fort Stanwix, Yorktown, and New York), the time of Creation, and several concerts that I wish I could've gone to but missed. And, you know, if I have the ability to time travel to anywhere and anywhen, I could theoretically use it to visit my various online friends around the globe . . . and, depending on how far the ability extended, even take them on some of these adventures with me! That would be really awesome.

What about you? Where and when would you go if you had almost-unlimited time travel abilities? Please tell me in the comments!

Thanks for reading!
-Sarah (Leilani Sunblade) 

 

I'm Back (With a Bookania Interview)!

Mae govannen, mellyn nin! I'm back from "Rivendell," as you can see. I had an excellent time, though not, perhaps, in the way I expected. However, this is not the day for sharing stories (I'll do that in the August Doings post, unless I decide to make another post specifically for my two weeks in Rivendell) or fangirling over books (though I do have two, soon to become three, series, plus an I-think-standalone, to fangirl over).

Instead, I have an interview with Arthur, one of the heroes of Kendra E. Ardnek's Bookania series. This interview was meant to be scheduled to post during my hiatus. Due to circumstances beyond my control, it didn't happen . . . so, with Kendra's permission, I'm rather belatedly posting it now for you to enjoy.

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(I have no idea if I'm supposed to post the banner or not, seeing as the party ended a week ago, but I might as well err on the side of advertisement, eh?)

 Hello, Arthur! To start out, why don't you tell my readers a little about yourself? Who are you, what do you do, favorite hobbies, coffee or tea?

I'm Arthur, the newly-crowned king of Britune, I, uh, do king things. My hobbies, which I haven't had time to indulge in lately, mostly involve exploring the tunnels under my castle and collecting bugs. I'm not sure what coffee is, but tea's good. Well, some teas.

Tea is excellent, if you ask me. If my timeframe is right, you were somewhat recently crowned king of Briton. What do you think of ruling so far? What's the hardest part? The best part?

Well, we've renamed it "Britune," but you are correct. It's been interesting so far. So far it's mostly been ceremonies and such. Hardest part has been dealing with people - I've never really had to do that before. Best part is Shira. She's amazing.

I see. Who among your fellow characters are you the closest to? (Excepting Shira, obviously . . . you two are a really cute couple! And excepting Grandfather as well, for obvious reasons.) Who do you get along the least with?

I think of everyone I'm closest to my cousin Robin. I'm not really sure how it happened, though. She scared me at first, but she's really an interesting person, and she doesn't like to hide things like the others do. 

I'm not sure there's anyone I completely don't get along with, though. There are people that I avoid, but I don't not get along with them. Does that make sense? 

Perfect sense. Speaking of your fellow characters . . . what was your reaction to finding out just who Grandfather, Shira, Madeleine, and the others really are? How long did it take you to come to terms with that?

Well, it was hard to believe at first, I will admit, but I'd seen so many other strange things by that point, it was just another strange thing to get used to. Everything now made sense, and when things make sense, they're not confusing. How long did it take me? About as long as it took them to explain everything.

That's impressive. I think it would've taken me longer. If you could go back in time to change one thing during the lifetimes of yourself and your friends (yes, I'm aware that's a pretty long span), would you? If so, what would you change?

I ... I really don't know. While I don't like the fact that my great-grandfather was separately from his family and friends, I don't think I would exist if he hadn't, and I certainly wouldn't be the one married to Shira. As for my own life ... maybe I'd not have my father be captured by pirates ... though again, what would that change now? I think it's really best to leave things as they are.

I won't argue with that. Finally, if you could have any Gift or superpower you could imagine, what would you choose and why? 

Something that would help me be a good king, because I think I'm going to need all the help I can get.

I'm sure you'll make an excellent king, and I look forward to seeing more of you in later Bookania titles. 

Did you all enjoy the interview? Want to know more about Arthur?