Novel help: Intermixing past and present

[lavaluvn]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "carolynwhite2" 
<carolynwhite2 at a...> wrote:
> --- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "annemehr" <annemehr at y...> 
> wrote:
> > --- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "Saitaina" 
<saitaina at f...> 
> wrote:
> > 
> > > Alternating chapters between current time (now)
> > > and the past.  Such as, Chapter One: New York,
> > > 2004, Chapter Two: Romania, 1756 (examples, not
> > > actual dates)
> > 
> > Katherine Neville's _The Eight_ was written like this, and I 
liked
> > that style very much.  It worked for that book especially, 
because
> > each timeline was as important as the other.  I suggest this way 
if
> > you have more than just a little to tell about the past.
> > 
> > Annemehr
> 
> Peg Kerr's book 'The Wild Swans' did the same thing. Personally, 
it 
> didn't work for me, but mainly because I thought there wasn't much 
> connection between the two stories (contemporary and medieval)that 
> she was telling. There was just a tiny link up in the final 
chapter.
> 
> One book where the technique worked brilliantly IMO 
was 'Possession' 
> by A S Byatt, unravelling a historical mystery but also a parallel 
> bittersweet contemporary romance between the literary researchers.
> 
> Carolyn

Yes, that was a great example (Possession).  One very interesting 
(if occasionally hard to follow) combination of alternating time 
with chapter and time travel is "The TIme Traveller's Wife"

-Andromeda