As I mentioned earlier, I’m experimenting with book one, trying to get it into a tighter, better, story. And questioning every tiny step along the way. There’s a scene after the twins first encounter Jerome, where Hannah and Michelle are explaining what they know about him. They mention how June’s been queen of the mansion since the year 1380, and the twins ask what year it is now. Hannah tells them it’s the year 1600.
Now, I think it’s already clear that these years don’t correspond to our own. Hannah’s already told us things run by both magic and technology, and most of the lights in the mansion are electric. You’ve got electricity in the year 1600, because it’s not our world’s year 1600. Rose is in our world today, writing about the other, because it’s a very young world. There’s no “going back in time” when Ellie and Savannah leave this world for the other. The magical world is kind of a baby world, it developed quickly due to, well, magic. Our world was here for a long time, and then the magical one formed later.
Let me tangent for a moment: Lately I’ve become waaaay too into Adventure Time. Like, I'm a little obsessed. Anyway, I absolutely love the part where Patience St. Pim shows up and asks Finn and Jake “What year is this?” Finn’s response is amazing: “Um… No one really keeps time like that.”
Trying to map out my own timeline really got me thinking about the way we keep time, and if another world would do so differently. Where do we start? What’s the “year zero”? Can there be one? We talked about this once in a high school history class, and it was actually really interesting. Unfortunately, I don’t remember a whole lot of the details. It’s just a fun thing to think about, especially if you’re building your own world. You’ll get into some crazy philosophical daydreams, so just be prepared for that.
How old is your world? What created your world, and when did human life form on it? When did they start keeping time, and how?
I decided my world would be “built on dreams.” People either came from other worlds and let the magic give them new lives, or were born out of the early currents of magic. My world is very young, and I believe they started keeping time soon after Dimitri’s death, when the world sort of settled, meaning the days of rapid magical development brought on by the Illusions and godlike early people finally slowed down and the world became pretty much what it would always be.
This is part of the joy of books, and fictional worlds. We don't just get to create new places, events, and people. We get to mess with time and distort reality to our liking!
Now, I think it’s already clear that these years don’t correspond to our own. Hannah’s already told us things run by both magic and technology, and most of the lights in the mansion are electric. You’ve got electricity in the year 1600, because it’s not our world’s year 1600. Rose is in our world today, writing about the other, because it’s a very young world. There’s no “going back in time” when Ellie and Savannah leave this world for the other. The magical world is kind of a baby world, it developed quickly due to, well, magic. Our world was here for a long time, and then the magical one formed later.
Let me tangent for a moment: Lately I’ve become waaaay too into Adventure Time. Like, I'm a little obsessed. Anyway, I absolutely love the part where Patience St. Pim shows up and asks Finn and Jake “What year is this?” Finn’s response is amazing: “Um… No one really keeps time like that.”
Trying to map out my own timeline really got me thinking about the way we keep time, and if another world would do so differently. Where do we start? What’s the “year zero”? Can there be one? We talked about this once in a high school history class, and it was actually really interesting. Unfortunately, I don’t remember a whole lot of the details. It’s just a fun thing to think about, especially if you’re building your own world. You’ll get into some crazy philosophical daydreams, so just be prepared for that.
How old is your world? What created your world, and when did human life form on it? When did they start keeping time, and how?
I decided my world would be “built on dreams.” People either came from other worlds and let the magic give them new lives, or were born out of the early currents of magic. My world is very young, and I believe they started keeping time soon after Dimitri’s death, when the world sort of settled, meaning the days of rapid magical development brought on by the Illusions and godlike early people finally slowed down and the world became pretty much what it would always be.
This is part of the joy of books, and fictional worlds. We don't just get to create new places, events, and people. We get to mess with time and distort reality to our liking!