GUEST BLOG: If Only I Could - Liz Kessler

‘If only I could go back in time and…’

Have you ever had a thought that began like this? If only you could go back and change one thing, or say something differently… If you could see someone again who you met years ago and have no idea how to contact now. If you had made one tiny decision differently. If you could thank someone who did something for you and you never saw again…

These are the kinds of ideas and thoughts that fascinate me. I love the fact that our lives hinge and turn on a hundred of these moments every day. Which is why I was very excited when I managed to persuade my publisher to let me write three books that explore these questions, each in different ways. The first, A Year Without Autumn (which came out in 2011) looked at what might happen if you saw something terrible in your future and you got the chance to go back in time and change one tiny moment that might change your future as well as your past.

The second of these standalone time slip books is North of Nowhere, which is out this month. The book looks at time travel in a completely different way. This one explores what might happen if, somehow, you could communicate with someone who had lived in a different time from you. Or, to be more precise, someone who is alive now but you could communicate with them when they were a completely different age from what they are now. Sound complicated? Well, yes, it is a bit! Or it was when I was writing it, anyway. Spending a year figuring out how to make everything add up so that my characters could successfully travel backwards and forwards in time, with not only the past affecting the present, but the present affecting the past as well, left my brain spinning and bedraggled! It was one of the hardest tasks I’ve ever undertaken.

But as with lots of things, the harder the task, the more satisfying it is when it’s done. And if you get to read it, I hope you’ll agree and find it a satisfying read as well!

And maybe it’ll get you thinking, too. What if you could talk to someone who’d lived in a different era? Or perhaps you could meet up with someone you know in your life today, but when they are much older – or younger – than they are now. Who would you choose? What would you say to them? What might change as a result of your conversation?

Makes you think, doesn’t it…


NORTH OF NOWHERE by Liz Kessler is published by Orion Children’s Books on 24 January in hardback at £9.99 



BREAKING NEWS:
But wait, we're not done yet, theres a Young Writers Competition in conjunction with "The Guardian" the details are:

"The competition is open to all writers aged 8-13 who need to finish the story (which is the opening paragraph of NORTH OF NOWHERE) in 500 words or less. Entries are open from 17 January 2013 – 28 March 2013. The winner will have their story published on the Guardian Children’s Books website, will win a digital camera as well as £100 worth of Orion Children’s Books for their school library.

The competition will be launched on the Guardian Childrens Books website on 17 January:  http://www.guardian.co.uk/childrens-books-site"