How Not to Start a Novel:

[longknife]

"half turn of an hour glass" is an awkward reference IMO. very few people will know what you are talking about. That is better the sort of period flavor to add into a quote than the writer's POV as far as I am concerned since it is not written in the first person.

Well, I could've used "half an hour" but was trying to establish the time frame. No clocks in that part of the world at that time.[/QUOTE]

No clocks in 1742?

mechanical clocks were invented around 1200.
The first public clock to strike the hour was in Milan around 1335.
The spring powered clock was invented around 1510 by Peter Henlein.
The first clock with a minute hand was invented around 1577 by Jost Burgi.
In 1656 Christian Huygens invented pendulum clock which remained the most accurate of clocks into the 1930's.


..but people tend to verbosity these days...They think it makes them sound smarter.[/QUOTE]

This novel takes place in a small town at couple of days ride from Guadalajara in the 1740s. Only the very wealthy could afford clocks so Fernando would only be used to hour glasses as used in the church to decide when to ring the bells.

And, as he then goes into Baja California, he will not see a working clock until well into the 1770s.