Hi Robin, What a masterful creation! The lucky teens and college student to be part of these questions and imaginations through time. The generosity to bring this to us. I'm blown away by the possibilities here to inspire not only a better tomorrow but an all new wider lens to view all of life through.
Thank you, Prajna. It’s been a passion project of mine for a very long time! I hope you’ll check out the web site to read some of the stories by my young contributors. They blow me away with some of their insights!
What a wonderful initiative, Robin. I love what you're doing with students! I also really appreciate the spirit of generosity in this post, beginning with a reference to another writer's work. It's funny that your question (where and when would you love to go) stumps me a little, since I also write fiction set back in time. I feel like I lived for years in late-19th century Toronto while writing The Shining Fragments. More recently, I inhabited that city during the 1910s and '20s, while writing River of Dreams. Between books, I'm in a waiting zone. However recently, I've been feeling pulled to re-explore the 1970s. While my fiction is for adults, the two novels I've written so far begin with a child's story. It would be fun to go back to the time in which I grew up. What about you?
Living in late 19th century Toronto to create an experience of that for your readers—what was that experience like, Robin?
I feel like I have never stopped time traveling - since I am working on the latest book in the series takes me to 20th-century NYC, I’ve gone back to the Jazz Age, and the Harlem Renaissance. For my ancestor memoir about my grandmother’s emigration from the Jewish Pale of Settlement in Russia to America in 1893, it’s experiencing what, to us, feels like slow travel—overland by cart, across the Atlantic in steerage by steamship, by riverboat down the Ohio River, first to Kentucky, then across the river to Cincinnati where she landed and my mother grew up (and so did I).
So these are the moments I am exploring in my writing, but also trying to stay grounded in the here-and-now so I don’t miss out on it.
Writing and time traveling, my main takeaway is that time is what we make of it—not in the cliched sense, but in how we are living through it.
Your writing experiences sound fascinating, Robin. I look forward to reading your new book! And I’d love to know more about your series, so please send me a link. I also think your project about your grandmother’s immigration story sounds intriguing. Will you be sharing more of her story on Substack? I hope so. ✍❤
As for living in late Victorian Toronto, it was a labour of love and something I kept coming back to over the years during my school holidays. (Recently, I wrote about the early stages of that project here on Substack: “Inviting the Mysterious & Embracing the Fantastic.”) I’m a resource gatherer—notes, historical books, photocopied city maps, plans, etc. And I spent a lot of time walking the city streets and at the reference library.
Thanks for asking about my books in the EOY series: Edge of Yesterday, Da Vinci's Way, Saving Time and Find Me in the Time Before. Here's a link for more about the series: https://edgeofyesterdaybooks.com, with purchase links on Amazon and BN
Hi Robin, What a masterful creation! The lucky teens and college student to be part of these questions and imaginations through time. The generosity to bring this to us. I'm blown away by the possibilities here to inspire not only a better tomorrow but an all new wider lens to view all of life through.
Thank you.
Thank you, Prajna. It’s been a passion project of mine for a very long time! I hope you’ll check out the web site to read some of the stories by my young contributors. They blow me away with some of their insights!
What a wonderful initiative, Robin. I love what you're doing with students! I also really appreciate the spirit of generosity in this post, beginning with a reference to another writer's work. It's funny that your question (where and when would you love to go) stumps me a little, since I also write fiction set back in time. I feel like I lived for years in late-19th century Toronto while writing The Shining Fragments. More recently, I inhabited that city during the 1910s and '20s, while writing River of Dreams. Between books, I'm in a waiting zone. However recently, I've been feeling pulled to re-explore the 1970s. While my fiction is for adults, the two novels I've written so far begin with a child's story. It would be fun to go back to the time in which I grew up. What about you?
Living in late 19th century Toronto to create an experience of that for your readers—what was that experience like, Robin?
I feel like I have never stopped time traveling - since I am working on the latest book in the series takes me to 20th-century NYC, I’ve gone back to the Jazz Age, and the Harlem Renaissance. For my ancestor memoir about my grandmother’s emigration from the Jewish Pale of Settlement in Russia to America in 1893, it’s experiencing what, to us, feels like slow travel—overland by cart, across the Atlantic in steerage by steamship, by riverboat down the Ohio River, first to Kentucky, then across the river to Cincinnati where she landed and my mother grew up (and so did I).
So these are the moments I am exploring in my writing, but also trying to stay grounded in the here-and-now so I don’t miss out on it.
Writing and time traveling, my main takeaway is that time is what we make of it—not in the cliched sense, but in how we are living through it.
I remember seeing someone doing a Kickstarter around an inventor’s the design of a timekeeping device that tracks the seasons. He calls it, The Present. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/scottthrift/the-present/description
A reminder that we race through life missing out on the present moment, which is where time and space intersect in our lives moment-by-moment.
Slowing down our ever-accelerating race through this life—experiencing the present— a gift.
Your writing experiences sound fascinating, Robin. I look forward to reading your new book! And I’d love to know more about your series, so please send me a link. I also think your project about your grandmother’s immigration story sounds intriguing. Will you be sharing more of her story on Substack? I hope so. ✍❤
As for living in late Victorian Toronto, it was a labour of love and something I kept coming back to over the years during my school holidays. (Recently, I wrote about the early stages of that project here on Substack: “Inviting the Mysterious & Embracing the Fantastic.”) I’m a resource gatherer—notes, historical books, photocopied city maps, plans, etc. And I spent a lot of time walking the city streets and at the reference library.
"Resource gatherer." I love that! Can't wait to check it out so I can join in the time travels. I have written a bit about my process of writing Grandma Sophie's story here: https://remembertheworld.substack.com/p/ghost-writer, and here: https://remembertheworld.substack.com/p/unearthing-the-past
Thanks for asking about my books in the EOY series: Edge of Yesterday, Da Vinci's Way, Saving Time and Find Me in the Time Before. Here's a link for more about the series: https://edgeofyesterdaybooks.com, with purchase links on Amazon and BN
Wonderful, Robin. I'll check out the links you shared. Happy writing. ♥️