Time Travel Stories

Writer's Journal: I thought I was drafting The Adjusters #25 these days, but it turns out I'm drafting #26, and I'll need to go back and do both #24 and #25 next. At least, I know what the sex scene for #26 is—or at least I thought I did, since it is morphing just as I'm writing it. Funny how that goes.

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Real life has kept me busy this week, so I do not have a lot to talk about.

Still, I can give it the old college try. (Weird expression, that one, by the way—as if college was the first place where you get to try to do something even though you don't really know how to do it—sounds like much of my grade school experience, frankly.)

A week ago, I mentioned one of my favorite classic story on StoriesOnline, namely Al Steiner's Doing it All Over: "Have you ever wished you could go back to your teens and re-live your life, knowing what you know now? Bill Stevens, a burned-out, 31 year old paramedic, made such a wish one night. Only his came true." As I said then, this is a wonderful romantic story, with real characters and a fairly realistic treatment, after one gets over the fantastic opening element. Al Steiner is a wonderful writer.

The funny thing is that this last week, I remembered that there was another story with that general theme, that of going back in time and reliving your life, using what you've learned the first time around to avoid the mistakes you did the first time around and make your life so much better. I have to admit it's a rather irresistible fantasy, one that probably every one of us has had at some point or another in our life, generally when reflecting back over the one that got away, or just wondering about those doors that we closed while choosing—wisely or not—to open others.

And thus (cue-in Ira Glass's voice in your ear for maximum freakiness) I present you two other stories on that theme.

Rlfj gives us A Fresh Start: "Aladdin's Lamp sends me back to my teenage years. Will I make the same mistakes, or new ones, and can I reclaim my life?" This one is a bit of a tougher sell for me, but you may like it. Give it a try. The biggest sticking point I have is that the hero is a bit too together when he goes back in time. On the other hand, he does deliver quite a few bits of revenge that will have any reader that has ever been bullied cheering in the stands.

The second story I have not read yet. I ran across it last night, bookmarked it, and will enjoy it (or not!) leisurely in the coming weeks—probably sending it over to the Kindle, which I've been sorely neglecting lately, poor girl. It's by Coaster2, and is called Repeat Performance: "Lee North suffers a fifty year setback after an accident. Fifty years into his past, he's having to start his life over again. It wasn't going to turn out the way it did the first time." Coaster2 seems to have a bunch of other stories that look interesting, so I'm hoping I've just discovered an author I enjoy.

Any other stories on the going-back-in-time-to-relive-one's-life theme that I've missed and that you'd like to suggest? Please do so in the comments below. I'm always on the lookout for good hot stories.