5 Reasons We Need Dystopian Fiction

Before I begin… While I believe dystopian fiction is important (and thus I wrote the Chasing Liberty trilogy) my trilogy is now unavailable in paperback. If you are dying to own a copy of the trilogy today, there is only one way to get it. You’ll have to contact me! I have two complete sets that I can autograph and send to you. I’ll explain more later about that and a giveaway.

Do you find dystopian fiction to be exciting and adventurous or depressing? Or maybe it’s a bit of both.

I find it invigorating and inspirational to follow a lead character who recognizes something is wrong with the world–with the culture–and who is willing to do something about it despite the personal costs. We do not live in a perfect world and we each have a responsibility to do something about it.

Reason #1: Dystopian fiction can be inspiring. It can motivate a person to take a hard look at the world around them and encourage them to make a difference.

So while my trilogy is currently unavailable (in paperback) I am excited to announce that it will soon be re-released. I’ve revisited the stories and the characters (Dedrick, Liberty, Dr. Supero…) and brought them alive again in my mind. And I can’t wait to share the new covers and some special opportunities.

If you read through to the end of this, I’m also going to ask you to do something. And I’ll tell you about a chance to win the new trilogy.

Before I give reason #2 for why we need dystopian fiction, I’d like to share how this trilogy came about… because I never really planned to write a dystopian.

I was in the middle of writing and rewriting another book when inspiration for the Liberty trilogy struck. It wasn’t a single factor so much as a compilation of things that bothered me. I’d been watching and reading the news…

• Scientists are experimenting on human embryos (Is nothing sacred? Where do we draw the line?)
• Special interest groups insist that tiny fish are more important than farming families (Look it up if you don’t believe me!)
• Other groups radically push the population-control agenda (Who cares that every person on the planet could fit into the state of Texas with over a thousand square feet per person?–Do the math.)
• We all know that we can be tracked with our phones, and our cars, and through every online search and action. (I’m still shocked every time I see random ads in my FB feed for bizarre things that I research for stories.)
• And who doesn’t notice and lament the moral decline our culture is experiencing?

I love our country and don’t want to see her fall. But if we lose focus on the things that matter—faith, family, and freedom—we’ll go the way of Rome and every other once-glorious nation.

Reason #2: Dystopian fiction can help us to realize what we have, what is valuable to us, and what we stand to lose.

So love of my fellow man and my country prompted me to throw myself into research, and I discovered actual special-interest groups that are influential in our country and the world. All the warped ideologies in my story come from this research. Yes, there are actual groups that think humans are the scourge of the earth.

The more I learned, the more I realized I needed to write this dystopian story about a possible future for America.

Reason #3: Dystopian fiction can help us to visualize, draw conclusions, and consider where we are headed if we continue down the same path.

I only meant to write one book and return to my other stories. I wanted to end Chasing Liberty by showing a seed of change being planted. But I couldn’t stop thinking about it. What exactly is this freedom we should be fighting for? Can one person possibly make a difference? The other two stories in this trilogy came to life very quickly.

The Liberty trilogy is set in the near future. The technology, science, and ideologies are real. The main character, Liberty, has grown up in a society that has done away with faith, family, and freedom. Needless to say, the average citizen’s concept of right and wrong is sorely lacking.

We see this every day, on the news and in our neighborhoods and schools. The sense of right and wrong has diminished considerably, even compared to ten years ago.

And while this is true, it is also true that God is not dead. God does not sleep or hide. He continues to offer His gifts, His truth, and holiness to those who long for it.

Raised in this godless society that has elevated the earth above man, Liberty had never learned about God and moral truth. Yet she has a moral compass that guides her.

We all have this moral compass, even though we often ignore it. Liberty doesn’t ignore it. Her choices make life harder for her at times, and she definitely stands out among her peers, but she wants to be faithful to the inner voice. And this makes a huge difference in her life.

Reason #4: Dystopian fiction shows that no matter how dark the world around us becomes, we each still have that inner voice and it’s important to follow it–not just important for our own life, but for the world around us.

Teens and adults have responded to the characters in this book and to the themes of the trilogy. It’s been called an action-packed thrill ride, phenomenal, and a must-read.

“Chasing Liberty by Theresa Linden is a futuristic look at what our culture might become if we keep on the same trajectory as we are presently heading. Though I dearly hope we have enough sense and compassion to avoid such a catastrophe, I can connect the dots which drew the picture Linden is pointing to. As in the books, 1984 and Brave New World, where the authors pointed to an extreme version of the worst elements in society, the danger is real, even if only in part. Such authors speak to us through fiction and remind us of an important truth about ourselves.”       ~Ann Frailey, novelist and screenwriter

This trilogy is aimed at young people, new adults, and adults who enjoy a character-driven story and a thought-provoking plot. It is also very relevant to today.

