From the Publisher: “Sixteen-year-old gymnast Elizabeth Arlington has developed fear issues when it comes to throwing herself over a vault table—but then she finds that she has much bigger problems when she discovers a mystery surrounding her birth. She catapults through time—through her family history and great moments in gymnastics history—in order to solve that mystery and stop a fellow time traveler whose actions may prevent her from being born at all. Her quest takes her to the 1988 Olympic Trials, where she’ll have to perform the vault of her life to save her loved ones—and herself.”
More info About the Author: “Nancy McCabe directs the writing program for Pitt’s regional campus in Bradford. She also teaches in the low-residency graduate program at Spalding University, has three times been a writer-in-residence at Chautauqua, and until recently taught classes for the Creative Nonfiction Foundation, currently on hiatus.
Nancy is a former gymnastics mom whose daughter competed all over Western PA. Nancy is the author of six previous books, including From Little Houses to Little Women: Revisiting a Literary Childhood and Can This Marriage Be Saved? A Memoir. She has two more books forthcoming: a short novel, an academic satire, from Outpost 19 in 2024 and a debut middle grade novel from Fitzroy/Regal House in 2025. Vaulting through Time is her debut young adult novel.”
Author Website “In the world of competitive gymnastics, 16-year-old Elizabeth must overcome physical and emotional fears in this page-turner novel that will leave you spinning. Swinging through parallel generations of women, Elizabeth comes to know her spiritual and biological ancestors, her mother, and herself. Evocatively written, McCabe weaves a heartwarming and absorbing journey. Great mother-daughter read!” —Margaret McMullan, author of Sources of Light
“Get ready for time-hopping thrills as 16-year-old gymnast Elizabeth journeys into the past to discover her true identity in this inventive adventure. Vaulting Through Time is clever, suspenseful, and big-hearted.” —Beth Ann Bauman, author of Jersey Angel and Rosie and Skate
Gymnastics, time travel, and adoption issues seem like an unusual combination. What inspired you to bring those things together?
I started writing this story when I was spending a couple of weekends a month driving my daughter to gymnastics meets throughout the region. Meets can be very, very long. The minimum tends to be four hours and I remember one that was like ten. I was never a gymnast, but I’ve always loved movement, especially dance, and to get through those long meets with often long waits between events, I used to enlist gymnasts waiting to compete in other sessions to explain the skills and scoring and tell me about their own experiences. I figured as long as I was going to be there, I might as well learn as much as I could.
I was also teaching a class on time travel fiction and writing an adult nonfiction book related to international adoption, and just to entertain myself, I started musing on long drives about what would happen if I combined all of those things into one story. I’m also drawn to stories about how people survive when stranded in the wilderness, and especially enjoyed figuring out how Elizabeth would manage the daily details of her life after landing in unfamiliar places.
Time travel seems to be cropping up in a lot of literature and movies in recent years. Why has it become such a popular device and why were you drawn to it?
I think it’s important to note that time travel isn’t just a science fiction trope—it appears in every genre, and lately in particular, I’ve seen variations of it in a lot of mainstream fiction in addition to mysteries and thrillers, romantic comedy, women’s and literary fiction, young adult and children’s stories. The kind of time travel that most appeals to me is grounded in the real world and is a way to examine the past and uncover secrets, and it’s such a uniquely flexible tool that makes possible so many plot directions.
We would find inauthentic a typical historical story written with a contemporary sensibility, but time travel allows for exactly that sort of social, cultural, and political observation—about race and gender, changes in education and medicine and technology and fashion (and in my case, in competitive gymnastics as well as historical roles of women in general.) It also fascinates me that there’s something almost immortal about a time traveler who can transcend the limits of a normal lifespan and travel to the past or future. I’ve always been interested as well in fish-out-of-water stories—people thrown into unusual circumstances or unfamiliar places. I’m intrigued about what that reveals about character and how different contexts can change us.
Are there any real-life inspirations for Vaulting through Time?
