Stephen Lawhead’s THE SKIN MAP — Day 2

Day 2 of the CSFF Blog Tour! If you haven’t read Day 1, don’t miss it, for it contains RIDDLE #1 For the Stephen Lawhead autographed THE SKIN MAP give-away!

Just to recap, I spent an incredible weekend with Stephen in early October at the Laity Lodge Writer’s Retreat. As part of that, I had him sign an extra copy of The Skin Map that I AM GIVING AWAY AS PART OF THE BLOG TOUR!

Here are the rules to win the Stephen Lawhead signed copy of The Skin Map, book one of The Bright Empires:

• You must visit my blog posts for all three days of the tour and make some sort of meaningful comment toward the discussion of that day.
• You must solve each of the riddles, and after day 3, provide me the answers through this Contact Form.
• Note … do not give your answers in a comment or others will see!
• If more than one person fulfills the requirements, I will hold a drawing to determine the winner.

Note #1: The riddles are going to get progressively harder, with Day Three being VERY HARD. Put on your sleuthing hats!

Note #2: Anyone is eligible to win the autographed book, even those that already own a copy! BUT … if you already own a copy, and want this autographed copy, I would request that you hold a contest of your own to give away your unsigned extra copy after you win.

Note #3: Although the riddles have to do with the book, you can solve it without owning the book by using Google Books.

But first my own review, and then at the very bottom of this post you will find the DAY TWO RIDDLE:

Here’s my schedule…Day One: The Plot / Day Two: The Characters / Day Three: The Craft.

DAY TWO…THE CHARACTERS:

Kit Livingstone	The main character, he lives a dull existence in London until he meets…
Cosimo Livingstone	Kit’s great-grandfather who disappeared one day while going to the store. He is a time-traveling adventurer who is seeking the ultimate answers to the universe.
Sir Henry Fayth	He is one of Cosimo’s partners.
Lady Fayth	Sir Henry’s snobbish niece, she sort of befriends Kit and helps him in his quest.
Giles	A servant of Sir Henry, he and Kit become friends.
Wilhelmina	Kit’s girlfriend, who ends up lost in time. She is fast, efficient, and knows how to make an excellent cup of coffee!
Etzel	The baker who finds and befriends Wilhelmina, they open up a shop together.
Herr Arnostovi	The man who owns the building Etzel and Wilhelmina rent, he ends up going into business with them.
Arthur Flinders-Petrie	The ultimate time and space traveler, he is the man whom everyone else is after, in one way or another, hint, hint!
Xian-Li	The woman whom Arthur marries, her life becomes a key point in the plot.
Lord Burleigh	Hiss! Yes, the villain of the novel. His machinations cause quite the problems for Kit and company.

Is this the entire cast from the book? Not by a long shot, but it is a good overview.

MY THOUGHTS ON THE CHARACTERS AND CHARACTERIZATION:

Stephen, in my opinion, has done a great job creating and bringing to life the characters in The Skin Map.

No, we don’t get long pages of inner-turmoil-what-am-i-thinking-monologue, but then, these books aren’t in the Literature section of the bookstore, are they?

What we do get is a suspense-filled novel with characters in motion who grow, learn, and adapt in realistic ways to the strange events happening to them.

In my opinion, the cast of characters has just begun to be introduced. What strange new worlds will Kit, Mina, and Giles visit? What places and times? What odd people will they meet on their journey? I can only imagine in my anticipation.

The good news? Stephen has already finished his entire first draft of THE BONE HOUSE and submitted it to the publisher! Even though we still need to wait until next fall, there is no fear of a late publishing schedule.

My recommendation? Buy this book!

And even if you have a copy, make sure to enter my contest for AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF THE SKIN MAP!

WIN AN AUTOGRAPHED “THE SKIN MAP” CONTEST:

Remember … you have to take some part in the discussion each day, and also contact me with the solutions to the three riddles at the end of day three:

RIDDLE…DAY TWO: Convert the following QR-Code to text. Once you have the text, you must finish the provided sentence from the book. Your answer will be four words long.

Note: If you don’t have a QR Code Reader on your cell phone, you might be able to find a “QR CODE READER ONLINE”. Hint-hint! If you need the URL to the QR Code image, here it is:

http://www.epictales.org/images/Robert/BookGiveAwayQRCode.png

DISCUSSION…DAY TWO: Which character from the book would you most like to meet, and why? For me it would be Cosimo because he would have a fascinating story to tell about his life. Note, spoliers are allowed in the comments, so read at your own risk.

And don’t forget to visit the other members of the tour:

Red Bissell Thomas Clayton Booher Keanan Brand Grace Bridges Beckie Burnham Morgan L. Busse Jeff Chapman Christian Fiction Book Reviews Valerie Comer Karri Compton Amy Cruson CSFF Blog Tour Stacey Dale D. G. D. Davidson George Duncan April Erwin Tori Greene Ryan Heart Bruce Hennigan Timothy Hicks Christopher Hopper Becky Jesse Cris Jesse Becca Johnson

Jason Joyner Julie Carol Keen Krystine Kercher Shannon McDermott Allen McGraw Matt Mikalatos Rebecca LuElla Miller Nissa John W. Otte Gavin Patchett Sarah Sawyer Chawna Schroeder Kathleen Smith Rachel Starr Thomson Donna Swanson Robert Treskillard Steve Trower Fred Warren Dona Watson Phyllis Wheeler Nicole White Elizabeth Williams Dave Wilson