While some books recommended for young adults contain content that you wouldn’t want your teens to read, these do not. I wanted to write something that anyone could enjoy. My mom has even read and loved them! I won’t post her reviews though, because she might be partial. 🙂 But I will share one more review and then I’d like to show you a new book cover!

“I just finished the book, it was excellent. It is a hypothetical of what could happen to this country and the world when government controls you from cradle to grave and how a young woman by the name of Liberty is chasing just that liberty and freedom. It is a must read as this book takes you further in what happens to a society that is government run than the book Agenda 21 by Harriet Parke and Glenn Beck.”   ~Joe Goldner, co-host at The Truth Is Out There-Voice of the People Radio Show!

The trilogy will be re-released with the new covers June 27, 2018. The ebooks are available now but the paperbacks are not. Remember, I have on hand two autographed sets of the trilogy with the original covers, which I will offer at a reduced price. Contact me here.

And now… here is one of the new covers:

If you want to see the other two covers, visit my author website. You can probably also find them on Amazon because the ebooks seem to be available now, even though I’ve set the release date as June 27th.

This trilogy starts off pretty gloomy, I admit, but it ends on a note of hope and encouragement. Like Frodo in the Lord of the Rings and Mother Teresa on the streets of Calcutta, one person can truly make a difference in the world.

Reason #5: A good dystopian fiction brings home the message that you are responsible for the culture and you can make a difference in your own unique way.

 

Thank you for reading this through to the end. And now I’ve got a challenge for you.

Can you imagine if every person in the world stepped outside, picked up a piece of garbage, and threw it away? In some neighborhoods you might not have far to walk to find it, but others you would. But with that one effort, imagine how much cleaner our world would be.

But how do you change a dark culture that has allowed science and technology to advance without comparable developments in ethics, that has allowed a government to grow too big and controlling, that has allowed morals to fall so low that faith is no longer welcome in many situations?

 

I challenge you to do something.

• Pray. It’s easy. You can do it anywhere, anytime, and for any reason. Remember God is always in control and He is waiting for us to turn to Him.
• Be holy. Make the right choices every day, even if it leads to a few inconveniences. Think of the example you set for others!
• Speak up. Talk to people about important issues. Even if you don’t agree, respectful dialog can accomplish a lot.
• Share my trilogy! Don’t you think that’s a great idea? Or at least share this blog post if you think it makes a good point others need to hear.
• If you’re a parent, educate your children about important issues. Talk about them often.
• Be a responsible citizen, not just by voting but by staying informed and making your voice heard on important issues. Write editorials and blog posts!
• Show your faith. Live your faith. Stand up for values.
• And don’t underestimate the power of fiction. Stories are the basic way we make sense of our world. Unconsciously, our brains organize the information we receive every day in essentially the same form as a story. (I have more to say on this but I’ll share it another time).

And now, I leave you with a quote from Saint Catherine of Siena. This young woman who lived in the Middle Ages influenced popes, cardinals, and princes. She negotiated peace between countries, wrote books on spiritual matters, and was declared a Doctor of the Church.

Saint Catherine of Siena did all this before her death at age thirty-three.

You can contact me or sign up for my author newsletter here.

If you’ve read this trilogy already, please let me know what you think of it! And if you have someone you’d like to share it with, let me know that too. Share it in the comments for your chance to win a complete set of the trilogy with the new covers. #DystopianTrilogy #Giveaway #CommentToWin

Contest details: simply comment on this blog post and you are entered to win. Winner will be selected by Contest Winner Picker on the release date: Wednesday, June 27th. The winner will be announced in my newsletter and on my blog. The three books of the trilogy will be shipped to the winner within a day or two after that!

Please spread the word! Thank you!

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Today is the release day and we have a #WINNER: Michelle Crosbie!!!

Congratulation, Michelle! I will get the complete trilogy in the mail to you as soon as possible! You commented that you think the trilogy would be perfect for your son. I hope he enjoys it!

A to Z blogging Challenge: R is for Research

“R” is for Research

Love it or hate it, every writer needs to do it. Whether writing fiction or non-fiction, your book can benefit from research. Since the research aspect is obvious for non-fiction, and I don’t write non-fiction anyway, this blog will focus on researching for fiction.

Ideas for Research

Characters – we want our characters to have unique talents, interests, and abilities, but we also want them to be realistic.

Got a child in your story but no child at home to base him on? Visit family or friends or even the library. Pay attention to the unique speech, mannerisms, interests, and interactions of children of different ages.

Got a teen in your story? Head out to the mall for some people watching! Pay attention to clothing styles and jewelry, along with the unique way each teen’s personality shows through body language and verbal communication.

