Just recently, we found out about a great picture book by new author Katie Lynn Daniels. Katie was gracious enough to agree to do an e-mail interview with us.

Incredibooks: First off, tell us a little bit about your new book.

Katie Lynn Daniels: The Tale of Pirate Shishkabob is a picture book about a bunch of very unusual pirates. They sail the high seas terrorizing merchant vessels for a fresh supply of fruits and vegetables, rather than gold and treasure. I got the idea when my little pirate brother and I started sword fighting over a pile of meat we were supposed to be kabobbing.

IB: What inspired you to become a writer?

KLD: That’s a very old story, actually. When I was very little I wrote a one page story about a little boy who always asked “why?” My dad found it laying around and praised it. I was so proud of myself I started writing a whole book. It was several years before I finished it; all 45 pages written out in pencil. (some of it colored.) Finally I started on my second book and I simply never stopped.

IB: Incredibooks is a book review site, so we want to know about your favorite books. Can you share a couple of titles?

KLD: My absolute favorite book ever is the Riddle-Master Trilogy by Patricia A. McKellip. It’s absolutely brilliant, and little-known; a fact I’m attempting to change. My second favorite is the Queen’s Thief series by Magan Whale Turner. I love fairy tales, and often refer to myself as a fairytale writer.

IB: Have you ever incorporated yourself or anyone you know into one of your books?

KLD: I think most of my main characters are reflections of different aspects of myself, but I’m not always sure. I’ve several ideas for stories that are based on real life, but I don’t have the guts to write them. I’ve definitely based characters off of people I know in real life, but I usually alter them considerably. The main character of Pirate Shishkabob is, in many ways, my little brother Caleb, for example.

IB: What is a typical writing day like for you? For example, where do you write? Do you always write at the same time of day? Do you listen to music when writing? If so, what?

KLD: I write my first draft by hand in spiral bound notebooks, usually. I only ever write in pen on lined paper. My second draft is when I type it up and from there on out I do all my writing and rewriting and rerewriting on the computer. It’s actually the family computer, so some battles can ensue. I write at any time of day, although I think best late at night. When I’m writing a first draft by hand I write anywhere and everywhere; in the car, at the dinner table, in waiting rooms, through noise and silence and disaster. I like listening to music when writing, but I’m not dependent on it. My writing music is movie soundtracks, celtic music, epic music such as TSfH, and Evanescence.

IB: Can you tell us what’s next for you?

KLD: I’m trying to finish one of my novels this summer. I’m currently working on four; two science fiction, one dark fantasy, and one fairytale. I do have other picture books but I won’t be working on them for a while yet. Hopefully, by the grace of God, I’ll be looking at publishing either City of Lies or The Justice Project sometime in July or August.

We’re looking forward to reading ‘em, Katie!

You can get The Tale of Pirate Shishkabob in a variety of places, so check out the official web site for details. Also, if you’re so inclined, you can follow Katie on Twitter to keep up with what she’s doing.

Amanda L. Davis is the daughter of one of our favorite authors, Bryan Davis. Her debut novel Precisely Terminated has been on our radar ever since we heard about it, and we can’t wait to get our hands on a copy. We recently caught up with Amanda for an e-mail interview.

Incredibooks: First off, tell us a little bit about your debut book.

Amanda Davis: Precisely Terminated is a futuristic dystopian novel. I’ll give you the summary. :-)

It is 800 years in the future, and the world is being oppressed by the ruling class. Millions of slaves toil under the Nobles’ oppressive thumb, but because of microchips implanted in the slaves’ skulls at birth, there can be no uprising. Monica, a young slave girl, escaped the chip implantation process. She is able to infiltrate the Nobles’ security and travel where no one else is able, but can one girl free the world? Precisely Terminated is the first book of three in the Cantral Chronicles.

IB: What inspired you to become a writer?

AD: I think my dad, Bryan Davis, most inspired me to be a writer. He worked so hard and never gave up while pursuing his own writing career, and once it was established, he traveled and spoke and did book signings all the time, and I went with him.

