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The Prescience
By Lorilyn Roberts
Inspirational Young Adult Fantasy
Print: $14.95
EBook: $.99
November, 2017
About the book:
Seventh Dimension – The Prescience,
A Young Adult Fantasy, is the fifth book in the Seventh Dimension Series that
combines contemporary, historical, and fantasy elements into a Christian
“coming-of-age” story. When bombs fall on Jerusalem, Shale and Daniel rescue an
orphan and return to the first century. Amid supernatural tribulation, they
hope to unravel the mysterious disappearance of Daniel’s father and the goal of
the New World Order. When multiple realities collide, God reveals once again
time is an illusion until the appointed times.
Lisa Lickel's review:
This is so far my favorite of the
series. Although you do want to know what went before, it’s not necessary in
order to immerse yourself in this story’s possibly real near future—the big
one, where no one survives. The series takes a contemporary young lady, Shale,
on journeys back in time, mostly to the biblical time of Christ where she
experiences life in the first century AD. She meets and falls in love with a
young man whose family is involved in the time portals responsible for these
adventures. Shale and Daniel are on an ever-increasingly amazing rush toward
the biblical end times.
Daniel knows he’s one of the special
chosen, the 144,000 Jews of the book of Revelation, who will make the final
stand against evil. He’s in love and wants to marry Shale. Problem, besides
needing to find his father who may or may not be part of the events, is that
the chosen are men who have not been with a woman—unmarried, or virgins. He
needs to respect his calling, as well as Shale. This leads to a new phase in their
relationship as they travel back to biblical times and other traumatic eras to
unravel family secrets.
Temptation, more chariot racing,
supernatural powers, good guys, bad guys, scary guys, and time dancing all make
this thrilling next-to-last edition of The Seventh Dimension series a great inspirational
read.
Told through multiple viewpoints, The
Seventh Dimension series is geared for Young Adult readers, but anyone will
enjoy the books. The Prescience is part of a series.
An interview with Lorilyn Roberts:
Question: You’re near the end of the Seventh Dimension
Series. Share with us some of the challenges and joys of writing a series.
Lorilyn: The joys far
outweigh the challenges. I’ve enjoyed spending the last five years with these
characters talking to me in my head. The overarching story compelled me to
search for answers to questions that arose as the series progressed. I wanted
everything to be as historically accurate as possible. Many afternoons and
evenings were spent reading the Bible and Christian nonfiction books, and I’ve watched
dozens of YouTube videos about hard-to-understand topics like the Book of
Revelation. Young people who read a lot have probably read scores of books
about vampires, dragon slayers, and witches. I wanted to raise the bar. I
wanted realism in my series, but I also wanted a taste of fantasy because that
opens possibilities.
Writing the Seventh
Dimension Series has allowed me to explore far more than could be covered
in just one book. With only The Howling
left to complete the six-book series, I’m looking especially forward to finishing
it. I believe the ending will capture the reader’s heart, mind, and
imagination. I never thought when I wrote the first book, Seventh Dimension – The Door, that I would end up writing six in
the series. God kept showing me insights and great plotlines, so I just kept
writing.
Probably the biggest challenge has been keeping track of
what the two protagonists knew and when they learned it. Three books have been
written from Shale’s POV and three will have been written from Daniel’s POV
when the sixth book is finished. So they learned different things at different
times and interpreted things differently from each other. So I’ve had to go
back and re-read chapters along the way to make sure my memory was accurate. When
I do that, I’ll find something that I think could have been written better. So
I never quit editing my own work, even after the book is published, and that
drives me crazy. I want my writing to be perfect, but there probably has never
been a perfect book written except the Bible.
Question: Do you have
a favorite scene in The Prescience?
Lorilyn: I have one
scene that’s particularly special to me. It’s a garden scene where Shale and
Daniel are waiting in the train. The scene comes from something in my own life.
When I was seven, my adoptive father wanted to take me on a train trip to see
the fall colors in the North Georgia Mountains, but the train never left the
station because of a broken coupler. Through the years, from time to time, I
would think about that train trip that we never finished, wistfully longing
that someday we would. Then, when I was thirty-seven, Gene was diagnosed with a
brain tumor that we knew he wouldn’t survive. Through a series of events God
orchestrated, we had the opportunity to make that train trip shortly before he went
to heaven.