For adult characters, consider people in your family or workplace and note different characteristics, personality quirks, and manners of speech that might work for a character in your book. Warning: don’t create a character that resembles a real person too closely if the person might take offense.

I modeled Toby Brandt in Roland West, Loner on my oldest son, who has autism. This character captures the personality and interests of my son at age 8 or 9, including his manner of speech and interesting behaviors and obsessions. And even some of the story conflict. While every child with autism is unique, I hope that people will find Toby a realistic character.

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Setting – long, detailed passages of weather or setting descriptions will bore our readers, but we need enough details to allow them to picture the setting in their minds.

When possible, go on location to gather details. Go into the woods, warehouses, wilderness, or wherever your scene takes place. Take a notebook and focus on all five senses. When you can’t go on location or you want even more ideas, use the research of other writers, for example try the Setting Thesaurus on the Writers Helping Writers website.

I will share another favorite resource for setting details on the “V” blog next week.

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Story ideas – these can come from anywhere and go in any direction but getting a few facts can go a long way in making a story feel believable. We don’t want readers to be thrown out of our story world because something doesn’t ring true.

In Carolyn Astfalk’s new release, Rightfully Ours, sixteen-year-old Paul Porter relocates to Pennsylvania during his dad’s deployment. He makes a temporary home with the Muellers and develops a friendship with Rachel, the Muellers’ teenage daughter. Their abiding friendship deepens as they work side by side to uncover what could be lost treasure.

Author Carolyn Astfalk wanted to get her facts straight with this story so she researched sink holes (where and how they happen and how you rescue someone from one). She also researched how custody of a minor is handled when a single parent is deployed. And, she had to research how gold bars are authenticated.

Her hard work researching for this story makes it all the more believable and allows readers to truly immerse themselves in the romantic and adventure-filled story line. The e-book is available on Amazon and the paperback is coming soon. You can check out the book trailer here.

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The ideas for my dystopian trilogy came directly from the news. Governments too often step on the rights of the individual. Scientific and technological developments often cross ethical boundaries. And special interest groups attempt to indoctrinate us in order to push hidden agendas.

Because this trilogy is set in the near future, I did an incredible amount of online research into actual ideologies that influence world governments, the latest scientific developments, and cutting-edge technology. Unlike some dystopian stories, nothing that happens in this trilogy is that farfetched. If we don’t reclaim our culture and cling to faith, family, and freedom, this is a real possibility for our future.

The more I learned from research, the more I realized I needed to write this dystopian story. I only meant to write one book and get back to my other stories. I wanted to end Chasing Liberty showing a seed of change being planted. But I couldn’t stop thinking about it. What exactly is this freedom we should be fighting for? And how can one person make a difference?

This trilogy is available through most online booksellers and you can find the book trailers on my website.

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What type of research have you done for your stories and what are your favorite resources?

Blogging from A to Z Challenge: Letter F ~ Founding Fathers

F is for Founding Fathers

When God made me, He decided when I’d come into the world and where. He chose the year 1966 and He chose America. According to some statistics, a billion children live in poverty today, 400 million do not have safe access to water, and 1.4 million die from poor sanitation. And of the 194 countries in the world, forty-nine are under dictatorships. 36% of the world population does not have freedom. And another 24% has only partial freedom.

But I was born here. And I am proud to be an American. While our country isn’t perfect, I believe it was founded on solid principles that were designed to protect our freedoms and God-given rights, and give us every opportunity for success.

Our Founding Fathers had strong faith. I wish more in government office had similar faith, courage, and humility. The proud and arrogant push their own agenda, which inevitably leads to destruction. But the humble, those who readily admit they cannot do it alone and who turn to the Lord and Giver of all victory, bring blessings to the land.

Here’s a quote from George Washington:

“Thursday the seventh Instant, being set apart by the Honourable the Legislature of this province, as a day of fasting, prayer, and humiliation, to implore the Lord, and Giver of all victory, to pardon our manifold sins and wickedness’s, and that it would please him to bless the Continental Arms, with his divine favour and protection’ – All Officers, and Soldiers, are strictly enjoined to pay all due reverence, and attention on that day, to the sacred duties due to the Lord of hosts, for his mercies already received, and for those blessings, which our Holiness and Uprightness of life can alone encourage us to hope through his mercy to obtain.”

                             ~General Orders, March 6, 1776

The Founding Fathers believed in freedom. One of my favorite quotes is by Patrick Henry, from his Speech to the Virginia Convention at St. John’s Church, Richmond, Virginia, March 25, 1775

“Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God. I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!”

I have a shirt with this quote on it. It makes me think how tragic it is when we try to compromise with evil to get things we want, including so-called peace and even life. Did you know that according to the Vatican some 100,000 Christians are murdered for their faith every year? This far surpasses the numbers during the Roman Empire persecutions.

