{This, incidentally is the back of our official Tour Bookmark} Wayne Thomas Batson--The Door Within Trilogy and Isle of Swords
Bryan Davis--The Dragons in Our Midst and Oracles of Fire
Sharon Hinck--The Becky Miller Books and The Sword of Lyric Series
Christopher Hopper--The Rise of the Dibor and The White Lion Chronicles
Bryan Davis--The Dragons in Our Midst and Oracles of Fire
Sharon Hinck--The Becky Miller Books and The Sword of Lyric Series
Christopher Hopper--The Rise of the Dibor and The White Lion Chronicles
I'll also be including a new piece of desktop art with each new post--Tonight's pic is from Christopher Hopper's The Lion Vrie which releases in stores later this month. Feel free to save the file and use it as your computer's background. Share with friends or post wherever else you blog!
Q: What makes your fantasy tale different from most other fantasy books?
WB: The Door Within is different in two ways: 1. As a teacher of tweens for 16 years now, I have insights into the lives of kids—their hopes, dreams…fears—depths of insights that other authors may not have. One of the comments I hear most often from readers is that they can identify with the main characters. “That’s just how I’ve felt.” Or, “How’d you know?” I know that kids of all ages are aching to ask the BIG questions of life, and to be taken seriously. In The Door Within Trilogy, I give them that chance.
2. The Glimpse Realm is different from any other fantasy world that I’ve found in other books. Yes, it is medieval. Yes, there are strange settings. Yes, there are strange and wonderful creatures—lots of these! {Wait til you enter Falon’s Labyrinth in book 1!!} But Glimpses are entirely different. They are the other half of our being, tied precariously to each of us by an invisible thread. When Aidan or anyone else for that matter enters The Realm—completely unexpected events occur!
BD: Most of the action takes place in our contemporary world rather than in another realm like Middle Earth or Narnia. I bring the fantasy elements into the everyday lives of “real” kids. My readers can identify with their circumstances and go along for the fantastic ride with them. I have heard from hundreds of readers how these fantasy characters were so real, they wanted to be just like them, including taking their faith as their own.
SH: When I began to write fantasy for adult Christian readers, I looked for the reasons that many of my friends (the core demographic of CBA readers) didn’t chose to read fantasy. Women with overfull and exhausting lives didn’t want to wade through difficult invented names, histories, and geography descriptions. They also needed a “keyhole” character they could identify with—some one to take them into the story. So I took a very “ordinary” soccer mom who was longing to find more meaning and purpose in her life, and told the story first-person point-of-view through her eyes. I kept the writing voice contemporary and lighter than some of the classical fantasy styles. The completely unique blend of genres contains the drama and adventure of other worlds, holy calls, and epic battles—yet sets it in a context that speaks to contemporary women. Women today ARE pulled into worlds they didn’t expect, and face roles they don’t feel prepared for. It happens when a child is diagnosed with a learning disability, a doctor says they have cancer, or a parent slides into Alzheimer’s.
CH: Honestly, I had to ask my wife this question, because I really was having a hard time with responding. And when she answered me back, I thought she should be the author here. It was beautiful. Jennifer said, “It reaches into the soul of a person to change him or her, rather than to reach into the soul of a person to entertain him or her.” And I would agree. When I sit down and write, yes, I hope the reader is entertained. But my primary thought, with every sentence I write, is that his or her life would be literally transformed by my stories; that something in my writing would challenge the way they are living and point them towards the Lord. There is an eternal destiny in mind why I compose, and an eternal reward for its success.
Also, please note that RealArmorOfGod.com is our Official Tour Sponsor--some of the coolest medieval weaponry and clothing you will ever find!
The wall was fairly unremarkable. It was stone; simple, gray stone. But there was something that the old man was interested in, for he ran his finger down the crack in front of him with a perusing gaze, trying to find something. There was not much to be heard; A mouse here and there, but whoever this man was, he was alone in a rather unsettling, dusty, narrow hallway.
He breathed in through his nose and tilted his back a little, causing his tweed cap to fall over his eyebrows. The man reached into a pocket inside his jacket and pulled out a small blue crystal, and then fitted it into a crack where four stone blocks met.
The crystal started to shine, reacting to the miasma in the air in the hallway, and then burst, breaking down the wall. The man brushed some dust out of his white mustache, and proceeded through.
Beyond the opening was not much, only some old copper pipes in a space the size of a small room. The man wasn’t too happy that he used one of his crystals to only make it to a maintenance room.
“Where are you…” he mumbled to himself, putting his hand to the stubble on his chin. He stood there, contemplating his situation, and then turned his back to explore further down the hall. Once his back was parallel with the wall he had just broken, a rush of air flew past him, with a sound like a giant breathing in. Light, too, drifted past him, and a shadow drifted forth from the room he had just left.
This man knew what was happening, and quickly turned around to see a figure of shadow.
“Johannes Wächter, not this time,” exhaled the figure of shadow, growing ever more solid, but it was still translucent, it was still the thing that Johannes had come here to find: a ghost.