There Comes a Prophet: Guest Post & Giveaway with Author David Litwack

My Prompt: “Inspirations for starting to write, how/when did he know that this was something he "had" to do...and why Fantasy…"

David's Response: The urge to write first struck me at age sixteen when working on a newsletter at a youth encampment in the woods of northern Maine. It may have been the wild night when lightning flashed at sunset followed by the northern lights rippling after dark. Or maybe it was the newsletter’s editor, a girl with eyes the color of the ocean, who convinced me to write a daily column. Once the first piece was published, I was hooked.

Using two fingers and lots of white-out, I religiously typed five pages a day throughout college and well into my twenties. Then life (family, career) intervened. I honestly thought I’d never write again. But the urge was always there, merely suppressed by a mind cluttered with too many other obligations. Once I had the time, stories started popping into my head again, characters started appearing and demanding to be heard.

Why scifi/fantasy? I’ve always been suspicious about whether there’s an absolute reality. Different cultures see the world so differently. As anyone who has ever spent extended time in a hospital or a war zone knows, you’re sense of what’s real can be easily fragmented. We conveniently choose to construct a world view that suits us—at least until something challenges it. That’s the writer’s job. What better way to challenge our view of reality—and therefore enable the potential for change—than to invent new worlds and show how characters cope with them.

There’s a poem I heard long ago by Wallace Stevens:

Children picking up our bones
Will never know that these were once
As quick as foxes on the hill . . .
And least will guess that with our bones
We left much more, left what still is
The look of things, left what we felt . . .
And what we said of it became
A part of what it is . . .

Our sense of reality in many ways defines the way we live, but it’s constantly evolving. The job of the artist is to be the catalyst for changes in the way we see the world. By telling what we saw and how we felt, we can change the perception of reality and therefore how people see themselves and, ultimately, how they behave. What better way to do that than to write speculative fiction about alternate worlds.

Title:  There Comes a Prophet

Author: David Litwack

Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Dystopian

Release Date: July 9th 2012

Find the book: Goodreads   | Amazon    | Barnes & Noble  | The Book Depository 

Who among us will cast aside a comfortable existence and risk death to follow a dream?

A world kept peaceful for a thousand years by the magic of the ruling vicars. But a threat lurks from a violent past. Wizards from the darkness have hidden their sorcery in a place called the keep and left a trail of clues that have never been solved.

Nathaniel has grown up longing for more but unwilling to challenge the vicars. Until his friend Thomas is taken for a teaching, the mysterious coming-of-age ritual. Thomas returns but with his dreams ripped away. When Orah is taken next, Nathaniel tries to rescue her and ends up in the prisons of Temple City. There he meets the first keeper of the ancient clues. But when he seeks the keep, what he finds is not magic at all.

If he reveals the truth, the words of the book of light might come to pass:

“If there comes among you a prophet saying ‘Let us return to the darkness,’ you shall stone him, because he has sought to thrust you away from the light.”

The urge to write first struck when working on a newsletter at a youth encampment in the woods of northern Maine. It may have been the night when lightning flashed at sunset followed by northern lights rippling after dark. Or maybe it was the newsletter's editor, a girl with eyes the color of the ocean. But he was inspired to write about the blurry line between reality and the fantastic.

Using two fingers and lots of white-out, he religiously typed five pages a day throughout college and well into his twenties. Then life intervened. He paused to raise two sons and pursue a career, in the process becoming a well-known entrepreneur in the software industry, founding several successful companies. When he found time again to daydream, the urge to write returned. There Comes a Prophet is his first  novel in this new stage of life.

David and his wife split their time between Cape Cod, Florida and anywhere else that catches their fancy. He no longer limits himself to five pages a day and is thankful every keystroke for the invention of the word processor.

David's Website / Goodreads / Facebook / Twitter

Winners Choice: E-book or Print copy (US ONLY) of There Comes a Prophet!

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