Magic Moments

Y'know the ones - where you've got the biggest, baddest plate of decadence right in front of you and you know that if you don't start taking teeny weeny dolly bites then it's all going to be ... gone.... poof!  Just like that and all you'll have left is a tempting trace of the sweet stickiness that lingers just long enough on the roof of your mouth to remind you of just how glorious it all truly was.
....aaaaaaahhhhhh..... magic (or even Melting... now they were nice when we made them at school, right?) moments.
Trouble is, the Moment I'm having at the ...well, moment... is proving to be a a bit of a tough old plate of decadence to get shot of.  And I know there's an even nicer, second plate of puddingy delight to savour following this, so why can't I just hurry up and goddamnwell polish it off!

I should seriously renew my membership to Analogies Anonymous.  It's getting ridiculous.  I must have one hidden in any place that could secrete one.  Sometimes I wake up with one in my head.  Sometimes I can't sleep for thinking about where the next one is coming from.  And often I can think of two or three at a time.  It's bordering on uncontrollable.  I need help.

Anyway...

So I'm having trouble ending 'the book'.  The time-travelly one.  (which I think would make a great tag-line 'Let's Go Round Again' - "it's time-travelly").  I've been on the *last chapter* for the past two days.  And now it's turned into two last chapters.  Which makes the last chapter No.40 which is a nice, clean, round number, and the best age in the world to be (seriously... esp. when your b/f is only 29 - but enough of my salubrious past).  SO I'm kinda delighted.

But I can't let go of it.  Okay, it's a difficult premise to end sensibly without insulting the intelligence of the reader.  And also I know that once I've typed those magic words THE END, I will slip into a kind of sad stupor and mourn the passing of the thrill of the ride.  Because that's what it's like, right?

Only this time, I'm actually looking forward - I'll repeat this shall I?  LOOKING FORWARD, everybody - to editing this, the first draft.  And edits are notoriously NOT exciting in the least - normally.  And I know precisely what makes the very idea of this edit exciting - as opposed to not so much.

Why?

Well, because, it does what it says in the tag-line.  It's time-travelly.  And time travel is, if nothing else, a very exciting concept to be a part of whichever way you look at it.  And even though, at the end of it,  it won't be the complete, finished book, at least it will have enough bare-nakedness on it's bones (the bones are the very idea and the process which enables it to become a proper initial construction) for it to be dressed nicely - and then accessorized.  And boy, have I got some accesories I'd like to dangle from this baby's bones!

Ah -  there goes another Analogy.  See? I can't help myself.

C'mon... c'mon... c'mon..... I know I can do it.

I know of at least ONE person who will be delighted when this is completed - a friend who never normally reads but is now badgering for "next chapter please..." every time she's got to the end of the last one.  So if I can convert a non-reader into a Badger then - well, my work here is very nearly done.

And like Eric Morecame would say - I know all the right letters it's just getting them in the right order.

A slight obsession

Taking the book I'm working on right now into consideration, I've come to the conclusion that I've always had a bit of an obsession with time travel. But, even though I love the idea I don't think it'd work well in practise (you only have to watch the Butterfly Effect to see that tampering with the space-time continuuum could result in lost limbs at some stage in your life and/or certain death on some scale) (is there any other scale?).

Maybe it's because you don't have trawl endless comparison sites before picking a suitable destination and then have to pay for it, buy for it, pack for it --- hell, plan for it, basically.  Because I hate plans.  Any kind. They're so restricting. Ideas are far better.  They are 'germs' - like those seeds that fly off a fluffy dandelion when you blow it...there's a purpose to that - it will land somewhere - but that's as far as that particular plan goes.  The result will still be the same.  It'll take root somewhere. Doesn't matter where, surely?
Or it could even be the simple regret that once something's done it can't be 'undone'. Events and actions I mean.  I know a wonky worktop can be re-aligned (I married a Carpenter after all - I know these things!).And I'm never sure if it started with Doctor Who in the late sixties (the tune alone scared me; had me cowering behind the sofa before I'd even caught sight of a knobbly old Dalek) or with 'The Time Machine' film (the original Rod Taylor one) and in particular the scene where he first sets off in the machine - a beautiful feat of mechanical engineering  - and the shop window display across the street changes seasons, years, decades, centuries with such a fascinating metamorphosis that it held me spellbound.  I might have to go with that.  If one scene from a film made such an impression on me then clearly it's more meaningful than some guy holed up in a blue Police Box hurtling through time and space. But only just.

So I thought about what my favourite Time Travelly movies were and came up with this - by no means exhaustive - list:

* The Time Machine (the original)
* Back to the Future (all of them)

* The Lake House
* Terminator (the first)
* The Time Traveler's Wife (although the book far outweighs the film)
* Groundhog Day
* The Butterfly Effect (the first)
* Stargate
* Jumpers
* The Kid (recently on telly)
* Somewhere in Time (bit cheesy but the sentiments are gorgeous)

Anyone else want to 'fess up to any small obsessions, genre-wise?