We’ve since been going to book signings and school events for seven years. During this time I learned the craft of writing and was inspired to write my own stories and share them after seeing what an impact stories can have on people.

IB: Incredibooks is a book review site, so we want to know about your favorite books. Can you share a couple of titles?

AD: Hhm. Some of my favorite books? That’s rather hard to say. It depends on my mood, what I feel like reading that day. Some of the books that stay at my top favorites are Howl’s Moving Castle, Ella Enchanted, To Kill a Mockingbird, and East.

IB: How do you come up with character names?

AD: Most of my character names just pop into my head, and I type it down. Essentially, the character tells me his or her name. It happened that way for Faye, Kat, and Monica, the main characters of Precisely Terminated’s first chapter.

For a few of my characters, however, it takes a bit more of a struggle to come up with them. I usually like making up my own names, at least in the Cantral world. When I need a new name and it’s not popping into my head, I’ll start with a letter or sound I want the name to start with and then go from there.

I might start with a ‘K’. Okay. I want a ‘K’ name. Hmm.  K . . .ar . . .ih… etc until I match the K with a sound I like and then continue building the name. I might end up with a name like ‘Karick’, but that’s probably more about my naming process than you ever wanted to know.

IB: Have you ever incorporated yourself or anyone you know into one of your books?

AD: I have never intentionally incorporated myself or anyone I know into my books, not even their characteristics. My characters are their own people, so to speak. They have personalities that show themselves as I write—I don’t assign any to them.  I know a lot of authors do, and there are t-shirts like ‘Be Nice to Me or I’ll Put You in My Novel’.  That’s probably never going to happen for me.  But be nice to me anyway. :-)

IB: How do you work allegory or Christian themes into your books without it being blatantly obvious or sounding preachy or clichéd?

AD: I must admit I’m not very good at adding Christian themes into my books. I usually write my story without even thinking of themes and pray they fall into place as God wants them. This way they aren’t blatant, and they’re woven in through the character’s attributes and feel natural. You’ll see my characters being good, kind, and sacrificing, but you won’t see them talking about why they should be good, kind, and sacrificing. I, myself, really dislike preachy books and hope mine never come across that way.

IB: What is a typical writing day like for you? For example, where do you write? Do you always write at the same time of day? Do you listen to music when writing? If so, what?

AD: A typical writing day? That’s sort of tough. I am not a fulltime writer, so my writing days can be very odd. You’re in for another long answer.

Most days I don’t get to start writing until 8:30 AM or around there, and then I’ll continue writing throughout the day if I have a deadline approaching. Since I usually don’t have a deadline that’s close at hand, I’m usually up and down from writing all day, sewing something, maybe spinning some yarn, working in the garden, or something like that. I do a lot of chores and cooking, too.

Currently I am working on a novel with a deadline of October 1, so I’m pretty busy at the moment, writing from 8 AM – 5 PM, or whenever I get 2,000 words or more written.

IB: What’s next for you, now that you’ve released your debut book?

AD: Precisely Terminated is the first in a trilogy, so the next two books are next! Noble Imposter is the sequel, and I have yet to title the third book. I’m working on Noble Imposter at the moment and it is currently around 82,000 words (as of this interview, September 1). It is due October 1, so I am writing rather frantically.

Coming up even closer than that, however, I am embarking on a 3-month-long book tour across the nation with my dad, promoting Precisely Terminated and his book, Diviner. Here is a map of all of our scheduled stops.

Amanda’s book Precisely Terminated is officially releasing on October 15, but you should be able to find it in stores tomorrow, September 24. Check out Amanda’s Facebook page for information on the Amazon Blitz event she’s holding to promote the book! Also, be sure to visit her web site for more information about both her and the Cantral Chronicles.

Aubrey Hansen is a brand new author debuting with her novella Red Rain. We’ve been excitedly watching her progress as she’s been working toward publishing the book, so we couldn’t wait to catch up with her for an e-mail interview.

Incredibooks: First off, tell us a little bit about your debut book.

