The Vortex is preparing this week for the seismic shift of International Time Travel Day on March 14th. Be sure to pop over here on Wednesday for your link-happy guide to other North American authors with time travel stories to give away. I'll be giving away Love, Texas Style, the anthology that contains my short story "The Lost Highway."
The selected romance stories for Love, Texas Style had one requirement: they all had to contain at least five of ten possible words related to Texas. The editor told me she picked mine because it was so "different." Never was there a more supreme compliment.
On a desolate west Texas highway, a man at a crossroads in his life meets a beautiful woman, lost in more ways than any cardinal point on a map. Her pristine 1959 Thunderbird, her matronly dress and her optimism conspire to place her out of touch with reality. In a race against the clock to reconnect with an old love, he discovers the captivating stranger has driven straight out of her own time and into the abandoned shell of his heart.
The idea for the story came from an account of two brothers who were traveling a desolate highway and drove past a woman broken down by the side of the road. According to one brother, she simply looked "out of her time." As they traveled on past a small knoll, the brothers realized they could not simply drive on and leave this woman without offering assistance. They turned around, not two minutes had passed, and crested that knoll again. The woman was gone.
Since we're talking time travel stories this week, what is your favorite time travel story of all time?
My fave was a Star Trek episode with Captain Piccard. He gets hurt onboard ship and 'awakes' on a planet where he finds a wife, has children, and plays a flute constantly. It's so loving, but then a day comes when he must die, and suddenly he reawakens on his ship.
He thinks it all a dream until he returns to his quarters where he discovers the flute on his dresser.
The 'aliens' confess they manipulated the lifetime for him so he might help them more readily with their problem of a dying sun!
Viva la differance.
Oh, that's easy...Altered Destiny, by Lynda K. Scott!!! It was amazing! 🙂
I don't think I've ever read a time travel romance I didn't love. My favourites include ones with Highlanders, especially the ones where they have to adjust to our time.
And even though it's not strictly a romance, I enjoyed the Time Traveller's Wife. And I totally agree with dcrelief on the Star Trek episode. 🙂
I have arrived on time travel day, too early it seems. I'll have to travel back to the past at some point in the future.