Elizabeth is a composite character, in many ways based on my own daughter, who was athletic and impulsive and hilarious as a teenager, and who faced a lot of questions as a person who had been adopted and at times felt a bit out of place in our community and extended family. But I also borrowed from my own teenage self, my own memory of struggling to figure out how I fit into the world.
How did you research this book?
I read a lot of gymnastics biographies and autobiographies, read about gymnastics and Olympic history, watched gymnastics videos, and read books about the 1920s. Since my book largely takes place in my current home of Bradford, PA, I also read a lot about local history. I spent a lot of time looking stuff up: what slang was common in 1929? When was the word “wacko” first in use? If a child is born at home with no witnesses in Pennsylvania, what paperwork is required to get a birth certificate?
What do you want readers to take away from this story?
While my readers will (probably) not have time traveled, some may be adopted and some may have a passion for gymnastics or another sport or art form, and all of us have asked questions about our identities and tried to understand how we fit in. I hope that readers will relate to these themes as they go on their own journeys self-discovery and self-acceptance. I hope that Elizabeth’s growth will inspire readers, that the time travel will incite their imaginations, that the historical detail will encourage their curiosity. I hope that Elizabeth’s insights about her adoptive mother, her father, her birth mother, her grandmother, her great grandmother will reinforce the importance of different kinds of family connections—and that the risk that she takes at the end, even though she is completely out of place at the Olympic Trials, will remind readers of the value of taking risks, regardless of traditional notions of failure and success.
Vaulting through Time publishes on July 25th and is now available to pre-order from local bookstores and the publisher!
From the Publisher: "In his debut collection of nonfiction, Jim Daniels writes about trees, backyard swing sets, above-ground swimming pools, Read more
From the Publisher: "Imagine that you are a child who was born in a large family, and during your childhood, Read more
"The City of Pittsburgh, with funding through the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), is launching the Support for Artists Grant Read more
Littsburgh's founder Rachel Ekstrom Courage (now a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author!) recently stopped by KDKA to Read more
"Applications are now open for Read Local Eat Local 2025! This is event is on Saturday, September 6, from 11 Read more
PITTSBURGH — Prime Stage Theatre celebrates its 29th season with three world premieres commissioned from three Pittsburgh playwrights: Nov. 7-16, 2025 – Mr. Read more
PITTSBURGH, PA – It’s time to book your spot! Registration for the 2025 Greater Pittsburgh Festival of Books is officially Read more
From the Publisher: "The Mackenzies and the Flahertys, two of the founding families of Port Kenneth, TN, have been feuding Read more
"The Northern Appalachia Review welcomes submissions of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction written about, representing, or engaging with the experience of Read more
But this too is true: stories can save us The writer Tim O’Brien calls storytelling an essential human activity. "The Read more
"'Where do you end and I begin?' is the question which haunts Shaheen Dil’s remarkable memoir-in-poems. Dil’s journey is at Read more
"A poignant memoir exploring small town baseball as a lens into what’s right and wrong with modern America—written by an Read more
From the Publisher: "In 1958, a midwestern family was uprooted from Canton, Ohio to Bukavu in the Belgian Congo during Read more
"From New York Times bestselling author Marie Benedict and Courtney Sheinmel comes a historical adventure about a young girl plucked Read more
From the Publisher: "It’s Anny’ s first day of middle school and, after years of being homeschooled, her first day Read more
We are so excited to help spread the word about the excellent Woolly Bear Books and Gifts in Carnegie, PA Read more
Loretto, PA. March 10, 2025 — The WCoNA Writers Conference of Northern Appalachia® is pleased to announce Deep and Wild: Read more
ALL SKATE: True Stories from Middle Life is a series of musings from one mid-life woman, wife, and mother on what Read more
Johnstown, PA – Mark your calendars! The Learning Lamp proudly presents the return of the Children’s Book Festival, celebrating its Read more
What inspired you to write Good in Theory? My inspiration for Good in Theory came from so many different places. Read more
