I mentioned last time that I don’t write scifi—as such—and that even my scifi books are more in the way of fantasy to me than actual scifi. And over on the Amid the Imaginary blog I talked about a few of the influences that brought me to write A Time Traveller’s Best Friend and Memento Mori in the format they’re in. AKA, not in chronological order and with some of the stories from Vol 2 ducking in between some of the stories from Vol 1.
Today, I’m going to talk more about the influences that led to the skewed, oddball way in which the Time Traveller’s Best Friend series was written.
Specifically, I’m going to talk about the biggest influence.
For those of you who haven’t read the ARC of Memento Mori—but are, I will presume, frothing at the mouth to read it—this is the dedication:
For Steven Brust.
It was through reading his Vlad books out of order—and thoroughly enjoying the intricate story structures therein—that I came to realise how much I enjoy reading stories told in a non-linear fashion.
In my Time Traveller’s Best Friend series, I am forcing my readers to share that particular pleasure.
So, if you’re confused with Kez and Marx’s adventures and frustrated by the lack of a linear storyline—
Please feel free to blame Steven Brust.
I mean, Steven Brust isn’t the only influencer for this series, but his amazing story structures have always stirred up a spirit of emulation in me—in fact, I’ve written about them before here on The WR(ite) Blog. If you’re familiar with Steven Brust’s work at all, you should also find a nod to him in one particular character’s name.
Guys, you GOTTA read it. This is still my favourite Steven Brust book, though all of the Vlad books are fantastic.
It was by reading the Vlad Taltos series out of order (unavoidably, at first, and then on purpose when I found out how much fun it was to read them that way) that I came to realise that things don’t necessarily have to happen in chronological order for a reader to be able to connect events and characters. Moreover, the truly amazing story structure of several of the books (like Dragon, which jumped from past to present and somehow met in the middle in the most satisfying way) proved that things don’t necessarily have to be told in exact chronological order within the confines a book, either. And since I was already writing time travel fiction…
The rest, as they say, is history. I mean, “they” probably weren’t talking about a tiny indie author and her books, but whatever. This is my blog. If I want to indulge in shameless self-aggrandisement, who’s going to stop me?
Oh! And one last thing: A Time Traveller’s Best Friend has a 99c sale going on at the moment. So, yanno; get it while it’s cheap, and don’t forget to grab Memento Mori before its new release price jumps from $2.99 to $3.99 on the ‘Zon…