Behind the Scenes of Chapter 1

Hindsight — Chapter 1 — January 2020 — A Time of Blissful Ignorance

Go back to the CONTENTS Page.

Hindsight by Neil Shooter (photo by author)

Some years ago, I was part of a Goodreads Q&A with fantasy author Guy Gavriel Kay, whose work I’ve been reading since I was a teenager. That was many moons ago, FYI. I asked my question, and then waited, frothing with excitement as I later read his replies. The answer to my question was disappointing, to say the least. But because of how disappointed I felt about the lack of connection with him or engagement from him, I realized that both connection and engagement were things that I craved from my authors.

And that’s why I’m writing a “Behind the Scenes” episode for each chapter of HINDSIGHT.

*

January 2020. Most of us had no idea what was coming. We hadn’t even heard of Wuhan.

Trump had already disbanded the US pandemic response team. Money well saved, right?

Will and Juss have moved from the Toronto area to a village in Rural Ontario, to get away from things. Certain things. Certain people. It’s a big change for them, and they're trying to get to grips with things, with the adjustment.

In the first scene, Will and Juss are off to buy chickens from somewhere even more rural than their new home. There is talk of a cruise in April, because their Toronto friends Marcie and Peter are going. But we all know that there will be no cruise in April.

Marcie and Peter don’t appear in the rest of the story, but they aren’t mere filler either. The reason they need to be mentioned is that they are potential characters for a sidequel story.

This story is set in 2020, 2024, and 2038. There’s something about these time differences that I like, and I’d like to set other stories with a similar time-setting breakdown, but in different years. I’d like to flesh out the events of this vital period and show more of how things develop towards the future I have outlined.

Marcie and Peter live in Toronto, and their story MIGHT be set in 2021, 2025, and 2039, so that we get a bit more context on some things that are mentioned in Will and Juss’ storyline.

The chickens are important. For me, for Will and Juss, and for the story. Not just as “emotional support chickens”, although that is important too. The chickens are a plot point for all three time settings.

*

In the second scene, Will and Juss are renovating a small en-suite powder room into a full bathroom. It’s important to note how much Will wanted this, because it will lead to consequences later on.

The art room is also an important plot point, for later.

And I just love Will and Juss together. It’s so easy for them, being together, sharing space. It fills me with warmth just thinking about them.

*

The third scene warns about the changes that a chickening life might bring, but also brings a sense that the chickens are already HELPING with whatever healing process Will and Juss need.

The mention of Wuhan shows how people were paying such little attention to the problems in China at the time. Until it couldn’t be ignored, really. Until it was no longer China’s problem.

*

The theme running throughout the story, but particularly relevant for January, is the idea of looking back on our past as well as looking forward to our future. Janus, that two-faced god from the Roman pantheon. Reflection on the past, consideration of the future. Plans that may or may not come to fruition.

(“Ever in motion is the future, difficult to see it is.”)

And yes, I’ll say it again, Hindsight is 2020.

What we learn from history is that we never learn from history.

That's actually my misquote of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel:

“We learn from history that we do not learn from history.”

And even this is a misquote of the even more clunky:

“What experience and history teach is this—that nations and governments have never learned anything from history or acted upon any lesson they might have drawn from it.”

Or, yet another alternate translation:

“What experience and history teach is this—that people and governments have never learned anything from history, or acted on principles deduced from it.”

Long story short, people never learn, history repeats itself, and this is pretty much just the way things will always be.

*

Back in 2021, on January 21, I saw this quote from CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta, as part of a conversation I seem to recall being about COVID, and I thought how fitting it was. I wanted to use it in my novel, as a “front matter” kind of “introductory mood setter”.

Here it is:

“Anniversaries are important and meaningful to us. They're a way of marking the passage of time and noting historical events, delineating the Before and After.”

CNN wanted $400 for me to use this line in my novel. I declined. I wrote a poem instead, which serves as a much better framing device, I think. On the CONTENTS page you can find the whole poem, the third version of it, written in November 2023. It’s spread out across the months as an introduction to each new chapter. It’s probably the final version. But not necessarily.

Dr. Gupta is still correct. Anniversaries ARE meaningful. Jan 6 was meaningful. Sep 11 was meaningful. And I am writing this on January 21, 2025, Day 2 of the second Trump presidency. And I can't help but feel the sharp edge of the Now that separates the Before from the After.

In HINDSIGHT, “Before” is the time before the COVID pandemic affected our everyday lives. It is January. “After” is the rest of the story, the time of lockdowns and restrictions and all the other things that followed. In many ways our lives were irrevocably changed (our politics certainly were), but in the Hindsight Universe it’s WORSE. Or, it WILL be worse.

Unless I have seriously underestimated the severity of our reality.

Go back to the CONTENTS Page.