Judith Gordon
Moments in Time
… is the first volume of
The Chronicles of Eternity ~ a quartet of novels
Judith Gordon is a debut writer, but with a very unusual qualification. She has written a historical adventure set in Roman times because she was there.
After twenty years at the top of her profession as a corporate lawyer, a life-crisis fractured the surface of Judith’s busy and successful 21st century existence to reveal a ‘past life’.
The extraordinary revelation of an earlier life shared with the man she had met ‘by chance’ after her bitter and destructive divorce, has provided the gripping material for a series of historical thrillers which follow the life of Roman Centurian, Graecus, through a turbulent seven years as he discovers love and wrestles with his soul’s journey.
It is also the source of the strong spiritual message – the survival of love - that is the motive and over-riding theme of this series of novels.
…Moments in Time is an adventure story of comradeship, battle, sorcery and political and sexual intrigue at the time of the Roman Empire… told with humour. It is also a story of the enduring and transformative power of love.
It begins with a mystery - the regression experience of someone as yet unidentified - that opens the door in time, propelling the reader into Germania Inferior AD 54 where we meet Graecus in his first command post. The reader is at once drawn into a pacey historical thriller with a storyline that entices them into a vivid and convincing evocation of life at the edge of Nero’s Empire.
What makes this book different?
It combines a strong spiritual message with compelling historical adventure. Like Rosemary Sutcliffe’s Eagle of the Ninth and Sword at Sunset, it conveys the strong attachment of soldiers to their unit and to their comrades, and in the vigorous action there are echoes of Mary Renault’s The King Must Die.
But the envelope and correlative of the main narrative is the theme of reincarnation which will bring volume four of the series into the present for a dramatic and moving modern love story The Resurrection of Love.
Reader appeal…
Moments in Time has great reader appeal. It is an adult story - entertaining, simply told and accessible to a wide readership. While successful contemporaries in the genre Robert Harris (Imperium, Pompeii) and Simon Scarrow (the Eagle series) are read predominantly by men, the appeal of Moments in Time crosses gender. It is written by a woman who was, for one lifetime, a man and the action-packed and sometimes violent and explicit narrative of Roman life reflects this.
But Graecus is also a very sympathetic human character. His warmth, his doubts and lack of confidence, and the story of his love for his adoptive son, Germanicus, give the story the emotional depth that links it to its overarching theme. The message – the transformative and enduring power of love - can be understood by anyone – and there is a wealth of ‘domestic’ detail which brings history to life.
The potential market…
From Quo Vadis (1896) to Imperium (2006), novels and novel series (Colleen McCullough, Lindsey Davis, Simon Scarrow) set in the Roman Empire have been enduringly popular. The continuing appeal of this period to the popular imagination has been demonstrated in recent film adaptations, television serials, and radio dramatisations.
Reasons to publish…
‘Knowledge of Latin may be in decline, but novels, films and documentaries about the Romans have never been more popular…’
Allan Massie… Prospect magazine, November 2006
The Chronicles of Eternity is an innovation in a very popular genre, with a profound underlying message and wide readership appeal.
As a novelty to attract purchasers, Moments in Time and The Weight of Time could be published simultaneously, in anticipation of parts three and four: Glimpses of Eternity and The Resurrection of Love.