Aubrey Hansen: Red Rain is a sci-fi drama about a girl and her quest to find the last Bible in the galaxy. When a computer virus deletes all the Bibles, 17-year-old Philadelphia hopes her deceased brother left a copy behind on Mars. But when her searches lead her into a secret hallway, Philadelphia disturbs a project that threatens to destroy her family and Earth. The book was inspired by the question “What if there were no Bibles left on Earth – none? What if the last copy was hiding on Mars?”

IB: What inspired you to become a writer?

AH: I’ve been making up stories as long as I can remember. When I was younger I designed elaborate worlds for my toys and mentally rewrote the books I’d read. But it wasn’t until I was a teenager that it occurred to me to write stories down on paper. I wrote my first novel for a fanfiction forum, and the author-gene in me broke loose. I haven’t stopped writing since.

IB: Incredibooks is a book review site, so we want to know about your favorite books. Can you share a couple of titles?

AH: A Little Princess by Frances Hodgenson Burnett was my favorite book growing up. Recently I read The Fellowship of the Ring for the first time and was very inspired by the way Tolkien handled religion in his fantasy world. My favorite modern book, however, is Angel Fall by Coleman Luck. I was deeply impacted by Luck’s honest and probing allegory.

IB: How do you come up with character names?

AH: Most of my characters come with a name. I’m not sure where they get these names, but the titles tend to stick! If I’m struggling to come up with names, I ask a friend of mine who can draw up a whole list of possibilities based on the character’s bio. Several of the names in Red Rain are derived from churches and sects mentioned in Revelation 2-3 — you’ll have to read the book to find out which ones!

IB: Have you ever incorporated yourself or anyone you know into one of your books?

AH: One of my early novel attempts was a co-authored fantasy which featured my writing partner and me as the main characters. Representing yourself on paper is harder than it sounds, and I’ve never had good success with it. However, when I let the novel develop naturally, I usually find pieces of myself reflecting in the characters.

IB: How do you work allegory or Christian themes into your books without it being blatantly obvious or sounding preachy or clichéd?

AH: Keep it natural. I study theme during the planning process, but when I draft I let it morph on its own with the story. If you have to force the theme, it’s probably going to be contrived. I think it’s especially important to keep the characters relatable and the religion realistic. Make Christianity a regular part of your characters’ lives. If your characters pray repeatedly throughout the book as a habit, it won’t seem contrived when they pause to pray during the big climatic moment.

IB: What is a typical writing day like for you? For example, where do you write? Do you always write at the same time of day? Do you listen to music when writing? If so, what?

AH: I’m a very diverse and erratic writer, so no two days are alike. If I’m in the thick of a project, I might put in 6-8 hours a day. Other days I may just work on a short project for an hour. I do most of my writing on a laptop in my bedroom, and I get the bulk of my work done in the afternoon. I’m almost always listening to music. I prefer instrumental, particularly soundtracks.

IB: What’s next for you, now that you’ve released your debut book?

AH: Currently I’m working on several short projects while pondering what my next novel will be. I’m tentatively planning to finish my fantasy epic, but it’s a very old (and long!) novel, so it isn’t the easiest book to write. It would be amazing to have it finally finished, however, and I’m eager to publish a second novel. Just keep writing!

Aubrey’s book Red Rain is releasing tomorrow, September 6. You can get your copy in a multitude of places, so visit the official page for a complete list. Also, be sure to check out Aubrey’s Facebook and Twitter profiles and give her a like or follow if you’re so inclined.

Wow. I can’t say much more than that. As of right now, we have read 67,704 pages between all three participating forums! At this rate, we will have no problem smashing up the records for every past year.

If you haven’t joined the Read-a-Thon yet, there is still a little time to sign up and get going! Just visit the sign up page for more information. (And why wouldn’t you sign up? We have prizes!)

Also, we have t-shirts for this year! We’re thrilled to be able to keep the same pricing as last year. These great shirt designs are available now for only $13.99, and that includes shipping in the US! Personally, I’m eyeing the green one. :-D

Happy reading!

Today is the beginning of Read-a-Thon 2011! If you signed up to participate, you can start posting the books you’ve read in this thread now. Of course, if you’re participating on Holy Worlds, you can go over there and post your page counts, too.

