Rachel Starr Thomson

The scheduled release date for Coming Day (sometime in mid-November — I have a date but for several reasons am not making it public yet) is fast approaching, which means that ’tis the season for revisions. Yes, more of them. This book has gone through more revisions than any other book I’ve ever written with the possible exception of something called The Babel Chip (which in my opinion still needs work. But I digress — this post is not about The Babel Chip.)

When I sat down with Josh Gilman, my good buddy and esteemed beta reader, one of the things he told me was that Coming Day needs more quiet parts. I knew that, I think, but confirmation was good. I actually taught on this in a three-session workshop I did in my hometown earlier this month. Rises and falls are an essential part of a good plot.

Why is that? Well, in any good story, there is conflict. There is tension. This is good; it keeps readers turning pages. But if you never let readers come down and rest a while, they will become exhausted. They’ll also be prevented from getting to know your characters in an intimate way; we don’t get to know people when all we ever see them doing is running or yelling or bashing heads with big swords.

Frodo needs to be chased by Black Riders and battle wraiths and orcs and barrow-wights; but he also needs to get to Rivendell and Lothlorien, eat, sleep, behold beauty. He needs it, and readers need it.

So this week, as I revise Coming Day, I am attempting to add more fall to the rhythm of rise and fall. And I’m looking forward to getting to know my own characters better as I do.

Yes, I know, I didn’t post any Venom and Song coverage on Day 2 (I did post a review of Marc Schooley’s The Dark Man, which you should read if you haven’t yet.) Venom and Song is still on my to-read pile. But the authors were so magnanimous, dropping by my first post and dubbing me Renaissance Woman and everything, that I really wanted to add to the coverage. I scanned through the participant links, and here is some of what I found.

Before you hit up the links, be aware of this general consensus, stated outright or inferred by me: you NEED TO READ Curse of the Spider King first. If you don’t, chances are you won’t connect to these characters well enough to enjoy Venom and Song as it deserves to be enjoyed.

And the links:

• Amy Browning has a fantastic interview with Wayne Thomas Batson.
• Robert Treskillard outlines the story and characters in a very helpful manner.
• Melissa at Hidden Valley Simplicity offers an enthusiastic review.
• Keanan Brand has used the book as a jumping-off point for another discussion on what should come first in Christian fiction: the message or the story.
• Sarah Sawyer talks about the inherent creepiness of spiders and Spider Kings.
• And finally, Phyllis Wheeler has an even more in-depth overview of the tour so far.

His name is Charles Graves. He can wear any face; imitate any voice; fit in anywhere. His work for the Agency is legendary, especially among the hidden clusters of Christians he has helped uncover and “reclaim.” His father and only remaining family, Senator Cotton Graves, loves him. His coworker, relentless logic-girl Julia Jenkins, will do anything for him. His competition, Agency hot-shot Richard Farris, is determined to discredit him.

But no one, least of all Charles himself, really knows who Charles Graves is.

Haunted by his traumatic childhood and equally addicted to alcohol and playing with a wood-block puzzle, Charles turns himself into other people in a desperate attempt to escape himself. On assignment to find the Reverend James Cleveland, a dangerous preacher on the loose in downtown Houston, Charles is just minutes away from the crowning success of his career—until he sees the light in Cleveland’s arresting presentation of the gospel.

Suddenly, Charles has changed sides and plunged himself, Julia, Cotton, and Cleveland into a pitched battle with the world, the flesh, and the devil—a battle that will bring each one face-to-face with their reality’s most startling, life-changing truths.

Marc Schooley’s dystopian novel The Dark Man is an elegantly written psychological drama that’s nearly as spell-binding as one of James Cleveland’s sermons.

While the book contains plenty of action-movie chases, espionage, and helicopter fights, where it really stands out is in its gripping exploration of the human mind and spirit. Farris, Cotton, Julia, and especially the tormented Charles carry on conversations with themselves, their memories, and their hopes that are revealing, disturbing, and sometimes profound. Into their struggles, the voice of the gospel offers peace and the power of redemptive sacrifice.

