Monday, January 28, 2013

Guest Author JL Merrow: Don't Ever Change Time

Today we'd like to welcome JL Merrow to the site. She's been a great friend to Lasha's Paranormal M/M Reviews, so we are really excited about her new book, Trick of Time, an amazing time travel love story.

To celebrate her new release, she is offering up any book from her back list as a gift to one lucky winner! Please comment, ANSWER THE QUESTION BELOW and leave your name and email address to be entered.

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Don’t Ever Change...

 ...time, that is.

Ever since authors first started writing about time travel, people have been intrigued by the idea of possibly changing history—and with it, our present. There are various theories of time, of course. I’ve always been fond of Terry Pratchett’s Trousers of Time idea, where a single change can send you scurrying off down a different leg of history and into an alternate (and possibly sock-shaped) universe.

This, of course, is something best avoided by the average chrononaut, for obvious reasons:

“The tiniest little actions can have huge consequences. You might… tread on an ant now and it might entirely prevent someone from being born in the future!”
“Really?” said Ridcully.
“Yes, sir!”
Ridcully brightened up. “That’s not a bad wheeze. There’s one or two people history could do without. Any idea how we can find the right ants?”
Extract from The Last Continent
By Terry Pratchett

Which leads to something of a problem for romance authors. Because to get your heroes from different times to have their happy ever after, either our modern-day man has to relocate to the past, or his old-fashioned lover boy must move to the present. This can’t be done without consequences to the past, either way. It’s not for nothing the Terminator was sent back in time to wipe out John Connor’s mum-to-be. You might argue that a gay man would be less likely to have descendants—but what if he was destined to save a life?

And adding a modern-day man to the historical mix could have just as serious consequences. There would have to be a strong temptation to meddle—could you have stood by and let Franz Ferdinand be assassinated, even though it would cause World War One and untold death and misery, without at least trying to warn him? Even if our man out of time was a model of restraint, his very presence would affect things. Might he take the last seat on the bus, and prevent another man meeting the woman he would have married, leading to children never having been born? The possibilities are endless.

So how did I solve the problem for Trick of Time? Ah, well, you’ll have to read the book to find out! ;) 

And when you’ve done that, have a good long think about the nature of causality when applied to time travel. Because it’s not quite as simple as it at first appears to my narrator, Ted....

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Giveaway question: If you could travel back in time, when would you choose? And would you try and change history while you were there? ;)


I’m offering a free ebook of winner’s choice from my backlist to one lucky commenter on this post. The draw will be open until noonish on Thursday 31st January (GMT).

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A lover from another time

When Ted Ennis steps out the doors of the Criterion Theatre for a cigarette and finds himself in Victorian London, he begins to doubt his sanity. At first he thinks it's all a film set, and is sure that the strikingly handsome young man leaning against a lamppost must be the leading man…

What starts as a sordid transaction with a beautiful rent boy quickly turns into something much deeper, drawing him back again and again as he gets to know Jem and craves meaningful encounters with him.

But Ted doesn't understand the exact conditions necessary for his trips through time—and for Jem, time may actually be running out. Now Ted has one last shot to get back to Jem and save their relationship, before it's too late…



Biography 

JL Merrow is that rare beast, an English person who refuses to drink tea.  She read Natural Sciences at Cambridge, where she learned many things, chief amongst which was that she never wanted to see the inside of a lab ever again.  Her one regret is that she never mastered the ability of punting one-handed whilst holding a glass of champagne.

She writes across genres, with a preference for contemporary gay romance and the paranormal, and is frequently accused of humour.  Her novella Muscling Through is a 2013 EPIC ebook Award finalist. 

JL Merrow is a member of the UK GLBTQ Fiction Meet organising team.

Find JL Merrow online at: www.jlmerrow.com, on Twitter as @jlmerrow, and on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/jl.merrow



33 comments:

  1. OMG, I can't resist. Big (American) Civil War geek here. I'd go back to the Battle of Gettsyburg and find out what Robert E. Lee was thinking on that third day. I'm not sure if I would warn him of the outcome. I've read too much science-fiction to feel comfortable about messing with the timeline. :D

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  2. I don't want to go back in time, please! I am looking forward to nanotechnology and space travel and virtual reality. A future free of hunger, disease and prejudice. That might not ever happen, but I know for sure that the past didn't have it. If I had to go, I guess I'd go back to the 1990s. Any further back, I really could not take it. We can romanticize the past, sure, but I love my insulin pump and iPad too much! Great question, thank you!

    brendurbanist at gmail dot com

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    1. Urb, I know what you mean! I'm not sure I'd like to go back to the days when people died for lack of antibiotics and women were second class citizens (and most people saw nothing wrong with that).

      Although... I'd still be tempted to visit, say, Regency times. As long as I was very certain I could come back again!

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  3. Yes, some of those science fiction stories make me very thankful time travel isn't a reality!

    I can see the attraction of finding out the motive behind seemingly inexplicable actions - but I'd be worried just asking the question would cause him to change his mind! ;)

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    1. Ha, ha! Yes. It might cause a "why do you want to know?" reaction. Which might have led to the South winning the war. Which would have been all my fault! :D

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    2. oops, email address is veekay2000 at gmail dot com. I'd love to read this book.

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  4. Not sure you couldn't help but change things just by being there! And this is where my head hurts, maybe if you were able to go back you were meant to change something that, in the future, allows you to go back! Its one of those endless staircase puzzle things! I think I would like to go back, see how ancestors lived, probably in medieval times (I'm sure we'd be mucking out the pigs!) and see how really smelly they all were - so long as I could come back!

