Book Trailer

Contest!

PRIZE: $100.00 + full set of Seventh World trilogy. Winner will also be featured on www.rachelstarrthomson.com and www.worldsunseen.com

• Book trailer must be three minutes or less. All filming must be your original work—no using clips from anyone else.

• Contest open to ages 11 – 21.

• Teamwork is allowed and encouraged!

• Download Worlds Unseen FREE from http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/6860 today and unleash your creativity!

• To submit a trailer, upload your submission to www.youtube.com, and send an email to thomson.rachel@gmail.com including your name(s), age(s), address, email address, and link to your submission.

• Deadline: 12:00 PM EST, December 1, 2011.

SYNOPSIS:

The Council for Exploration Into Worlds Unseen believed there was more to the world and its history than the empire had taught them. Treating ancient legends as history, they came a little too close to the truth. Betrayed by one of their own, the Council was torn apart before they could finish their work.

Forty years later, Maggie Sheffield just wants to leave the past behind. Memories of the Orphan House where she grew up are fading; memories of her guardians’ murder are harder to shake. When a dying friend shows up on her doorstep bearing the truth about the Seventh World–in the form of a written covenant with evil–Maggie is sent on a journey that will change her forever.

Raven’s Ladder

Warning: there are series spoilers contained herein, though they are not too earth-shattering.

Ever since CSFF first toured Auralia’s Colors, reviewers have been confused about whether or not the Keeper and Auralia represent God the Father and Christ in a straightforward allegory. They don’t, as the author pointed out in my interview with him and has said elsewhere.

(Digression: John W. Otte, blogger extraordinaire, addressed this topic on his blog and was kind enough to reply to my questions to him at length today. He points out that while he doesn’t expect or want every Christian book to be an allegory, these characters have so many God- and Christ-like characteristics that it’s misleading. Overstreet says he isn’t writing an allegory, but his series sure smells like one. Point taken!)

But whether or not we’ll see a clear picture of God in the Expanse, we will certainly see a clear and biblical picture of ourselves.

When we first meet Captain Ryllion in Cyndere’s Midnight, he is recovering from an encounter with beastmen that killed his charge and set his career significantly back. But Ryllion is a passionate believer in the value of his own desires and the inevitability of his destiny. Others may waver in their faith; Ryllion doesn’t. He’s a devotee of the moon spirit religion, whose seers teach that everyone has a moon spirit of their own who comes and shines desires into their hearts. Your religious duty, then, is to pursue those desires, believing that your moon spirit will reward your efforts.

Ryllion comes across as young, sometimes aggravating, but really admirable. He believes so sincerely, so wholeheartedly in his dreams. He’s courageous and smart. He’s an underdog fighting his way back up, and we can’t help rooting for him.

At first.

It’s only as time goes on and more backstory is revealed that we start to realize how much integrity Ryllion has already sacrificed in pursuit of his dreams, how much the desires of his heart have torn down any sense of morality or real duty, how much his courage is nothing but — extremely — selfish ambition. Ironically, Ryllion’s pursuit of personal freedom makes him a slave to the Seers, who slip something into his drink to help him along. And before Ryllion even knows it, he’s changing.

He’s becoming a beastman.

On the flip side of the story, we have Jordam. Born a beastman, with a jutting browbone and three brothers who snarl, kill, and hate, his life is also all about desire. He’s hungry, so he kills. He craves Essence, the power-giving poison that created the beastmen, so he steals, plots, hunts, and does obeisance to the Cent Regus chieftain in order to be given it. There is no real difference between Jordam and Ryllion. Both are enslaved to what the Bible calls “the lusts of the flesh.” It’s just that Jordam’s desires are more obviously, outwardly carnal than Ryllion’s.

But while Ryllion is a man becoming a beast, Jordam is a beast becoming a man. It begins when he encounters Auralia’s colors in a cave by Deep Lake and is calmed by them, able to be at peace for the first time in his life. An encounter with Cyndere and more exposure to colors awakens new desires in him, desires that wrestle with his powerful cravings. Desires to protect, to care, to think clearly, to rise above his carnality. Jordam starts to avoid Essence, even though the cravings twist him up inside. And the longer he stays away from it, the more human he becomes. In a brilliant and beautiful portrayal of what it means to be human, he starts to think in metaphors — to see the world artistically, poetically.

Scripture speaks of the war between flesh and Spirit and tells us that “to be carnally minded is death.” Yet we live in a world that promotes self-advancement above all things, that tells us just to follow our desires in order to be happy. If we want something deeply, it has to be right. But we don’t see that our fleshly desires, like Ryllion’s, are nothing more than carnal cravings dressed up in glitz and glamour. In the end, following them will make animals of us. God calls us to a higher way, the way Jordam begins to take — a way of self-denial for the sake of something greater and more beautiful than ourselves.

It’s in denying himself that Jordam becomes a man. But in what is very good news for all of us, the more human Jordam becomes, the more his desires actually start to change. Perhaps someday there will be no more cravings for Essence. No more ambition for evil. No more carnal drives. Perhaps someday Jordam’s desires will be entirely purified — just as, perhaps, someday ours will. And then, as Proverbs says, God will give us the desires of our hearts.

Christianity is sometimes charged with denying humanity, with trying to pull us all into some ascetic club that sucks all the joy out of life. But that’s not the truth at all. Christianity as Jesus lived it calls us not to deny our humanity, but to really become human again, to return to the fellowship with God that once made us so much more than the animals.

