Essentials of a Cinematic Time-Travel Novel by Jill Cooper ( 15 Minutes Blog Tour & Giveaway)

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Essentials of a Cinematic Time-Travel Novel

Guest Post by Jill Cooper

If you're like me, you've probably seen alot of time travel movies. For me, my favorite based solely on naustalgia is the Back to the Future Series. I grew up in the 1980s and it is still a favorite time period. Plus I loved the movies as a kid. One of my favorite time travel romances is Time to Remember from back in the day with Christopher Reeves and Jane Seymour.

He goes back in time. They have a whirlwind romance when he's suddenly is sent flying back into the future. He becomes so obsessed to returning to her, that he tragically dies.

I didn't base 15 MINUTES on either of these movies, but I took basic themes and incorporated them into my novel.

1) Time Travel is Dangerous: Doesn't matter if your Chris Reeves or Marty McFly disappearing because he interfered with the past, but time travel is dangerous. For Lara is slow moving time travel sickness. The human brain can't withstand the pressure of knowledge of two alternate futures in one body.

2) Dire Consequences: Marty McFly is now the object of his mother's puppy love. The world goes 'Ewwww', but I go 'oooh, possibilities! How will the future change once Lara saves her mother? What consequences has she not given any thought? Whatever they are, they need to happen.

3) Nobody likes to watch water boil: This is essential to any cinematic experience even if it's in book form. People like complex relationships, dangerous situations, and mysteries to solve. So I made sure that if it was a plausible twist to throw in the story, it's there. Lara must solve a mystery before her brain succumbs to time travel sickness leading in her death. She has to solve a mystery, and save an important family member. Only she can do it, because only she has knowledge of the past.

4) Fun: Time Travel is fun, no two ways about it. We like playing with concepts we know and spinning on their head. If you were to change your past, the fun is experiencing what you didn't experience before. So if Lara used to be a latch-key kid, poor, raised by her dad, and an only child in the future, she has to be the exact opposite. Because for her, it's unexpected and going to throw her off balance. And a time travel novel is all about being thrown off balance.

5) Truth: There has to be truth in any good romance. Marty McFly's Mom in the future is miserable. In the past, she falls for the town geek who can't take care of himself. Marty unleashes a rare truth in his dad. He doesn't believe in himself, but when he does, he's powerful and can flatten Biff when the woman he loves is in serious danger. Lara faces a lot of truths about her family, herself and who she used to be. How she'll come to terms with love and betrayal speaks volumes as she rushes towards danger. She feels responsible for the state of the future she lives in. And because of that, will risk herself to set everything right.

15 Minutes
Jill Cooper
Published: June 15, 2013
YA Time Travel

I have 15 minutes to save my mother’s life….

15 minutes is all the Rewind Agency gives you in the past, but for Lara Crane it’s enough time to race through the city, find her mother, and stop her from being killed in a mugging that happened over ten years ago.

But that’s not how it happened. The story she’s been told all her life is a lie and when Lara takes a bullet meant for her mother, her future changes forever.

The love of her life acts like a stranger. Her simple life is replaced with a giant house, glamorous clothes and a new boyfriend.

Except someone knows her secret. And he will try to stop her at every turn as she races against the clock to unravel a dangerous conspiracy.

15 Minutes is an edgy high octane YA thriller that can be described as Back to the Future meets Inception where the people Lara trusts change in an instant. She is in a timeline she doesn't understand, and is about to make one fatal mistake as she faces an enemy so familiar, he’s family.

About the Author Website | Twitter

Jill loves to blend horror, comedy, the supernatural, and love, through her novels. A fan of genre blending, her work strives to cross boundaries, but most of all strives to entertain. She loves soft cuddly cats, warm blankets, and paranormal romances. Jill resides in Massachusetts, is constantly renovating her home that she shares with her husband, young daughter, and two skittish cats.