The Queen, the Historian, and S’mores

Part 1 of 2

The two time travel stories in the book, the short story Times of Life and Death and the Novella The Severed World grew from one very humble writing prompt origin. But they grew into two of the most sprawling stories in the book and, I hope, will grow into a continuing series as I write More Songs of a Befuddled Muse.

These two stories hold a special place in my heart, possibly because they were the hardest to write and grew through constant transmogrifications. I think I have created characters and a universe I can use to write a series that is fun and interesting but will allow me write serious commentary and thoughts about the real world.

The original origin of Times of Life and Death is modest. The first version was only the second-to-last scene of the final version and it was based on a writing prompt that my daughter supplied: A master of disguise roasting marshmallows over a campfire with a British queen.

I hated that prompt immediately and just figured I throw something out and maybe the next one would be better. I didn’t like the idea of a “master of disguise, I couldn’t imaging Queen Elizabeth II sitting around a campfire and the roasting of marshmallows didn’t interest me even a bit.

So I pondered for a while and came up with nothing. Pondered some more and still came up goose eggs. Then I remembered a movie I had seen back in the 80s. I didn’t even watch the whole movie but I remember being utterly entranced by the young actress playing a doomed young queen.

So I went to look it up and found out the actress was a very young Helena Bonham-Carter (who I still find entrancing) and the doomed queen was the Lady Jane Grey, England’s first queen regnant who is often called the nine-days queen because she was quickly deposed and eventually executed by her cousin, Mary Tudor.

That sounded like a queen I could write about.

I still didn’t like the marshmallow bit but since they weren’t in existence in Jane’s time, my master of disguise had to be a time-traveller and suddenly, I had a story I could sink my proverbial writing teeth into.

The story I originally posted was simply the second to last scene in what became Times of Life and Death. When I decided to turn my stories into a book, I kept coming back to this idea and I knew I wanted to expand it in scope and complexity.

I happily threw out the marshmallows cum s’mores from the original story and found better ways for my time-travelling Ian to entice Jane to come with him.

I tried to do a lot of research, even going so far as joining the Tudor Society just to learn more about Jane and her time and the controversies surrounding both her and her sister and defining her reign. The Tudor Society also became very important in the second story of the series because I had to think of what superpower a relatively mild-mannered historian would have to save her life.

I will also admit to being inspired by Ted Chiang’s Stories of Your Life and The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate and felt challenged to write my story in an unusual, time-bending way.

Ted Chiang is a master story teller who leaves you thinking about his stories long after you have read them. I hope that some of my stories can do this as well.

I really liked this story and by the time I was nearly done with it, I knew I had to write the sequel and even dropped in a few “promises” to set the stage for the next part of the story. This includes a visit from a older Lady Jane coming back in time to talk to Ian and Ian’s promise that no one in his time would try to have Lady Jane executed.

I did not know then what an inspiring, imaginative, and painful experience I was setting myself up for to write The Severed World which is the continuation of Jane and Ian’s story. I didn’t realize until later how this story was an introduction, and how I had left all the really hard work for the second story.