Time Machine with Jana Richards

by Jeannie Ruesch

 As a historical romantic suspense author, I love all eras of history. You name an era, I can probably find some sort of trouble to go digging into.  So I thought it would be fun to check in with other authors and see what their favorite eras are and what they would do with just 24 hours to spend there.  Stay tuned every Monday to see where we’re headed to next…

Today’s Time Machine Guest: Jana Richards

If you could go back in time for just 24 hours, what era would you go to and where would you land?

I’m fascinated with the events of World War Two, not so much by the battles and the slaughter, but by the effect on the lives of ordinary people. Many couples were torn apart by the war, and many couples were brought together by it. In my novella HOME FIRES I explore the story of British war brides. I wrote a short story called WINGS OF FIRE (which is included in the anthology “Love, Loss and Other Oddities”) about a British pilot, one of thousands, who comes to Canada to train in the British Commonwealth Air Training Program (BCATP).

But if I had the opportunity to go back in time for 24 hours I think I’d like to go to wartime England. During the writing of FLAWLESS I became very interested in spying and covert operations of the war.

bletchley-park-main2-big1You have 24 hours… what would you do with your short time?

I’d visit Bletchley Park, the mansion in Buckinghamshire just outside of London which was the headquarters of the British Codes and Cyphers School. The German Enigma code, the secret language used by the Germans to communicate with each other, was broken at Bletchley Park, allowing the British to anticipate their every move. Breaking the Enigma Code is believed to have shortened the war by two to four years.

A lot of women worked at Bletchley Park, but it was so top secret they couldn’t tell anyone they worked there. Members of the Women’s Royal Naval Service (WRENS) stationed there were officially registered as working at the HMS Pembroke V. Even after the war was over they couldn’t speak of their service there.

You can personally see, visit, talk with (or whatever….) one historical figure in that time period.  Who would it be and what would you do?

This is a tough one. I’m sure a lot of interesting people hung around Bletchley Park, especially some interesting spies. There’s Ian Fleming, who was a Naval Intelligence officer during WW2, and who, according to historians, may have tried to steal an Enigma machine from the Germans during the raid on Dieppe in 1942. The Germans had just started using a new Enigma machine and Bletchley Park needed information so they could figure out how to break the new code. Ian Fleming, of course, went on to write the James Bond series of spy thrillers after the war. Then there’s William Stephenson, a British spymaster whose codename was Intrepid. Fleming, who knew Stephenson during the war, is said to have based James Bond on him. But I think the person I’d want to meet is Allan Turing, the brilliant mathematician who worked at Bletchley Park. He was more responsible than anyone for breaking the Enigma code.

You have your cell phone with you — someone sees it.  How would you explain what it is?

If it was Alan Turing who saw the cell phone, I’d happily show it to him and try to explain what it is and how it works (not that I know how it works!) After all, Turing was one of the pioneers of computer science. I’m sure he’d be fascinated to see how the computer has evolved from the giant, room-filling machine he called Colossus, to a device that fits in my pocket and has more computing power than he ever believed possible. I’m pretty sure he’d be okay with the whole time-traveling thing, too!

janapicAbout Jana Richards

Jana Richards has tried her hand at many writing projects over the years, from magazine articles and short stories to paranormal suspense and romantic comedy. She loves to create characters with a sense of humor, but also a serious side. She believes there’s nothing more interesting then peeling back the layers of a character to see what makes them tick.

When not writing up a storm, working at her day job as an Office Administrator, or dealing with ever present mountains of laundry, Jana can be found on the local golf course pursuing her newest hobby.

Jana lives in Western Canada with her husband Warren, along with two university aged daughters and a highly spoiled Pug/Terrier cross named Lou.  Visit Jana at http://www.janarichards.com

 

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