#TimeTravelAuthors 23: Favourite moment?

One of the few times (I hope) when I have to go cliche and say it's hard to pick just one. At the same time, I'm hoping the best is yet to come.

The time battle between Carrie and Her Assassin was pretty good. At one point editing, I legit couldn't remember Carrie's strategy, and when it became clear, I was like "oh yeah! I did that, that was clever". I'll go with that.

#TimeTravelAuthors 25: A difficulty writing time travel.

The biggest difficulty (and the reason I've withheld "Time Untied" for so long) is a massive spoiler. I caused the problem myself by having two people with time powers.

However, the true difficulty may be that I overthink things. I over analyze. I ask myself "why not do x-y-z" and then if I don't attempt it, want to justify the exclusion. I can (usually) turn this off when reading others, but am too strict on myself.

#TimeTravelAuthors 27: Medical care?

Carrie has difficulty staying out of the hospital when her time powers get unleashed at a high level. "United" is no different than T&T in that respect. (Hurrah for Canadian health care.)

Psychologically, Peaches tends to be filling the role of therapist. But who counsels the counselor?

#TimeTravelAuthors 29: Trigger warnings?

Psychological abuse to teenagers and (using AO3 standards) major character death.

There's less self-harm and suicidal thoughts in "Untied" vs. T&T, but depression is a component. I suppose assassination attempts count as violence, but most components are told, not shown. Peaches does single-handedly throw up a red flag for lesbian flirtation and innuendo.

#TimeTravelAuthors 31: Choice

Been meaning to flag this all month, it's the 2025 coins I got while it was still 2025. Two toonies and one dime, from June and October. Got another in early January too, won't count it. Far cry from the 2010s.

2015: 42 coins
2016: 37 coins
2017: 20 coins
2018: 21 coins
2019: 17 coins
2020: 2 coins (pandemic)
2021: 1 coin

(2022 was at least 5, can't find my recent records...)

#TimeTravelAuthors Feb 1: Love intro

Chartreuse loves Carrie, and has saved her life. Peaches loves Carrie, and has saved her life. Meanwhile, Carrie will save Jenny's life, but until she does so, Jenny is in quantum uncertainty; Jenny does not love Carrie.

That's one less person in "Time Untied"'s romantic subplot. Doesn't actually solve the lesbian love triangle, granted.

#TimeTravelAuthors 3: Standalone or a series?

Pretty much everything I write is a series, I can't stop myself. "Time & Tied" itself was over 90 parts of 4k each (split into 4 "books") and "Time Untied" is looking longer.

The one exception is short stories. If I can keep myself to about 10k words, it stands alone. But once we pass 15k, you're likely getting 300k. For better or worse.

#TimeTravelAuthors 5: Languages?

The characters are at the largest French-English bilingual university in the world, so we get a bit of French, though mostly English. (The French is mostly from Marguerite, Peaches' roommate.)

#TimeTravelAuthors 7: love?
*
“Carrie, I’m not hitting on your girlfriend,” Peaches protested. “I know she’s as taken as you are. I just thought a hug would help me better understand why you’re drawn to her.”

“Peaches also said she’s in pretty girl withdrawal,” Jenny said dryly.

“Nnnngh. Come on, who doesn’t love a good hug anyway?” Peaches huffed.

“I see what you mean about Peaches,” Chartreuse remarked to Carrie. “But at the same time, I might understand where she’s coming from. A little.”

#TimeTravelAuthors 9: Story get political?

Someone will probably think so, because way too much is getting politicized that shouldn't. I didn't set out to make anything political though. It's just urban fantasy, so stuff happens in the background.

Also, the protagonist is a lesbian, because that's just how it happened, ditto for the love triangle of all women. Deal with it.

#TimeTravelAuthors 11: hug?
(oops, also featured in 7)

*
“Oh, sure. In this timeline, I'm your early warning system,” Jenny said, exasperation giving way to frustration. “You’re welcome.”

Carrie winced. “I didn’t quite mean it like that.”

“Jenny, you mean so much more,” Sherlock soothed, moving towards her. He extended his arm to begin something of a tentative sideways hug. She eyed him, but didn’t push him away, so he completed the motion.

#TimeTravelAuthors 13: Love?

I mean. Are y'all sick of hearing about the love triangle by this point? Should I say anything there? ^^

There's also an ongoing tentative romance between Sherlock and Jenny, plus Wes has a thing for Sakura that isn't reciprocated in a brief subplot.

#TimeTravelAuthors 15: Comp titles?

Initially pitched "Time & Tied" as a cross between films "Tomorrowland" (2015) and "Interstellar" (2014). In essence, dystopian future uses time travel and/or willpower to fight fate.

"Time Untied" is a harder nut. "Steins;Gate 0" meets "Source Code"? (Both have a "Christina".) With a dash of "The Executioner and Her Way of Life"? idk. Who's even seen all of those. Time will tell.

