American Writing Awards Featured Reviews
Book Title: Quest for the Scroll...
Author: R.L. Rinne
Unpublished Manuscript
Are the world's challenges real or imagined? What is the purpose of life? Does God have the power to save? Rinne attempts to answer these questions and inspire the masses in this theologically perceptive and dramatically enthralling work of spiritual adventure.
A major inspiration for the book was St. Martin of Tours and the Bible itself.
In Quest for the Scroll… , R.L Rinne takes the reader on a fictional journey across old-time Europe from Gaul, to Briton, the village of Kilpatrick, and beyond. The story begins in Dumnonii—presently Cornwall in Southwestern Britain—at the end of the summer season in 409 AD, a few weeks before Mabon. The protagonist, Magnus of Rau, is given a scroll from his divine mentor, the dying St. Martin of Tours. Faithful to his duty of guarding the revered scroll and his eternal belief in a one and only God, Magnus is labeled a radical and flees his home, thus beginning his great adventure.
Mentions of ancient celebrations and triumphs are abundant in the story adding an authentic historical perspective. Additionally, quoted scripture is used strategically throughout characterizing the thoughts of the cast.
As Rinne writes:
“Magnus’s head was spinning. He felt weak and nauseous. ‘What had happened? He remembered Jesus’ words. ‘Now the brother shall betray the brother to death, and the father the son; and children shall rise up against their parents; and shall cause them to be put to death. And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake: but he that shall endure unto the end, the same will be saved.’ (Mark 13:12‐13)”
Rinne introduces new characters to the plot seamlessly as Magnus missions across western Europe narrowly avoiding the evil powers that seek him. Among the many well-constructed characters in this intrepid tale, Osric, a boisterous monk, who assumes a fondness towards young Magnus, rises above the rest in his influence on the plot.
As Rinne writes:
“Understanding God is the greatest gift that most of the world has never known. That’s why Martin stressed Spiritual education to his students rather than corporeal education. You have a humble servant’s heart my dear Osric. Of all the people I have shared the good news with, you alone have digested it.”
The story takes a dark turn when a villainous Bishop realizes the summative power of Magnus and the scroll. Fearing the loss of his oppressive control over the region, the Bishop uses vile means to trap and destroy Magnus in relentless pursuit. Magnus calls on every power within to endure against the treachery and sin that abounds in a perilous quest for deliverance.
“I proved that death is unreal. Nothing stops or starts in infinity; God is expressed everywhere! God is the only action, and we reflect what he is.”
Quest for the Scroll… is an illuminating story from start to finish. The novel’s imaginative premise isn’t wasted as Rinne paints a vivid picture of Magnus’s ministry and the spirituality of the story’s message. It’s a heroic tale of love, faith, and the infinity of life.
Author Bio:
R.L. Rinne's eclectic life began at birth. Born on a helicopter base in Fort Rucker, Alabama, and raised on the family farm in Southern Illinois, Rinne’s love for writing fostered early bouncing around on the seared steel seat of his grandfather’s Case tractor—nicknamed Methuselah after the 969-year-old bible character. Rinne graduated from college with a degree in design and embarked on a career in industrial automation problem-solving. When he is not traveling the world, he enjoys life with his wife on the family farm. He is active in church and metaphysical adventures, enjoys scuba diving, boating, flying, art, jeeping, and riding motorcycles. Quest for the Scroll... is his debut unpublished manuscript. He is currently working on a sequel.
American Writing Awards Featured Reviews
Book Title: The Sons of Chester
Book Subtitle: A Tale of Small Town Boys, Baseball, and Very Big Dreams
Publisher: Black Rose Writing
Author(s): Craig Ohlau, Kevin L. Gingrich
The Sons of Chester is the true story of a group of boys from a death-row river town in southern Illinois who band together to follow their dreams.
A key feature of the story is the town that made them. This tough little river town, an hour downstream from St. Louis, features two facilities with significant fences: the Menard death row penitentiary, lying along the river, whose spirals of razor wire as purposefully festooned as an Independence Day decoration shred the sunlight; and, on the far side of town, Cohen Baseball Field—a Field of Dreams, where the boys swing for the fences.
