I have found that the majority of self-published works (especially e-books) I pick up are riddled with errors that any competent editor would have spotted. Such poor proofreading drives me nutty and makes me want to throw my computer across the room. However, Steven McFadden’s short e-book, Tales of the Whirling Rainbow: Authentic Myths & Mysteries for 2012 (about thirty pages, including some nice illustrations), is worth a read. (My initial comments mentioned a number of typos, which have since been almost entirely corrected; one of the greatest things about e-books, actually, is how easily errors can be fixed. And I’m rather impressed by how quickly Mr. McFadden addressed the issue once he saw my original review.)
Over eight chapters, McFadden discusses the legend of the Rainbow Warriors, the relatively recent emergence of a “rainbow” corona around the sun (sometimes called a sun-bow), the current state of the world, and lays out a choice for us: respect nature, or respect materialism. Tales of the Whirling Rainbow is a call to lay aside those things that damage the earth and take on responsibility for how our lives and our choices contribute to the looming disasters around us.
It’s easy to mock a book for slightly stuffy sentence construction and a self-published e-book format; it’s comfortable to roll one’s eyes at the notion of energy healing and vision quests. But the more I read, the more I found myself looking at the message rather than the flaws, and the message is one that has long resonated with me: stop wasting your time with iPhones and snazzy cars and the latest gotta-have item in a flashy commercial. Look at what you can do to make the world around you a better place; look at how you can be a better person. Step up to help stop the hatred and bullying, intolerance and prejudice we all face in some corner of our lives. Aim to be your best, not worst, self.
That’s a message that can be conveyed without a glossy cover and still come through clearly. And it’s a message worth reading, to remind ourselves of what’s important, again and again, in whatever form it may take.
- Leona Wisoker
(Steven McFadden, 2010)
Steven McFadden has multiple web sites, each dedicated to a specific project:
Odyssey of the Eighth Fire
Chiron Communications
Soul*Sparks
Thank you for your thoughtful review, Leona. You gave me much to consider. After I took myself to the woodshed for the typos you identified, I corrected the manuscript for ‘Tales of the Whirling Rainbow’ and then re-uploaded it to Amazon and elsewhere. Guess I was originally in too much of a hurry to get on to the next project, and was so less than careful. Thank you for wading through the errors to gain a sense of what the book is truly about. With appreciation, Steven