Sharon Hinck (Advice for Novelists, Part 27)

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Author Sharon Hinck is up today with her response to:

"If you could say one thing to aspiring novelists, what would you say?"

I think two qualities are important in serving God – whether through writing or other callings: Availability and Authenticity. Show up. Be real.

--Sharon Hinck, author of the Sword of Lyric series (NavPress), Secret Life of Becky Miller series (Bethany House), and Symphony of Secrets (Bethany House). Visit her online at her website here.

The Restorer's Journey by Sharon Hinck (FIRST)

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This month's FIRST blog tour is featuring The Restorer's Journey by Sharon Hinck. This is Book #3 in the Sword of Lyric series, and let me tell you ... I'm looking forward to reading the full story!

I've followed Sharon's characters through Book #1, The Restorer; and Book #2, The Restorer's Son. Both were incredible novels blending the contemporary/fantasy genres beautifully.

The first chapter begins thus:

Chapter One - JAKE

My mom was freaking out.

She stared out the dining room window as if major-league monsters were hiding in the darkness beyond the glass. Give me a break. Our neighborhood was as boring as they came. Ridgeview Drive’s square lawns and generic houses held nothing more menacing than basketball hoops and tire swings. Still, Mom’s back was tight, and in the shadowed reflection on the pane, I could see her biting her lip. I didn’t know what to say to make her feel better.

I ducked back into the kitchen and used a wet rag to wipe off the counters. Clumps of flour turned to paste and smeared in gunky white arcs across the surface. I shook the rag over the garbage can, the mess raining down on the other debris we’d swept up. Broken jars of pasta and rice filled the bag. I stomped it down, twist-tied the bag and jogged it out to the trashcan by the garage. Usually, I hated the chore of taking out the trash. Not tonight. Maybe if I erased the signs of our intruders, Mom would relax a little.

So Cameron and Medea dropped a few things when they were looking for supplies. No biggie. Why did my folks have such a problem with those two anyway? They’d been great to me. I trudged back into the house, rubbing my forehead. Wait. That wasn’t right. A shiver snaked through my spine. Never mind. They were probably long gone by now.

Read the rest of the chapter here.
Read a great review of Book #1, The Restorer here.

The Restorer by Sharon Hinck

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Let me start off by saying I'm not usually a reader of fantasy novels. And yet, I loved The Restorer. This is a testament that Sharon Hinck has succeeded in bridging the gap between die-hard fantasy readers and those with more contemporary inclinations.

Take a look at that cover, first of all. It intrigued me right off the bat. Ever since Narnia I've loved the idea of someone from our world traveling into another.

I think what I loved most about main character Susan Mitchell was her strength. She wasn't relegated to the side-kick role female heroines often are limited to in contemporary Christian fiction (though this is changing, thankfully). She was the one taking charge, despite her fears. She was the one learning how to fight with a sword. She was the promised Restorer sent to deliver an oppressed people. Great stuff. Not to say the male characters sit around and drink tea. Susan's husband Mark plays a huge role, as do several important characters from the alternate world who I very much enjoyed getting to know as well. To read an interesting post by Heather Hunt over at her blog about the male/female roles in this book, click here.

This could truly be a ground-breaking novel in Christian speculative fiction. I look forward with much interest to how it impacts the marketplace.

Let me point you to two wonderful reviews of the book. First, Heather Hunt reviewed The Restorer for us over at TitleTrakk.com here. Second, Rel Mollet reviews the novel over at her blog here.

For more information about Sharon, visit her website. She's about to embark on a book tour with three other fantasy authors: Bryan Davis, Wayne Thomas Batson & Christopher Hopper. For more info about the tour click here.