Time’s Wicked Warped

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by Julie, wringing summer to the last

There’s a meme going around that says, roughly:

  • 1990 was 20 years ago
  • 1995 was 20 years ago
  • 2000 was 10 years ago
  • 2010 was 10 years ago
  • 2016 was a couple of years ago
  • 2019 was last year
  • 2020 was last year
  • 2021 didn’t happen
  • 2024 it’s only January

Anyone else feel like this is true? It’s all blurring together. Sure, I’m getting older. And the nieces and nephews are mostly adults now. But it’s more than that. I feel as though time has warped. The pandemic is a black hole that sucked time, so there’s that. But I also blame reading.

There are some books, like the Amelia Peabody series, that are grounded in time. But many series compress book time over a long publication history. Joanne Fluke’s Hannah Swenson series has been published over 23 years, but in book time it’s maybe five. The Vicky Bliss series was written over 35 years, but again in book time it’s five years. I love the Finlay Donovan series by Elle Cosimano. The publication dates have been over four years, but book time it’s been a few months.

I am all for suspension of disbelief and heightened reality. That’s why I love reading series. BUT I think it’s messing with my brain, and my sense of time. Characters like Mary Russell, Finlay Donovan, Amelia Peabody, Vicky Bliss–they feel real to me. I revisit them in binges. But I wonder why my life moves at a different pace, where time speeds up instead of slowing down. Where years are missed, and pockets of time feel like yesterday, but they are decades ago.

As writers, how we deal with time is a choice we make. Would that that were true in life.

Readers, is time wicked warped for you as well? How do your favorite series deal with time?

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Published by J.A. Hennrikus

One woman, three names, many books. As Julia Henry I wrote the Garden Squad series for Kensington. As J.A. Hennrikus I wrote the Theater Cop series, and as Julianne Holmes I wrote the Clock Shop series. I've been an arts administrator for my entire career, mostly in the performing arts. Currently I'm the ED of Sisters in Crime, a wonderful organization that promotes and supports crime writers. www.sistersincrime.org Connect with me on Facebook and Instagram! @JHAuthors

33 Thoughts

  1. I feel the same way, Julie. Here in Switzerland, June was cold and rainy; September is now cold and rainy, and part of August was too hot to enjoy. So the summer just flashed by. As for my own life, the older I get, the faster it flashes by. I think having at least one child in the education system gives life a stately rhythm: year after year, classes start, classes end, there are holidays and vacations. Once the nest is empty, time warps. As for the passage of time in mystery series, I appreciate the skill with which Michael Connelly has aged Harry Bosch, but I don’t need mystery characters to age realistically as long as time passes in the books. In the first four books of my Polizei Bern series (2022-2025), a year will have passed. If other writers, like Elle Cosimano, make that a few months, that’s fine with me; it just has to make sense in whatever world the writer has created.

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  2. I know the feeling! My grandgirl is almost eleven months old, and I really want it to slow down. I’m trying to spend time with her every week or two so I don’t miss anything and suddenly she’s in kindergarten – or college. Kim has a good point about the school year anchoring us – until we’re no longer involved in that world.

    Book time – OMG. In my own series, part of the project notes I carry over to each new book is a series timeline. I have to know when it started in terms of my protag’s life, and when each book happens. The 13th Country Store, Scone Cold Dead, comes out in March. Book #1 released in 2015, but only four years (I think) have elapsed in book time.

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  4. I’m with you, Julie. Perhaps this time warping phenomenon is part of the gift of growing old? I choose to see it that way. One series character who hasn’t been given the gift of aging is M. C. Beaton’s Agatha Raisin, forever fifty-three-years old. While I enjoyed being 53 (that was yesterday, right?), I’m glad I’m not stuck there.

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      1. At least with Kinsey, we knew what year it was. Each book was a few months later, so it made sense. Some series are vague about it, which really messes with reality.

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  6. In real life as I get older, I’m learning and understanding the old saying about the older you get the faster time flying by. Things in our memories have them feeling like they just happened yesterday. Coming events that were once months away or happening this week. How did that happen? To make it all make sense, I finally had to just take a deep breath and decide mentally to just take life as it comes – to go with the flow and not fret over the small things like time. Although as an old Army brat, it was drilled into me NEVER to be late. So there’s that and I’m right back to checking time and keeping up with it. LOL

    Love the way authors deal with it in some of my favorite series. They keep you grounded in the story with the seasons and hints like a character bringing up a memory or maybe a discussion about “the last time”. However they do it, it’s worked seamlessly into the story and keeps me on track with both events and the time frame of the story.
    2clowns at arkansas dot net

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  7. I began the Witch City Mystery series ten years ago this month. Lee was thirty in Book #1 and now in Book #15, she’s thirty-five. CarolJ.Perry

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  8. The ‘Time Warp’ meme got a chuckle out of me with ‘2021—didn’t happen.’ I swear it feels like that. I like long series. Sometimes, the series moves a year per book, which may or may not match a publishing schedule. Others, time moves seasonally, or a bit sporadically, sometimes months maybe the next time ten months. Me…? I love them all.

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  10. I’m still having trouble wrapping my brain around the fact that the 1970s were fifty years ago and that I graduated college nearly 30 years ago (30th year reunion is next year). And you mean 2024 didn’t start last month?

    In each of my series, it’s been several years since I started – but a year in each case of book time (or slightly more than a year in the Laurel Highlands series). Like Edith, I have to keep notes. But if book time was equal to real time, my mind really would be warped.

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  11. I was experiencing a time warp BEFORE Covid. That certainly didn’t help. I found it easier to keep track of when I was moving more, but I’ve been in my condo 21 years now, so that doesn’t help. Some major life events can help, but not always.

    As far as character time warps, for me one of the biggest is Mrs. Pollifax. (And I know I just referenced her in today’s Facebook post as well.) She doesn’t really age over the course of the series, but each book is set in the present political world. And the books were written over 35 years.

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      1. Yes, Mrs. Pollifax is a perfect example. And I first met her through Barbara Rosenblatt’s audiobook performance, so I agree 100% about the audiobooks being wonderful. As I get closer and closer to Mrs. Pollifax’s age, I wonder if I’d have the chutzpah she did to become an international spy. I just might give it a go…

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  12. I was struggling with the time warp BEFORE Covid hit. It helped a little when I was moving more, but I’ve been in my condo 21 years now. There are a few things that help (jobs, other life events), but it is so easy for all the years to flow together.

    I know I referenced this series in the Facebook group just now, too, but for me, one of the worst examples of time warp in a series is Mrs. Pollifax. She stays in her mid-60’s, but each book is set in a contemporary political world, and the books were written over 35 years. But, as a fan, I just accept it and enjoy.

    It’s much the same with kid’s series. The Hardys, Nancy, Encyclopedia Brown, etc. all stay the same age despite so many books being written about them. Trixie Belden got one birthday in book 10, but after that, the characters don’t age either.

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  13. I think one of the reason I get annoyed by unresolved multi-book arcs, particularly having to do with series characters’ romances, etc, is that though book time has been a few years, in my life it’s been decades. I get impatient. “For goodness sake make up your mind already!”

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      1. I find live triangles very frustrating even in one book. I can tolerate it, though. If they go into multiple books, I lose interest in the series because the triangle becomes the story and the mystery gets overwhelmed.

        Yes, at 74, times just whizzes by, so I try to make the most of every day. Sometimes that’s just lying on the sofa reading and at other times it means cramming as much as possible into each day.

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