The prison, in fact, represents a significant metaphor and theme:
“The inmates have dreams. They just cannot follow them. The sons of Chester have dreams, and this is the story of their dreams."
The Sons of Chester is more, than merely the story of a group of local boys (from southern Illinois), winning a national championship. It’s the story of the town that made them, a town where their fathers and coaches work among the most notorious criminals in US history; a town of great characters, whose great-grandfathers and mothers inspired one of the most famous casts of characters of the 20th century, Popeye and crew from Chester resident and famous cartoonist E.C. Segar.
As Ohlau and Gingrich write:
Many of Segar's immortal characters are based on the people of Chester. Olive Oyl on the turn-of-the-century Chester general store owner, the tall, thin Dora Paskel; Wimpy (“I will gladly pay you Tuesday . . .”) after Segar’s boss, Bill Schuchert; and Popeye himself after Rocky Fiegel, the fist-flailing, toothless, chisel-bodied, corncob-pipe smoking local legend, “feared for his ability to render a good butt whooping even when attacked by several adversaries at once,”. You know these characters. They’re your friends, the great-grandchildren of Popeye and Bluto and Olive Oyl and Wimpy. You know their antics and character: the tough guy bully, the Yorkshire forearm, the haymaker punch, the squeaky heart-throbbing, love-struck girlfriend, and of course Popeye, the goofy, muttering, doughty, indefatigable underdog who redefined the depths of comeback.
Chester itself is a town with enough character and characters to fill a novel and two Hollywood scripts. In fact, the Chester prison itself was featured in two rather famous movies, the 1967 Academy Award winning In the Heat of the Night and Harrison Ford’s remake of The Fugitive, though “Chester, with its own contradictions of ominous and innocence—prison and cake mix factory, beer taverns and dairy—proved better than Hollywood set designers could imagine.”
Between chapters focusing on the baseball championship runs are memorialized the diverting activities of easily diverted boys with national championship aspirations—the small town, all-boy stupidity, the exuberant high jinks of boys bored and brimming with Tom Sawyer adventurousness:
• Perhaps the last hilarious bomb threat in American history, teen boys and girls swimming in the back of pickup trucks, paintball booze cruising, and barn wrestling. Did I say barn wrestling? Yes!
The aim of the book is to recapture the glories of boyhood epitomized in that one activity that seemed to be to these characters the focus of life: baseball. The Sons of Chester as a testament to all that is good in small town America—and a charitable nod to all that is forgivable. It reminds us that no bonds are more sacred than those among family, friends, and townsfolk. The Sons of Chester is aimed at the chest every kid who ever dreamed of being a champion and every father who dreamed of raising one and every coach who ever sought to lead a group of boys. Everyone who ever had such a dream. Ohlau and Gingrich hit a moonshot out of the park in one of the most entertaining baseball books ever.
Author Bios:
Craig Ohlau (“Bobber”) was born and raised in Chester, Illinois, the setting for the book. In 1995, he and his longtime group of friends won the Khoury League National Championship, and Craig went on to star in baseball at Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville and earn tryouts with several Major League teams. Today, Craig is a writer, coach, teacher and, most importantly, husband and father. The Sons of Chester: A Tale of Small Town Boys, Baseball, and Very Big Dreams is his debut publication. It has been an Amazon Bestseller (Kindle and Paperback) in the categories of Baseball History and Baseball Biographies, named the 2019 Maxy Awards Runner-Up for "Nonfiction Book of the Year," is a PenCraft Awards Winner for "Best Biographies of 2019," a da Vinci Eye Finalist in the 2020 Eric Hoffer Book Awards, a finalist in the "Outstanding Biography" and "Outstanding Memoir" categories in the 2020 IAN Book of the Year Awards, and has been accepted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame Library and Museum in Cooperstown, New York. Kings of the County League, The Baseball Cortex, The Active Book of Monsters, and The Junior Outdoorsmen are among his other publications.
Award-winning writer and scholar (Fulbright nominee) Kevin L. Gingrich, PhD, is the author of the numerous publications, ranging from children’s stories, feature articles, and columns to scholarly articles, including his recent dissertation, Parechesis in the Undisputed Pauline. Kevin played Division I sports himself and, like his co-author, suffered the agony of near-miss dreams in Illinois high school state championship play.
