Tales of the Lonely Sun. Interesting name, wouldn’t you agree?
When we originally came up with the idea for this blog, my mind kept picturing it as having to do with light amidst darkness. Like a candle lit at night or the sun shining through dreary stormclouds. When you read an amazing book, it ignites your emotions, pulling you into its words and connecting the characters to you. There was no doubt about it; the title, the aesthetics, the feel of this blog had to have something bright and glowing amidst the dark. Hope is sometimes dim and weary, but the path toward a happily-ever-after is still there. It can also be a fiery, blazing thing that sets our minds alight with resolution.
In books and real life, we all cling to the hope that something better awaits at the end of this road. Behind the clouds, hope is nearly as faint as a wish; but when it comes through, it becomes the sun– a faithful star that never, ever fails to rise again.
Are we all tiring of these metaphors/similes now? All right, let’s move on.
It’s a well-known fact that there is only one sun of Earth. Zillions of stars, but only one is considered ours. It’s also a well-known fact that the world is, well, a very dark place.
Naturally, the darkness infiltrates every area of life– including fiction.
Since our goal was to spotlight on books that may or may not include darkness but always include light, obviously we had to find a name that embodied something about the light, but also about books. I kept suggesting something about a candle, but they ignored me. So then I suggested “Lonely Sun,” which I thought was tragically poetic and embodied our goal quite well, except that it could apply to anything. Because “tales” sounds lovely and old-fashioned, we added that and created “Tales of the Lonely Sun.”
Similarly, our mascots, Lantern and Spark, were based on that idea as well. I SAID we should name the fire-phoenix Candle, but no, we decided on Lantern instead. I have no objections with that now. As for Spark, he’s a sun-deer, which is like a rain-deer but with little tiny sparks on the end of his antlers. And he’s better-suited to desert life than icy mountainous regions.
So there you have it, the story and meaning behind the name Tales of the Lonely Sun. (We should make up a sign-off slogan for that. Such as “keep on burning,” or “ride on by torchlight,” or something about candles! Any suggestions?)
About Us (TotLS team): We’re four girls who love reading, writing, and most importantly, Jesus. The Lonely Sun emblem symbolizes the Light amidst the Darkness, an illustration of the world and how it’s always been.
We hope to focus on reading and writing books that are full of light opposed to books centered around darkness. The Tales of the Lonely Sun team are spreading the word about good moral books, and how to write them.
We host a seasonal writing contest for writers looking to share their work, and offer book reviews for the book dragons among us.
The Team: Carlye Krul Carlye is a teenager who lives in fictional worlds. She is a fangirl and when Carlye isn’t writing or reading, she’s listening to music and dreaming about books. She’s a follower of Jesus and hopes to spread the Word through her writing. Carlye resides in the southwest of Canada with an unhealthy amount of books. You can check her out on her blog Carlye’s Camera and her instagram.
Merie Shen Merie Shen is an artist at heart, a daughter of ministry, and a Chinese-Korean spy. Thanks to a lifetime surrounded by three very different and very strange cultures, her love for world folkways and folklore constantly infiltrates her writing. From the beginning, her stories have been inspired by C.S. Lewis instead of Tolkien, Lewis Carroll instead of Harry Potter, fairytales instead of Disney, and Kung Fu Panda instead of Marvel (don’t ask). She also spends time drawing what appears in her mind or in nature, discovering and rediscovering the magic of books, and staring off into space. Her mascot changes with her daily moods and she blogs at Imperial Scribis.
Merie lives in the fascinating city of Beijing, with her missionary family and their cat, whose name is either Kipling or Mimi or maybe both.
Jorja Ayres Jorja Ayres (pronounced Georgia Airs) is a 15 year old Christian writer, reader, and fangirl. Her hope is to help the readers of Tales of the Lonely Sun navigate around some of the beginner mistakes that she has made, as well as share some writing hacks that made things simpler for her. Her dream is to one day be able to give her readers the same feelings that she has experienced when reading some of her favorite books, as well as share positive themes that shine bright in this dark world. She lives in Southern Arizona with her family, dogs, and hedgehog.
Mya Gray Mya Gray is a Christian teen with a love for imaginary worlds and fictional characters. While she spends the majority of her free time reading and writing stories, she also enjoys photography, blogging, and playing piano. Mya is an online high school student who resides in the Midwest with her parents, younger siblings, and cats. She blogs at Life from Behind a Camera.
Short Story Contest
Every two months we at TotLS hold a short story writing contest. Every contest sports a different theme, and sometimes we collaborate with other influential blogs/bloggers for special prizes and guest judges. Abigail Harder is the official story judge, but she never works alone! Expect to see familiars around the writing community who will comprise the rest of the judges and select which one of your stories will be the winner.
For our first official contest, the TotLS team will be judging. If you want to enter the contest, choose from the following prompts for this season. You can pick one, or combine multiple for an extra challenge.
Short stories submitted to Tales of the Lonely Sun for any contest must follow all guidelines listed below. Please review these guidelines carefully before submitting; we don’t want to turn your story down! That can only be avoided if you make sure your story meets these specifications.
For submission, your story must…
- Be at a maximum of 5,000 words. All of us have lives and busy schedules, and we’d rather not go through hundreds of pages of work! Writing a great story under a low word count is part of the challenge.
- Follow the guidelines for the Lonely Sun emblem. Our goal is to spread stories with hope, not doom. While we have nothing against dark stories in general, we do not accept them if they are purely grim and dark and contain no mention or possibility of hope.
- Be CLEAN. We do not accept stories with explicit or inappropriate content. We expect all stories submitted to be family-friendly, which means no language, graphic violence, or innuendos.
How to Submit:
- When you finish writing your story, email us at talesofthelonelysun@gmail.com
- Make sure the subject of your email is “Short Story Submission.”
- Your email can include a Google Doc link, a PDF or simply the text of your short story, but however you submit it, make sure it is something we can access!
- The judges for the season will read and judge your short story, and the winner’s short story will be published in one of our blog posts. They then have the choice to help judge the next set of stories. Additional prizes change every season as well!
GIVEAWAY DETAILS
The giveaway runs from December 8 to the 15th, an extra day before and after the length of the blog tour.
This giveaway, by the way, is U.S. and Canada only… I’m so sorry, international folks! (Seriously. I feel your pain. Merie lives in China.)*
This giveaway is not affiliated with or endorsed by Nadine Brandes. (But it is with Mya Gray.)*
ONE WINNER WILL RECEIVE
A SIGNED COPY of Hide and Seek by Mya Gray (yes, our very own Mya!) / A hardcover copy of Romanov by Nadine Brandes / Bookish & TotLS stickers / A $10 Amazon gift card /Assorted tea bags
Giveaway link: https://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/690be0241/
Thanks for stopping by,
Abigail
Abigail Kay Harris 
Leave a Reply