Settling the Present, Finding the Future, Chasing the Past

Welcome to the information page for Time Enough, the exciting sequel to But World Enough and Time. The adventures of Robin Parker, her brother Dean, and Elizabeth Wynford, the young woman from the Seventeenth Century, continue, as they try to settle Elizabeth in the Twenty-First Century, then Robin heads to the future to help Roger York, the time traveler who had been trying to bring Elizabeth forward in time. But Donald Long is still after Robin and has an even stronger motive to get Roger. It’s about 300 pages, and costs $15.99 in print and $3.99 as an ebook.

Synopsis for Time Enough

Robin Parker, her brother Dean, and Elizabeth, the young woman they tried to rescue in But World Enough and Time, have come home just in time for Elizabeth to give birth to Dean’s baby girl. It looks like Donald Long, a time traveler from the future, will not be chasing them. At least, Roger York, another time traveler, has told Robin that they are safe enough.

Now, Robin has plenty of work to do to acclimate Elizabeth to life in the Twenty-First Century. Elizabeth is feeling overwhelmed. Dean is determined to step up and do what he needs to do to support his new little family. Robin is feeling lost and longing to time travel again.

When Dean insists on making good on his promise to marry Elizabeth by taking her to Las Vegas, Robin is worried. But the lights of The Strip are not half the problem. Donald Long shows up, and he’s making the worst kind of trouble. Robin flees with the timetron, only to discover that things are just as bad as Roger had told her. Maybe even worse. And there is one more trip into the past that will hopefully set Donald right.

How I wrote Time Enough

Back when I first wrote But World Enough and Time, the book came out really, really long. That was okay, though. Another character began developing, and I knew that I’d want to continue the story. When it came time to do the rewrites, I knew that I didn’t have just one book. I had three. Which is why I refer to this as book two of a trilogy. I’ve been writing book three while this book was appearing on the blog, and that story will show up in another year or so.

I would have thought this one was going to be easier to write, given that I’d sort of already written it. And the first section came together very nicely, indeed. But then I got stuck. Seriously stuck. Really messed up and stuck. As I recounted in this post here, I had to figure out what the future would look like and how that would drive the story.

I chose to focus on an evolving society. Yes, there were cataclysms, one of which will figure very prominently in book three, All the Time in the World. But being a history buff, I know that societies tend to change by evolving rather than being upended. The upendings do happen, but usually within a framework of ongoing growth and change.

Fortunately, once I’d found my future world, the rest of the writing went more easily. And the third section barely got outlined, and what I did was only to make sure I had my days counted correctly. But that’s the joy of the writing process. It changes, flows, and dare I say, evolves.