Laura is happy and content, she has a new boyfriend and loves her job teaching primary school pupils in London. But when she inherits a rundown house from a stranger on her 30th birthday, memories of her prom night come flooding back, memories of a scary encounter and an antique mirror in the very same house.
Laura visits the house with all its secrets and as she unravels the clues she reveals the biggest secret of all: her own destiny. But how can you change the future if it’s already written in the past?
Guest post
I am happy to bring you a guest post written by the aythor about writing a time travel novel. Enjoy!
***
I am a huge fan of Doctor Who and Outlander, two very different things but with one thing in common, time travel. I have always been fascinated with time travel and portals to other worlds and dimensions. How wonderful would it be to travel backwards in time to see history in the making or forwards to see what the future holds?
The main challenge for me with time travel in this novel was that Reflected Destinies was never meant to be a fantasy novel so the mirror portal had to be a believable part of the story. I have tried to make it a simple thing, with links to magic and at the end of the story we discover how the mirror actually works.
I have been asked a number of times now if I am going to write a sequel to Reflected Destinies and I know the reason why people want one but to do a sequel with the story that people want would cause all sorts of time travel problems and render the first story impossible so although I have thought of a story, it would follow on from where Reflected Destinies ends.
I really enjoyed the time travel aspect of the story and haven’t ruled out using it again in the future but with a more epic fantasy novel. Time travel fascinates me and if I could travel back in time I would love to visit the Tudor period or maybe bring the Tudors forward to our time. Just imagine what they would make of our world? I’m sure we’d all be executed for witchcraft with all the technology and discoveries we have now.
It was easier to bring Ben forward to our time because although the 1940s was a very different era, they were starting to imagine and discover things and were more forward thinking and open minded. Ben especially is eager to change with the times and loves nothing more than learning about the future.
Time travel is of course an unknown quantity, no one knows if it actually exists or not so from that point of view you can pretty much do what you like with it. No one can tell you it’s wrong or implausible because, let’s face it, no one knows if it is or isn’t. But I didn’t want to be too fantastical about it. I wanted people to really believe that Ben had come from another time and I hope I have made him a believable character.
I chose to use the 1940s as I love World War Two and all the history and stories that we need to remember and learn from. I think it is a period in history that is close to my heart because my grandparents lived through it, in fact two of them lived through the first one as well. This just brings everything closer to home and I believe the horrors of it should never be forgotten.
Thank you, Florence Keeling and RachelsRandomResources.
About the author
Florence Keeling adopted for her pen-name her Great Grandmother’s name, chosen because of the shared birthday of April Fool’s Day. She is married with two teenage chidren. Born and raised in Coventry, England she now lives just outside in Nuneaton. Reflected Destinies is her first novel. Florence Keeling also writes for children under the name of Lily Mae Walters.
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/florence.keeling.7 Twitter – https://twitter.com/KeelingFlorence Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/florence.keeling/
B for Bookreview 