Monday, February 13, 2012

Forsaken Harbor Blog Tour: Guest Post



Today we are joined by the fabulous Laura Kreitzer. The latest book in her series the Summer Chronicles, Forsaken Harbor, comes out this month. Laura graciously agreed to give us a little more incite in the elusive Secret Clock Society. I hope you all enjoy: 


The Secret Clock Society is a group of scientists who have been creating and experimenting on projects for years, all in the hopes of one day traveling time and creating their own world sans current government influence and interference. The creation of this group started during the talks of witches and magic in the late 1600s, and ever since they have been doing everything in their power to find a way scientifically--once called "magic"--to travel time.
I'm not even sure where the initial idea of this group came from, to be honest. When I first started writing Phantom Universe, the name of this group wasn't formed. I called them the society, and after much deliberation on this secret society that created Summer, the name--as obvious as it is--came to me. 

Creating the Secret Clock Society all started with a "what if" question. That's how most of my stories and creations begin. This one started with: what if there was a group of scientists who wanted to travel time? What if they discovered the only way to travel time was through a sentient, biological creature, otherwise known as a human? What if that isn't all they want? What if they also want to start their own society? From there I had to answer these many "what if" questions (and there were a lot of them), and then the ideas continuously flowed. On top of their want to travel time, they have a myriad of other experiments, projects, and social experiments so they could one day create the perfect manipulated and mutated society. Their role in the Summer Chronicles is barely the tip of the proverbial iceberg. 

Summer Waverly, a time traveler and the Society's creation, is the main focus in the Summer Chronicles. Her story, however, is more interesting than the circumstances of her creation. When she was four, her creator and mother discovered that the Society planned to terminate Summer after realizing they made a disastrous error in their initial calculations for time traveling. Summer's mum takes Summer and runs, but the Society is ready. They hire human traffickers to abduct Summer and bring her back to them. Only the traffickers get greedy and ask for more money. When the Society refuses, Summer is then whipped into silence and sold to the captain of a modern day pirate ship called the Cosmos. She remains silent for twelve years. 

The internal struggle of learning to let people in again and eventually learning to talk becomes a major plot point in this series for Summer. The psychological aspects of her character was something I researched thoroughly, and I also spoke with a few people who'd delete with extreme PTSD and professionals about a 16 year old girl overcoming silence that's been a constant in her life for twelve years. Summer endures triumphs and setbacks, and she learns to trust again. As small as some of these steps seem, they are monumental for her. 

During this series, we see two wars waging: the internal one and the outside influence of the Society who is trying to find and capture Summer. I hope that my readers will see beyond the science fiction and into the souls of the characters I created, be it Summer or the Secret Clock Society. As this series continues to unfold, those reading will eventually see how one tiny slave girl can turn into a confident and powerful adversary to the Secret Clock Society. 

Thanks for having me on your blog. :)

Thank you Laura! And please be sure to check back everyone for my review of Forsaken Harbor to come.

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