Monday, October 19, 2015

The Crossways Blog Tour—Guest Post + Giveaway!

Today I’m sharing a guest post by my writing friend, Morgan Elizabeth Huneke, celebrating the release of her newest book, The Crossways!

Crossways

About the Book

“M’lady, it has been fairly well confirmed that the Redona was hidden away by the merfolk at the conclusion of the Great War instead of destroyed as was commanded. My brother has confirmed to me Joseph’s belief that it was concealed at the Crossways.”

Toarna pressed her fingertips together in thought. “It must be recovered and destroyed as was at first intended.”

Emily, Allan, Jill, and Joey have been reunited with their long lost ancestors. But with that reunion comes the true beginning of their quest: free the rightful king of Calhortz so that he may be restored to his throne. The Redona, the only object that can free him from his long imprisonment, is rumored to be concealed in The Crossways, a mountain across the sea which cannot be entered.

A slave since birth, Adriel’s resentment and hatred towards the strytes only grows as his family is continually ripped from him. He longs for the freedom the Time Captives are prophesied to bring, but he doubts their existence, just as he doubts God’s love. Circumstances in Calhortz are so dire. How could they ever improve?
Who can enter The Crossways? Will the king ever be freed? Or will the slaves of Calhortz lose all hope of freedom before it is even offered to them?

The Crossways is the second book of the Time Captives trilogy, a tale of faith, family, fantasy, and a fight for truth and freedom.

Buy Now

Kindle ~ Paperback ~ Signed Copy

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Guest Post
Pirate Character Arcs

One of my biggest literary pet peeves, aside from poorly developed characters and badly written stories, is when negative character arcs are portrayed as positive ones. It happens far too often. My primary example, however, is from Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean. Will Turner starts out as a blacksmith, a good, upstanding citizen. And I really liked him. As the series progressed, he…became a pirate. Instead of upholding the law, he broke it, and that was considered a good thing.

That really disappointed me. I thought the Pirates movies were exciting and interesting, but I couldn’t love them because the “good guys” were really no better than the bad ones, and we were supposed to be okay with that. Even in Christian fiction, authors still try to have “good” pirates, and that bothers me. So I decided I wanted to write a pirate story where the pirates were actually bad guys. Ironically, a few weeks later, I discovered that Molly Evangeline had done just that in her Pirates & Faith series.

Finally reading a pirate story that met with my standards, and which I loved very much, only served to make me want to write my own even more. I was in the middle of Time Captives, though. It would have to wait. But as I continued to read Pirates & Faith, I determined I wasn’t willing to wait. I put my pirate character into Time Captives and Jeremy Herb kidnapped Emily, Allan, Jill, Joey, and Peetur. I couldn’t stop there, however.

Jeremy came from somewhere. No one starts out as a pirate. I wanted to know where he came from, why he turned to piracy. I was also determined not so show it as a good thing. Piracy sounds grand, but what are pirates essentially? They are the thieves and murderers of the sea. There aren’t “good” pirates. And so, despite Jeremy starting out as just any little boy, he is not a “good” pirate. Turning to piracy destroyed his life.

I did love exploring his history, but it was sad. He made bad choices and it sent him on a downward spiral. He has a negative character arc, and I portray it as negative. Movies like Pirates of the Caribbean make piracy seem like such a grand adventure, but it’s not. It’s just as destructive as any other life of crime, and I hope that’s what Jeremy shows.

About the Author
morgan
Morgan Elizabeth Huneke is a homeschool graduate who lives in Georgia. She has enjoyed creating characters and writing stories since early childhood. Her other interests include reading, playing the piano and violin, and politics. She is the author of Across the Stars and The Experiment.
You can connect with Morgan on her website, blog, Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, and Pinterest.
 
Giveaway
Join in the excitement of Time Captives and enter to win a special prize! The first prize winner will receive a signed copy of The Crossways. The second prize winner will receive an eCopy of The Crossways in the eBook format of his/her choice. Giveaway open to U.S. residents only.

 

Tour Schedule

Monday, October 19

Tuesday, October 20

Wednesday, October 21

Thursday, October 22

Friday, October 23

Saturday, October 24

Monday, October 26

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5 comments:

  1. Morgan HunekeOctober 19, 2015 at 8:10 AM

    Thanks for helping with my blog tour, Jaye! Your books have been very influential to me. :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousOctober 19, 2015 at 5:59 PM

    Ummm....are we suposed to leave the comment here? Well what i would do if i were sold as a gladiator is try to run away or something. i wouldn't kill.

    ReplyDelete
  3. RebekahOctober 20, 2015 at 7:29 AM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Rachael SteeleOctober 20, 2015 at 8:52 AM

    Great post! I have no idea what I would do.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Odette KnightOctober 22, 2015 at 10:21 AM

    If i were sold as a gladiator, i think that i would probably try to get all the other gladiators together have all of them help each other so that we would survive any battles that we were thrown into and work together so that we could all get out of there.

    ReplyDelete

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