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Rift Jump--A war against Chaos, a multiverse of personal choice, and God in a Stetson...

Greg Mitchell, who is, like me, an Avenir Eclectia author and who also like me, has Splashdown Books as his publisher, has just come out with a new book I'm happy to promote because of its boldly original take on a story multiverse. I'll let him tell you about it:


It begins with Choice.

You are the culmination of Choice. If you think back to your life, to the lives of your parents, your grandparents, and all the way back to the Garden of Eden, choices beyond your control have shaped your path. If any number of those things had been different—if your ancestors located on a different continent, how different might your world look to you today?

What if the cure for cancer was found in 1756? What if electricity wasn’t discovered until 3018? What if Earth was devastated by atomic wars? What if Earth didn’t exist at all?

Yet, where does that leave the spiritual realm? Are there multiple incarnations of God? Is the Devil a good guy in some realities? What happens when we die? Are there millions of you floating around in heaven? Or will you see your doubles in hell?

I partially answer this by creating the concept of the True Universe. There is only one me. All the other Greg Mitchells on all the other planes of reality are reflections of me. Or…am I the reflection? Maybe the “True Greg Mitchell” is killing vampires right now in this souped-up monster truck, with Elvis Presley riding shotgun. That wouldn’t be too bad.

But what about God? Another key component to Rift Jump’s multiverse concept is the “In Between.” I describe it like this in the book: Imagine a brick wall. Each brick represents a parallel reality, making up the multiverse. But that mortar that holds the bricks together is the In Between. And there, in the In Between, is where heaven and hell exist. Where God, the devil, and their angels reside. So there is only one God. One set of heaven and hell. Rather than being a separate place—though I do believe it’s a literal place—it’s a reality that’s on a different frequency. The multiverse still exists in the physical realm, while the In Between is a spirit realm. God exists outside of the multiverse and interacts with it at His choosing.

I believe God exists outside of Time. We only know our lives as past, present, and future, but God exists everywhere at all times. He is here with me now, and He is also speaking the world into existence, and He is also at the End of All Things. I believe John, in a sense, “slipped the mortal coil and into the In Between,” to get a glimpse of the future in the Revelation.

Or, if you’re like Michael Morrison in the pages of Rift Jump, you can crack one of these dimensional walls and slip beyond the planes of existence into the In Between yourself. But I wouldn’t advise it. There are terrible things lurking in the dark spaces between realities.

Namely, Chaos.

My fictional multiverse (or is fiction only a reflection of the True Universe?) is built as a sort of cage to Chaos. It is Order. The multiverse is the ultimate expression of Choice. Who do you marry? Where will you live? What will you do with your life? Will you believe in God? Or reject Him?

Again, a multiverse of infinite possibility. But the point is that there is possibility.

The Bible says that God gave us freewill, and, in my story, the multiverse is an extension of that. You may make terrible decisions in this reality, but in some other reality, you’ve perhaps chosen differently. But the Choice remains. There are alternatives.

But the Dark in the In Between would seek to remove those possibilities. To take away your choice. There would be no alternatives then. There is only one possibility—one outcome. So the Dark tears through the multiverse, sowing destruction and discord, looking to rend the very fabric of time and space.

Michael Morrison begins Rift Jump as a boy who has made many terrible decisions. And, when these actions lead him to a terrible death, he breaks the bonds of the multiverse and finds himself in the In Between. God is waiting there for him as a kindly man in a long coat and Stetson, and gives Michael the Choice. Who will he serve? What will he do with his second chance at life?

Gifted with incredible powers, Michael battles across the multiverse, trying to stop the Chaos from breaking through the realities. The war is not only external, but internal as the Darkness In Between the worlds speaks to him, playing on his own rage-filled impulses, tempting him to join the Chaos... 

If Greg's tale catches your attention as much as it does mine, here's the Rift Jump link to purchase it in several different formats off the Splashdown site. If you want to hear more about him and his story, please check out the following links to some blogs of friends who are talking to Greg about his tale:

Grace Bridges              http://grace.splashdownbooks.com
Fred Warren                http://frederation.wordpress.com/
Caprice Hokstad          http://caprice.splashdownbooks.com/
Paul Baines                  http://www.pabaines.com/
R. L. Copple                http://blog.rlcopple.com
Keven Newsome          http://www.kevennewsome.com
Kat Heckenbach          http://www.katheckenbach.com/
Ryan Grabow               http://www.egrabow.com/rm.php?e=Prime
Diane M. Graham         http://dianemgraham.com/blog/
Robynn Tolbert            http://ranunculusturtle.blogspot.com/
Frank Creed                 http://blog.frankcreed.com/


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