It's fun to imagine you are a fairy, fluttering around with cardboard wings and pretend fairy dust. But what would it be like if that fantasy suddenly became a reality? Madelina, a young girl who grew up living in poverty, finds a lantern tucked behind the dumpster where she searches for scraps of food each day. When she lights the wick, the world she knows disappears and she finds herself in a foreign land with strange creatures who seem to think that she is the hope that they have been waiting for. In this new world, her cardboard wings have transformed into real wings and she is floating several feet off of the ground. There to welcome her to the land of Wymzi is a tree nymph named Treph who becomes her freind and leads her on a journey to find out about this new world she has entered... all the while trying to stay safe from the evil plots of the wicked Queen Nakasha and her minions. The Lantern of Rahela is a tale of a nobody discovering new abilities inside herself and, in the process, becoming the hope that all of Wymzi has long been waiting for.
What do you think? Is this a book you would read? What sentences do you most like? What sentences do you think should be changed? What do you feel is lacking? What questions does this synopsis leave you wondering? I hope to hear from many of you. Thank you all for your help! Keep reading and keep writing!
And may the story rise up to meet you!
Sounds interesting, and hopeful. I'd change the spelling of "friend", and not end the paragraph with "for".
ReplyDeleteI can relate to the changes and challenges.
I am wondering if the plot could be a metaphor for the situation in small rural congregations, which tend to want a pastor to save the church by attracting new members. Maybe Madelina could be the one who leads adaptive change - not by "becoming the hope", but by walking with and encouraging the others to have enough hope to step forward, to take a leap of faith. In this way she becomes the agent of change, rather than the savior. She would be instrumental in changing the system and the behaviors. She could change beliefs by helping them to change their language (and to let go of some fears). She could celebrate their successes and point out the beauty of their efforts.
I heard a phrase today which I would like to share. "It matters how you show up." This has a lot to do with resilience of heart and mind. Thoughts affect how we feel. We have choices in how we tell our story (though it is not easy to change how we tell our own story and how we assign meaning to events).
I think it will be interesting to learn how Madelina shows up the first day, and then how her self-concept changes the way she shows up on the tenth day and the fortieth day.
At what point will she embrace the adventure? How will her "beliefs" change? Which commitments and values will change? These are some of the many questions in my mind - questions that should not be answered in any way other than reading the book.
Thanks Dennis! Those are some wonderful thoughts and questions! I plan to re-read your comments from time to time as I contemplate both the edits on this first book and as I contemplate how the other books in the series will play out. Thank you for that!
DeleteI also want to say that I did not really like ending the paragraph with "for" either, but struggled to come up with an adequate alternative. I will keep working on that.