Book Tour: Revealing Eden by Victoria Foyt (Guest Post)
Hello Bloggy Followers! I am so thrilled to be participating in this virtual book tour for Victoria Foyt's new release: Save the Pearls Part One: REVEALING EDEN! (My review is below.)
Author: Victoria Foyt
Series: Save the Pearls, #1
Publisher: Sand Dollar Press
Publication Date: January 10, 2012
Synopsis: Eden Newman must mate before her 18th birthday in six months or she'll be left outside to die in a burning world. But who will pick up her mate-option when she's cursed with white skin and a tragically low mate-rate of 15%? In a post-apocalyptic, totalitarian, underground world where class and beauty are defined by resistance to an overheated environment, Eden's coloring brands her as a member of the lowest class, a weak and ugly Pearl. If only she can mate with a dark-skinned Coal from the ruling class, she'll be safe. Just maybe one Coal sees the Real Eden and will be her salvation her co-worker Jamal has begun secretly dating her. But when Eden unwittingly compromises her father's secret biological experiment, she finds herself in the eye of a storm and thrown into the last area of rainforest, a strange and dangerous land. Eden must fight to save her father, who may be humanity's last hope, while standing up to a powerful beast-man she believes is her enemy, despite her overwhelming attraction. Eden must change to survive but only if she can redefine her ideas of beauty and of love, along with a little help from her "adopted aunt" Emily Dickinson.
Book Website: http://www.savethepearls.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/EdenNewman
YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/savethepearls
Do you want to buy this book? If you do, you can find it on Amazon HERE.
About the Author: Victoria Foyt is an author and filmmaker. Her debut novel, The Virtual Life of Lexie Diamond, released in ’07 by HarperCollins, is a Young Adult coming-of-age mystery thriller. It achieved excellent critical reviews, including a five star, “must-read” rating from TeansReadToo.com, and was recommended by the Center for Children’s Books. Save The Pearls Part One REVEALING EDEN is a Young Adult, post-apocalyptic, science-fiction romance novel that deals with beauty and race released in January 2012.Author Website: http://www.victoriafoyt.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/SaveThePearls
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/VictoriaFoyt
Guest Post:
On Beauty In The Age of Gloss
By Victoria Foyt
Tell me the truth, Sister, on a scale of one to ten, how do you rate your beauty? Hmmm. I perceive your disdain, even through the nebulous reaches of the Internet.
That’s a guy thing, you say. Women don’t do that.
Really? Perhaps, when you look in the mirror, you do not slap across your chest an invisible beauty pageant banner that rates your visible assets. But I bet you rate, not only yourself, but every woman that comes onto your radar, and all the time, too.
You have your own system, or particular symbology for rating beauty, I imagine. Like my Italian mother who passes judgment on films with a number of meatballs, the higher the better, your cultural identity probably informs your ratings.
In fact, we all do it, my dear. Honestly, how can we avoid it when a constant barrage of images conspires to create insecurity about our looks? Have you noticed how quickly your self-imposed rating plummets after flipping through a fashion magazine? I’d like to see what would happen to their sales if those same high glossies advertised average-looking people.
Perhaps, the magazine editors know how much we despise ourselves and therefore, figure we would never buy their products unless we felt duly punished. Sadly, too many of us inwardly feel like Groucho Marx: “I would not join any club that would have someone like me for a member.”
The day I caught myself comparing my grade-school daughter’s looks to the other girls in her class, I thought, this must stop! I understood that, on a subtle level, I would pass on to her the same limiting behavior with which I had been conditioned. In my heart, I only wanted to send a message that each girl was beautiful in her own way.
No doubt, beauty is power, often as formidable as a genius IQ over 140. In the evolution of humanity, it has served a purpose, with the selection of genes, just as in all species. I strongly suspect, however, that our obsession with beauty has deprived us of something of equal value, if not greater.
When I set out to write my new fantasy romance novel, Revealing Eden (Save The Pearls Part One), I found myself facing twin fears that, at the time, seemed thematically unrelated, but ultimately, came together in a perfect way. Eden Newman lives in a post-apocalyptic world where the ability to withstand extreme solar radiation defines beauty and class. The more melanin in your skin, and therefore, the darker it is, the better your chance of survival, the higher your beauty rating. Eden’s blond, blue-eyed looks brand her as an ugly, oppressed Pearl. She’s desperate to find a mate, and doomed if she doesn’t.
All she really wants is for some guy to see past her obvious defects and admire the Real Eden, the one on the inside.
Call me over-imaginative, but I fear that our fixation on external beauty is now as useless and as cumbersome to our survival as if we had reptilian tails.
We vote on leaders, not based on intelligence or soulful qualities, but by the style of their clothes or haircut.
We ignore the real reasons for deep problems like unemployment, economic disparity or the continuing destruction of our environment because solutions like better education or higher taxes or cap and trade require us to think of someone besides ourselves, to change how we look at the world.
We want quick fixes. We’re like the patient who only treats the symptoms, never approaching illness from a holistic point of view, body and soul. It’s a matter of perspective.
Can we learn to see who we are and where we are going before it’s too late? I hope so.
Next time you look in the mirror, tell yourself you are uniquely beautiful, just as you are, and send that message to the next person you meet.
-Kristen ♥
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