The Journey Home: Introduction and Sign-Up

October 7-27 2013

Honorary Lumaterans:

Charlene: You may have heard or read of a remarkable book called Finnikin of the Rock by the brilliant Melina Marchetta. If you’ve read it you no doubt know the captivating story within. If you’ve only heard of it - here’s what you are in for :

• An engaging, realistic fantasy world
• Kick-ass heroes and heroines
• Moral complexity
• Intriguing adventure and danger
• Captivating characters
• Amazing writing
• Emotional character connections

Paola: And also, you will most definitely be facepunched by the feels.

Charlene: No exaggeration there! There’s a little group of us Lumateran-loving fangirls who have fallen hard for these books, and Paola from A Novel Idea (Finnikin Ambassador extraordinaire) and I thought it would be great fun to host an event devoted to it. And if you, like us, are interested in experiencing or re-experiencing the wonderful journey of Finnikin and Evanjalin to reclaim Lumatere from the false king and break the curse over their beloved land, please join in the festivities of this event and celebrate the Lumatere Chronicles with us!

Paola: It’s become our mission in life to bring this beautiful, heartbreaking, and unforgettable series to as many people as possible. I would say more about it, but I tend to get all incoherent and ridiculous when I try to talk about this book. Err, more incoherent and ridiculous than usual…

Charlene: Don’t worry though, since we’ve read this book before we will be much more in control of our emotions! (Watch us fail.)

Paola: Oh yeah, we are TOTALLY going to be in control of our emotions. We will not be sobbing and clutching our copies of Finnikin of the Rock. You can count on us to not be a hot mess the entire time… PROMISE.

Charlene: For three weeks we are hosting a read-along with discussions of the first book - Finnikin of the Rock. The read-along is not mandatory and new readers or re-readers are welcome to join in if they wish. The second part of the event will be all about the guest posts with participating bloggers writing about any topic they want. (Again neither the readalong or the topic posts are mandatory - you can do one or the other or both.)

Topics for these posts can pretty much cover anything relating to the series and include:

• Favorite characters
• Themes of community, family, dispossession
• A look at the relationships between any characters
• Any other themes
• Approach to fantasy/world-building
• Fan-casting the characters
• What touched you about the story/ a feels reaction post
• Reviews of any of the books in the series

We would like every blogger to post on different topics (except when it comes to reviews of the books or reaction posts - there’s no limit on who writes these posts) so please let us know what you’d like to write about through the Google Doc Sign-up form below with your preferred schedule date. We would like to schedule posts throughout the event so there will be something fun to read every day. If you were lucky enough to participate in Love Triangles 101 last July, the event will be run similarly to that.

The most important thing is to celebrate these books. The Post-Finnikin Support Group is going to read the last book in this series soon and I am so not ready to let go of this world, and sharing my love of these books with as many people as possible will help extend the experience. And why not foster our own little community of Lumatere-aholics here!

Paola: Um, well I never actually left Lumatere, so I’ll see you all there! I’ll be the one distributing boxes of Kleenex and pints of Ben & Jerry’s to all participants. Trust me, these are necessary provisions for your journey. The lovely ladies of the Post-Finnikin Support Group will also be on hand to give #TrevanionBearHugs to anyone in need of them. WE’RE HERE FOR YOU.

Can’t wait to see you all there!

Charlene & Paola

Founding Members
Lumatere Tourism Board




Read our reviews of the first two books!
@ A Novel Idea: Finnikin of the Rock  |  Froi of the Exiles
@ Bookish Whimsy:  Finnikin of the Rock  |  Froi of the Exiles

P.S. Thank you so much Paola for all your collab help and for making the awesome banner and event badge!!  Best Ambassador EVER!

Tentative Scheduling:

The Event runs from October 7th - 27th
Finnikin of the Rock readalong: October 7th-20th. (That’s two weeks to read 400pg)
October 7th-13th: Prologue and Chapters 1-15
October 14th-20th: Chapters 16-30
(Scheduled posts by participating bloggers will be added here as they are received.)

Charlotte @ Gypsy Reviews | Lumatere Chronicles & High Fantasy (date open)
Lee @ Rally the Readers | Reaction Post (Oct 21)
Jorie @ Jorie Loves Stories | Recap/Reaction Post (date open)
Tory @ The Sleeping Latte | Feels post, possible Lucian post (Oct 14, 21)
Kim @ YA Asylum | Character/Relationship post (Oct 17)
Alisa @ Picture Me Reading | Undecided (date open)
Samantha @ Celestial Carousel | Review, possibly more (Oct 22)
Doing Dewey | Review (Oct 25)
Charlene @ Bookish Whimsy | Review, Beatriss and Trevanion (date open)
Paola @ A Novel Idea | Undecided/Isaboe (date open)
The Duchesses Group Review (date open)

Please if you have any thoughts or comments or ideas for changes to make to this event, let me or Paola know!  Sign-up below!

Pretty Shiny Badge:

<a href="http://bookishwhimsy.blogspot.com/2013/09/the-journey-home-introduction-and-sign.html" title="The Journey Home" target="_blank"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjo14Dqgo26CnvwRl7ii5EJaEyt24x4DqAvgHVJQYsrTUERn8vWUZARCX1FkDZv1H__D0xFOi9xBvYpnWs_y3X4KT_ZYnS6rqINBnGC4qMFBnXE617oHR-_2SPFyQVJtXdCejCAsBuCusk/w219-h220-no/BADGE_lumatere.png" title="The Journey Home" border="0" /></a>