Book Spotlight: There Comes A Prophet by David Litwack Guest Post & Giveaway

Hi everyone! Today on my blog I am spotlighting the book There Comes A Prophet by David Litwack and have a guest post from the author as well as a fantastic giveaway!

• Publisher: Double Dragon Publishing
• Publication date: 7/10/2012

 Purchase: Amazon | B&N

Who among us will cast aside a comfortable existence and risk death to follow a dream?

A world kept peaceful for a thousand years by the magic of the ruling vicars. But a threat lurks from a violent past. Wizards from the darkness have hidden their sorcery in a place called the keep and left a trail of clues that have never been solved.

Nathaniel has grown up longing for more but unwilling to challenge the vicars. Until his friend Thomas is taken for a teaching, the mysterious coming-of-age ritual. Thomas returns but with his dreams ripped away. When Orah is taken next, Nathaniel tries to rescue her and ends up in the prisons of Temple City. There he meets the first keeper of the ancient clues. But when he seeks the keep, what he finds is not magic at all.

If he reveals the truth, the words of the book of light might come to pass:

“If there comes among you a prophet saying ‘Let us return to the darkness,’ you shall stone him, because he has sought to thrust you away from the light.”

Where did you get the idea for There Comes a Prophet?

I was walking along one of my favorite beaches near my home on Cape Cod. To my right was Martha’s Vineyard rising up from the mist and to my left were inlets common to the Cape’s ragged coastline. The first and smallest was called Little Pond, with just a few homes around it. The next was the much bigger Great Pond. For some reason, I started imagining a young man, who’d grown up in the smaller village, feeling limited and wanting more from life.

I had my protagonist. Now I needed the circumstance that was keeping him from attaining his goal.

The news of the day was filled with stories about the rise of a fundamentalism that distrusts science and is adverse to modernism. Yet these same folks were quick to use cell phones and computers to further their cause, and the first to seek modern medicine when they became ill—all technologies that would never have come about had their ideologies prevailed.

I recalled the Arthur C. Clarke quote: “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” What would a smart phone, flat screen or other modern device look like to members of a more primitive society? How might these technologies be abused in the wrong hands?

I had my story, but one last piece was missing.

One of the greatest things about being an author is the ability to make the reader feel the kind of emotion people only feel a few times in their real lives. To achieve that, a writer must make the reader believe that the characters’ actions are important to them, that something profound is at stake.

For each of my main characters, I tried to identify what they cared about most deeply. For Nathaniel, adventure and a desire to change the world. For Orah, the search for truth and knowledge. For Thomas, music. But what drove them above all was their friendship and love for each other.

All these concepts came together—a young man limited, a society that limited him, the power of technology as magic, and three friends deeply committed to each other—and the dystopian fantasy of There Comes a Prophet was born.

What a great guest post. The three main characters sound really great and it seems like they have a great friendship. I also really love the beaches in Cape Cod. I can see how they can be very inspiring. 

Now onto the giveaway

One paperback copy of There Comes A Prophet

International

Winner has 48 hours to respond or a new one will be chosen

I am not responsible for lost or damaged items

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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