Time is strange… I’ve just been working out the time scale in ‘Loving Judah’ working out when different things happened and making sure I didn’t accidentally have only six or more than seven days in a week.
When I was writing this story I was driven by the events and narrative, I didn’t properly time-table the action; Aislin the main character has taken a year’s sabbatical from teaching to help her husband Peter renovate a beautiful old house. He has taken early retirement from being the deputy head of a large comprehensive school so neither he nor Aislin are governed by any sort of time restraints or time-table. Bavol, another main character is on leave from his job as a policeman and only Gideon the vicar is regulated by a weekly schedule.
I have checked and double checked the time scheme, but I’ve done it again using a notebook and an old diary, checking, checking, checking… and yet I hope my readers will just fly through the narrative and not be worrying about whether I’ve made a mistake with having the church service on a Tuesday, and made Lent start in June! I’m exaggerating slightly, because the action all takes place in that dead winter’s end time of year before spring properly kicks in.
Time changes everything as my characters discover… and recently I saw some old gates to a calf shed; no doubt when they were hung they were just fitments, just everyday items which served a simple purpose. The gate was no work of art, the wood though serviceable would have just been wood, painted no doubt with creosote to waterproof it. Now however the passage of time and the natural wear and tear and the seasonal elements has changed it to something beautiful.
Aislin worries that she is nearly fifty, Bavol just sees her beauty shining through the years.
Lois Elsden 