The End of This Story and the Beginning of All the Others

Yes, that's totally a Narnia reference. Of course it is; look who you're talking to.

But the truth is, I can't do a Madeline thing and say "And that's all there is. There isn't any more." A lot of my books are connected--and I'm not just talking about the obvious Espionage, Espionage sequel, Edmund Herb story thing. It starts, well, for those of you who haven't been inside my head for the past ten years (which I certainly hope is all of you), with Peter Swann.

Peter Swann was a random addition to Creighton Hill that I made when I switched the POV from Jill to Joey. But this was no random-character-inserted-to-help-them-move-and-then-never-be-seen-again character. He's actually an existing character that I don't really know a ton about. The Swanns went to church with the Hubbards--that's why they were helping them move. And the reason I don't know a ton about Peter is because I've mainly made up stuff concerning his baby sister Leah, the "surprise," who was two at the time. Sometime during Leah's childhood, I think they move to west GA, since they couldn't really live in Cartersville and be an hour away from Creighton Hill. Just doesn't work like that.

Leah Swann via Pinterest

Leah Elisabeth Swann is my "missionary to Hollywood." She has two older sisters and one older brother, but they're so much older than her that she's really more like an only child. She's kind of shy, super stubborn about her faith, and has talent in her little finger. I created her because of a long-standing obsession with show business. It's not to be wondered at: I was in The Wizard of Oz when I was five, Oliver! when I was six, danced ballet throughout most of my childhood, fell in love with Noel Streatfeild's books, wanted to make faithful movie adaptations of my favorite books, and adopted my dad's love of bonus features. Leah was the outpouring of that. In fact, all of her movies are adaptations. Her debut role was Meg Murry in A Wrinkle in Time.

Leah's future husband is also an actor: Johnny Milton. His dad is British and a doctor, but he met Johnny's mom (a Christian homeschool graduate) when traveling in south Georgia...for a reason I can't remember. They got married, lived in GA, had one son. Johnny got involved in acting when his British grandparents took him to an audition for The Story of the Treasure Seekers without parental knowledge or permission. He got the part of Oswald Bastable, and his acting career took off. He met Leah on the set of Johnny Tremain--he as Johnny, she as Cilla Lapham. His family was actually in the process of moving nearer to hers, since his dad had gotten a job at the hospital in the county just west of hers, and thus he joined my big connection of friends. (If you want a full list of their "screen credits," just let me know and I'll be happy to post it.)

Sara (Watson) Walker via Pinterest

Leah's two best friends are Maggie Harris and Elsie Ferguson. Maggie has a talent for adapting books into accurate screenplays (she adapted the Emily of New Moon trilogy, in which Leah and Johnny starred as Emily and Teddy), and she also very accurately, rather annoyingly ships just about everyone in her acquaintance. For instance, she even shipped Leah and Johnny when the three girls were watching an E. Nesbit movie together during a campaign meeting. And she obviously ships her older brother Harold with Elsie's older sister Violet.

Elsie is kind of where it all pulls together. She was essentially me, only with an older sister, triplet brothers, and younger twin brothers in addition to the two younger sisters I actually have. Their whole group is part of the campaign team that got dairy farmer Tom Maynard into elected office. (And actually, I apparently matched his daughter Evie to Allan Hubbard when I was trying to find spouses for everyone. Not positive it's canon, but it's a distinct possibility.) Elsie babysat the Watsons of Across the Stars. She also babysat for the Guthridges, good friends of the Watsons. She was babysitting the Guthridge kids when their parents went to get their recently orphaned, bratty teenager cousin Emily Elliot, who they were taking in. I actually started a Thanksgiving short a few years ago about the Fergusons and Guthridges having Thanksgiving at the Watsons. I should finish that sometime.

Peter Walker, Sara and Felix's first child. via Pinterest

Side note on the Guthridges and Watsons for readers of Across the Stars: Jack Watson and Nora Guthridge have been good friends and sweet on each other for, like, forever, and everyone knows it. :)

Now all these people...Watsons, Guthridges, Fergusons, Harrises, Swanns, Miltons, Larussos (Elsie and her brother Teddy both married Larussos), Maynards, Blueridges, etc....all knew each other, campaigned together, did homeschool things together, the kids grew up and most of them got married (Felix Walker came and married Sara), and then 2023 hit.

Luke Winston, because he's what the Cassie Story is really about via Pinterest

I'm not really sure why I chose 2023. It just happened. But in that year, they went on the run. They all found a place in the woods to hide from the government that was hunting them out for being Christians. Through a series of undetermined events, they were captured, escaped, and left the planet. Most of them settled on Maltea, sister planet to Emoria, the planet to which Hanna Straite and Sam Hawling escaped. They lived out fairly normal lives on Maltea for generations--all the while an outer space communistic "utopia" was being established in the Milky Way. This dystopia--for that is what it truly is--is the setting for my outer space dystopian story (currently going by The Cassie Story because I still can't figure out the title), the story I've worked on the past two July NaNos. And the descendants of all these people, though still on Maltea, play a crucial role in the story.

So there you have it: How Time Captives connects to The Cassie Story. I could tell you a lot more about these characters and their stories, but this post is already long, so I'll stop now and leave you to explore the rest of today's blog tour stops. 

Tuesday, November 8^th

· Book Review at ReadingAnyone
· Book Review at Books, Braids, and Born Again
· Character Interview at Bring Your Own Books ~ Jill Hubbard
· Character Spotlight at Jaye L. Knight ~ Allan Hubbard

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