Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Stephen Lawhead Spirit Well CSFF Tour - Day 3


The Spirit Well
Book Three in the Bright Empires series - by Stephan R. Lawhead


Blog Tour - Day 3  No Matter Where You Go, Then You Are
 
(click image for Amazon link or click link below) The Spirit Well - available from:


You can add the Amazon Audible version for $9.99 when purchased with the eBook, to switch between reading and listening to the book - http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0095PEMIW/ref=kics_hp_dp_narration


Author’s Web site -            http://www.stephenlawhead.com/
Author's Facebook Page -  http://www.facebook.com/StephenRLawhead

 
I received a review copy of The Spirit Well from Thomas Nelson in conjunction with the CSFF Blog Tour


I wanted to return to something that came to mind during yesterday's blog. As each traveler followed their ley line, they didn't always end up at he same place or even time. I'm not sure if it was intended, but couldn't the landing time have been what each needed to grow into the person they needed to become? Kit landed in a quiet, fairly peaceful time. He needed the introspection from that period. Mina landed centuries ago, but followed a trail forward to end at a monastery, where she found fulfillment in quiet servitude and worship. Cass landed in a near modern time, so the change was less abrupt, and she found answers to her question.
 
A theme that seemed to run through the Spirit Well, is that nothing happens by chance. each landed where they did for a reason. I think Lawhead used this part of the plot to show readers that God is in control. Even in the small things, he can use us and others to nudge someone in the direction they need to go. Like the cast of characters in The Spirit Well, life often doesn't make sense. Just when we think we have things figured out, we gain new knowledge and opportunities. The Lord wants what is best for us in the long run. As Kit, Mina, and Cass found, no matter where you go, then in life you are, and The Lord is there with you.
 
I had one last question about ley travel. While you can't meet yourself, could you send a warning back from a future event? Guess we'll have to wait for the next book to find out more about Stephen Lawhead's Bright Empires universe. Hope it's soon.


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Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Stephen Lawhead Spirit Well CSFF Tour - Day 2


The Spirit Well
Book Three in the Bright Empires series - by Stephan R. Lawhead


Blog Tour - Day 2  Are We Then Yet? Traveling the Ley Line Express.



 
(click image for Amazon link or click link below) The Spirit Well - available from:


You can add the Amazon Audible version for $9.99 when purchased with the eBook, to switch between reading and listening to the book - http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0095PEMIW/ref=kics_hp_dp_narration


Author’s Web site -            http://www.stephenlawhead.com/
Author's Facebook Page -  http://www.facebook.com/StephenRLawhead

 
I received a review copy of The Spirit Well from Thomas Nelson in conjunction with the CSFF Blog Tour


The newest ley traveler, Cassandra Clark, begins the book as a healthy skeptic about much of life. Disappointed by what once excited her, she seems like a ship without a rudder. Luckily she finds new direction in her life as she travels the ley lines. Her next trip ended in a different place, and as she found out, a different time. Gone were the arid plains of darkened ash. Her new landing spot was still dry, but at least there were other people. This is where Cass first encounters the Zetetic Society and learns there really is life after ley travel.

Kit takes an odd turn in a cave, following someone or something, and surprises a hunter in a nearly modern setting. Problem is, Kit has almost forgotten how to speak after living among the River City Clan for so long, and the stranger he meets doesn't speak English. Dressed in rough animal skins, and sporting untamed hair and beard, Kit doesn't make a very good first impression. When he's brought to town, many of the locals think Kit is crazy and want to lock him up. He's passed from one group to another, with no one wanting to take responsibility for "the loco man in the desert." Kit takes solace in his memory of his friends in the caves. He realizes he was contented while living there, and ready to take on life with a fresh determination.

Mina goes searching for Kit, and instead finds new direction for her life too. A series of clues and circumstances leads her to find a new friend and a mentor in an unexpected place and time. Thanks to her new training, Mina is able to plan her trips up and down the ley lines to arrive within a day of when she wanted. As she returns to the monastery, time and again, Mina develops a peaceful spirit by living and working among the nuns and friars.

Ley line travel provides a life changing result in all three characters. Each find their way as they seem to land in places and times that will help them the most. Some even find or renew their faith. But that's tomorrow's discussion.


