When I sat down to decide on the revolution of days for my protagonist in Chasing Midnight, I knew I could choose any moment in a twenty-four hour period for him to catapult backward one day. For me, there was only one clear-cut choice. Midnight, the metamorphosis from one day to the next, holds a mystique other times of the day don't share.
Dawn and dusk capture our attention during moments of dazzling spectrums of light reflecting off thin, high clouds. Maybe in our fondest memories we dipped our toes into a lake and watched the last gasp of summer fade to black. Or in the darkened hours of morning, after staying awake all night out of trauma or bliss, the tangerine light on the horizon reminds us of new awakenings. New chances.
But midnight--the dark, inescapable moment between yesterday and tomorrow--is the only one powerful enough to shove us headlong into another day. While dawn and dusk can gather and stir for long stretches of time, midnight lasts only one revolution of the clock. One sixty-second interval capable of aging us, setting our course, and consuming last chances.
Midnight is a kiss on New Year's Eve. A stroke of time responsible for turning a coach to a pumpkin and a princess back to her true identity. It dances through the gardens of good and evil and is the ticking time bomb that defines every choice the hero in my novel makes.
What does midnight symbolize for you?
3 comments:
To me midnight is Unlimited Beginnings. I, personally, am the type to view the glass half full, so it's all about what midnight can bring instead of what it ends.
BTW: Ms. Time-traveler extraordinaire, please explain the movie, The Lake House, to my poor-completely-grounded-in-the-real-world brain. Watched it . . . and had more questions than answers about the whole context. You understand this stuff, so how about a blog explaining it to the rest of us!
Until later,
Sandra
I love the mystery and suspense of midnight, the hour so full of potential, whether good...or not.
Though I'm rarely awake for the hour anymore. Dawn holds my attention more these days.
I believe whole-heartedly in ghosts after having lived in a haunted house. The spectrum in the window is not a reflection.
BTW our lovely little town of Waxahachie has its own haunted hotel and the famous Catfish Plantation restaurant. Perhaps we should tour these places when y'all come for the retreat.
I can't wait to hear the stories.
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