The 86 Rules of Time Travel

As I have revealed elsewhere, the novel began life cough-cough years ago when I attempted to complete National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). Over the course of that month (and the 24 or so that followed it), I actually did finish writing Time Unravellers - it was so finished that I began sending sample chapters to some agents and publishers. Then...well, I binned it and started again. I blame Raven. Because, to be fair, it's her fault.

Anyway, the original version of the novel featured Arthur's 86 Rules of Time Travel. In fact Chapter 8 was named after them. I was originally going to just mention them here in order to create a blog post (still testing out the features of the website!). But in the spirit of giving, I'm instead going to share the whole chapter.

8 - The 86 Rules of Time Travel.pdf

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So, a few bits of information about this chapter. It features the character of Emma, who I fairly uncerimonously scrapped when I started this new version of the book. Raven makes a couple of appearances in the background (for reasons I will explain another time). Disney-villain-style school bully, Craig Campbell, shows up. I'm not clear at the time of writing whether he will actually be in the new version, or to what extent. Oh, and Harley McCool is in this chapter - another character I culled. I loved Harley. But, alas, the story no longer needs him.

What else?

Oh yes, the perpetually late Robert Grainger, and his creative reasons for his lateness - he's based on someone I went to school with. The only real likeness is that the boy at my school (called Ian) once wrote something witty on his late slip, which for some reason I not only found, but also pocketed and kept. I think I still have it somewhere! If I can find it, I'll post a photo of it. How funny to think I still remember the wording of his reason for lateness, 30 years later! "Gross incompetence/ineptitude of the bus driver and the bus service in general."

There's a lot wrong with this chapter, and it's obvious to me reading it today that it harks from a time when the novel was tonall

y far lighter than it is now. I do really like the jealousy Sammy feels when Evie starts crowing about Harley. And I like the relationship between Sammy and Arthur. This bit in particular made me smile:

“Nope,” Sammy said. “Been sat here in silence for fifteen minutes because he wanted to do this.”

Many of the characters and events in this chapter are lost to history, although the robot Sammy and Arthur mention does also come up in the new version. What is most of interest is the storyline featuring Mr Lovett at the end of the chapter. I won't say too much. All I will say, as your reward for reading this far - Elmley's surname is also Lovett...

Oh yeah, I found that late slip by the way: