Rachel Starr Thomson

“Remember how I followed you and Adrian like a little puppy until I was eight?”

Jason grinned. “I remember. We didn’t mind. We needed a fair maiden to rescue whenever we stormed the sand castles.”

“Well, I always knew you’d be a warrior. Remember what I used to say when we were getting ready to wade across the Elbon?”

“I remember. ‘Lead the way, warrior.’”

“Those were good days.” She hooked her arm around his and sighed. “I feel like they’re back. I’m a little girl again, a maiden rescued from a witch hunter.”

In yesterday’s interview with Bryan Davis, I asked about the magical elements in Starlighter — the mysterious gifts possessed by Koren and Elyssa. The gifts add to the appeal of both characters, by making them fascinating in their own right and placing them both in peril — Koren because her power is coveted by evil rulers, Elyssa because people with her gifts get burned at the stake. Yet both believe that the Creator has endowed them with their powers, and both seek to use their gifts in His service.

Controversy could enter, however, as it does so often with Christian speculative fiction, because in our world Koren and Elyssa’s gifts would probably be demonic at worst and anti-biblical at best (for example, the title used for Elyssa, “Diviner,” calls to mind Scripture’s admonitions against divination).

In the interview, Bryan revealed his process for dividing reality and fantasy:

Since the Dragons in our Midst series takes place in our world, I had to draw the line between reality and fantasy very carefully, more so in that series than in Dragons of Starlight. In Dragons in our Midst, I adhered to the realities of our world and added the fantasy elements without violating the truths of the Bible’s revelations of the spiritual world. I have the real God, and I mention the real Jesus, which established my story as one that could not trespass lines drawn by the Bible. So all my heroic characters never use magic or other powers that Christians in our world would consider demonic or as arising from forbidden sources.

Starlighter . . . takes place in another world. The characters have inherent abilities that would be considered demonic in our world, but in this world, they are endowed by the Creator. Just as the Holy Spirit gives different gifts to humans in our world, God does the same in the Starlighter world, but some of the gifts don’t match those in our world . . .

I realized when I wrote the story that some people would challenge these abilities as demonic. That’s why I created the persecutors who chase Elyssa and characterize them as dark-ages style inquisitors who are blind to the possibility that God is able to endow people with gifts they don’t understand.

Bryan’s answer touches on something Christian fantasy writers understand: powers or abilities are not evil in and of themselves; it’s the source of those powers or abilities — and the way that we access and/or use them — that make them good or evil.

In another world, the rules could very well be different than they are here. By exploring these possibilities, fantasy writers can turn a mirror on our own world and our attitudes and responses to people, to events, and to things we don’t understand. It’s this transferral of the familiar into the strange that gives fantasy its emotional and spiritual power: taken out of our usual surroundings, we’re forced to see life differently for the duration of the story, to ask questions of ourselves and challenge our assumptions.

The best fantasy will give us a vision we can take back into the real world with us — not blurring the lines between fantasy and reality, but equipping us to see through the outsides of things and into the heart a little more clearly.

If you live a daily walk of faith, as I do, you probably read the Bible often. You may even study it. (If you don’t, why not?) Since this blog centers on reading and writing and faith, I figure it’s fair game to give some Bible reading advice.

Remember Tuesday’s post on entering the moment in your writing?

Have you ever tried that with a Bible story?

I challenge you to try it. Pick a character in a story (any character except God — this won’t work as well from His POV, although I suppose you can try it if you must). Now, put yourself as thoroughly in that character’s shoes as you possibly can. Draw on everything you know (or can learn) about the biblical and cultural setting, the character’s past life experiences or personality, and other factors in the story’s context. Try to get inside that character’s brain. Get as comfortable there as you can. Do your best to forget things you know that this character doesn’t.

(For example, when Peter first goes to meet Jesus, he doesn’t know that he’ll become one of the chief disciples, witness miracles, see Jesus transfigured, betray his lord, be filled with the Holy Spirit, convert 2,000 people at once with his preaching, and lead the Jerusalem church. At the moment you’re entering, he’s just a fisherman who’s heard some rumours about a local carpenter’s son.)

Once you’ve done that, read on — because most often, in Bible stories, characters get their boats upset. God comes in and does something to turn that character’s world upside down. And the great thing is that the more you’ve identified with that character, the more your world can be turned upside down, too.

This method of Bible study is somewhat subjective, and of course it has its limits. But it works surprisingly well for me. It gives me new insights into what was happening in many biblical stories, and into the surprising ways God enters people’s lives and bends their expectations. So today I challenge you to try it.

(If you need a starting place, I recommend trying this with Matthew or Acts. I’ve read both books doing my best to be characters in the story, and I can tell you, it’s an enriching experience!)

Fred Warren of Frederation, whose reviews are always insightful and entertaining, brought up an interesting point about By Darkness Hid yesterday:

Nature vs. Nurture: Given Achan’s terrible upbringing, it was a bit of a puzzlement how well he turned out. Kept ignorant, hungry, and hopeless, beaten and beaten-down at every turn, he was still kind, unselfish, well-spoken, and almost inhumanly persevering. There’s a strong implied argument for the power of “good genes” in this story, but there’s also credit given to divine mercy and protection. Kids with nightmarish childhoods can and often do survive and prosper, praise God, but in this story, I would have expected Achan to have internal scars as bad as those on the outside.

In this story, you might say that both protagonists are suffering a major identity crisis. Achan is named “trouble” by his guardian, and his whole life seems defined by that name. Then along comes Sir Gavin, and Achan’s identity begins to change. He becomes a squire; he starts to interact with other squires and noblemen as equals. He uncovers his bloodvoicing gift, a gift so incredibly strong that every bloodvoicer in the country can hear him and wants to know who he is. Formerly worthy only of the attention of bullies and peasants, suddenly Achan is thrust into a world where, for some reason, he matters to a lot of people.

Vrell is a young noblewoman struggling to play the role of a stray boy. As Fred put it, “Instincts feminine and patrician continually threaten to reveal her true identity.” Vrell’s identity crisis happens along an opposite arc from Achan’s: while he’s discovering what it’s like to be somebody, she’s discovering what it’s like to be nobody.

Neither arc is easy!

And yet, no matter how much their circumstances change, Achan and Vrell are not ultimately defined by them.  Some reviewers have found Achan too noble considering his background. I don’t, because ultimately, our own choices define us more than anything else. Prince Gidon is a cad and a monster because he’s chosen to be one. Achan is noble because, in the fight for survival, he’s chosen to hate injustice instead of participate in it. He doesn’t respect Gidon or Nathak or the barnyard bullies, so he chooses not to be like them. He takes the only route that will allow him to respect himself.

Vrell, likewise, chooses sides not because of her birth status but because she cares about what’s right. She may be dressed like a Stray, forced to spend time with uncultured louses, and coerced into the service of a political schemer, but she never for a moment forgets who she is or ceases to act in accordance with her own values and priorities.

And that, ultimately, is where God’s gift comes in: He gives each of us the choice, not to define our circumstances, but to define ourselves. The values we set for ourselves will shape who we become.

Thanks, Jill, for the reminder!

It’s that time of year again! That time that creeps up on me when I least expect it, bowling me over (and straight toward the nearest armchair) with the desire to plunge into nostalgia, perspective, and humor.

Yes, it’s that time of year when I spend every evening for a week reading comic strip collections. Comics fascinate me. They are so simple, yet their combinations of pictures and words can be brilliantly expressive. They make me laugh, mostly at myself. They also, surprisingly often, make me think.

“Cathy” by Cathy Guisewite is one of my favourites (although I’ve never read past the year 2000, and it doesn’t interest me as much now that Cathy has married her long-time love interest Irving. For me a lot of the humour came from the perspectives on single life!). Years ago my sister printed out every Cathy strip from 1996-2000, and every other year or so I curl up and read through them. The older I get, the funnier they are. And now they’re also nostalgic, as the strips touch on current fads and events (Y2K, the rise of the Atkins’ Diet, various fashion trends).

My other favourites? Peanuts is number one. I’m also a fan of Calvin and Hobbes, Bloom County, and Pogo. And yes, every one of my favourite strips has ceased running in newspapers. It makes me sad.

But nothing beats an evening in an armchair with a comics collection anyway .

Your turn! Do you read comics? What are your favourites? And what other reading habits do you have that might surprise others?

P.S. You can read “Cathy” here, from ’96 to the present: www.gocomics.com/cathy/

The CSFF Tour for this month is officially over, but before we leave Raven’s Ladder, I want to explore one of its themes. I also have a book to give away, so it’s time for a contest! Scroll all the way down to the bottom of this post for contest rules and deadline.

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!

I love technology, in particular the Internet and personal computers. I used to fancy myself something of a Luddite, moaning about how I wished we could go back to the pre-Industrial Revolution days or at least move to Amish country, but no longer!

As a writer/editor/publisher, I am flat-down excited about the speed and efficiency and possibilities of our modern age. And as a Christian, I think it’s pretty cool that we can interact so freely online with people from all over the world. (Which inspires a short rant: the Net is NOT a place to use less care with your words;  it is a place to be more courteous, more reasonable, and more ready to give an answer — this here Internet is a mission field, people, so behave yourselves!)

My favorite piece of gadgetry is my new keyboard, which I bought yesterday at Staples because the spacebar on my laptop stopped working. I had to go back and fix the spacing in every other word. Do you know how horrendously that can slow a girl down? Anyway, I bought this new keyboard and it’s really comfortable and fast and I love it.

So now I want to hear from you: as writers and readers and just people, how do you feel about technology? What are your favourite gadgets or widgets or iThings? Weigh in!