Wait. What? You haven’t signed up? Well then, go read the rules, and then sign up.

C’mon! We have prizes!

All right, pay attention!

We’ve been absolutely showered with prizes. I’ve lost count of how many books we’ve got coming. Some of them are sets and signed copies. It’s unbelievable!

Anyway. Given the showers of blessing on our efforts, we need to shove this program over the edge and multiply it. Simply put, we need more participants! And there’s only one way we’re going to get more participants… promotion!

We need you! We’ve got to get the word out about this program. So start talking, anywhere and everywhere!

Every little bit counts. Our greatest weapon is social media, so even the smallest status message can help. Post on Facebook, Buzz, Twitter (use #readathon5 as a hashtag), whatever you’ve got. If you have a Facebook page for your business, please consider posting from there, too!

In addition to chattering it up, blog posts would be extremely helpful. Those of you with blogs, please consider posting on our behalf! Below I’ve pasted a sample post with all the pertinent information. Feel free to plagiarize it.

And remember, we have a lovely assortment of graphics, designed for us by the talented Vilisse from Holy Worlds, for your use! If you have a website, please consider posting one of these images in your sidebar. http://incredibooks.com/read-a-thon/promote-the-read-a-thon/

Thanks, everyone! Let’s get the word out!

Here’s a sample post you can feel free to copy if you like:

This summer, grab a book or twenty and sign up for this year’s coolest reading program!

The Read-a-Thon is back for its 5th year, and it’s bigger than ever! Join the unified forces of Incredibooks and Holy Worlds for a race to read the most pages between June 13th and August 13th. There’s a delightful stash of prizes – including books from Donita K. Paul, Bryan Davis, Jill Williamson, Answers in Genesis, and more! Sign up on any of the participating forums before June 30th to win! All ages welcome.

Please visit http://incredibooks.com/read-a-thon/rules/ to read the complete rules. Check this page to find the sign-up lists: http://incredibooks.com/read-a-thon/sign-up/

Interested? Please help us spread the word! http://incredibooks.com/read-a-thon/promote-the-read-a-thon/

See you there!

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader [Blu-ray]

Price: $29.99

(264 customer reviews)

78 used & new available from $8.68

It’s no secret that The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is not at all a cinematic book. There’s no real antagonist and everything happens in generally self-contained episodes. That makes great reading, but not-so-great viewing.

Because of that, it should come as no surprise that something had to be changed to make things flow a little better as a movie. The key here, of course, is if the changes are so vast that the movie is no longer The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.

Please note that this review will contain spoilers, so stop reading now if you want to go into the film completely spoiler-free.

The Plot

Although the film starts out almost exactly like the book with a quest to find the seven lost lords that Caspian’s usurping uncle Miraz banished, it quickly settles down into a totally tacked-on plot involving a people-eating evil green mist.

Once the crew lands on the Lone Islands, Caspian and Edmund are shown a boat of islanders being taken by the green mist. Lord Bern tells them that the mist is threatening Narnia and that the other six lords had set out to destroy it. They never returned.

So, of course, Caspian decides to do find out what happened to them and stop the mist.

Once the boat gets to stop number two, Magician’s Island, our heroes learn that this evil mist comes from Dark Island and can only be stopped by laying seven swords (conveniently carried by the seven lords) at Aslan’s Table.

So, of course, Caspian jumps on his ship and sets off to do just that.

Now, I agree fully with the filmmakers that the movie needed something to tie it together. And, cheesy as it sounds when I write it down, this evil mist does work. For the most part. More on that later.

The Characters

This is the reason the movie is worth seeing. All of the main characters (that’d be Lucy, Edmund, Eustace, Reepicheep, and Caspian) are very true to the book. Though the story has been changed, the characters are still very much intact.

Eustace, in particular, is completely, absolutely, beyond a shadow of a doubt right smack bang on perfect. Just like the book, he struts around all self-important, being bratty to everybody. And he gets what he deserves in exactly the surprising way he does in the book.

