The strange march of time.
I have a number of articles started that I want to write, some on similar topics to my recent ones, but none of them have come together this week. (I was away a lot last week.) So here is a short article on a subject I often return to. Perhaps, one of the longer ones will be ready by next week.
As those of you who have been reading The Roanoke Glass know, I have been following the events of Rachel Griffin as they coincided with realtime.
Rachel’s freshman year was the 2023-2024 school year, which had been a time in the far future back in the long-ago dream time of 2011, when I first saw the feather-shaped earrings on the wall of a store in the mall and decided that I would write up this astonishingly fascinating game in which a friend was running my husband and me.
It has eerie for me to watch how quickly the time covered in the first six books, which took me twelve years to write, has sped by. Today, Walpurgisnacht, April 30th, 2024, is the date of the huge climax to The Sixth Book of Unexpected Enlightenment, Guardians of the Twilight Lands.
I can’t believe it.
How could the time have gone by so quickly?
So much happens to Rachel today…nearly all of which would be terrible spoilers, so I think I can just say there does turn out to be a hurling game, though not the one that was planned, and nothing else goes as expected.
There are a one or two notable days still left of Rachel’s freshmen year. (Such as the date of the two short stories: “Rachel and the Missing Laundry,” which can be found in Fantastic Schools, Volume Two, and the yet unpublished “Rachel vs. the Real Olympics,” which will appear in the yet-upcoming Fantastic Schools Sports, which should be out this summer, God willing. )
And I know the date of the starta of her sophomore year, but with my daughter’s upcoming wedding and other touches of real life, I have no idea if, come September, I will know the date of many more events in the series. So my Year of Rachel calendar will probably end in early September.
Though there are a few other dates I know. I know some things that will happen on Yule of 2024 amd Yule 2025, and on Rachel’s birthday in 2025 and 2026. I know what happens in September of 2026, and I know that the final climax, if not the very last scene, happens on:
April 17th, 2033.
This is a harsh truth to face. I have no idea if I can write the seventeen-odd books* I have to write to finish the series between now and then. It may be that the final events will be written about dates in the past, the way the first six books were written about dates in the future.
April 17th 2033 — Easter — the 2000th anniversary of the Resurrection of Christ.
It will be also, oddly, the eleventh anniversary of the death of my mother, who died in 2022 on an Easter that also happened to fall on April 17th.
What a strange world we live in.
I have no idea what the next nine years will bring. If my children spread out, I may well finish the seventeen odd books—strange having seventeen books to go to reach April 17th…but the number of books may grow or shrink.
If I end up with family nearby and family duties, such as grandmothering, it is unlikely that I will be able to pull off such an amazing feat.
Funny thing is…I think I write fast enough if left alone, and most of the material, except Rachel’s Junior year, is already fully laid out.
I just need the time.
Wish me luck, or, better yet, say a prayer for me. ;-)
*—seventeen includes the two Regency Romances of the Wise, which lay the groundwork for some of the events of Rachel’s junior year.
🙏🙏