Comparing Saffire’s belief to the Christian belief

Saffire has come to believe in a Being greater than herself. A Being that is greater than the greatest person on earth. A Being that is so great that it is beyond anyone’s imagination. And strange thing is, this Being isn’t so much an "it" as it is a "He". He is called the Divine in Saffire’s world. The Divine is, just as God is, the Creator, the Almighty, Perfect and All Righteous, the Sovereign Ruler over everything ever created. But what is it that Saffire believes is that because the Divine is perfect and righteous, anything done not in accordance with Him has to be the opposite of righteous, which is evil.

Soon after their creation humans have come to do things (and like to do things) opposite from Him. These evils are done sometimes unintentionally but completely out of selfishness. With no regard for the Divine, humans have grown distant and wanting to make themselves creator and ruler. Yet, humans are imperfect and created and therefore cannot change their place in life. They have not seen the care and love the Divine have put into their being. This has lead the Divine to be saddened and angered altogether, for He is not only their Creator but also their Father. Saffire and others believe that the Divine is complete also in His love for His creation, but He cannot force the creation to return that love (in which case, by force it would not be true love). So He provides a way to show them all His complete love for them AND a way to cover their evils so that He is not being unrighteous by skipping their punishment. He would Himself come to the earth in a human body.

He would walk and talk among them and show them hands-on what He is all about and how much He loves them. No one knows when this is supposed to happen but many who believe in the Divine believe He will one day do this. But sadly when He does do this, He will have to allow Himself to be killed in his human body. This will be a sacrifice by bloodshed to cover the evils of the entire world, whomever will simply believe that it is the Divine who had befallen this fate as their replacement. He then would forgive them of being selfish and forgetting their place as a creation. These He would know truly loved Him, not from force but because of His own true love for them. He would allow these to live forever with Him in His Kingdom. Because He would not stay dead but come back and rule physically on the earth and out in the galaxy too.

The Comparison?
Jesus is God incarnate (in a human body). Jesus came to be a sacrifice for our sins, the evils we do that keep us distant from God (God is not the one being distant but we are). God loves us so much that He wanted to come and be with us physically, walk and talk among us, and show us who He is. Jesus said if you’ve seen me you’ve seen the Father. By Jesus bloodshed we are set free from guilt and shame before the Awesome and Holy God. Jesus is our replacement to fulfill the consequences of sin so that we who believe in Him, that He is God and His death has saved, us will not have to fear death. We will be forgiven and restored to a right place with God. He will allow us to live forever with Him in Eternity because Jesus didn’t stay dead but 3 days later was raised to life by our Father in Heaven. Jesus is alive right now and we will also be raised up.

The main difference in the story from the reality of Christianity is that in Beautiful Sun the Divine has only just in the first book come to the earth. And of course in Christianity it has been 2000 years plus since Christ, our God, has come to the earth. Not that He is slack in coming back, since it has been less time since He’s come than it was before He came and believers were awaiting His arrival. In the Beautiful Sun story, the Divine, Zion, has not yet died or shown himself to be the Divine yet. Although the time is current day, it is a fiction/fantasy and it is only at the beginning of the series that we find that the Divine has come to the earth. The series is to display how God came in a body, the things He did while on earth, and how this affected certain young adults, the resurrection and what happens in this fantasy world once God sets up His kingdom.

Self-Published VS. Traditionally Published

Someone please explain to me the reasons so many people look down on self-publishing?

It's not just the process that people look down on but the works self-publishing presents and the manner of persons it represents. This is all kinds from POD to web-comics, whenever you say self-published instantly you get this look of disdain. This has been the most aggravating thing about self-publishing (SP) thus far. And it seems everyone has this notion, unless they know nothing about publishing at all, or they themselves are SP.

Well for those who don’t know what I’m talking about, SP is when you get your own printer somehow (places like Lulu.com have now made it easy), and you take your book to the printer and they print off copies for you OR you simply put it on a website to be read. For now let's talk about printing. You then do all the footwork to get your book known and read. There have been many successful SP authors, but so many more drown in their own sweat. In the old days, SP meant you had a car full of books that you went door-to-door selling. However, now you don’t have to print off 100s of books and tote them around (if you don’t want), you can do Print on Demand. Meaning, when you have a customer, they can (or you can) purchase the 1 book at the time it’s wanted. This saves loads of trees and the author tons of money.

