The time-travel short story
Intro:
This is a genre-blending time-travel novel that follows Anita, a young archaeology student in Tübingen, who wakes up one morning to find herself transported to 13th-century Swabia. Armed only with her modern knowledge and a solar-charger for her phone, she must navigate the medieval world and its power struggles – most notably the budding crusade involving a young Byzantine prince. As history unfolds before her, Anita faces a heart-wrenching dilemma: Should she intervene and try to prevent a catastrophe she knows is coming? Or let the past play out as it always has?
I wrote this story because I’ve long been fascinated by Byzantine history. Also, I spent years immersed in the story of Alexios Angelos, writing both a movie script and a long epic tale (still unpublished). While working on these, I often reflected on his life and personality, and on why the events may have played out the way they did.
In this novel, by placing the story of the prince within a fictional frame, I was able to ask not only what happened, but how we choose to interpret it. It’s a subtle challenge to the mainstream historical narrative, I admit.
It took me about a month to write the novel, and many more months to refine it. The original Hungarian version is also published, see here. The English version was reviewed by a good friend whose knowledge I deeply trust. I didn’t feel like chasing agents or going through endless review cycles, so I chose to publish it myself.
A printed edition is not planned at this time, but I may decide to release it later.
Enjoy the adventure, and leave a review! <3
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