Book Giveaway News

Why do authors offer book giveaways? Being honest, of course there is a practical publicity side. We want to spur interest and reach as many readers as we can. It is often a giving from the heart, a chance to help spread the word about our literary creations. In the case of the VFA launch giveaway, it is a celebration of the labor of love in creating the Visionary Fiction Alliance and blog, and we wanted to generously share our joy.

The Visionary Fiction Alliance is hosting a multiple book giveaway as part of its premiere launch. There are seven titles from several  award winning or best-selling, really great Visionary Fiction authors including: Saleena Karim, Sandy Nathan, D.E. Lamont, Michelle Gordon, Michael Sussman, Peggy Payne, and...me! 


Enter here for the chance to win the Visionary Fiction titles that include: Tales from Earth End, The Way of the Eagle, Crashing Eden, Revelation, Systems, The Doorway to PAM, and Carry on the Flame. One lucky winner will receive all seven VF novels! (Actually, it’ll be nine novels, as one author is giving away 3 parts of a series). Ebook formats vary, but most are either Kindle, epub (Nook, Palm, iPad, etc.) or PDF.

Also, there are 5 days left to enter my Goodreads novel Giveaway where I am offering a chance to win a copy of Carry on the Flame: Destiny's Call.

Good luck to all who enter!

The Place of Visionary Fiction in Today’s World - guest post

I am so pleased to share this insightful and thought provoking article with you about the genre of books I write - visionary fiction. Please enjoy this guest post by author Saleena Karim. Saleena is part of the Vistionary Fiction Web Ring, a group of visionary fiction authors devoted to promoting the genre of Visionary Fiction. I just finished reading Saleena's latest visionary fiction novel: Systems: A Novel. It was a brilliant read, a suspenseful thriller, and I highly recommend it.

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The Place of Visionary Fiction in Today’s World

Whilst the genre of visionary fiction is relatively new, it actually has its roots in ancient mythology, and in the parables and legends we find in religious scripture across the world. It openly harks back to the original function of 'story' itself, to ask questions about humanity, what we are, where we are going, and what we would like to become. So in a way, visionary fiction isn't new at all. But we might ask why this 'new' type of novel has appeared just as we have crossed into the new millennium.

It's a mad world

The future is undoubtedly both exciting and uncertain. It's exciting because of the pace of technology; faster communications such as the internet and mobile devices and TV; the leaps in our understanding of the physical universe; our advances in medicine, genetics and much more. Yet it's also uncertain, because it seems to lack direction. Many of us fear that our combined knowledge is not being put to the best possible use; we remain painfully irresponsible when it comes to the environment; the vast majority of scientific research is funded by, and carried out for, the military; and we still can't feed the world, even though it is already technically possible. Many people express concerns about 'progress for the sake of progress'. Some even fear that we are losing sight of our very humanity and are gradually becoming machines.

Whilst ancient religious cultures emphasised the importance of the 'spiritual', in the modern age we seem to have fostered a culture of pure materialism. It might be said that at one time humanity was so focused on the spiritual, and on religion, that we neglected the material world and progressed very slowly. In recent centuries, we have reacted to this one-sided worldview by embracing science. But in our enthusiasm for material progress, we have also rejected the 'spiritual', and are out of touch with our inner selves. To put it another way, whilst we are technologically advanced, psychologically we remain quite primitive.

Rediscovery

Visionary fiction comes from a human psychological need - a desire to rediscover the 'spiritual'. It is also a totally new incarnation of the stories of old. It may contain (fictional or otherwise) references to Moses, or Buddha, or Celtic or Roman deities, or reincarnation, psychics, and the rest, inviting us to suspend our disbelief to make way for the fantastic. Yet it also seeks to find the spiritual through the regular, worldly gateways of genetic engineering, computer technology, environmentalism and dreams (insofar as dreams are a natural psychological phenomenon). In short, it uses the seemingly ordinary to explore the extraordinary.

At present visionary fiction is still new and virtually unheard of in the mainstream. But with time it could become an important part of our literary heritage and provide a valuable commentary on our present collective state of mind. Visionary fiction gives equal space to spirit and matter, and bridges the gap by suggesting that the difference between the two is perceived rather than real. And unlike some forms of speculative fiction, it looks to the future with hope.

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Jodine Turner is the award winning and visionary fiction, fantasy author of the Goddess of the Stars and the Sea series about young priestess who have lived in Avalon down through the ages to today. www.jodineturner.com

Guest Blog Post - Introducing the Visionary Fiction Ring. Posted by Saleena Karim

Visionary Fiction is the main genre, or category, of my novels. I wrote an article for Writer's Journal a few years ago, as well as a blog post describing this genre a few months ago. Visionary fiction is an ancient storytelling art but a relatively new genre for the publishing industry. Recently, I've had a wonderful time connecting with two other visionary fiction authors, Saleena Karim and Shannan Sinclair on our Goodreads visionary fiction group. Our discussions have sparked our passion for the genre, and we've created a project for ourselves: we will post all three of our perspectives on the relevance of visionary fiction in today's world on each of our blogs later this month. More projects together will follow. Our goal - increase reader awareness of this fascinating genre!

Saleen Karim, the author of Systems A Novel, posted on her blog on March 12, and it is a wonderful introduction to our project. Enjoy her post, below.

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Recently I wrote a post about the difficulty I was having with defining the genre of Systems. Though I found the elusive ‘metaphysics’ category at Amazon (and no, I haven’t got round to re-classifying Systems there yet), I still felt that it would be good if the novel could be classified in a way that didn’t make it sound like it belonged to a tiny or specialist niche (or conversely placed it in too broad a category such as sci-fi).

Since then I’ve met Jodine Turner and Shannan Sinclair at a Goodreads group dedicated to visionary fiction. We’ve all agreed that since our type of fiction needs a brand awareness campaign, we’re going to make an attempt to do just that ourselves. And so, we’ve started a web-ring for visionary fiction (see the new menu on the right-hand side of this page containing links to Jodine and Shannon’s sites) and we’re brainstorming some other ideas at the moment. I’ve also created a new category at this blog especially for Visionary fiction.

So, what is visionary fiction? In one way it could be described as similar to inspirational fiction; it’s often inspired by a search for a higher truth, but it isn’t always about or aimed at readers of a particular faith. It can be metaphysical, or esoteric, or spiritual in tone. It often involves the paranormal. Of course this means that visionary fiction is most likely to also fall under fantasy, as does Jodine’s Carry on the Flame series. But this is not always the case. Systems (as sci-fi) is a case in point. So is Shannan’s Dream Walker, which she describes as ‘Quantum fiction’ because it explores quantum and string theories.

But what all visionary fiction has in common is that it it takes its inspiration from that fascinating creature called humanity and explores its limitless potential. A pioneer of the term ‘visionary’, Michael Gurian, describes it as “fiction in which the expansion of the human mind drives the plot“.
Interested in knowing more? Watch this space for updates. Soon Jodine and Shannan will be dropping in to give us their insights on visionary fiction and its relevance in today’s world.

If you have written a novel and think it might fit into what I’ve described here, say hello here or at Goodreads. We’re looking for more authors to join this ring.