Memories

First things first....I sent a manuscript off! It can take up to three months to receive an answer, and while I am realistic about the outcome, I am so very excited that I finally got to this point! I never thought I would take my writing in this direction, and I couldn't be more excited about it.

These last couple of weeks have been full of many emotions. I have been immeasurably happy, I have felt sadness for a dear friend, nervousness over new beginnings, but most of all, I have felt incredibly nostalgic these days.

Memories are all that we have to hold on to in the end. This week, through an array of different events, I have spent a lot of time in the past. Whether it was brought on by a baseball game, a graduation, or a loss no one could control, the memories came flooding back, and I embraced them wholeheartedly. They made me laugh, and some broke my heart at times. But I have come to understand that we remember those memories because they remind us of who we are. They remind us that there are always going to be bad days, but better days will follow. They remind us that we must never lose hope in the ability of humanity to continue to love us long after we are gone.

What you may have already deduced from the title of this blog is that my book has to do with being forgotten. Well, in fact, the book is called, The Forgotten. I think one of the biggest concerns as a human is how you will be remembered after you are gone. We take great comfort in the fact that we leave behind a family to remember us, and that we have technology to help us to remember those who are gone. 

It is because of this that I have decided to let you read a small part of my manuscript. But first, I guess I should tell you a little bit about what I have spent 2 years writing...

Sophie lives in modern day New York City. A college student out on her own, Sophie decides to take part in a psychology sleep study to earn some extra cash. But, what she thinks is an 8 hour study is much more than that. When she wakes she discovers that she is not in the world she left behind, but she is in fact 200 years in the future. Thrust into this new world, she must find a way to escape this city and save its people before the leaders find their prisoner and dispose of their mistake that they had managed to keep hidden for all of these years. 


In this small excerpt, Sophie has discovered a futuristic device that shows her memories that were otherwise forgotten by the world...

I bend over and pick up a screen, and presuming that it is another high tech computer screen that I have no business trying to use, I initially do not touch anything but the outside edge. But before I can take another step, the screen turns on suddenly, and I am met with a blue screen. After another moment, the screen changes colors to red, and my name suddenly appears scrawled across it. By the time I think to set it down, a familiar tune starts to play from the screen, and pictures appear soon after. 
Pictures of me appear: me as a baby, my senior pictures, Mom, Dad, and my siblings. All of my family flashes at me as I stand there in the dim hallway.

“What are you doing?”

Startled, I nearly drop the screen, but after regaining my composure, I turn to her quizzically.

             “Why is there music playing on a slide show of my family photos?”

            Holly stares at me for a long moment, clearly not understanding what I want.

“How is this thing,” pointing to the screen, “projecting my childhood photos 200 years after they were taken?”

“That thing is a Flashback. It is a device that channels your memories, and shows them to you when you touch it. The pictures you see are memories you have of seeing those pictures, not the actual photos you owned. The music is a reflection of those memories, it is a reflection of your childhood memory of whatever you see and hear. I am sure that if you touch it again, a different song will play, and different photos will appear.”

“So there isn’t some place in this city that houses all of my childhood photos and home movies?”

“No, what would we need those for? We have the Flashbacks, they help us remember everything.”

I look down once more at the screen, and indeed, I see a new set of pictures. The time my dad took me to see a musical flashes across the screen, and I watch my favorite number in its entirety. My mother sings in the kitchen while making my favorite cookies. 

“Are you coming to dinner?” Holly interrupts my thoughts....