Time-Traveling Faux-Pas

Highlighting Historical Romance

Today we welcome Susana Ellis, my fellow Bluestocking Belle, who tells us about her time-traveling heroine.

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If you were traveling through time, how much would you worry about disrupting the space-time continuum?

In spite of my younger days as a fervent Trekker, I’ve come to the conclusion that the Prime Directive is really impossible to achieve. When you travel to a different time, you bring your own culture—the total sum of your experiences—with you. Without some sort of hocus-pocus that only fiction writers and wizards can exploit, you are bound to contaminate the past (or the future) to some extent. While you certainly want to avoid doing something that might eliminate your family line—and you!—or start World War III, what do you think of things like giving investment advice (as Peggy does in Peggy Sue Got Married) or survival tips (as Claire does when she advises Jenny to plant potatoes in Outlander)?

Maybe it’s naïve, but I have this belief in a supernatural power that controls such things and prevents major disruptions in time. It certainly does in Outlander, since Claire and Jamie are not able to prevent the disaster at Culloden. And it does in A Home for Helena as well. The past was changed initially when Helena was kidnapped to the future. If she were meant to grow up in the past, how much can the timeline be changed if she returns later after an upbringing in the twentieth century?

Despite the knowledge attained from her history major, Helena does experience difficulty in adjusting to life in the Regency era. Her mentor, my time-traveling Regency lady, Lady Pendleton, justifies many of her faux-pas by alluding to her outsider status as an American. Travel across the pond being what it was, most Brits of the time probably had not been there themselves, which made it easier for them to accept her accent and modern expressions. But Helena is not a very good actress, I’m afraid, and she finds it impossible to hide her surprise at some aspects of life in the past.

And then there are mistakes. Helena, who had visited Leeds Castle in the future, mentions the fabulous maze to Fiennes Wykeham, the owner of the property when she visits it in 1817. Of course, the maze was added in the twentieth century, so Wykeham was puzzled at first, but the more he thought about it, the more he believed it to be a capital idea. If Henry VIII had a maze at Hampton Court, why couldn’t there be a maze at Leeds Castle?

So… what I want to know from you, dear Reader, is—

How much do you think it would disrupt the space-time continuum to have a maze built at Leeds Castle in 1817 instead of 1988?

Because frankly, if I were Helena, I would get tired of having to worry about such things. Eventually I would just live my life and not get bent out of shape over trivialities.

Here’s a blog post on Susana’s Parlour written prior to my actual visit to Leeds Castle in 2015: https://susanaellisauthor.wordpress.com/2014/02/10/leeds-castle-castle-of-queens/

My Pinterest page on Leeds Castle: https://www.pinterest.com/susanaauthor/leeds-castle/

About the Book: A Home for Helena

Believing that she has been misplaced in time, Helena Lloyd travels back two hundred years in an attempt to find out where she belongs.

Widowed father James Walker has no intention of remarrying until he makes the acquaintance of his daughter’s lovely new governess.

Lady Pendleton, a time-traveling Regency lady herself, suspects that these two belong together. First, however, she must help Helena discover her true origins—and hopefully, a home where she belongs.

This is Book 2 of The Lady P Chronicles.

On Sale! A Home for Helena’s first birthday is March 29, so the price has been lower to $0.99 through April 7, 2017.

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B01C1WURTS
iBooks: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/id1129450024
Kobo: https://store.kobobooks.com/en-us/ebook/a-home-for-helena
Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-home-for-helena-susana-ellis/1123693668?ean=9780990863830

Giveaway! A Rafflecopter Contest

Enter to win a A Home for Helena charm bracelet and/or a signed print copy of The Ultimate Escape, which precedes it in the series. http://susanaellis.com

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About The Author

Susana Ellis has always had stories in her head waiting to come out, especially when she learned to read and her imagination began to soar. A former teacher, Susana lives in Toledo, Ohio in the summer and Florida in the winter. She is a member of the Central Florida Romance Writers and the Beau Monde chapters of RWA, Maumee Valley Romance Inc., and is one of the infamous Bluestocking Belles.

Website: http://www.SusanaEllis.com
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