Technically the contest isn’t over until May 31, but I recently compiled the preliminary results, and thought I’d share some of them. (I’ll pick the winner on the 31st, of course, so if you haven’t entered, there’s still time!)

How many of the contest entrants believe in time travel – i.e. that it is theoretically possible, whether or not it’s possible in our present time:
14 said YES, 12 said MAYBE, 26 said NO.

That’s right, 26. Half of the respondents are nonbelievers. I’m very surprised.

But tons of you believe there’s intelligent life on other planets:
30 said YES, 8 said MAYBE, only 12 said NO.

I expected more of a correlation between TT and ET. Hmmm….

Oh, and if you could time travel to the PAST or the FUTURE, only 5 would choose the future. That surprised me too!

I’ll save the ghost/reincarnation stats for another post.

BTYL,
Kate

Livejournal’s charming and talented mizkit (a.k.a. author C.E. Murphy; a.k.a. Bombshell author Cate Dermody; a.k.a. my friend Catie) has sent some provocative answers to my contest questions.

She agreed to let me post them here, so let’s use them as discussion points, shall we?

In regard to time travel, mizkit answers thusly:

1. Do you believe time travel is possible? ...you know, I don't think I ever *really* thought about that before. Offhand, my answer is no. I want it to be, but no. But on the other hand, I actually do think time and space are fluid and we see them as linear because it's one of our methods for coping (I am gorgeously reminded of a moment in Doctor Who, where the companion has been sent away from the danger and her family are trying to reassure her that all the trouble is happening a billion years from now, and she says, "*No*, it's happening *right now*, and I can't *do* anything about it!" I think that's true.), and so suddenly I realize that yeah, actually, I /do/ think it's *possible*. We just don't have the tech for it. And when I say tech, I mean any sufficiently advanced science is indistinguishable from magic, and vice versa.

Don’t you love that answer? She starts out with "no" then proceeds to talk herself into it. That's imagination at work!

I particularly like the path she takes, because it’s so similar to the one I experienced. I started out writing TT when I wasn’t really sure it was possible, although I fervently wanted it to be. So my first TTs had a mystical element to them.

Then one day on the news, I heard a story about scientists watching through a super-telescope as a solar system on the other side of the universe was forming before their eyes. The announcer explained that this solar system was actually born millions of years ago but since it takes light so long to travel from one end of the U to the other, we couldn’t actually see it until now. For us on earth, it was virtually happening in the present.

Just like the companion from Dr. Who said. And she should know, because she travels back and forth all the time!

What does this tell me?

Simple. The scientific community really isn’t trying hard enough. Most of them say human TT is impossible. But obviously, the answer is right there in front of their eyes (and it starts with c). They should stop celebrating these minor successes about spots on Jupiter and such. It’s time to take off their party hats, put down their cosmos (;-)), and get back to work.

Anyhow, ever since I heard that news story, I’ve been a believer, and my new TT stories reflect that.

Meanwhile, as mizkit so wisely said, science and magic are indistinguishable for now. Just the way sending voices through the air was only possible by magic until recently.

And maybe we shouldn’t be in such a hurry for things to change. Who wants magic crowded out of our lives? Not I!

More from mizkit later. For now, send in those entries! Or use the comment feature if you prefer. I’m dying to know what you think about TT.

Kate

p.s. You can visit mizkit's website: here (where you will find excerpts from her stories!)

p.p.s. Do I really think scientists drink cosmopolitans? Probably not. I’m guessing rum-and-diet-coke for everyday, and champagne from a box for big events. (Can you tell I’m upset with them for dissing TT?)

Well, I just emailed my new Time Travel proposal to my agent. Yay! Not to mention, whew! I’ve been worrying this one to death for some reason -–oh, probably because I feel like my entire career is riding on it. Yep, that’s it.

So congratulate me. It’s not the biggest milestone in the world, but lately I feel like I haven’t accomplished anything at all writing-wise, so this feels huge. Plus, as you probably know if you visit here very often, I’m insanely in love with this particular story. This story, along with my “chick lit legal thriller” and NIGHT ARROW, are the ones I’m most hung up on at the present time. If one of those three hits, I’ll be deliriously happy.

If not, I’ll survive (why do I hear karaoke music in the background? Hmmm….)

Thanks for listening. I’ll be back in a while with a new movie review – THE DEPARTED. Another one that my husband dragged me to, kicking and screaming, and then –

Well, I’ll tell you in a minute.

Kate