Entering the Time Machine

I've never been to any of my high school reunions. Most of my friends from school wouldn't be present for various reasons or weren't in my graduating class. I'm not even sure where my best friend from high school is now because she seems to be off the grid, which is mysterious and cool in a way that likely would have greatly pleased the teen versions of ourselves.

Another reason I don't go to my reunions is because a lot of the best times in my youth happened in Mississippi instead of the town in Alabama where I went to school. Luckily, my cousin has been my best friend since I was 14, so I still have someone to share those memories with me. We've often wished we could go back in time and relive a few of those moments.

It finally dawned on me that we can...because, DUH! I'm a writer!

My current work in progress takes me back to old friends and great memories from the 80s (even though my book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons living or dead is entirely coincidental). I'm fortunate that I have my cousin and a couple of our other friends from back in the day to help fill in the gaps of things I've forgotten (but for the most part, my memories of decades ago are clearer than things that happened last week--isn't it funny how that works?). 

When COVID shut down schools, my husband set up a desk for me back in our bedroom so that I could close the door and get some quiet writing space while the kids were home. Now that schools are open again, I'm mostly back to my "office" (a corner of our kitchen), but I kept the other table set up. Now when I close the door to our room to work, I tell whichever of our kids happens to be around, "I'm entering the time machine. I'll see you when I get back to 2021." 

It may sound silly, but this has been great for my headspace as an author. When I close that door, I really do mentally put aside everything from now and fully immerse myself in the world of my book. 

I'm hoping that once my book is finished, it will be its own time machine, set for 1986. I've been hanging out in '86 off and on for nearly a year now, and it's a wonderful time to be alive. 

Ginger Rue's current book, Wonder Women of Science, is co-authored with rocket scientist Tiera Fletcher, who is currently working with NASA on the Mars mission. The book profiles a dozen amazing women (besides Tiera!) who are blazing new trails in their respective STEM fields.