As the title says this contains spoilers for the story Tomorrow's Daughter. If you haven't read the story yet, and don't want spoilers, scroll on down to the bottom of the page and you'll find the links to the story chapters.
As readers will have found Tomorrow's Daughter is a time travel story. I'm not keen on time-travel tales because they (this one included) mostly ignoring how objects move not only in time, but also space. That being said, I've written three of them. One attempts to deal with the issue of moving in space and time, the other one uses the same purple lightning as in this story to bend time. Of the three, the two with the purple hand-wavium method of altering time have the most emotional heft (for me). I think it's because I'm not worried about the mechanics of the story, but the heart of it.
When you start messing with time-travel in a story you run up against paradoxes. One of the best known is the Grandfather Paradox. I've read and watched films where this is used, where altering something in the past affects not just the life of the MC, but the whole world - or alternatively, their actions produce no difference in the future because their actions in the past is what caused the future.
Another time-travel feature that many books and films look at is the time loop. Tomorrow's Daughter is very much a time loop story, and closed loop at that. The end of the story is the beginning of Ursula's story. There is a version of this tale which never got past the planning stage which opens the loop up by having Ursula not be her own mom but it still loops because, while the father changes every time, the circumstances which lead the mother from South Carolina to California and the daughter from California to South Carolina remain similar. In the end I backed away from writing it as, while I feel it is a great idea, I'm not sure I have the chops to write it. Maybe, one day.
So, now the time travel is out the way, let's look at the foundation of the story. It's set in a time of COVID. Well, since 2020, we are in that time. Indeed, it was in 2021 that the story was conceived. There was plotting and planning and 'how long will this story be' going on for quite a time. It took many months for the tale to be written out on a first draft. It has been tweaked with, and tinkered with, and it even got submitted to some SF magazines and anthologies - without acceptance.
The intial conception of the story was set in 2020 but I felt sliding it forward twenty years allowed me more lattitude in events which are small underpinnings of the wider world. Let's look at some of them.
South Greenland Icesheet - there is no such distinction, it is the Greenland Icesheet, and it is shedding ice in a manner which has everyone watching worried. About 1.6% of Greenland's ice had gone in the past thirty years, but the rate of loss is accelerating.
For the story I didn't look at specific effects of rising sea levels, though have done for others, instead I went for some iconic places which could be affected by such - New York and the Florida Keys. The idea is these would resonate with readers as they are generally familiar to many readers.
With the sea level rises one thing I do is assume California and South Carolina would seek to retain their iconic beaches, even as they move inland. By using beaches that we know today it's possible to give a locale, and attentive readers will dwell on how the recreation of these beaches above their current positions is an allegory for how the current world is likely to seek a pretend status quo even as things are constantly changing.
Amongst the things I created, or thought I created, I need to mention the North Myrtle Beach Women's Club. I should have checked such a society doesn't exist before taking their name in vain. Though I think June-Ann represent's their ideals and maybe future them just never recieved Ursula's request for information.
One of the key sub-strands of the story is Ursula's mom's truck. Indeed, vehicles have a pretty big role. Because it was originaly conceived as a 2020 story referencing a Fusion and a Mustang didn't feel wrong, I'm not sure Ford will hold on to the Fusion brand for another 20 years. I do love the vehicle Ursula and her mom head of on their trip in. The self-driving machine in which folks can rest and watch the world as they move along is much more gentle than many depictions of self-driving vehicles, but it's definitely one I want.
And, as for Ursula's mom's machine, alert readers may have tied 2020 and the Cybertruck together. The initial vibe anout the machine may have since faded when faced with the reality of what it acutally is, but the idea was too embedded in the story to completely lose. Suggesting a regenerative body does that nicely.
What else is there? If you wonder why only England and Wales are spoken of when rejoining the European Union, that subtly suggests Ireland has reunited, and Scotland has attained independance.
If you have any other questions about the story, hit me up and I'll do the best to answer them.
Part One Here
Part Two Here
Part Three Here
Part Four Here
Part Five Here
Part Six Here
text by stuartcturnbull picture by AberrantRealities via Pixabay