The VIkings of Loch Morar Creation Seekers series

About the Book:

Book II in the "CREATION SEEKERS" series

Published by: CREATION WAY BOOKS (an imprint of KOT BOOKS, LLC). March, 2019. (Softcover; 250 pages. Illustrated by Becky Miller.)

Jonathan Oliver is chasing down an intruder on Lake Oswego’s Iron Mountain when he discovers some long-buried artifacts. One of these relics sparks a remarkable spinoff from the Oliver family’s greatest invention. Together, Jon and his father incorporate their breakthrough into a revolutionary submersible design. At the invitation of Dr. Graham MacKenzie, the Gyrosensors team travels to one of Scotland’s wildest and remotest regions—and its deepest lake—to develop their secret prototype. While staying at Dr. MacKenzie’s retreat center, they meet a pretty but mysterious Frenchwoman going under an assumed name. Across the loch, the reclusive caretaker of a Victorian-era hunting lodge is hiding staggering secrets of his own. During the prototype's construction and sea trials, Jon and his family confront enemies on land, in the air and under the water. In the end, Jon rekindles a long-lost love and finds an ancient, holy treasure-hoard.

Buy the book:

The website

Print: $11.99 plus $3.95 shipping

Amazon

Print: $13.95

Ebook: $4.99, special during this promotion: $2.99

*(Before you post the info on this title, I will also reduce its Kindle price to $2.99.)

A brief interview with the author:

What do you love about your new book?

One aspect of my new book I love is that Scottish legends are central to the plot (just as in The Lake Lights). In The Vikings of Loch Morar, the legend is connected to actual phenomena taking place in and around a Scottish lake. (Not Loch Ness, by the way.) Something else I love about this title is the way the Vikings and Viking history are tied to modern-day Oregon and Scotland. I enjoyed the process of intertwining historical fact and fiction and tying up some of the loose ends left in The Lake Lights. I’m always blessed by Becky Miller’s marvelous illustrations as well.

Most of all, I love how God reveals Himself in this book by strengthening the characters’ faith and by helping them to survive in the face of impossible odds. God definitely had a part in resurrecting the relationship between Jonathan Oliver and his former love interest, too! 

What are two things you learned while researching?

In order to make the plot believable, I learned to read and write Old Norse runes, much as J.R.R. Tolkien employed in The Lord of the Rings. In fact, once I learned Old Norse runology, I could read what Tolkien had written in runes on one of his book covers. (“One ring to rule them all, One ring to find them…”) It turns out that he transliterated English words phonetically into those runes. In The Vikings of Loch Morar, however, I actually translated my English phrases into Old Norse before transliterating the Old Norse into runes. (That ancient language shares a common Proto-Germanic ancestor with English, by the way.) I also researched the evidence for Viking settlements in America and in the British Isles. To this day, we still don’t know how far those seafaring raiders penetrated into America, though they left behind tantalizing clues in the form of tools and runestones.

Tell us about the character who gave you the most trouble.

That would be Crìsdean MacKenzie, caretaker of the Swordland Lodge. Not only is his accent thicker than day-old Scottish porridge, but I also had to create his character and backstory out of whole cloth. MacKenzie (not to be confused with Dr. Graham MacKenzie) is the latest in a long line of caretakers, having taken an early retirement from his teaching position at Oxford to replace the former caretaker. Crìsdean harbors an old and extraordinary secret passed down from one caretaker to the next. It is this knowledge that ultimately becomes the focal point of the plot. 

What do you hope readers will tell others about your book?

That it offers something for everybody—adventure, inspiration, history and mystery, suspense, science and science fiction, romance—and a glimpse into the Christian vision of life after death.

What are you reading now?

Anything I can get my hands on!

What’s next?

I’m actually engaged in the reprinting of some of my first series titles under my own imprint (Creation Way Books). Sadly, my former publisher, WinePress, closed its doors a few years ago and left quite a number of authors in the lurch. I have finally figured out how to republish all seven of those titles myself, but I’m having to reformat everything from scratch. It will be a protracted process.

About the Author

William D. Burt is the award-winning author of the seven-title Christian allegorical “King of the Trees” series and of his new Creation Seekers series: “The Lake Lights” (Book 1) and “The Vikings of Loch Morar” (Book 2). All nine of Burt’s titles have been awarded five stars by Readers’ Favorite reviewers. Two of his first series titles (out of three submitted) were finalists in the 2014 Readers’ Favorite International Book Award Contest: “The King of the Trees” and “The Golden Wood.”

“The King of the Trees” subsequently won the 2014 Silver Medal in the category of “Christian Fantasy/Sci-fi.”

The Creation Seekers series is William Burt’s first foray into the realm of science fiction. The titles in this series feature the adventures of a fictional Oregon family of brilliant scientists and educators who turn the world upside down with their revolutionary inventions and discoveries.