I don’t know how Ryllion and Jordam’s stories will end. I’m eagerly awaiting the final book in the series so I can find out. But in the meantime, they’ve given me a vivid way to think about humanity, temptation, sin, and desire. They’ve given me a new way to think about myself.

————–

And now, the contest details :).

As readers, writers need us. We may not realize that, but it’s true. They need us to buy their books so they can keep writing them, and they need us to spread the word about what they write. So here’s how this contest will go:

1. Choose a book you like with an author who is still living. No Jane Eyre or Anne of Green Gables this time.

2. Write a review of said book and post it to your blog or Facebook or GoodReads or Amazon or wherever (or even all of the above).

3. Post a link to your review in the comments section of THIS POST.

You have until May 6, exactly one week. May 6 also happens to be my birthday, so you can consider your reviews a present for me. I will put your names in a hat and pull one out, and if you win, I will send you a brand-new copy of Raven’s Ladder. If you haven’t read the rest of the series yet, hie thee to the nearest library (or better yet, bookstore — remember, writers need you!) and get cracking. Don’t start with the third book; trust me.

Happy reviewing!

Congratulations, Donita!

Listen into the Blog Talk Radio show http://www.WritingandPublishingRadio.com for a chance to win a free book. Your choice of “Information in a Nutshell: Writing and Publishing” OR “Reach for the Stars: Young Fiction Author’s Workbook” … to find out how, listen to the event live or at a later date. Contest begins August 24-august 30th.

Also, you can win a copy of Robin Parrish’s Offworld through this Inklings contest.

Introductory Post (including links to other bloggers): http://www.rachelstarrthomson.com/2009/08/offworld-csff-blog-tour/

Review of Offworld: http://www.rachelstarrthomson.com/2009/08/a-review-offworld-day-2/

“The Book On Paper and the One In Here”: http://www.rachelstarrthomson.com/2009/08/the-book-on-paper-and-the-one-in-here-offworld-day-3/

Interested in winning a copy of Offworld? It’s easy. Visit www.rachelstarrthomson.com and identify a book page, article, blog post — anything — that you’d like to share with others. Post the link to your blog, Facebook, Twitter, or even e-mail. Comment on one of the Offworld posts to let me know where you’ve posted your link. Whoever posts the most wins. The contest ends Friday. Have fun!

First, read my Day 3 post “Men, God, and Men Like Gods,” where I argue that the Great Irony of mankind is that the more we try to become like God, the more we become something entirely unlike Him, while the more we accept our limitations and cry out for grace, the more truly we are transformed into His image.

Leave a comment on THAT POST (not this one) naming another story which you feel illustrates this Great Irony. (This story might be a book, a short story, a play, a movie, whatever — even nonfiction is fair game, since this Great Irony isn’t fictional.) Give a bit of detail about it — in what characters or circumstances do you most see this irony playing out?

Have fun :). You have until Wednesday, July 29, to leave your comment and be eligible to win the book.

I really encourage you to check this contest out. I had the privilege of serving as a judge last year, and in February, our very own Inklings reader Jessica Erksine won third place in the Tweener Time Cover Art Competition — designing a cover for last year’s chapter book winner! I’ll be reviewing some of the Tweener Time winning books in the next few months as well, beginning with the 2007 First Place Winner, Journey to the Homeland by 16-year-old Hannah Stahlhut.

The first-place winner is awarded a $20,000 college scholarship, a $1,000 cash prize, a book contract with Baker Trittin Press, and royalties on book sales. The other awards are pretty amazing too, and I remember writing up detailed comments for the authors whose books I judged last year — so you have a chance to receive professional feedback on your work as well.

The contest deadline is July 1. Check out the Web site — and I wish you success!

Congratulations also to Aaron, Cameron, Raynie, Bethany, and Elisabeth, our other winners — and many thanks to all of you who sent in your book reviews. This contest has been a lot of fun, and it’s been my privilege to share your writing with all of my readers.

Contest winners have been awarded their choice of e-book (for second place) or print book (for first place) from Little Dozen Press or our donors, Christina and Felice Gerwitz and Jessica Erskine.

If you’d like to see more about the prizes, check them out at these links:

Theodore Pharris Saves the Universe: http://www.rachelstarrthomson.com/books/theodore/
Bible Battles: http://www.rachelstarrthomson.com/2009/02/contest-prize-bible-battles/
The Missing Link: Found!: http://www.rachelstarrthomson.com/2009/02/contest-prize-the-missing-link-found/
Worlds Unseen: http://www.rachelstarrthomson.com/books/worlds-unseen/
Burning Light: http://www.rachelstarrthomson.com/books/burning-light/
Tales of the Heartily Homeschooled: http://www.rachelstarrthomson.com/books/heartily-homeschooled/
Heart to Heart: Meeting With God in the Lord’s Prayer: http://www.rachelstarrthomson.com/books/heart-to-heart/
Letters to a Samuel Generation: http://www.rachelstarrthomson.com/books/samuel-generation/

Until next time, keep reading, thinking, and writing!

On Tuesday, you can expect another comma tip as Inklings falls back into its regular rhythm. I’ve got some fantastic interviews and features lined up. Thanks for coming along on this writing journey!