Another Bonus Feature post is coming your way! I'm sharing some random trivia about Time Captives. Some of it you may already know, especially if you know me, but some of it should be new.
- When I started writing, Jill was the sole point of view character. That changed when I was about halfway through the trilogy. She only has a few point of view scenes now.
- One of the reasons I decided to write Time Captives rather than any of the other possibilities in my book of plots was because I wanted to write a true fantasy story. I also didn't feel like doing the necessary research for the others.
- Jonathan Hubbard's name was originally also Joey. Luckily, I decided before writing that it would be too complicated to have two Joeys.
- At first, Hubbards didn't periodically disappear, one child of 12 years old, every 20 years. Their uncle, grandma, and cousin were supposed to be gone, and so was a random hobo from the 1930s.
- For a long time, Allan didn't exist, and the family actually had 11 girls and 1 boy.
- I actually like the name Emily. I know many people I like with that name, and L. M. Montgomery's Emily Byrd Starr is one of my favorite characters, but somehow I have made up two bratty teenagers named Emily.
- I did a research paper on medieval warfare my last year of school so that I could write fantasy battles more accurately.
- Many of the Time Captives are named after presidents and First Ladies. I did that so I didn't have to research in order to give them period names. I also used those presidents as jumping off points for developing some of the characters, which is why George wanted to go to sea, Thomas is detail-oriented, and Calvin is quiet.
- I wrote Time Captives in a variety of odd places including, but not limited to, Walt Disney World, Saint George Island, a hotel in Kentucky where we were staying during a family reunion, a bus on a bus trip to Washington D. C. for Barry Loudermilk's swearing in, beside a classic car waiting for the Independence Day Parade I was in to start, the page bench outside the Senate chamber in the Georgia State Capitol, the house of the family I babysat for, and naturally my own bedroom. I didn't actually write at the Republican Party District Convention. I read through it, because I was struggling.
- A certain dog attack in book 3 is an extrapolation of a personal experience I had while campaigning door to door. I got a scratch on my left shoulder blade. I'm not going to tell you how bad it is in the book.
- Jill got her name from Jill Pole in The Chronicles of Narnia.
- Dragons of Starlight made me feel like I could never write fantasy because my book wasn't nearly as epic and complicated, but The Silver Chair reminded me that straightforward storylines can be just as beautiful and beloved, if not more.
- Eleanor's hair is inspired by a friend's very curly, pretty, dark red hair, which is why I had to put that her hair should be more curly on the caption of the Pinterest picture of her.
- Time Captives was originally supposed to be one book called Creighton Hill. I kept finding more and more things they had to do, so expanded it into two books with three parts each. It still kept expanding, and I split it into three books, and ditched the idea of splitting them into parts.
- I started keeping track of my word count halfway through Time Captives, due to Month of the Novel. Now I always count up the words when I reach the bottom of a page.
- I have probably complained more about writing this series than any book I've ever written before. It was just so hard. I'm glad I can finally like it again.
- Book 2 of Time Captives contains the first conversion scene I have ever written.
- The world of Calhortea got a major makeover during the writing of Time Captives, losing talking animals, for one, and gaining other species like strytes and elves and merfolk.
- It is by far the hardest story I've ever written, but also by far the longest, when you put it all together, and I'm so glad it turned out well for all the struggle.
The blog tour continues with these new posts!
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- Book Review at O’ Scarlett Reviews
- Author Interview at Inklings Press
- Character Spotlight at Author Jaye L. Knight ~ Camthalion
Random Hobo from the thirties ... why'd you throw that out? It's priceless!
ReplyDeleteOh, boy. Changes books go through to get to how they are now.
Jonathan as a Joey. Can't really see that one, and yeah. multiple names can get confusing (sidewise glance at the sheer number of multiple names I have scattered through my own books)
Well, I realized that if it was the Hubbards who were supposed to help Calhortz, there would be no way for the hobo to actually get through. It would have been interesting, and I kind of wish it would have worked, but it didn't, so oh, well.
DeleteThey go through so many changes. Sometimes I wonder what my books would be like if they actually stuck to my original idea.
Yeah, Jonathan suits him better. It does get confusing, though even with the multiple names you have, your books aren't nearly as bad in that department as the Elsie books. EVERYONE had kids named Elsie and Edward.
Eh ... well, would you mind terribly much if I "borrowed" the idea and had a random hobo from the thirties show up at some point in Rizkaland. Because that would be near perfection.
DeleteDon't I know it! For instance, Robin and Robert weren't even in the initial idea for SEW - and Eric's name was Araclee. And in the original version of THE ANKULEN, Chris was Jen's best friend from next door, just as real as she was - and her co-imaginer. Thing was, both stories were fizzling away to almost no plot so ... changes were in order!
*I stare askance at the title "Two Elsies"* It really ought to be Two HUNDRED Elsies. Yes, yes. I try not to share names on purpose, but sometimes, it happens, and I give two characters the same name, and it's just so perfect for both of them, by the time I've realized what I've done, I can't bear to change either of them.
That's fine by me. I don't know if I'll do actual portal fantasy again, and it would work great in Rizkaland. But you would acknowledge where you got the idea, right? :)
DeleteWhat was the initial idea for Sew if it WASN'T Robin and Robert? It's all about them. Araclee? He's best as an Eric. And Chris being real would be odd. But I guess that's why they fizzled.
Oh, yes, it ought to be Two HUNDRED Elsies. I have changed too similar names, mostly at my family's insistence. It's hard. Very hard.
Oh, I'll certainly give credit where credit is due. It's not the first little cast-off tidbit I've scavenged from another author. Those boxes that the kings and queens of Rizkaland wear were stolen from a typo of Jack's.
ReplyDeleteIt was about Rosamond, called "No Longer a Dream" and had no plot. Chris as a real person was a very different story, and I kinda liked it, but I had no idea where the story was going ... so it petered out. (But if you search through my back posts, you can read the script I had written for it, because it's another one of my books that started as a play.)