 As an Assistant Professor in the Special Education Department at Western Oregon University, Burt served as a successful grant-writer and program coordinator. He holds a B.S. in English from Lewis and Clark College and an M.S. in Deaf Education from Western Oregon University. Burt has been an RID-certified sign-language interpreter with over forty years’ experience. His interests include reading, foreign languages and mycology. He is married with two grown children and four grandchildren.

William Burt Creation Seekers books

About the Book: 

Book I in the Creation Seekers series

Published by: CREATION WAY BOOKS (an imprint of KOT BOOKS, LLC). June, 2017. (Softcover; 314 pages. Illustrated by Becky Miller.)

What are the mysterious lights flitting above Oswego Lake on moonlit nights? Marsh gas? Ball lightning? Or holdovers from the dawn of Creation?

When Jonathan Oliver makes it his homeschool project to track down the source of the Lake Lights, his search leads him to Iron Mountain’s abandoned Prosser Mine and its age-old secrets. After his physicist father goes missing in the wilds of Afghanistan, Jon is left to decode a cryptic message leading to yet more mysteries and a remarkable, game-changing invention.

With his grandfather’s help, Jon matches wits with an unscrupulous scientist who will stop at nothing to steal the device and sell it to a shadowy criminal organization. Jon’s dual discoveries not only help him to deliver his city from total annihilation but also ultimately rock the scientific world to its very foundations.

Buy the book:

The website

Print: $11.99 plus $3.99 shipping

Amazon

Print: $13.95

Ebook: $4.99 - special sale during this promotion of $2,99

A brief interview with the Author

What do you love about your new book?

I love the fact that it’s set in an actual location in Lake Oswego, Oregon, where I grew up. It’s fun to be able to walk the scenic Iron Mountain trail and identify the remnants of the Prosser Iron Mine and other landmarks mentioned in the book. Though I’m not a fan of historical fiction per se, I did enjoy weaving both historical fact and fiction into the plot. I also loved incorporating some Creation Science principles (and live “dinosaurs”) into the story, which is one of the main reasons I wrote it. So many young people and adults nowadays are steeped in Darwinism that I thought it was high time Creationism received equal billing. Something else I enjoyed about this title is that all the Oliver family members are devoted Christians. Moreover, my main character and his sister end up being homeschooled. I purposely portray homeschoolers as normal, intelligent, well-adjusted students.

What are two things you learned while researching this story?

First, I learned a great deal about the Prosser Iron Mine’s history (which I tweaked a bit for the story). It turns out that in its day, the mine was the largest of its kind on the west coast, with many extensive and unexplored drifts. Not far from my childhood home, for example, a woman remodeling her house accidentally broke into one of these mine tunnels. Second, I learned more of the flaws in evolutionary theory—such as the discovery of unfossilized tissues in many fossilized remains. (I’ve actually studied the subject for many years, but research is turning up new inconsistencies every day.)

Tell us about the character who gave you the most trouble.

Dr. Graham MacKenzie is a Scottish volcanologist who is also a Creation Scientist. As a family friend, he has an important role to play. I enjoyed developing his character so much that I carried him over into the sequel, The Vikings of Loch Morar. However, putting his Scottish idiomatic English on paper proved to be quite a challenge, though it was great fun!

What do you hope readers will tell others about your book?

I hope they will tell their friends that as a clean, inspirational (and educational) mystery adventure tale, this is a book well worth the reading—and re-reading.

What are you reading now?

I just finished re-reading The Wind and the Willows and am halfway through The Cottingley Secret, which is a well-written and imaginative spinoff from actual historical events. Otherwise, I mainly read the Bible.

What’s next?

I have some ideas rolling around in my head—a kind of crossover between my two series involving a different spin on time-travel. We’ll see if those concepts bear fruit.

About the Author

William D. Burt is the award-winning author of the seven-title Christian allegorical “King of the Trees” series and of his new Creation Seekers series: “The Lake Lights” (Book 1) and “The Vikings of Loch Morar” (Book 2). All nine of Burt’s titles have been awarded five stars by Readers’ Favorite reviewers. Two of his first series titles (out of three submitted) were finalists in the 2014 Readers’ Favorite International Book Award Contest: “The King of the Trees” and “The Golden Wood.”

“The King of the Trees” subsequently won the 2014 Silver Medal in the category of “Christian Fantasy/Sci-fi.”

The Creation Seekers series is William Burt’s first foray into the realm of science fiction. The titles in this series feature the adventures of a fictional Oregon family of brilliant scientists and educators who turn the world upside down with their revolutionary inventions and discoveries.

 As an Assistant Professor in the Special Education Department at Western Oregon University, Burt served as a successful grant-writer and program coordinator. He holds a B.S. in English from Lewis and Clark College and an M.S. in Deaf Education from Western Oregon University. Burt has been an RID-certified sign-language interpreter with over forty years’ experience. His interests include reading, foreign languages and mycology. He is married with two grown children and four grandchildren.