Got a Lot of Response…
I asked yesterday, just giving names of three workshops, which workshop people would like the best. I was sort of torn between which one to do or do none at all for the next few months. So figured I would ask for opinions.
And I got a lot, both in comments and in private letters. Thank you, one and all.
And I suppose if I call this an unofficial pole, then this is the result.
Time Travel 21 votes
Western 20 votes
Attitude 19 votes.
Well, that sure didn’t give me the big boost toward one or the other. But it did tell me that Kris and I need to do all three this year sometime. Along with the other more advanced ones I mentioned yesterday.
Those with lifetime workshops are going to get a lot of new stuff in the next year. Yikes.
So voting is closed and Time Travel gets to go first. I will put it on the June, July, and August schedule and then every-other-month after that for a time.
I will have June workshops up later this week on Teachable. And don’t worry, even if you voted for Time Travel, you don’t have to take it soon or at all. I’m going to have so much fun doing it, I honestly don’t care.
Did you know that before my novel in 1988, (very few) had done time loops as prisons to hold people. I set up a time loop on the Titanic. After Groundhog’s Day, time loops are now common. But to my knowledge of science fiction books, I was one of the first in 1988 to use time travel like that.
Update: David pointed out that Dr. Who did it long before me, and I agree with that. And Dr. Who is a very long-running British show with time travel at its core. So I have changed that to very few. As a sf fan, if there were examples, I am sure I read them and then internalized the idea and went from there, as all writers do, building on the past.
However, I do not think Diana Gabaldon was the first to use rubbing a giant rock to travel in time. And I promise you, we won’t talk much at all about the silliness of Time Travel in Star Trek.
Right now I write a series called Thunder Mountain. It is basically time travel old west mining romance. And it uses a real theory of science to explain it all.
And if you want to read one of my better time travel stories, read Jukebox Gifts.
And I’ll even tell you about the idea for time travel that I did in a story with Mike Resnick that scientist Greg Benford called the most original time travel idea he had ever seen.
So spending six weeks to really understand time travel and how it can be used in so many different stories will be great fun.
Thanks, everyone, for all the feedback. Amazing how close that was. And I didn’t even explain the workshop Attitude. (grin)
Time loop prisons… see here https://tardis.fandom.com/wiki/Time_loop
Doctor Who used this idea a lot in the early days long before the current reboot.
Yup, you are right, forgot all about Doctor Who. A major time travel series that did use Time Loops in strange ways at times. That show started back in the early 1960s if I remember right, ahead of even Trek. And it went until something like 1989. So you are dead right on them using time loops to trap things. I must admit (please, no screaming) that I never watched Dr. Who and maybe have seen ten episodes total. Just not a fan. But I do know enough about it to know you are correct. Thanks!
Now, anyone inside the book world of sf remember a time loop in a story before 1988?
I don’t recall a book but Richard A Lupoff wrote a story “12:01” published in 1973 that was pretty good…
Damn, I think you are right, Thomas. I vaguely remember that story. Thanks!
All You Zombies by Robert A. Heinlein and his earlier By His Bootstraps.
Admittedly neither are novels, one is a short, the other a novella.
Yay for Time Travel! That is going to be so much fun! *grin* (The others sound fantastic as well, but I’m glad Time Travel won first place.)
Thanks again for even offering Lifetime Subscriptions in the first place. Totally and completely worth the money.