Plus, the filmmakers left in what I thought would be cut: Eustace’s diary. Yes, it’s there! And it provides some of the more hilarious parts of the movie.

Reepicheep has been recast and put back together into his book self. A very welcome change from Prince Caspian. This Reep is truly noble and no longer wishes that everyone would shut up.

When we get to the two lords with actual parts (Bern and Rhoop), it’s a mixed bag. Bern has been changed to a cowering old prisoner, which is a complete turnaround from his book self. Rhoop is the raving maniac straight from the pages of the book.

Coriakin the magician has sadly been turned into an exposition machine. He has one good line that feels like his book self, but other than that, all he’s there for is to tell the crew of the Dawn Treader all about the evil mist.

Aslan has his dialogue lifted right out of the book at a very important part at the end. You can’t get much closer than that.

And no review of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader would be complete without mentioning the Dufflepuds. They are pretty much right. Though, sadly, they never said, “You never said a truer word, Chief!”

The Two Problems

Out of an entire movie full of changes from the book, I basically have two major complaints.

Number one: The movie is very fast-paced, sometimes to its detriment. Especially during the first half of the film (covering the Lone Islands and Magician’s Island), it would have been nice if there had been an extra five or ten minutes of scenes to connect the dots.

Both of the islands I mentioned above just plain feel rushed. Unfortunately, the filmmakers decided not to linger on the revolt at the Lone Islands, the funny Dufflepuds, or Lucy’s creepy journey through the magician’s mansion. A few extra scenes would have improved the film greatly.

Number two: In the book, C. S. Lewis subtly weaves a theme of resisting temptation throughout the story. For whatever reason, the filmmakers decided to bring this theme out of the subtext and into full-scale THIS IS THE THEME mode.

Rather than letting the intelligent audience figure out when temptation is occurring, the film resorts to hitting them over the head with the theme whenever a character is tempted.

Coriakin warns our heroes that they will be tempted by the green mist. So every time someone is being tempted, we see evil green mist creeping around in the scene somewhere.

And then there’s the dialogue about temptation. At one point, we’re given a groan-inducing line from Lucy as Edmund and Caspian prepare to go at it hammer and tongs over a gold-transforming pool. “Stop! The mist is tempting you! This is exactly what we were warned about!”

That’s being hit on the head with a theme. Luckily, it doesn’t last long anywhere and the movie quickly goes back to the story.

Overall

I walked out of the theater grinning over my third voyage to Narnia. Were there disappointments? Yes. Was it still fun? Absolutely.

And that’s the thing. The book, really, is C. S. Lewis having fun with his characters sailing around and having adventures on strange islands. As long as the movie stuck with that idea (which was often) and just had fun, it was good. When it started taking itself a little too seriously and loses the fun, it suffers.

If you’re going to be a book purist, you will probably enjoy the first and last twenty minutes of the movie. The rest, well… You’ll have to pick and choose. I will say, though, that when the movie is good, it is good.

But if you can live with the changes and just enjoy the ride, this is a journey to Narnia you won’t want to miss. It looks fantastic, is funny, and hits the mark a lot (see above).

(By the way, book fans should stick around for the credits. They are a treat!)

Hopefully, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader will do well enough that the filmmakers can do the other four, much-more-cinematic Narnia books. I want to see them, especially after the fun I had with this third Narnia movie.

Limited Edition Read-a-Thon 2010 t-shirts are now available. Only $13.99, including US shipping! For more details and to order yours, visit the Read-a-Thon shirts page.

Hey everybody!

We’ve been working on getting some Read-a-Thon shirts for you, and we can do them if we get enough orders to cover our minimum purchase.

So, would you buy a shirt like the ones below (available in navy blue or chocolate brown) for $13.99, which includes US shipping?

Here’s a mock-up of what they’ll look like:

Here’s a closer look at the design:

If enough people say yes, we’ll make them and take orders.

Today is the last day that you can register to join the Incredibooks Summer Read-a-Thon. Don’t miss the fun. Visit the sign up page and get in on the action.

If you’re already in the Read-a-Thon, thanks for joining. See you in the Read-a-Thon thread!