P.S. Ironically, I couldn’t blog yesterday because of technical problems — first my cantankerous laptop keyboard, and then my site was down for a while. But I will keep posting on Tuesdays and Thursdays as a general rule! Except next week, when it’s time for the CSFF Tour for Raven’s Ladder. Yes!

Soli Deo Gloria Ballet (meaning myself and eight cousins who dance, play various instruments, drive the tour van, and run sound) is currently on our Easter tour, which is not nearly so big a deal as Christmas, when we performed 22 times in 30 days. For Easter we are performing a 30-minute ballet called Glorious Day, which goes song-by-song through the events of Palm Sunday, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday and ends with a Casting Crowns’ song celebrating Jesus’ resurrection and our redemption.

We premiered it yesterday at our home church. While I was waiting backstage for my first cue to come out and narrate (“Glorious day! Day that shines, day that lives forever, day that means eternity!”), I was praying that the Lord would come and be among us. That His presence would be felt; that we would know what it means that He is alive. And as I prayed I felt a strong sense of longing for Him, a yearning that in itself almost seems to bring God nearer.

Longing is a theme I play on a lot in the Seventh World books. I’m dealing with it again as I write Virginia’s story in The Advent, because she’s one of the only characters in the trilogy who has actually experienced the King’s presence, and she’s forever filled with longing to be there again.

In my own life, that strong yearning is sometimes “rewarded” with a stronger sense of God’s presence. But sometimes it isn’t. Sometimes I just have that beautiful ache inside. But the truth is, I’d rather have it than not.

I’ve come to the conclusion that longing for God is actually a gift. It’s like a wind blowing back from Eden, full of evocative scents and feelings we’ve almost forgotten. Longing is one of the things that keeps me going, even when life is difficult and my faith is tested.

So having finished the first draft of The Advent back in December and subsequently touring a lot, I’m finally in the heavy revision stage of the second draft. So far I have done two things:

1. Rearranged everything. I didn’t like how tension and pacing were working out, so I basically cut the book into pieces and put it back together with the scenes in different places.

2. Discovered a whole new plot thread. I read a sentence about a character and suddenly realized that character needed a whole new plot thread. I probably wouldn’t have realized this if I hadn’t rearranged everything — the sentence’s new position in the story cast new light on it.

THAT is a lot like living. Routines are wonderful. They really are. They make us productive and useful and make sure we get enough sleep. But now and then things need shaking up, because you know what? When we rearrange a few things, we can see our lives in a different light and realize what we might be neglecting, what needs more attention, what beautiful stories are waiting for us to write them.

Where and how are you educating yourself?

One of the tenets of my homeschooling upbringing was that school is everything, everywhere, all the time; you never stop learning. If you want an education in something specific, you just have to be deliberate about it.

From blogs and newsletters and history books and literature and style guides and dictionaries, I learn about publishing and grammar and language and marketing every single day, just about. That doesn’t mean I read EVERYTHING; part of getting a good education is realizing that you can’t possibly read every piece of information out there. You have to be discerning, get yourself on the right lists, pay attention to the right people.

Where are you getting your education?

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! I love this holiday, not because of the green beer, but because it’s a reminder of God’s work among the Celts in bringing them the gospel. (As I have Scots and Irish roots, this matters to me.)

Patrick was a missionary from Scotland to Ireland. He was originally taken to Ireland as a pirate-abducted slave, spent several years tending pigs, and ran away in response to what he believed was God’s voice. After his return to Britain, he had a dream in which an Irish ruler called him back, saying, “We beseech thee, holy youth, come and live among us once more.”

Patrick answered the call, and the rest is history (well, history and folklore — this was a long time ago!). You can read the whole story in “The Confession of St. Patrick” at the Christian Classics Ethereal Library — here.

And before you go, one of my favourite pieces of poetry — a prayer attributed to St. Patrick.

The Shield of St. Patrick

Attributed to St. Patrick
Paraphrased by Cecil Frances Alexander

I bind this day to me forever by
power of faith Christ’s incarnation,
his baptism in the Jordan river,
his death on the cross for my salvation;
his bursting from the spiced tomb,
his riding up the heavenly way,
his coming at the day of doom I bind
unto myself today.

I bind unto myself today the power of
God to hold and lead,
his eye to watch, his might to stay,
his ear to harken to my need,
the wisdom of my God to teach,
his hand to guide, his shield to ward,
the Word of God to give me speech,
his heavenly host to be my guard.

Christ be with me, Christ within me,
Christ behind me, Christ before me,
Christ beside me, Christ to win me;
Christ to comfort and restore me;
Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ in quiet, Christ in danger,
Christ in hearts of all that love me,
Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.

I bind unto myself the name,
the strong name of the Trinity,
by invocation of the same,
the Three in One, and One in Three,
of whom all nature hath creation,
eternal Father, Spirit, Word;
praise to the God of my salvation,
salvation is of Christ the Lord!

Go mbeannaí Dia duit — may God bless you.