Time: The Grand Manipulator
The Oxford dictionary defines ‘time’ as “the indefinite continued progress of existence, events, etc., in past, present, and future regarded as a whole.” Further definitions describe it as “an allotted, available, or measurable portion ....” However you define it, time is the Grand Manipulator. We can waste it, spend it, lose it, savour it, but we can’t keep it. It sucks us in and spits us back out without hesitation. We all suffer from thinking we do not have enough. Ironically our time saving devices today can pull us into frittering time away, sacrificing valuable hours from the truly important. And while I embrace the many advantages our new toys bring, I endeavour to set limits, to keep a balance, but my balancing act may have kept me from one valid use of time - blogging. In our international community a blog is a writer’s tool to reach many, and my own perusal of these online journals through Twitter and Facebook has allowed me to see my earlier attempts to guard time by not blogging to be short-sighted. So here I am once again delving into the blogging world.
A different kind of time manipulation confronts Harriette Calder, the main character of my novel Monstrum 1 Out of Time. Snatched from a fatal situation in the 21st century and taken to the 23rd century to fill a job requirement she endures many difficulties due to time. Her time in the 21st century is stolen from her because of the desperate manipulations of an escaped murderer, but time then twists her into a new life where change becomes her norm. In her new century Earth has become a different place where a pandemic cleared out the population and desperation forces the survivors to seek out biologically compatible people from the past to fill key positions. Harry tries to adjust to the requirements of her new home if only to gain the knowledge and time necessary to find a way back. She is implanted with brain tissue from a ship’s engineer killed in battle with an alien species bent on destroying what’s left of Human civilization. The implantation will allow her to garner the dead engineer’s experience and knowledge to replace him. But the risk of insanity haunts all Transplants, and when she starts to hear the voice of 16th century poet John Milton she figures she’s on borrowed time.
Like Harry we are all forced to adapt to time. There is no choice. The only surety is that time will march on with or without us. Will blogging be a valuable use of my “allotted, available or measurable portion of time”?
Only time will tell.
