Planetary alignment of 2000

One of the nice things about writing fiction is that you can create events to fit a narrative. Need a snowstorm to disrupt a Fourth of July picnic? Well, dial one up! Readers won't care. If your story takes place in a colder part of the world, like Montana, you won't even have to push the boundaries of plausibility. Indeed, you may not have to invent at all. In the opening chapter of The Mine, protagonist Joel Smith closely follows a TV news report about an alignment of Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn on May 29, 2000. The celestial event sends him hurtling back to 1941. In this case, fiction followed fact by only three weeks. The six planets fell into a rough alignment with each other, the Sun, and our moon on May 5, 2000. The configuration was the first of its kind in 38 years but resulted in nothing more calamitous than a few news cycles of scientific commentary. More information on the May 5 happening and its predecessors can be found at NASA.gov. The planets will not do an encore for another 426 years.

Romance Writer's Reads

Author and blogger Elise Marion The Mine today in The Romance Writer's Reads. Elise is the author of My Ex-Wife's Wedding, available at this site.

In pursuit of historical accuracy

Do facts matter in fiction? They do in historical fiction and in instances where anachronisms and inconsistencies can be serious distractions. My quest to 'get it right' in The Mine is chronicled today in a guest post on Manic Readers. The blog will run an author interview on June 26.

'To Read or Not to Read'

Does time travel have a moral and ethical component? It does if you are Joel Smith, the protagonist of The Mine. Read about his challenges in my guest post at To Read or Not to Read today. The blog also ran an author interview on April 18.