The Dark Man is a powerful introduction to Marc Schooley and another memorable offering from Marcher Lord Press.

The Seven succeeding Elven Lords of Allyra were dead, lost in the Siege of Berinfell as babes.  At least that’s what everyone thought until tremors from a distant world known as Earth, revealed strange signs that Elven blood lived among its peoples. With a glimmer of hope in their hearts, sentinels are sent to see if the signs are true. But theirs is not a lone errand. The ruling warlord of Allyra, the Spider King, has sent his own scouts to hunt down the Seven and finish the job they failed to complete many ages ago.

Now 13-year-olds on the brink of the Age of Reckoning when their Elven gifts will be manifest, discover the unthinkable truth that their adoptive families are not their only kin. With mysterious Sentinels revealing breathtaking secrets of the past, and dark strangers haunting their every move, will the young Elf Lords find the way back to the home of their birth? Worlds and races collide as the forces of good and evil battle. (Product Description, Amazon.com)

So begins The Prophecies of Berinfell, a YA fantasy series that opens with The Curse of the Spider King. In Book 2, Venom and Song, the young lords have journeyed to Allyra, where they must learn to master their powers and work together, even as they turn the battle for their lives against the Spider King.

The Prophecies of Berinfell is a joint project between Wayne Thomas Batson (The Door Within, Isle of Swords) and Christopher Hopper (The White Lion Chronicles). The first book garnered excellent reviews and much anticipation for the second, and I’m looking forward to exploring both.

The authors are inspiring fellows: Wayne Thomas Batson is a multi-published YA author, a teacher, and an active blogger; Christopher Hopper is a pastor, international speaker, recording artist, and author, whose many and varied activities lead to people calling him a “Renaissance man.”

(Since I do many of the same things, this leads me to hope that people will eventually call me a “Renaissance woman,” which is actually one of my goals in life, sort of.)

Tragically, my copy of Venom and Song didn’t arrive until several days ago, and with all that is currently going on in my life, I’m unable to get it read for review in time for this tour.  So this will be my only day posting about this book — for now! I flipped through it and was immediately gripped by the story and impressed by the writing, so I anticipate that this one will be a keeper. A review will be forthcoming, so stay tuned.

For the next three days, I encourage you to check out my fellow CSFF bloggers. At the links below, you’ll find reviews, interviews, lots of opinions — it should be fun, and thought-provoking besides.

Angela
Brandon Barr
Keanan Brand
Amy Browning
Beckie Burnham
Morgan L. Busse
Melissa Carswell
Jeff Chapman
Valerie Comer
Amy Cruson
CSFF Blog Tour
D. G. D. Davidson
April Erwin
Tori Greene
Ryan Heart
Bruce Hennigan
Timothy Hicks
Becky Jesse
Cris Jesse
Jason Joyner
Julie
Carol Keen
Krystine Kercher
Dawn King
Leighton
Rebecca LuElla Miller
John W. Otte
Donita K. Paul
Chawna Schroeder
Tammy Shelnut
James Somers
Kathleen Smith
Rachel Starr Thomson
Robert Treskillard
Steve Trower
Fred Warren
Jason Waguespac
Dona Watson
Phyllis Wheeler
Jill Williamson

Someone once asked me why I write fantasy instead of (pardon me) real literature. This person wondered from a particularly Christian standpoint — shouldn’t Christians be more concerned about the real world?

I’ve given the question a lot of thought over the years and summed up some of my answers in my “Apologetic” essay on WorldsUnseen.com.

Some people are confused by [speculative fiction]. Others think it’s downright wrong-headed (or worse, downright evil). Others get it. They just get it. They know why authors would choose to write Middle-Earth instead of downtown Manhattan. They know why we care about dragons and elves, or about stars and alien civilizations, or about warriors and far-away, dangerous, beautiful things. They know why writing about those things isn’t just “escapism,” but can be a powerful act of creation that helps us grapple with our day-to-day existences in better ways.

They get it. That’s why they read it. Randy Alcorn said it really well: “When we get excited reading [fantasies by Tolkien or Lewis], it’s not our sinfulness that arouses that excitement. It’s our God-given hunger for adventure, for new realms and new beings . . . God has given us a longing for new worlds.”

