Hunger Games . . . Katness or Bella

Being a writer, I can't help but ask people I see reading about the book they've chosen and why they were drawn to it. Hunger Games, the most recent teen-reading phenomenon seems to have attracted a completely different audience than Twilight. I didn't have to ask too many questions to find out the Hunger Games fans much preferred Katniss Everdeen's strong, self-reliant character to the more passive, submissive Bella Swan from Twilight. 




Besides writing, I'm also a computer science teacher. I showed the trailer to Hunger Games to my students to segway into the lesson by telling them that the actual Hunger Games competition to the death was a metaphor for needing to be prepared to face the much more serious version of life as an adult as opposed to a relatively sheltered teen. It worked!

When building my Fallon Ford character in Maitreya I was initially inspired by the Twilight characters, Bella and Edward. My Holden Harwell followed Edward to the down side of becoming immortal while Fallon, early on, began to think for herself and ultimately resisted and turned away from the path Holden was on.

As readers of Maitreya I hope, like Hunger Games, you find my Katniss, Fallon Ford, to be a strong character you can relate to and use as a role model.

A Global Uprising Against Injustice . . .

At the time of the posting of this blog entry over 70 million people have not only watched the "Invisible Children" YouTube video about Ugandan Joseph Kony's Lord's Resistance Army atrocities against children as well as other human rights violations. He has been indicted by the International Criminal Court, but to date has not been apprehended or brought to justice. These criminal abuses have been going on for years, but what is happening to bring global awareness to the issue is unprecedented!

In my book, Jesus returns to Earth after 2,000 years and going by the name, Maitreya, challenges his followers to finally realize the global implications of Love Thy Neighbor by applying the principles of Justice and Sharing to end poverty and crimes against humanity.

Given the global reaction to the Joseph Kony YouTube video, perhaps humanity is now spiritually ready to take that next step in their evolution toward Enlightenment--which is the principal reason why Jesus will be returning soon.

This isn't just about 70 million people viewing the video, all over the world demonstrations to finally take action are being planned and all springing up at the level of passionate people, not governments.

These are extraordinary times to be alive!