While the scene in the book has no direct correlation to
that, the broken coupler happens in the story, and what Shale learns through
waiting is something God has been trying to teach me my whole life. I’m just a
slow learner. Because it’s such an unusual scene, I think readers will remember
it long after they read the book. At least I hope so.
Question: You’ve been through a life challenge while
working on this story. Has your experience changed your writing style?
Lorilyn: Absolutely.
I wrote the first couple of chapters at the end of December 2016 and was
diagnosed with breast cancer the first week in January. I wrote like crazy
through January and February to get the first draft completed before my surgery
on February 22. All I could think about was if I didn’t survive the surgery, I
wanted the story to “live on.” I was still consumed with it after my surgery
because I didn’t quite get the first draft completed, and then when I got to
ninety thousand words, I realized I couldn’t complete the story in one book. It
would have to be stretched into two. So I slowed down and began editing,
editing, and editing—and finally relaxed. I began to realize God wasn’t in a
hurry for me to complete it. He wanted me to make the most of each day, rest in
His arms, so to speak, through my treatment, and give Him the glory for every
trial I encountered along the way.
I remember many, many years ago, when I was about ten, I
read a book that I’ve never forgotten. I can’t remember the title or the
author, but the plotline was about a young girl who was in a hurry to grow up. She
got her wish and grew up really, really fast, but she regretted it in the end
because she missed out on so many things.
As I’ve gone through this last year, I found I couldn’t rush
the treatments. I had to take each day as it came, and make the most of it. If
I wasn’t up to writing, I didn’t feel guilty. If I couldn’t blog as much, which
I definitely couldn’t, it was okay. So I’ve learned, I think, to be more
patient, to take my time, not work as much, get more sleep, and spend more time
with friends and family. I love to write, and it draws me near to God when I
do, but God wants me to find my joy in Him completely. I can’t do that if I’m
in a hurry all the time. That means taking the time and not living under
compulsion to accomplish something every single minute of the day. Psalm 46:10
says: “Be still and know that I am God.” God made me slow down, and to be
honest, I think it’s made me a better person. I have more defined boundaries.
Instead of captioning seven days a week, I now caption only
five and a half. I’m on a daily reading schedule to read through the Bible in a
year. I went to see a movie with my prayer group, the first one I’ve been to in
at least five years. My daughters and I have gone to three theme parks in the
last couple of months. I’m learning how to live again and not work all the
time. How does that translate into writing? I think it makes me more productive
when I do write. I’m not so tired and not so drained. It’s hard to be creative
when you’re working night and day, seven days a week.
Question: Can you share a hint about what we might
expect for the next book in the Seventh Dimension Series?
Lorilyn: The final
book, Seventh Dimension – The Howling, is
written from Daniel’s POV and takes place in the future. All the characters
that have been introduced in the previous books will make an appearance,
including the animals. The fate of all the main players will be revealed, and
the reader will be left with much to ponder as he contemplates his own future.
I also promise this: The ending will be
glorious!
Question: What are you reading now?
Lorilyn: Currently
I’m reading Gone Missing from Emma
Right’s Dead Dreams Series, and when
I finish that, I want to read The
Landlord by Cheryl Colwell. I’ve read books by both Indy authors and like
their style of writing. If readers have authors they love who write suspense,
mystery, or fantasy, I hope they will leave their recommendations in the
comments section below. If I see one I decide to pick up on Amazon, I’ll send
him or her a free coupon for a Kindle copy of Seventh Dimension - The Prescience as a thank you.
About the author:
Lorilyn Roberts graduated Magna Cum
Laude from the University of Alabama in 1993 with a B.A. in
Interdisciplinary
Humanities/Social Sciences. She won an award for "Outstanding Senior
Project" upon graduation for her coursework that was done at the Institute
of Holy Land Studies in Jerusalem. Ms. Roberts received her Master of Arts in
Creative Writing from Perelandra College and is a graduate of the Institute of
Children's Literature. Follow her Facebook Fan Page, https://www.facebook.com/LorilynFanPage/,
and visit her website, http://www.lorilynroberts.com
