Welcome to the second part
of the
For the second part of this three part post, I would like to share the second book in the series, Michelle Madow talks about reincarnation and we learn the fates of the characters' past lives.
Vengeance
Transcend Time #2
Michelle Madow
Book DescriptionHow far would you go to get revenge?
When Chelsea Givens discovered that her ex-boyfriend Drew dumped her to be with her former best friend Lizzie, she'd never felt so betrayed in her life. Then her new friend Shannon tells her she can help set things right. Chelsea's willing to listen, but what Shannon wants her to believe -- that she shared a past life with Drew -- is impossible. And what she wants her to do to get him back … well, it's downright crazy.
Could Shannon be telling the truth? And if she is, what lengths will Chelsea go if it means making Lizzie pay?
Find out in Vengeance, the second part of the Transcend Time Saga.
*Vengeance is the short story that bridges the events in Remembrance and the final novel in the Saga.
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Reincarnation in the Transcend Time SagaAn explanation of how reincarnation works in the seriesby Michelle Madow
To write the Transcend Time Saga, I had to create my own version of reincarnation. The first thing I did was research reincarnation on the Internet. Even though I don’t personally believe in reincarnation, I had fun learning about it. There are tons of websites on the topic—from ancient Buddhist beliefs to people who claim there are scientific ways to prove reincarnation. It was interesting doing the research, but I came across a problem: Nothing was fitting into the story I had started to create about Lizzie and Drew.
Then I realized something: Remembrance was going to be a work of FICTION, so I was free to create my own version of reincarnation!
The main thing I knew about Lizzie’s story was that she had a dramatic early death in her first life that made it so she couldn’t be with her soul mate, Drew. She and the people close to her who were negatively impacted by her death had been reincarnated to set things right. I decided to create my own version of reincarnation that revolved around that idea.
I created a Word document with bullet points describing the important aspects of reincarnation in the Transcend Time Saga. This document is called “Reincarnation Rules,” and this is the first time I am sharing it with readers.
Here are some of the basic Reincarnation Rules in the Transcend Time Saga:
1) The only reason a person will be reincarnated is if they have to change something dramatic that left them unfulfilled in their past life. They continue being reincarnated until they do this.
2) Most people are not reincarnated. Once they live one life, they go to Nirvana. Most people living on Earth are “New Souls.”
3) Major events in present day lives parallel past lives, so people will be thrown into situations with other reincarnated souls from their past.
4) Their physical features are similar to those they had in their past lives, although not so similar that they look the exact same.
5) A big part of initially remembering a past life is a recognition of the soul of a person they had a positive deep connection to, usually a soul mate. (In Lizzie’s case, this person was Drew.) If you were friends with someone in a past life (like Lizzie/Chelsea and Elizabeth/Catherine), you will feel very close to that person, but they will not trigger memories of the past to return.
6) Objects from the past will also serve as triggers. (Lizzie loved Pride and Prejudice in her past life, so reading the book for her English class triggered her memories. Drew built the music box for Lizzie in his past life, so seeing the music box again triggered his memories.) However, people usually believe their memories to be figments of their imaginations until they meet the person who is their “big trigger.”
7) A soul can only reincarnate into the same species it started in. (You cannot be a human in one life and a dog in the next.)
8) People remember images and scenes—they very rarely remember full conversations. They can, however, remember their feelings from those conversations.
9) People don't reincarnate immediately. They reincarnate during a good time for them to complete whatever it is they need to do to sort out the issues they had in their past life. Plus, if a spirit went through something traumatic in their life (usually resulting in death), they need time to recover.
10) Reincarnees have Memory Guides that help them remember their past life so they can make changes in their current life. These Memory Guides have been reincarnated, and successfully fixed what they needed to. They go through training, and then come into the Reincarnee’s life when they are ready to remember their past life.
After I had those basic ideas, Lizzie and Drew’s story pieced together as I wrote. I outlined the book before writing the draft, but it was still fun to see their story unfold.
Before Lizzie, Drew, and Chelsea went back in time to change the past, here is what happened to their past selves:
Lizzie: She was reincarnated because she died too early in the past, and never had time to be with her soul mate, Drew.
Drew: He made a massive mistake in his past life that led to Lizzie getting into the carriage with James, which caused her death. He never forgave himself, and could never be with his soul mate because she was dead. He married Catherine, and was miserable and depressed for the rest of his life. The two of them never had children because he wanted nothing to do with her.
Chelsea: Her past self, Catherine, ended up lonely and depressed when Drew married her after Lizzie died. Drew never loved her, and she was never able to find her soul mate because she was married to him and miserable. Since Drew gave her no attention, she had many affairs, which destroyed her reputation.
Jeremy: His past self, James, blamed himself for Lizzie’s death since he was driving the carriage. He never forgave himself. He became an alcoholic, obese, and wasted away his fortune to gambling. His destructive ways never allowed him to be with his soul mate, Kate.
Keelie: Keelie’s soul mate is Jeremy, although they are not meant to be together until the end of college, once he has time to mature and become a better person. Her past self, Kate, never ended up with her soul mate James because of his self-destructive behavior.
See how their stories connect in the past and the present? Luckily, once Lizzie, Drew, and Chelsea succeeded in their mission of changing the past, those destinies never occurred.
About the AuthorMichelle Madow was inspired to write Remembrance after seeing Taylor Swift's "Love Story" music video while a junior at Rollins College in Winter Park, FL. The song and video gave her the story idea about a high school girl reincarnated from Regency Era, England. She handed in the first chapter as a homework assignment for class, and when her teacher and classmates wanted her to continue writing, she decided to go for it. By the end of the school year, her first novel was completed!Michelle graduated from the Park School of Baltimore in 2005, where she always took two English classes each semester. She graduated from Rollins College in 2010, cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in English. At Rollins she was a member of the National Society of Collegiate Scholars, and a member of the International English Honor Society Sigma Tau Delta.She received the Charles Hyde Pratt Award for Excellence in Creative Writing in 2010.For more information on Michelle and her books, please visit www.michellemadow.com.Michelle lives in Florida, where she is hard at work writing more novels for young adults.
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