    Littlesuze at hotmail com

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    1. LOL! I think the smells are something I'd rather NOT experience - I don't know if they still do this, but when I visited the Jorvik Viking Centre in York, they piped in "authentic" period smells. I was gagging for weeks! ;)

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  5. I would love to travel back to the times of the great Ton parties in London. I would not try to change anything. Changing history could be like dominoes.
    debby236 at gmail dot com

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    1. Oh, yes - to see all the dandies and the fops. Trouble is, they'd never speak to us without a proper introduction. ;)

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  6. I'm not sure I'd want to go back in time, for the same reasons already listed. Lack of medicines, entrenched bigotry, etc., etc.! But I'd love to see what Regency England looked like, and even though I was born in the 1950's I'd like to go back as an adult, and look at life through different eyes.

    Actually, the thought of time travel boggles my mind. I have trouble getting my head around it. I'd love to see how you handle things!

    gaycrow at yahoo.com. au

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    1. Ooh, yes - that would be VERY interesting, to see a period you'd lived through with more experienced eyes. I'd love to go back further and see what life was really like for my parents when they were young - my dad was born in 1924, which seems impossibly long ago.

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  7. I would go back to the early 1960's and convince my Mother not to start smoking!

    chellebee66(at)gmail(dot)com

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    1. Good luck with that one. I remember my mum telling me how odd everyone thought she was in the 50s/60s because she didn't smoke, and how they all kept trying to get her to. I guess back then people really didn't believe it was bad for you. :(

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  8. I've already read (and enjoyed) Trick of Time so I know how you solved the problem - very clever! :)

    As to whether I'd travel back in time? I think I might travel back to about 10 or 11 years ago and tell myself something which would save me much heartache.

    If I had to travel not within my own lifetime, I think maybe Georgian England but only if I could be rich. I'm not sure I'd try and change time but who knows...

    hankts AT internode DOT on DOT net

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    1. Glad you enjoyed the book!
      Yes, it'd be very tempting to try and stop yourself making a mistake.
      But would you be the same person, without that experience...? ;)
      And oh, yes. Definitely need to be rich, wherever/whenever you go!

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  9. I don't know if I'd want to go back in time, maybe for a very small peak, but I think I would just be too tempted to stop the Lincoln assassination or something else that would change the course of the world. The Butterfly effect is just too scary. But maybe just a few more minutes with my mom would be worth the risk
    and if I could take a quick look into the future and see my grand or great grandchildren.

    Doublemom2001(AT)aol(DOT)com

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    1. Yes, it'd just be so tempting to meddle with history. And (if science fiction is to be believed, at least) unlikely to end well.

      Seeing future generations would be lovely. But what if you saw the consequences of some wrong turn? Would it be okay to meddle there, as it hasn't happened yet? *scratches head* ;)

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    2. I think we would need to be like the ghost of Christmas/Past/Present/Future, we can see the happenings but not influence them directly.
      An exercise in frustration for most of us I'm sure.

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  10. I would love to go to medieval England! Only to visit of course! I studied this time period in college and would love to see it in actuality! I wouldn't try to change anything, I would probably wind up messing up humanity. ;) Congrats on the release!
    OceanAkers @ aol.com

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    1. Thank you! It'd be fascinating to see what the medieval castles looked like when they were brand new, wouldn't it? The church I was married in dates from around the 11th century - I'd love to see what it looked like then! :)

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  11. I don't think I'd want to go back in time because medical knowledge and sanitary conditions were horrid. Maybe I'd come back from the future instead :) And would I meddle? It would be awful hard not too especially if what I did could prevent horrendous catastrophe.

    penumbrareads(at)gmail(dot)com

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    1. I think most of us would find the temptation to meddle pretty hard to resist. ;)

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  12. I am a huge fan of your book 'Muscling Through' and would love to read some of your other books. So please count me in on the contest. i would love to go back in time to Scotland around the 1500s. Love the Scottish men!

    Karl
    slats5663@shaw.ca

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    1. Ah, yes - there's just something about a pair of brawny legs in a kilt! ;)

      You're entered! Glad you enjoyed Muscling Through. :D

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  13. I don't think I would want to go back it would be too tempting to try and change history. But if we could meet people I would like to meet Thomas Jefferson.

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    1. I'm not at all sure what I'd say to Thomas Jefferson if I met him, so it's probably just as well I never will! I realise his actions as a slave owner weren't uncommon at the time, but I still can't get my head around how he could square them with his conscience.

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  14. Girl! If I was able to go back in time the humanity would not exist! LOL! I've always believed that this world would be better off without us in it. So, It's a good thing we/I can't go back! I'd love to read Trick of Time though. It has always been such a fascinating idea to have two people from two different eras falling in love or discovering they were lovers all those years ago. The movie "The Love Letter" comes to mind even though I don't think they had met in the past. This sort of story simply fascinate me!

    ~Rush~
    taina1959 at yahoo dot com

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    1. I've always been drawn to the idea of love across some sort of divide - social, educational, etc - so I guess it was inevitable I'd get to the different-eras one eventually! :)

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  15. I'd love to see 4th to 6th century Ireland... but I'd probably be to chicken to meddle!

    ashley.vanburen[at]gmail[dot]com

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    1. Wow, that's early. Had St Patrick driven out the snakes already by then? :)

      I think if I was going back that far, I'd be tempted to go a little further and visit the Holy Lands, to see if I could catch a sermon from a certain wandering preacher... ;)

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  16. And the winner of the giveaway is....


    ....Juliana! Congratulations, and I'll be in touch re your prize.

    Thanks to everyone who played! :D

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