The rest of the essay looks at three elements of what I write: “fiction,” “speculative,” and “Christian.” It comes back to the real world after all:

I wrote earlier that fiction allows us to experience a story in a subjective way. You can call this escapism if you like. But at the same time, that subjective experience allows us to come back and look at our own lives with greater objectivity.

So there is a chance that when readers escape into a speculative world designed by someone who is immersed in truth and relationship with God, they might just experience truth or encounter God in a way they have not done before — in a way they can bring back out into the “real world” to make an objective difference. Aslan has truly deepened readers’ worship of Jesus. Middle-Earth has really made us long for heaven.

Writer’s Digest has provided me with yet more great blog fodder: read Sage Cohen’s “Top 10 Productivity Pitfalls for Writers to Avoid” here. Sage has done a fantastic job of identifying real problems on a deeper scale than just “Don’t check Facebook 20 times a day” — including fear, transition turbulence, and shabby systems.

I could add a few of my own to the list:

1. Checking Facebook 20 times a day (otherwise known as “bad Internet habits”)

2. Working while dog-tired (I’m usually better off taking a nap or doing something else until my brain wakes up)

3.  Excessive multitasking (you only think you’re getting more done)

4. Lack of planning. I usually write my daily goals out the night before, and I pencil in a week or so at a time. If I don’t, I waste a lot of time trying to figure out what I should be doing.

How about you? What are some productivity pitfalls that try to get you — and/or strategies you’ve developed to avoid them?

Someone once asked me why I write speculative fiction (specifically, fantasy) instead of “real-life” stories. I’m planning to blog more on that question next week, but in the meantime I wanted to give you a heads up to a great conversation spot online, a spot where I’m now blogging every other Wednesday: the new-and-improved blog Speculative Faith.

The other regular bloggers at SpecFaith are E. Stephen Burnett, Rebecca LuElla Miller (our CSFF Fearless Leader), Kaci Hill (who co-writes with Ted Dekker), and Marcher Lord Press authors Stuart Stockton (Starfire) and Matt Koceich (The Sending). The blog is updated every day with spec-fic-related discussion, on everything from bad books (hilarious) to CBA vs ABA vs biased readers to what makes speculative fiction work.

It’s fun, informative, and thought-provoking. Check it out!

This video was filmed and edited by my good friend Josh (of JGills fame); everyone in it is a friend. A frightening number of them are related to me. The Nerdfest may or may not be happening in my house . . .

The kid in the red shirt who really can actually dance is my brother Jimmy.

Also, everyone in this video either is or has been homeschooled. Gather from that what you may.

Once upon a time, a blonde and blue-eyed family of girls (three, to be exact, all with names starting with “N”) left old ways behind and lined up at the foot of the stairs for their first school picture as a homeschooling family. They had desks, organized bookshelves, maps and pictures on the walls, and a placard proclaiming “School Room.”

Well, most of us homeschoolers know how that goes. The Wickham family soon gave up trying to be like a school and got more focused on being a home that teaches, and Pajama School — Natalie Wickham’s memoir of homeschooling, getting to know God, and learning to lead — was born.

I came away from Pajama School feeling like I’d gotten to know Natalie, who is just a little older than I am and has had a journey in some ways like mine and in other ways very different. The book is steeped in the perspective not just of a homeschooler, but of a homeschooler who grew up connected to ATI (Bill Gothard’s Advanced Training Institute), which is a subculture all its own. In many ways I enjoyed that aspect, which reminded me of dear friends who were also brought up in ATI and who, like Natalie, found places of service within that ministry as young adults.

In fact, Pajama School focuses far more on those experiences of service as a young adult — with ATI in Children’s Institutes and at the beginning stages of the Character First! program, in politics, in running a tea shop, and in teaching — than it does on the childhood experiences I expected from the title. This is less a homeschooling book and more the record of one homeschooler’s spiritual journey. More than anything, Pajama School is a memoir of Natalie’s walk with God — a memoir that is honest, humorous, and insightful.