Having never been tested, I do not know if I have the courage of the martyrs or of our service men and women to lay down my life for the faith, for our country, to save another, or for what is right. But I hope I do. I hope to always have the strength to be on the side of truth and goodness and to allow no compromise.

So what does it take to secure freedom? Here is a quote by Samuel Adams:

“If virtue and knowledge are diffused among the people, they will never be enslaved. This will be their great security.”             

                      ~Letter to James Warren, February 12, 1779

Not just knowledge, but virtue and knowledge. I pray for an increase of faith and for “holiness and uprightness of life” in our country that we may receive those blessings that the “Lord and Giver of all victory” has prepared for us.

Remember, everyone who is reading this blog, you were made for this time and this place. God has a purpose for you.

Viva Cristo Rey!

My youngest child, a thirteen-year-old, is preparing to receive the Sacrament of Confirmation this spring. For his Confirmation saint he’s chosen the recently canonized Saint Jose Sanchez del Rio. If you haven’t heard about this saint, you can read about him here or you can watch the movie For Greater Glory.

Saint Jose’s story in a nutshell: The President of Mexico was violently persecuting the Catholic Church (1926-1929). Priests were martyred, churches burned, and the people were forbidden to practice their faith. The Cristeros rose up to oppose this unjust religious persecution. Jose, a Catholic with deep devotion to Our Lord and Our Lady of Guadalupe, saw firsthand the effects of this persecution. Too young to join in the fight, he pleaded with one of the generals, who finally gave in and allowed him to deliver messages and supplies. Then one day, Jose was captured and imprisoned. The soldiers tortured him. And his only reply was, “Viva Cristo Rey!” Long live Christ the King!

Saint Jose was martyred at the age of fourteen because he refused to renounce his Catholic faith. This past October 16, he was declared a saint.

An example of faith and courage in the face of religious persecution, Saint Jose Sanchez del Rio is truly a saint for our times.

As I help my youngest to prepare for Confirmation, I think about my own journey of faith and the spiritual climate of our country then and now. I’m a cradle Catholic, raised in a two-parent family and who received religious education until Confirmation. I began to get excited about my faith in my teen years, largely due to one particular teacher who made the faith come alive. But I didn’t really take ownership of my faith until years later, after many falls and challenges and maybe because of those falls and challenges.

Today’s Christian faces more challenges than I did growing up. Violence, drugs, and immorality are on the rise. Our brothers and sisters in the faith are being tortured and martyred throughout the world. In our own country, we find a growing intolerance for Christians and Christian principles. And Christians are expected to embrace public policies that are contrary to their faith.

While I pray for an end to religious persecution and intolerance, I also pray that my children will have the faith and courage needed in these troubled times. I pray especially for my youngest and all of his classmates as they prepare for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the Sacrament of Confirmation.

Come Holy Spirit.

Pray for us, Saint Jose Sanchez del Rio.

Viva Cristo Rey!

 

Flag of the Free

I’ve been dying to share this post, but I’ve been saving it for now so that it comes out just before we celebrate our nation’s independence!

My mother read book one in my dystopian trilogy, Chasing Liberty. She said she liked the themes on freedom, then she told me that she had written a poem about freedom when she was twelve years old.

She shared her poem with me. As I read this poem written by my very own mother, I was so excited! The last book in the Liberty trilogy, Fight for Liberty, has a special thread about our American flag and all that it represents.

In honor of our country’s independence and in honor of my mother, I give you “Flag of the Free” by Esther Thomas.

by Esther M. Thomas

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In our country strong and free,

Waves the flag of liberty.

With its colors bright and true,

Where it waves for me and you.

There are some who work and fight,

That Old Glory may fly high.

There are those who pray and die,

For the flag that stands for right.

Right to freedom, right to speech,

Right to ideas, right to preach.

‘Tis the banner all free men

Will revere until the end.

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 I get goosebumps when I read this poem. Go Mom! I love it!

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As an American who loves our country, the home of the free and the brave, and as a Child of God who believes it is “for freedom that Christ has set us free” (Galatians 5:1) this poem really speaks to my heart! I hope that you enjoy it.

On July 4th, the final book in the Liberty Trilogy comes out. It is available for pre-order now. Although I love this book and am excited to share it with you, I have been so overwhelmed with other things in my life that I haven’t done much to prepare for release day. If you would like to help this book come out with a bang, consider ordering your copy in advance or on the release day. And tell a friend about the trilogy too!

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I recently had the opportunity to share this trilogy with someone famous! This person, a popular television personality, said he would check them out and then he gave me an address to send copies. I will share more soon. I am hoping he loves them!

God bless America! Keep her strong and safe from all enemies. Keep each of one us free and in Your loving grace.