QUEST OF FIRE FRIDAY: IN REVIEW

Hello there!

Today is another #QuestofFireFriday! I’m in the midst of wrapping up Quest of Fire: Devastation and as I do, something really cool just released. The Spring 2024 edition of Clean Fiction Magazine features a review of Book 4 in the Quest of Fire series, Desperation! Any feedback is appreciated on a book, but it’s always so encouraging when someone reads a book the Lord has laid on my heart and finds in it so much of what I hoped they would see. You can read an excerpt of the review below and click on the link to go to Clean Fiction Magazine to grab a copy for yourself. Every quarter the magazine features some great short fiction, reviews of clean and Christian books, contests, and more.

CHECK OUT CLEAN FICTION MAGAZINE – SPRING 2024

I’m not just mentioning the review because I’m excited about it. The lead characters in Desperation—Thomas, Mia, and Gregor—are also at the center of Devastation. And that’s true in a literal and figurative sense. Writing this entry in Quest of Fire has been hard. There are some scenes that I’ve really worried about and so many places where I want things to go differently, but they can’t. Desperation was a trial for the characters, but Devastation has nearly everything they care about on the knife’s edge of being destroyed.

I recently talked out one scene with my mom—who yes has read all of the Quest of Fire books—to get her take. Fantasy isn’t really her cup of tea, so I thought maybe I could get a bead on how the emotional component of the scene would resonate if the fantasy part wasn’t a draw. And besides, my mom just gives good advice. As I was describing the events that led to that moment in the story, I was surprised by how much the story had been advancing to this one spot. To this particular moment, as though this was the beating heart of the whole thing. That’s one of the most rewarding feelings in storytelling. To know something is important and keep checking, keep wondering if it’s going to show through, if the theme has developed enough. Will it pay off the way it should? And then, quite beyond my planning, it does. Ironically, it’s hard to put to words how that feels. But the short of it is, I’m really happy with where this entry in Quest of Fire has gone and I pray that once you have a chance to read it, it will hit you the way it did me and the Master Artist Who is ever shaping me and the stories He leads me to, it will help to craft and strengthen your heart in Him.

Thanks for reading, and soon, Lord willing, I’ll have some more unique glimpses into Devastation prepared to share with you. If you haven’t read Desperation or the other entries of the Quest of Fire series, now is a great time to do it. Darkness surging only to have the Light shine brightest is definitely a theme of Resurrection Sunday and one that ever inspires and forges Quest of Fire. Till next time and ever after, may the Lord bless and be with you.