After a career spanning 35 years with more than 20 books under her belt, Shuswap author Gail Anderson-Dargatz is taking readers travelling through time with The Atlas Keeper, a new novel that hit shelves Aug. 25.

“It is a time travel romance, which is a weird thing for a literary writer to write,” Anderson-Dargatz said. “But, you know, I’m 60, and I’ve reached that stage where I want to play and have fun.”

The novel follows 27-year-old Elsie Campbell, whose life has become stale following the death of her mother five years earlier. When Elsie discovers a magical atlas filled with maps and astrological charts, she gains the ability to visit 12 turning points in her life, both past and future.

Though, Anderson-Dargatz said the novel is about more than just time travel and romance.

“Really what she’s doing is getting perspective on her own life,” she said. “If any of us went back in time and had a five-minute conversation with our past self, or went forward in time, what would we get out of that?”

For the character, Elsie, those glimpses into those 12 turning points don’t always provide the clarity or the answers that she is hoping for. Instead, she starts making decisions based on incomplete snippets of her life, with maybe some unexpected consequences.

The idea for the novel has its roots in Anderson-Dargatz’s own life. During a difficult period in her 30s, she developed a meditation practice where she imagined conversations with her future self, picturing an older woman who could offer reassurance and perspective. A method that she still utilizes now.

“Recently, I came to realize I was that older person that I was talking to,” she said.

Another piece of the novel idea came from conversations with her husband, a GIS analyst, about what a person’s life might look like if it were represented as a map. Together, they began creating the atlas that eventually was used to inspire the novel.

Anderson-Dargatz has written Canadiana, crime thrillers, youth novels, non-fiction, and fiction, alike. This is her first dive into time travel.

“I actually think this is the most complex structure for any novel that I’ve ever written,” Anderson-Dargatz said.

Spreadsheets, charts, and sticky notes helped her track Elsie’s journeys through the atlas’ 12 houses.

“The only thing I had missing was the red wool on the wall,” she laughed.

That experimentation has resulted in a story she describes as both playful and a meditation on something she continues to learn herself: how to stay in the present.

“My brain is constantly festering on the past and problem-solving for the future, like I think most people,” she said. “So this, in a way, was a reminder to me to try to stop that and try to live right now.”

Anderson-Dargatz will celebrate the release with many events throughout the Thompson-Okanagan, including a Kamloops launch at the Kamloops Public Library on Saturday, Sept. 5.

At the end of the day Anderson-Dargatz said The Atlas Keeper is about finding the value in the life happening around us while we’re busy looking backward or ahead.

“It’s a really fun, lovely meditation on living a full life and being here for it.”

You can check out this and other novels on her website at https://www.gailanderson-dargatz.ca