Day 3 Blog: No Matter Where You Go, Then You Are

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Monday, October 22, 2012

Stephen Lawhead Spirit Well CSFF Tour - First Day


The Spirit Well
Book Three in the Bright Empires series - by Stephan R. Lawhead


Blog Tour - Day 1 Ley Lines and Time Streams and Newbies, Oh My!


 
(click image for Amazon link or click link below) The Spirit Well - available from:


You can add the Amazon Audible version for $9.99 when purchased with the eBook, to switch between reading and listening to the book - http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0095PEMIW/ref=kics_hp_dp_narration


Author’s Web site -            http://www.stephenlawhead.com/
Author's Facebook Page -  http://www.facebook.com/StephenRLawhead

 
I received a review copy of The Spirit Well from Thomas Nelson in conjunction with the CSFF Blog Tour




The Spirit Well is third book in Stephen R. Lawhead's Bright Empires series. Mina and Kit return in the newest addition to The Bright Empire series by author Stephen R. Lawhead. If you read The Bone House, book two in the series, you may remember Kit was stuck in the distant past. He was in a time long before recorded history. It seemed like life was exceptionally hard, but Kit's character finds his place in their society as he learns to communicate in a kind of basic telepathy. Yes, that makes sense. Language hadn't been developed this early, and the River City Clan needed a way to communicate. Lawhead's explanation sounded believable and it doesn't conflict with many scientific theories about early man's physiology. The amazing breadth of knowledge encountered in Mr. Lawhead's books never ceases to amaze me. With so much research, I often wonder how he finds time to write.

While Kit wanders around the Ice Age landscape, Mina procures a new, improved ley line detector model from her friend, Gustavus. The new model tracks directionally a little too efficiently for Mina, so she leaves Prague for an extended time in search of Kit . She finds a ley-travel mentor in an unexpected place and time, and learns time isn't always linear when it comes to ley travel. She answered one of my questions. Why don't ley travelers ever run into an earlier or later version of themselves; like Marty in Back to the Future?
Cassandra Clarke is the newbie ley-traveler. She happens upon a ley portal during an palaeontological dig in the American Southwest. This Ghost Road, as it is called by Native American Shamans, leads Cass to the strangest place yet in the series. Arid volcanic gravel covered the ground as far as she could see, only broken in the far distance by black hills. Cass didn't know how she had arrived, and what's worse, didn't know how to get home. No one knew she was gone and wouldn't know to look for her.

  Tomorrow I'll discuss how moving in four dimensions makes it that much easier to get lost. Even if you return to the right place, returning to the wrong time is even worse.
  And what does the Zetetic Society really know about traveling the ley lines?


Day 2 Blog: Are We Then Yet? Traveling the Ley Line Express.




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Friday, October 12, 2012

Frank Creed
 returns with more tales from
The Underground seriesin

Devil's Hit List
is now available in print
http://www.amazon.com/Devils-Hit-List-Frank-Creed/dp/1927154316
 and as an e-book
 Kindle e-book

Disclaimer stuff: I received a free copy of the Devil's Hit List from Frank Creed to help with my blog review by being an early reader. I appreciate getting my hands on an early copy to learn what's next for Calamity Kid and e-girl. I still want a print copy to go with my copies of his first two books in the series that I also purchased.


 Devil's Hit List is book three in this exciting dystopian thriller of a near future world ruled by the One World Order. As you can tell from the book covers, thanks to
author Caprice Hokstad's website for gathering all three covers in one image, each new book cover pulls farther back than the previous. I wondered if the author planned this to illustrate how the main characters' influence was began locally, but spread outward with each new book.

 Is Frank giving careful readers clues about his next book?



Virtual-e kill people? You may think, yeah, right. But in just the last few years at least ten players have died from exhaustion, starvation, and despondency from losing a favored game character or item. As games grow more realistic, and players unplug from the real world in favor of more enjoyable virtual worlds, is virtual-e so far off? Maybe author Frank Creed doesn't just write about a strange, new imaginary world, but gives us a peak at the kind of world we can expect when we take our focus off The One and place it on fleeting happiness fixes; virtual or otherwise.

More Frank Creed Connections:

My publisher has other great Christian spec-fic: http://www.splashdownbooks.com/
 

Here's an excerpt from the book, to give you a taste of the fast paced action scenes I've come to enjoy after the first two books in The Underground Series:

After catching the train that way I sat on the cattle car’s floor to catch my breath. Those all around me, at least twenty of them, wore a black bandanna somewhere on their person. I wondered if Barren or Legacy knew which gang this was. The two still had their pistols out, but aimed at the floor.


