Storytime Blog Hop: Another Time by J.Q. Rose

Welcome to the Focused on Story blog by J.Q. Rose 

and to the quarterly Storytime Blog Hop!

Huge thank you to Juneta Key, the organizer of the event.
Click below to find bloggers participating in the blog hop and click on the link to read their stories. So many creative, talented, imaginative folks in this hop. Enjoy!! 
Please leave a comment and share. Thank you.

Storytime Blog Hop
Founded 2015 by students of “How To Think Sideways: 

Career Survival School for Writer’s,” 

a writing course created by writer and teacher Holly Lisle

Storytime Blog Hop

Logo designed by Juneta Key

Sundial by Sandra Cox
 Time travel romance

Today I'm flexing my writing muscles and trying something new. I'm sharing a time travel story with you. I've discovered I'm fascinated when reading time travel stories. 
1. I wonder if there really is another realm of time coinciding with the world we live in and 
2. I love seeing how an author goes about creating the "portal" that takes the characters into another time and world, and 
3. how she leads the reader into the different worlds. 

After attempting to write this time travel, I can tell you transitioning from one time to another and making a reader realize what is happening is difficult. 

I recently read Sandra Cox' time travel, Sundial. The way she crafted the book made it easy to follow and so convincing.

Another Time by J.Q. Rose

Rachel choked on her hot tea when she glanced out the large window of the English Guest House and spotted a tall, young man dressed in a World War I vintage uniform. Trying to stop the cough spasms, she covered her mouth, but kept her gaze on him. He flipped his peaked cap off his head and waved it at her.

            She squinted through the glass into the fading evening light, then jumped away from the window. Kenneth!  

The English Guest House (Bracken House Hall, 2018) across the road from the Moors
Yorkshire County, England

            “No, no, no, not again.” She changed out of her pajamas into her jeans and tee shirt lying on the bed and finger-combed her long black hair as she searched for her sandals. She would just tell him to go away and leave her alone.

            She and Kenneth had a long history together. A very long history. They had fallen in love in every life she had lived clear back in the time when she was Cleopatra and he was her body guard. During the US War of Independence, she was a nurse on the battlefield tending his wounds. As Duchess Charlotte, married to the Duke of Sussex, she couldn’t resist Kenneth in a uniform then either.

            But today, in 2018, she was not going to make the same mistake. Each time they fell in love, he left her. She couldn’t live through the turmoil and the loss of his leaving again, no matter what his excuse. Well, perhaps she could accept the fact he was killed in World War II as a viable one.

World War I Soldier
Photo Courtesy of Pixabay

            She slid her feet into her sandals and scurried back to the window. Pulling the heavy curtains wide open, she leaned on the sill and checked to see if he was still waiting across the street for her. This time she noticed a throng of people near him strolling the fairgrounds on the English moors. The scene looked just like the black and white photos from the 1914 Yorkshire fair displayed on the hallway walls of the Guest House.

  When he spotted her looking out the window again, that irresistible tilted smile lighted up his boyish face. She stepped back from the window as she struggled with the feelings inside her. Her heart ached to be with him. To touch him, love him again. She jerked the curtains closed and turned her back to the window. No, she could not see him again. She would not see him again.

“Ohhh, Kenneth. Why do you do this to me?” With clenched fists, she shouted into the empty room. Rachel whirled around and yanked the curtains open again.

Without pondering another moment about the consequences, she raced out the door forgetting her cell phone and glasses on the desk and practically flew down the hall to the wooden double doors that would open out to Kenneth.

Rachel slammed against the locked doors as hard as her heart was slamming inside her chest. Frantic to get out to him she pushed again until her befuddled mind realized she had to slide the bolt away to open it.

When she stepped across the door jam, the electrified air charged her body. She shut her eyes, feeling the tingling sensation course through her. Opening them wide, she stopped and noticed bent old people, women in long skirts and beautiful hats, and gentlemen in suits swirling around him. Kids in their Sunday best dodged in and out of the fair-goers as they strolled through the grounds laughing and visiting the tents of the vendors. The smell of delicious fair food with the underlying scent of horses wafted through the air.

Music from a calliope added to the festive scene exactly as pictured in the old photos.

Watching the activity, she paused to consider her choices again. She could go ahead and meet with Kenneth or turn around and return to the 21st century just a few steps away through the wooden doors behind her. Did she really want to have her heart broken again by this man? No, but maybe this time would be different. Yes, she nodded her head, this time it would be different.

Rachel raced across the road and threw herself into Kenneth’s waiting arms and clung to him, breathing in his fresh scent of soap and cigar-smoked wool tunic. Encircled in his embrace, the fabric scratched against her cheek when she wriggled against his chest.  The throng of fair-goers bumped into them, but nothing could make her stop holding him, her one true love through all the ages.

When Kenneth released her, she stepped back and studied his blazing blue eyes and his sandy-blonde hair in its usual tousled state. She moved back in his arms and planted a deep kiss on his lips. The heat surge sizzled through her body when he returned the kiss with passion.

            Her eyes searched his as all the noise and people were forgotten. She stepped away. Leaning toward him, she asked, “Are you going to continue to chase me through all my lifetimes? It’s 2018 in my world.”

His eyes sparkled. “Yes, I will never stop looking for you. How could I be so lucky to find you again? But this time, this time will be for always. Nothing will separate us again.”

“How do you know that? Every lifetime we’ve loved each other truly. And then, we lose each other. I don’t think I can take losing you again.” She dropped her arms to her sides, a frown disturbing her fine features.

“No, no, don’t say that.” He lightly cupped her chin in his hand. “You’re here now. Don’t leave. Let’s take these moments and cherish them. Don’t even think about whatever happens next. Let’s just live right now!”

Rachel’s eyes darkened as she stood as unyielding as the MSU football's defensive linemen. “I am not living for right now. I want to plan for my future. You aren’t in it because I can’t count on you to be my life-partner through all these crazy lives.”

Kenneth shuffled back from her, a weak smile on his face. “You’re kidding aren’t you? You can’t mean that.”

“I never want to see you again in whatever time we may meet.” She slashed her arms across her body. “Do you understand me?”

“But, but---,” he stammered.

Rachel spun away and headed through the doors back into the 21^st century. Feeling free and happy, she was ready to face the future, or the past, whichever life adventure came first.

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Do you think Rachel made the right decision? Why?

Book Bargains through July 31

Mysteries on Sale

TOSB on Sale

Smashwords is having a site-wide sale during July. My mysteries from BWL Publishing are on sale for $1.50. Click on the title to take you to the book page. Click here to take a peek

AND

Girls Succeed!
Inspiring Girls to make their dream jobs come true
On Sale for 99 cents

My non-fiction interactive eBook is on sale too for only 99 cents. This book is
filled with inspiring stories to empower girls to work toward achieving their dream careers.
Available at these digital sellers:

Girls Succeed

Amazon Link  

Universal Link 

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Thanks for stopping in today. 

Now it's "time" for you to hop over to read stories from more bloggers participating in the blog hop.

Click on the titles below.

Team Building Exercise, by Samantha Bryant 
Beginning Again, by Karen Lynn 
Under The Bridge, by Katharina Gerlach 
Black and White, by Bill Bush 
Summer Siren, by Elizabeth McCleary 
The Birch Tree, by Juneta Key 
The Zoning Zone, by Vanessa Wells 
Secrets, by Elizabeth Winfield