Timeless
Author: Michelle Madow
Published: November 4, 2012
Publisher: Dreamscape Publishing
Pages: 230
Genre: YA Time Travel
Goodreads
IT'S A RACE AGAINST TIME.
In Remembrance, Lizzie and Drew changed the course of fate so they could be together.
In Vengeance, Chelsea set fate back on its original, deadly path.
Now, strange things keep happening to Lizzie. Things that are omens of darkness to come. A curse has doomed her to die an early death, just as she did in her past life. To make matters worse, even if she can figure out who cast the curse, it's irreversible. There's only one option left for her to save herself. It's crazier than anything she's heard yet, and to do it, she'll need Drew and Chelsea's help.
Because to make things right, they must go back to when it all began ... and Lizzie discovers that the final events in her past life were more sinister than she ever imagined.
I am excited to be sharing a guest post, written by the lovely Michelle Madow about "reincarnation in the Transcend Time Saga". I curious as to how she came up with her concept of "reincarnation" for this amazing time travel series. Now, we get to know!
REINCARNATION IN THE TRANSCEND TIME SAGA
An explanation of how reincarnation works in the series
by Michelle Madow
To write the Transcend Time Saga, I had to create my own version of reincarnation. The first thing I did was research reincarnation on the Internet. Even though I don’t personally believe in reincarnation, I had fun learning about it. There are tons of websites on the topic—from ancient Buddhist beliefs to people who claim there are scientific ways to prove reincarnation. It was interesting doing the research, but I came across a problem: Nothing was fitting into the story I had started to create about Lizzie and Drew.
Then I realized something: Remembrance was going to be a work of FICTION, so I was free to create my own version of reincarnation!
The main thing I knew about Lizzie’s story was that she had a dramatic early death in her first life that made it so she couldn’t be with her soul mate, Drew. She and the people close to her who were negatively impacted by her death had been reincarnated to set things right. I decided to create my own version of reincarnation that revolved around that idea.
I created a Word document with bullet points describing the important aspects of reincarnation in the Transcend Time Saga. This document is called “Reincarnation Rules,” and this is the first time I am sharing it with readers.
Here are some of the basic Reincarnation Rules in the Transcend Time Saga:
1) The only reason a person will be reincarnated is if they have to change something dramatic that left them unfulfilled in their past life. They continue being reincarnated until they do this.
2) Most people are not reincarnated. Once they live one life, they go to Nirvana. Most people living on Earth are “New Souls.”
3) Major events in present day lives parallel past lives, so people will be thrown into situations with other reincarnated souls from their past.
4) Their physical features are similar to those they had in their past lives, although not so similar that they look the exact same.
5) A big part of initially remembering a past life is a recognition of the soul of a person they had a positive deep connection to, usually a soul mate. (In Lizzie’s case, this person was Drew.) If you were friends with someone in a past life (like Lizzie/Chelsea and Elizabeth/Catherine), you will feel very close to that person, but they will not trigger memories of the past to return.
6) Objects from the past will also serve as triggers. (Lizzie loved Pride and Prejudice in her past life, so reading the book for her English class triggered her memories. Drew built the music box for Lizzie in his past life, so seeing the music box again triggered his memories.) However, people usually believe their memories to be figments of their imaginations until they meet the person who is their “big trigger.”
7) A soul can only reincarnate into the same species it started in. (You cannot be a human in one life and a dog in the next.)
8) People remember images and scenes—they very rarely remember full conversations. They can, however, remember their feelings from those conversations.
9) People don't reincarnate immediately. They reincarnate during a good time for them to complete whatever it is they need to do to sort out the issues they had in their past life. Plus, if a spirit went through something traumatic in their life (usually resulting in death), they need time to recover.
10) Reincarnees have Memory Guides that help them remember their past life so they can make changes in their current life. These Memory Guides have been reincarnated, and successfully fixed what they needed to. They go through training, and then come into the Reincarnee’s life when they are ready to remember their past life.
After I had those basic ideas, Lizzie and Drew’s story pieced together as I wrote. I outlined the book before writing the draft, but it was still fun to see their story unfold.
To make this today's post even more fun, I have a special "bonus scene" for Remembrance to share with you, thanks to Michelle Madow.
BONUS SCENE FOR REMEMBRANCE
Drew telling Chelsea he won’t be attending the Halloween dance.
By Michelle Madow
(I wrote this scene as a homework assignment for a creative writing class. After finishing the scene, I realized I enjoyed writing from Chelsea’s point of view, and came up with the idea for Vengeance!)
Standing in my walk-in closet, I pulled on my costume for the Halloween Dance, my heart fluttering as I thought about Drew sitting on my bed waiting for me to model it for him. Even though we’d been dating for almost a month, it was still hard to believe that Drew Carmichael was my boyfriend. From the first time I saw him when he walked into AP European History in the beginning of the school year, I wanted us to be together, and everything worked out as I planned. Drew Carmichael and Chelsea Givens … it sounded perfect, and we were perfect together.
A lot of that had been thanks to Lizzie. I was lucky to have her as a friend. If she hadn’t let Drew and me come to the movies with her and Jeremy a few weeks ago, then maybe none of this would have happened. That night set everything into motion. It was the night Drew kissed me for the first time. The memory made my cheeks heat up, and I took a few breaths to relax so I didn’t look flushed when I went back into my room.
I zipped up the back of the short red dress and twirled around, feeling the light fabric dance around my legs. The dress dipped low in the front, and the fishnet stockings perfected the look of a dancer at the Moulin Rouge. It looked hot on me, and I knew it. Drew wasn’t going to know what to do with himself when he saw me in it. When every piece of the outfit was in place, I smoothed down the skirt, brushed my fingers through my hair, and opened the closet door to walk back into my room.
