Inkabout L. Darby Gibbs

Science Fiction & Fantasy author

rules

Excuses, excuses, and no more excuses.

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One simple rule.

I have had several rules over the years that have served me very well. One rule is that if I have a goal, I should never stop pursuing it. This rule has a kissing cousin that follows the same determination just replace “goal” with “habit.” It is my belief that once you turn away from a goal however briefly or take a break from the habit, then you have opened wide the probability that you will cease the pursuit or will falter in maintaining the habit. To not continue means I came up with a plausible excuse, and I will come up with more.

So a few weeks ago my computer hard drive flat lined (the black screen of doom). I sought immediate assistance from my local computer guru.  She sent me to Best Buy Geeks when her skills at resuscitation failed to bring it back or recover my files.

The Geeks saved my files, and I purchased a new hard drive. I then located another operating system and tracked down the various programs I had loaded.  All well and good.

But it took more than three weeks to pull this all together.  Excuse number one: I can’t write a post and upload it if I don’t have my computer.

Medical issues of the family sort came up in three different versions.  Excuse number two: I am so stressed waiting for results and imagining how bad this and that could get.

School took on another level of demand. Excuse number three: I have to get this grading done, plan for next week and coach my students for competition. I haven’t any time.

Lack of communication between siblings wreaked havoc on my decision-making apparatus (known as the brain to common folk). Excuse number four: My extended family is twisting me in knots.

And the list got longer as did the time since I last posted to my blog or I last wrote something for my new book.

My rule has been for the most part rarely tested. Never longer than a day ….. until now. I kept coming up with excuses and buying every last one of them.

The computer is fixed; medical issues are under treatment and improving by the day; communication is still lax, but I am not letting that stop me from dealing with what must be dealt with; and here I am writing a post about not writing posts because I let one excuse turn into many.

So new rule: No Excuses.

 How do you keep yourself on track?

If you travel back in time, you better know the rules

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PhotoTime Travel has rules, but they vary by user, which is the
point of this post.  I have read a lot of
time travel novels over the years and gotten into a few strange conversations
with my husband. He views me as a sort of armchair specialist in this
area.  Well, I do talk a good talk, but
in reality, forward or backward, I find it just as confusing as the next
person.
  1. You can go back,
    but everything you do is already done according to the future you are a part
    of.
  2. You can go back,
    but everything you do will change what has already occurred in the future you
    are a part of, so be prepared for huge change.
  3. You can go back
    but only as an observer because time has a mechanism to keep you from changing
    anything.
  4. You can go back, but any changes you make will create an
    alternate universe running alongside the one that was and still is in existence,
    but you probably won’t know that and therefore won’t be concerned.  If you are aware of the new universe(s), it
    will either bother you because you really messed up or make you happy because
    what changed worked out well for you or those you love.
  5. You can go back,
    make change, return and live to enjoy it. 
    But be careful, some things are dependent on other events you altered
    along the way.
  6. You can go back; it’s the return that is tricky.   Good luck with that one. 
  7. You can go back, but avoid running into your self who you might not get along with, may cause serious problems for, might endanger by making people angry at the other you thinking you’re her/him, and it just gets crazy from there.
  8.  This is the one my
    time travel novels are based on:  You can
    go back, but we all make mistakes and those are the things that just keep
    tagging along, baggage we have to face because for the time traveler every move
    is still forward.

Add to my list:  what
other time travel rules have you noted while reading or writing the genre?