Too bad that’s not the same as a money tree!

That’s about the short end of the matter. Yet, how does this equal such bad connotations? I believe if you haven’t tried it how can you knock it. I was really peeved when not only did I come across another one of these arguments on a Facebook group http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=2204546223&topic=3065, but I took almost 10 minutes replying (a quite logical reply at that) coming back a day or so later to see it was DELETED.

No worries, I’m not bitter. I only want to flesh out some main points about this topic.

SP vs. TP (Traditional publishing)

It has nothing to do with one’s quality of writing. The real set apart – SP has to either hire someone separately to edit the work or pry on friends or family to help. Because of this SP may not do as well with editing. TP generally has editing apart of the package. But not seeing TP works’ mistakes doesn’t mean they were never there to begin with.

SP saves time. If you finish your book Jan. 08, you may very well get it to the readers that same month or soon after. TP could leave that finished work unseen up til July 09! This depends on the arrangements, however, the release of a book is definitely lengthened, esp. considering that you must market the book to publishing companies before it can be arranged to get to the public. It takes some people years to just get a publisher to take on their book – let alone the wait time until it’s available.

SP’s “ready-made”, “no-bake” instant availability of the book is sharply contrasted by the necessity of marketing the book by the author (not a marketer!). Besides the hundreds of thousands of TP books out, there are also (probably) twice as many SP ones. The market is tight. So if a SP author is going to catch an audience they not only have to have a good book but have an excellent marketing plan and know how to run it. THIS ALONE MAKES ANY WELL-KNOWN SP AUTHOR BETTER THAN A TP AUTHOR. The SP one is a jack-of-all-trades . SP can hire someone to do marketing but most don’t. Now this doesn’t mean TP authors aren’t hardworking or their books aren’t worth reading. It’s just that overall a SP author works harder – that is IF if if if they have broken out and gained an audience and a revenue that would match a TP author.

Sometimes SP authors are doing so well, publishing companies go to them to get the author on their side! This has even happened to someone whom I worked with. She would submit her story to the magazine I used to manage, called AnimeAngels Mangazine (AAzine). AAzine, a self-published zine, is still alive under another Managing Editor today. It publishes Christian manga, articles, drawing tutorials, etc. I say, the mangas do rival what’s out on the traditionally published market but these are done mostly by college-aged kids who just do it for fun. I’m still hooked on Mave’s Kingdom Come. Anyway, Shelter of Wings http://www.shelterofwings.com/ was the manga and Lisa Hutchingson, the author, was picked up by Brethren Entertainment http://www.brethren-et.com/BESite3/index.php about 2 years ago. So it’s not impossible to go somewhere by starting out SP or if you are really good at SP you can even make an income. But as for SP vs. TP, they are like a self-employed entrepreneur vs. company-employed businessman climbing the ladder. Both methods have their advantages and their faults.

New Idea for Free Books

Ladies and gents,

Thanks for sticking in there with me. I know I haven't been around for a few months but I believe I am finally back now. I have a few new entries to add, I really need to update you all on book 2 and the beautiful art that's coming along with it! I really do want to make both books graphic novels but I have to start slowly. It's difficult starting out but I still believe that God has a purpose for these stories. That's why one of my priorities right now is to find a way to distribute these books for free! You heard me - FREE. Now this might just be to start out but right now I really just want to get Beautiful Sun: Boy Craze into the hands of kids, youth, and young adults.

This is a huge cause! This story may help change some kids lives, give them hope and most importantly help them to see Christ. But how do I get these books in large quanities? Lulu.com is the organization currently creating the book format but even I, the author, must purchase each book (at prices I don't really like). So I considered having people donate money for distributing the books - perhaps even sending a certain percentage of the donation to a Christian organization? Do you have any ideas for me? Would you donate if I had an easy online way for you to do so?

Suggestions are really needed, please reply or email me.