 The gangers stood loosely with their hands ready to grab concealed weapons. They appeared perturbed at having their space invaded by outsiders.

 The muscles in my back, shoulders, and arms tightened, a feeling in my gut to which I was unaccustomed. Any sandman has little usual concern for a threat to his safety. We’re pretty tough. So my fear was unusual. I swallowed.

 I followed my instincts and pushed to my feet. I turned my attention to Legacy and Barren. “Had you two not bolted like fools from the river, you’d not have had to barge in on these fine people.” Then I spoke to the rest of the car’s passengers. “Thank you for allowing us passage in your car. Please forgive my friends’ rudeness. Can we all just get along now?”

 Barren replied, “Hey now, you know an open and empty cattle car is just too perfect for our needs. What did you expect us to do?”

 “We have no idea if we crossed cameras just now, and there’s a manhunt on for me.”

 “You’re wearing your floppy hat,” said Legacy. “What are you afraid of?”

 “He’s afraid of fear,” said Lethe.

 Barren and Legacy shared a glance and shrugged.

 “Hey!” said one of the gangers who wore his bandanna as a do-rag.

 We all looked at him.

 He spoke to his friends. “That stud called him Calamity, and he talked about the manhunt that’s playin’ out. Meet Calamity Kid, y’all. How much is the price tag on your head, Mr. Calamity Kid?”

 “Aw, y’all just hopped the wrong train,” said another, taking a step forward.

 Wisps of smoke, fallen angels, coalesced from the gangers to hang in the cattle car’s center.

 I fired off a combat prayer about spiritual cover and swallowed again, but found my throat dry. I thought fast, and spoke faster, the tenseness creeping up my neck and scalp. “And how could you lads collect the millions on my head? You think the FBT wouldn’t just save itself that kind of money and rehab every last one of you?”

 “Mebbe we’ll try anyway,” said another pushing off the wall of the cattle car. “Mebbe we’ll just show you why you shouldn’t hop into a car full of Latin Kings.”

 Swarms of glitter appeared in the cattle car and swirled at the smoke. Both kinds of angels disappeared.

 I opened a map of gang territories on the lenses of my comshades to double-check what I already knew and sat down. “You’re headed to North Aurora, aren’t you?”

 “So?” asked the ganger who had started it all, the one with the do-rag.

 “Good thing I just paid my dues to you guys. Two days ago you found a dark red pickup with a white cap. The keys were in the ignition and three cases of industrial circuit boards were in the back. That was me. You’re welcome.”

 Do-Rag looked to one of his buddies who nodded and shrugged. “Then how ’bout you get these guns outta our faces and we’ll let you ride in our car.”

 I gestured to Legacy and Barren, who holstered their pistols and joined me on the floor of the car. Lethe and e-girl sat cross-legged, one on either side of me.

 The Latin Kings relaxed, and leaned against the wall again. I overheard one mutter, “He looks bigger in his pics. You’d think a sandman would be bigger.”

 “Thanks, y’all,” I said with a wave.

 “An enemy of the state is a friend of mine,” said another of the gangers.

Want more of the Devil's Hit List? Check out these other blogs in the tour for excerpts, or just buy a copy or two for you and a friend to enjoy.

R. L. Copplehttp://blog.rlcopple.com
Ryan Grabowhttp://www.egrabow.com/rm.php?e=Prime
Grace Bridgeshttp://grace.splashdownbooks.com
Caprice Hokstadhttp://caprice.splashdownbooks.com/
Diane M. Grahamhttp://dianemgraham.com/blog/
Travis Perryhttp://travissbigidea.blogspot.com/
Jennifer Rogershttp://jfrogers.blogspot.com/
Greg Mitchellhttp://www.thecomingevil.blogspot.com/
Paul Baineshttp://www.pabaines.com
Keven Newsomehttp://www.kevennewsome.com
Kat Heckenbachhttp://www.katheckenbach.com/
Timothy Hickshttp://fantasythyme.blogspot.com/
Robynn Tolberthttp://ranunculusturtle.blogspot.com/
Fred Warren
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