Across the Universes

All week I've felt mentally tapped out, at least as far as writing is concerned. I blame the amount of energy and focus that writing Vivat Regina so quickly demanded. But I really have to move on and get working on other things. But all I want to do is mess around with my timelines and lists, which are interesting and occasionally useful as supplemental for my writing, but ultimately does not progress any projects. Still, at least it's getting me thinking.

It was suggested to me once by Jami Brandli, one of my excellent writing mentors at Lesley, that the Mrs. Hawking stories should exist in the same universe as the Tailor at Loring's End and Mrs. Loring. They don't have much to do with each other and they are set in fairly distinct milieus, but they both take place in more or less the real world and deal with somewhat similar ideas-- they tend to be mysteries, and deal with themes like societal injustice, classism, and feminism. So there's certainly something appealing about the idea. Thinking about it, the one other story-world of mine that I think could integrate into those others is The Stand. It's another historical fiction that takes place in more or less the real world. I like the idea of connections, that these various characters and story that I'm interested in could relate to each other in some way-- maybe even meet.

The timelines do overlap a bit, but they are offset enough to curtail character interactions between the three. Space also makes for a real divide. The Stand takes place in 1849 in California, Mrs. Hawking in 1880s London, and Tailor at Loring's End in Connecticut of 1934. To illustrate the point, it turns out that Mary Stone and Reginald Loring, patriarch of one of the important families in the Fairfield universe, are about the same age. Which means, for example, if I ever wanted the leads of Mrs. Hawking and of The Tailor of Loring's End to meet, Mary would be an old woman, and Mrs. Hawking herself probably wouldn't be alive anymore.

But I would like to figure out some way to make connections between them. Character appearances, family relationships, that sort of thing. Bernie suggested that maybe Alice Loring from Tailor would be a good candidate for Mary's eventual recruitment, when she assembles a team of heroic women. I also like the idea of some cool American cowboy-- or more likely, cowgirl --showing up in London and bringing an adventure to Mrs. Hawking. Those two stories are thirty years, a continent, and an ocean apart, but perhaps an aged version of someone in The Stand-- Clarissa Dunn? Kit Harlow? --or even one of their descendants. I'm not sure what the best way to do it is, but I would like to figure it out.