Interview with Monica Bennett-Ryan, founder of
In His Name Publishing in Australia
Monica is a Christ-conscious person who has dedicated herself to writing with a single purpose - to bring the glory of God to the earth. Her books are a breath of fresh air on Christian subjects and would enrich a person, whether they are a believer or not, a Christian or a believer in different religions.
I admit that my journey as a book cover artist began with exactly this cover because Virtual To Reality appeared in my life just when I was at a crossroads. Meet the author Monica Bennett-Ryan.
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Thanks Donika,
First, I want to say how glad I am to have found you! What a talented lady!
When I first started thinking about writing Virtual to Reality, I saw your Book of Secrets artwork, and loved it immediately. So, when the book was written, I sought out you and asked if you could do something similar. Well! What an amazing job you did!
The scene you put on the cover describes exactly a scene from the book. The town, the waterfall, the trees, the dragon, writing on the open book itself, and the colourful stones – all reflect the virtual nature of a story in a book which has the potential, when read, to spill out into the real world. You absolutely nailed it! I constantly recommend you, Donika, to all my friends and colleagues. I can’t recommend you highly enough!
Wow! Thank you, Monica. I appreciate your gratitude and it really makes my day meaningful. And now let's introduce your book. Please tell us what it is about?
As the name suggests, virtual to Reality is a fantasy saturated with spiritual truth for ages 9 to 99. I guess you could call it a Scripture-based adventure. A lot of people don’t know that the Book of Revelation is full of strong characters, plots and intrigue and best of all, romance; all the elements needed for a good story!
For instance, in Revelation, there’s an angry red dragon, a plotting wicked queen, two evil-eyed dragon pets, three deceiving frogs and, of course, a hero, a heroine and kind king who lives in a peaceful kingdom.
In my book, as in Revelation, the royal hero loves his bride to be and yet, after he saves her from the dragon, he returns home for a time, leaving her in the care of his seven most trusted helpers; his invincible Fire Lords.
These Fire Lord’s give the young bride seven powerful gifts which she uses to overcome all the traps set for her by the vengeful wicked queen and the dragon’s two nasty pets.
Every time she foils the enemy the young bride gains more beauty and more authority, gradually changing from simple villager to radiant princess.
At the end there is a great battle of good v evil, and at the end of the battle, the royal hero returns to find a strong and confident bride, ready to take her place beside him on his throne.
I admit that you and I have spent a lot of time beautifying the interior of the book. Indeed, the book has become a great illustrated tale for 9 to 99 ages.
What inspired you to write this book?
What you’ve just read comes straight from the Book of Revelation. Of all the books in the Bible it’s my favourite because it’s full of colourful characters, gifts and promises. And I love the way it ends!
I couldn’t help but put the story of Revelation into simple terms for children to read. It’s just wonderful!
There is another book on the subject of Revelation, on which we recently made a brand new cover design. I am sure that our readers will be happy to learn the story behind it.
As I mentioned, I usually write for adults, and yes I have written other books on Revelation. We writers write what we love, don’t we? I know I do! And I love the Book of Revelation.
REVELATION: Ancient And Mysterious was my first book. It took me a long time to write, several decades, but it was worth it! It emphasises the relationship between the father, son, spirit and bride as the victorious son returns to Heaven from Calvary and begins to place all the enemies of God (like Satan) under his feet. It’s a deep subject, so I’ve given it a light touch to make it easy to read.
CURSING Is it from God or Satan? A lot of people are scared of the curses written in Revelation, so this book addresses that fear. It begins with the first curse ever spoken and ends with the last curse that will ever be fulfilled. It reveals the role purpose of curses throughout Scripture so that the role and purpose of the curses written in Revelation will not be misunderstood. Another deep subject with a light touch!
And they WORSHIPPED the beast I had to write this book. It addresses all the popular, but completely unfounded, false and scary end-time teachings many say come from Revelation but, in reality, don’t actually exist in Revelation.
Remarkable! I admit, even though I'm not a religious person when I read the parts of the manuscript, this book spoke to me. When did you realize you wanted to be an author?
I didn’t know I wanted to be an author; I sort of fell into it by accident. I’ve always loved writing short stories, poems, songs, plays, skits and musicals, which I did for years for the pleasure it gave me to write. But then I became ill and couldn’t work for a while, so I decided I should use my ‘down time’ to gather up the many hand-written notes I’d accumulated over the years and enter them into the computer. Seven weeks later, I realised my notes had one main theme and I had inadvertently written a fourteen chapter outline of a book on Revelation. I was more surprised than anyone else. Then I started to learn the craft of writing.
What other writer's influence you?
I don’t tend to look at writing style when I read a book, rather I’m more interested in the underlying theme, or purpose of the book and so, when it comes to fantasy, I compare my book with others for purpose rather than style. That means, in the same way CS Lewis used The Narnia Chronicles to highlight the impact of Christ’s death and resurrection on the world, and Calvin Miller used The Singer Trilogy to highlight the emotions of Salvation, so I use Virtual to Reality to highlight the important role of the Spirit of God in preparing Christ’s bride for his return.
Where can people find your books?
You can find them by title or by Author Name on Barnes and Noble and Amazon
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Thank you, Monica, for being our guest and I look forward to learning more about your next book.
If you are curious to learn more about Monica Bennett-Ryan's books you could check also the author's website and subscribe to her blog. Enjoy!