#TimeTravelAuthors 17: Butterfly effect?

On a macro scale, no. World wars, climate change, corrupt corporations, those are locked in.

On a micro scale, absolutely. A victim could be saved, a tree could be planted, a different country could become a catalyst. Put another way, you CAN save THAT starfish, even if you can't save them all.

Unless you find a lynchpin moment (aka Jonbar Hinge). With that, you can save them all. Or make things ten times worse. Such moments should be avoided.

#TimeTravelAuthors 19: How honest are characters?

Disregarding the fact that anyone who knows Carrie's secret of time travel needs to keep it secret (lying if necessary), pretty honest. At least with each other, some may lie to themselves.

This may be so I don't have to track lies. It's much easier for someone to change the subject than to lie.

#TimeTravelAuthors 21: "listen"?

*
“Could Peaches be the one misdirecting us?”

Carrie pursed her lips. “I think Peaches has been sincere with me,” she murmured.

Sherlock noticed then how the word ‘sincere’ had indeed been written and underlined twice next to Peaches on the chart paper.

“Thing is," Carrie added, "I can’t rule out the possibility that she’s being duped, or blackmailed. Maybe she was even trying to warn me about that today, and I didn’t listen properly.”

#TimeTravelAuthors 23: Time travel media characters enjoy?

"Back to the Future" (specifically the diagram Doc draws in Part II) has come up twice. There's been some tangential references to "Quantum Leap", and Peaches would likely enjoy it. I forget if I ever had her make a Steins;Gate reference. Those are my big 3.

Honestly I think most of the cast would enjoy a time travel movie night, as escapism, as long as it didn't take itself too seriously.

#TimeTravelAuthors 25: 'glow'?

*
“Could there be energy in that pendant already?” Sherlock suggested. “Maybe it interfaces badly with Carrie.”

“Impossible, as I had no access to dimensional energies until I met my conduit here,” Heather said, gesturing at Carrie. “Merely had my theory on how it could be contained and measured. Also, the pendant should give off a faint glow when charged. Granted, I’ve had zero way to test that.”

#TimeTravelAuthors 27: Author's choice

This month I finally got around to having Amazon fix my author page. So all three "Accidental Time Travelers Collective" volumes are now there, which include my time travel short stories.

https://www.amazon.com/stores/Gregory-Taylor/author/B0CNYJ96KT

#TimeTravelAuthors Mar 1: Lucky Intro?

Carrie was lucky to survive her first hours at university, as that's when her nemesis attempted to kill her.

Now there's a problem. She doesn't have a nemesis. Not yet. They jumped back in time for that attack.

So who is out to get her? Can she evade the coming attacks, or will she end up creating the very nemesis she's trying to expose?

"Time Untied". Also features quantum locked roommates and a lesbian love triangle, somehow.

#TimeTravelAuthors 3: Characters protecting?

Jenny's somewhat protective of Carrie (for quantum reasons), leading to Sherlock being protective of Jenny. Peaches is protective of the pocketwatch that allows for time travel. Heather is protective of her own motivations.

#TimeTravelAuthors 5: Apologies?

Carrie often apologizes to Jenny over how she can't be saved in the past yet. Sherlock also apologizes to Jenny over his tendency to talk instead of listen (happens less over time). Jenny apologizes to Peaches for assuming she was the target of flirting.

The biggest such scene occurs after Carrie accuses Peaches of being in on the conspiracy against her, realizes she was wrong, and has to apologize. And explain stuff. Which helps set up the love triangle.

#TimeTravelAuthors 7: Quiet?

*
Heather's eyes lit up. “Have you noticed her performing any otherworldly rituals? Be honest, or I’ll assume you have something to hide.”

Jenny froze. “Um. No, no rituals.”

“What about weird habits? Odd jewelry? Posters of magical girls on her wall? If she’s threatened you to keep quiet, know that I can protect you. Okay?”

Jenny wasn’t even sure what connected all those phrases. It was becoming easy to see why Sherlock had warned them about Heather.

#TimeTravelAuthors 9: Explain story's time travel method with emojis.

Well, there's three time travel methods, and I don't know emoji's that well, but I guess we'll try?

1) 👱‍♀️ ⚡🙏
2) ⏱️ ⚡ 💭 🧠
3) 🚘 💰 👍 😵‍💫

#TimeTravelAuthors 11: Leave?

*
“Euh, let’s just say time travel is possible, and leave it at that.”

“Time...” Peaches backpedaled, to collapse onto the edge of her bed. “I’m in a Terminator movie, with my new lesbian friend who is destined to save us all at graduation. Like the Buffy TV show. Pinch me, I’m dreaming.”

Carrie shook her head. Damn, damn. She’d said way too much. “Please, Peaches. It’s nothing that dramatic. Okay?”

Peaches smiled. “Still, please, pinch me, anywhere you like.”