Natalie has spent many of her years as a young adult teaching, whether in public-school classrooms as part of the Character First! program, in assemblies at big homeschool conferences, or in her own piano studio. I found her emphasis on teaching methods and experimentation slightly ironic for a “homeschooling book,” but also very inspiring. She’s implemented some fantastic ideas, and anyone who works with children will find something to encourage them here! In fact, I passed the book on to my partner in Soli Deo Gloria Ballet, as we’re developing summer camp ideas.

For homeschool grads and older teens, parents who want to see how homeschooling can play out in their student’s life, and anyone who enjoys good, clean, thought-provoking memoir, Pajama School is well worth reading.

Aaaaand, if you want to read it, Natalie has provided me with a special coupon code for my readers who order directly from SibroPublishing (www.sibropublishing.com). Just enter the coupon code “inklings” when you’re checking out, and you’ll receive a 20% discount. Go for it! This is a great deal for a book that’s well worth reading.

On a side note, Natalie self-published Pajama School. A self-publisher myself, I have some idea of the effort that goes into this — and I’ve seen the good, the bad, and the ugly of self-published books. Natalie and her team have produced an attractive book, professional both in presentation and in content. Way to go, girls!

Here is how I feel about cliffhangers: AAAAAAAAAUUUUUUGH!

It doesn’t help that I am still nursing a feeling of rawness over the lack of resolution in Bryan Davis’s Masters and Slayers. I had to take my raw self wading into Steve Rzasa’s space opera The Word Reclaimed, suspecting more and more that this story was too big for its 460 pages. I was right.

Actually, the first thing to strike me about this book was that it is big. And I was reading a file on a Kobo, so I’m not talking about physical size. The list of significant characters and their ships/home planets/family groups in the book’s front matter was almost overwhelming (to the point where I wonder if it would have been better placed in the back of the book where prospective readers couldn’t see it and faint before they even get into the story). Thankfully, I didn’t faint, and I did get into the story.

The Word Reclaimed is a space opera (think Star Wars with Nazis and fewer aliens) set in the year 2602, when the people of Earth have colonized four other major worlds and united under a kingdom called the Realm of Five. The kingdom has long been benevolent, but Kesek, a secret police force in charge of enforcing a treaty of tolerance across religions, is anything but—and their power with the king is growing.

One of Kesek’s biggest roles is the capture and destruction of religious texts, including the Bible, the Qu’ran, and the Hindu Sutras. So when a surly teenager named Baden, son of an Expatriate merchant and member of the crew of the Natalia Zoja, salvages a Bible from a pirate wreck, it’s bound to change his life—but in ways he can’t imagine. From the moment he comes across the Bible, Baden begins to see visions and hear voices.

At the same time, the Verge family—a family of warriors from the planet Starkweather—are called into action to put down an alleged rebellion on an outlying planet called Bethel, one of the last Christian colonies in the Realm. Cadet Trainee Alec Verge is given the chance to go along with his father, Lt. Colonel James Verge, and other stories relatives, including his aunt,  Commander Colleen Verge—who, as it happens, is also dreaming dreams . . .

The crew of the Natalia Zoja and the deployed troops from Starkweather will meet up eventually as treachery brings them into the battle of their lives—and the beginning of a battle for the Realm—and as a God who seems to be seeking them brings them into a battle for their souls.

Marcher Lord Press publisher and editor-in-chief Jeff Gerke gives this background info on the MLP website:

Steve’s space opera is truly an epic. Though there are dozens of characters, many of whom are superficially similar—space marines, deep space navigators, young cadets, trained assassins—I was somehow never confused who was who.

That, in and of itself, is remarkable. Then add a brilliant story of deep treachery, a crumbling monarchy, forbidden faith, and a warrior family’s pride—all set against the recovery of a book so dangerous that the secret police would wipe out a world to obtain—and you’ve got a recipe for incredible speculative fun.

But the thing was very long. Like 170,000 words long. I started looking for a cliffhanger around the midpoint. We ended up finding a great one.

You bet they did. But don’t let that stop you from diving in—Book 2, The Word Unleashed, is already out.