Drew sat in the same place on my bed that he was in when I left to change. My eyes met his dark ones, and a thrill of joy traveled all the way up my spine. He was so different from the other boys in Pembrooke, New Hampshire—much more worldly and sophisticated. He was better looking than most of the guys around here, too, and he didn’t even have to try. Right now he looked like he should be modeling for a high-end clothing catalogue instead of sitting on my bed, waiting to see my outfit for the Halloween Dance. I also noticed that he looked a little sad—probably because he missed home. He thought about his past a lot. Transitioning from living in New York to living in New Hampshire had to be tough, but I was glad he moved here. He was the best thing that had ever happened to me.
I wanted to jump on the bed and wrap my arms around him, just to prove he was really here, but there would be time for that later. For now I spun around to model the outfit, fluffing up the skirt with my hands and watching him to see his reaction. His lips curved into an appreciative smirk, but at the same time, there was something off in his eyes. Something … distant.
He’d been that way a lot for the past few days. I tried a few times to find out why he seemed upset, but he refused to admit anything was wrong, so I eventually stopped asking. Hopefully as time passed and he got used to living in New Hampshire he would relax and not be as moody. For now, as long as I acted happy and carefree, I hoped my attitude would wear off on him.
I fluffed the skirt one last time and smiled at him in a way I hoped was seductive. “You like?” I asked, pulling the bodice down a little lower so I showed even more cleavage than before. If that didn’t take the distant look out of his eyes, I had no idea what would.
“No one’s gonna be able to take their eyes off you all night,” he said.
“I only care that one person’s looking at me though.” I took a few dramatic steps forward to stand right in front of him and wrapped my arms around his neck, pulling him closer to me. “I’m the luckiest girl in the school to be going to the dance with you.”
“About that …” He lowered his eyes, looking suddenly uncomfortable. “I’m not going to be able to go.”
“What?” I leaned back in surprise, confused about where this was coming from. “What are you talking about?”
He lifted his eyes back up to meet mine, but there was a coldness in them that wasn’t there before, making goosebumps rise over my skin. “My grandparents from London are flying into New York that weekend, and my dad wants me to go down to see them,” he said, his voice devoid of emotion, like he didn’t care at all.
“But you can’t miss the dance.” I pouted, even though I could feel that any attempts to change his mind would be futile. Drew wasn’t the type of person I could force to do something he didn’t want to. That was something I liked about him, because I hated when guys let me walk all over them, but it could get downright irritating at times. “It’s the second biggest dance of the year. You have to go with me.”
He shrugged, and my arms dropped from his neck, flopping down to my sides.
"I don’t have to do anything,” he said, his jaw tense. “I’m telling you that I’m going to visit my grandparents that weekend. You’ll just have to have a fun time at the dance without me.”
I sniffed, unable to believe this was happening. I’d been imagining the night of the Halloween Dance for weeks—it was supposed to be the first time I told Drew I loved him. Now he wasn’t even going to be there. “I’m supposed to have a fun time without you.” I rolled my eyes. “Whatever.”
“I think I should go,” he said, grabbing his backpack from where he’d put it at the foot of my bed when he first came into my room.
“Yeah.” I reached up to wipe away the single tear that had started to fall down my cheek. Not that Drew noticed—or cared. “I think you should.”
I sat on my bed as I watched him leave, feeling rejected and confused. It sucked that he wouldn’t be able to come to the Halloween Dance, but even worse was how after he saw how upset I was about it, he left without trying to make me feel better. I wiped away another tear, leaving behind a smudge of mascara on my hand. What was so wrong with me that Drew didn’t even want to try making this better? It wouldn’t have taken much, just a promise of something special to make up for the lost night of the dance, but all he did was leave. I didn’t get it.
I lifted my cell phone off my nightstand and went to our latest text messages. The last one was sent from him about twenty minutes ago, saying he was at my house and about to come in. Not like that lasted long. I stared at the phone, wishing there was something I could do to fix this.
Way to leave without caring how I feel about this, I wrote. I read it over and deleted it. But while the writing was gone, the curser continued to blink, like it was waiting for me to type up something brilliant that would make Drew apologize for treating me so terribly.
I love you, I typed in its place. I looked at that for a few more seconds, but deleted it as well. I didn’t want the first time I told Drew I loved him to be via text message. Still, I couldn’t leave things like this. Maybe he would apologize later, but I doubted it. It was up to me to make things okay between us.
I’m sorry, I wrote, my thumbs flying furiously over the keyboard. You’re right that you should visit your grandparents instead of going to the dance. I was being stupid making such a big deal about it. Of course I’ll still have fun. Cya in school tomorrow <3
I pressed send.
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Michelle Madow wrote her first novel, Remembrance, in her junior year of college. Remembrance is the first book in the Transcend Time Saga, a three part series about reincarnation and true love that Michelle successfully self-published. The series was inspired by Taylor Swift's "Love Story" music video. Michelle's upcoming YA trilogy, The Secret Diamond Sisters, about three sisters who discover they are the secret heirs to a Las Vegas billionaire casino owner will be published by Harlequin TEEN in Spring 2014.
Michelle graduated from Rollins College in 2010, cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in English. She is a member of the National Society of Collegiate Scholars and the International English Honor Society Sigma Tau Delta. She received the Charles Hyde Pratt Award for Excellence in Creative Writing in 2010.
She lives in Boca Raton, Florida, where she is writing more novels for young adults. She loves reading, spending time with family and friends, traveling, shopping, sunshine, Disney fairy tales, Broadway musicals, and spends way too much time on Facebook and Twitter.