#TimeTravelAuthors 13: Cultures?

No, unless Canadian culture counts, with Thanksgiving in October and such. I don't feel I know enough about other cultures to handle them properly without causing issues.

Granted, Sherlock is brown and Heather is latina, but that's coming from their parents and I didn't make it a plot point.

#TimeTravelAuthors 15: Fun with time travel?

Legit had to look back over my timeline to see if this ever happened. The travel consumes energy, so it's rarely used frivolously.

There was one time that Carrie helped make it seem like someone else had ESP, by mentally time jumping back and feeding them answers. It was part of a larger plot investigating the effect of multiple mental jumps, but they did have some fun with it.

#TimeTravelAuthors 17: Patience?

Jenny has vast reserves of patience, since Carrie being delayed in going back in time to save her results in her quantum state tied to Carrie's life.

Peaches has demonstrated patience with Carrie on a few occasions, though hormones may have helped. Ditto Chartreuse, come to think.

Most of the cast needs patience interacting with Heather, and vice versa.

Sherlock has been patient about romance with Jenny. Finally, Carrie has been a patient.

#TimeTravelAuthors 19: Servants?

Jeeves! Julie's family is rich enough that she has two servants taking care of her house, Jeeves and Mimi. We never actually see the latter, but Jeeves often acts as Julie's father figure, and even briefly gets a point of view narration.

He doesn't appear in the sequel where characters are at university, but is referenced. No other servants in the story that I can think of.

#TimeTravelAuthors 21: march?
*
Heather marched over to bar the way to the door. “Carrie Waterson. You are not leaving this room until you tell me who you’re working for.”

Carrie looked back down at the pocket watch. And this was when she’d wanted a do-over of their conversation… she slid her fingers over the surface of the pocket watch.

Heather stepped backwards and pushed aside the curtains on the nearest window.

“My God, this watch is some sort of time machine,” Carrie gasped.

#TimeTravelAuthors 23: Surprised by?

Aside from how epically long the darn thing has become? Probably the lesbian love triangle.

Peaches was meant to be a counterpoint to Chartreuse, and more a satellite character. But Carrie was receptive to her advances, meaning somehow those three took the romance focus away from Jenny/Sherlock.

#TimeTravelAuthors 25: brief?

*
“Wouldn’t him offing me rule out the descendant thing too? If I die, he’s not born.”

“I considered that. But someone could use genetic material from your body to create him, still technically making him a descendant.”

“Urrrgh, science, of course,” Carrie groaned. She pressed her forehead down onto the edge of the desk, closing her eyes. “So, in brief, you have no answers for me.”

#TimeTravelAuthors 27: Alternate timelines?

There is only one timeline. However, it can get overwritten, and at times events from prior timelines may "bleed through" into the remaining one. "Untied" takes that concept further, allowing for the one timeline to "jump tracks" and become something different.

Any more than that is a spoiler.

#TimeTravelAuthors 29: Eye colours? (spelled with the 'u', thank you)

Carrie's are blue, as I was playing with the "blue eyed blonde protagonist" angle.

Jenny's are green, since many redheads have green eyes... I legit don't think I worked this out for any other characters. (Checks notes) Oh, Chartreuse's are green from T&T. That's all I've got.

#TimeTravelAuthors 31: Choice

With Time & Tied: Escalation having finished on AO3, we are halfway through the entire T&T saga.

"Destruction" has already begun (re)posting, if anyone wanted to check that out.
https://archiveofourown.org/works/82063151/chapters/215945006

Here's hoping I can complete "Untied" before I finish the reposts.

#TimeTravelAuthors Apr 1: Joke intro

*
ASSASSIN: Screwing up your timeline. Knock, knock.

CARRIE: Who's there?

ASSASSIN: Screw.

CARRIE: Screw who?

PEACHES & CHARTREUSE: Me?

#TimeTravelAuthors 3: What kind of caffeinated beverage?

Honestly, they're late teens, and the MC is health conscious, so they shouldn't be drinking that stuff. Plus I don't like drinking that stuff (even tea and soda is done sparingly), so I wouldn't know how to answer even if they did. Sorry Candace.

#TimeTravelAuthors 5: Games?

Some of the friends of the SCs have an evening playing poker off screen, which becomes somewhat relevant later. I legitimately can't think of anything else.

Much like caffeine, I'm not into games in RL, so I guess it doesn't show up in my stories.

#TimeTravelAuthors 7: Time travel taken seriously?

Absolutely. Carrie can experience physical pain if it's done flippantly. Plus Jenny's existence hinges on it, it's part of Heather's ultimate goals, and even the antagonist, who gets creative with it, takes care not to mess with overall temporal causality.

#TimeTravelAuthors 9: Characters admit when wrong?

Carrie not so much, but she'll waffle a lot before making a decision. Can't be wrong if you didn't commit in the first place. Most of the other characters would, except perhaps the antagonist.