Mike Duran, the blogger behind Decompose, is a contributor to the writer site Novel Journey. Today he posted Part 2 of a panel discussion about speculative fiction. Yes, this was a panel I was part of. Here’s my answer to this question from Mike:

There is much discussion about what distinguishes Christian Fiction from the general market. Is it recurrent “redemptive” themes, the absence of language, God / Christ figures? How explicitly “Christian” must a speculative work be if it is published by ECPA houses? What strictures must a Christian spec author recognize in aiming for the religious market?

My guess is, few of us aim for the religious market. Some do. I assume Sharon Hinck is, with her Sword of Lyric series. In my efforts to find a publisher with an ECPA house, I hoped that the religious market would be a starting point, but that my books would branch out from there.

Speculative fiction lends itself to doing so much more than other genre or literary fiction, in my view. Christian science fiction can explore the ethics and spiritual implications of future technology. Supernatural suspense can explore the interplay between the spiritual and the physical. Fantasy can explore the nature of God, of evil, of good, and man’s capacity to face adversity. So, no, I don’t think Christian fiction requires recurrent redemptive themes, though I don’t see that theme as tired or over done. Any theme can appear to be tired or over done if it is treated the same time after time.

As to how explicitly Christian a speculative work must be for ECPA houses, I think you need to ask someone published by an ECPA house. Or better, ask an editor in an ECPA house.

Language? I hate that question—unless you’re talking about the absence of lyrical language. (LOL) Here’s the thing. If someone is going to submit to a publisher with clear guidelines that say No romance, that writer would be foolish to send in a manuscript with a love scene in the first chapter. Guidelines are guidelines. If a writer doesn’t like the guidelines, they send their work elsewhere. Publishers are free to set whatever guidelines they want, and writers are free to submit within those guidelines. If publishers’ guidelines prohibit the use of swear words or cussing, then a good writer can write around that using suggestion, or if all else fails, by telling.

I find it sad that we writers take up so much time grousing about whether we can or can’t use certain words when we talk very little about how we can more accurately, completely show who God is.

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I hope you take time to read the entire post, with answers from Jeff Gerke (WhereTheMapEnds and Marcher Lord Press) and Frank Creed (Lost Genre Guild and author of Flashpoint) as well. You can also still read Part I if you missed it when it was first posted.

Well, I’m evidently late to the party, besides being late to post here at Spec Faith.

Sometime … I don’t know exactly when … the Christy Award nominations were made public.

Here are the ones that speculative fiction readers will be interested in:

VISIONARY
The Battle for Vast Dominion by George Bryan Polivka (Harvest House Publishers)
Shade by John B. Olson (B&H Publishing Group)
Vanish by Tom Pawlik (Tyndale House Publishers)

YOUNG ADULT
The Fruit of My Lipstick by Shelley Adina (Faith Words)
I Have Seen Him in the Watchfires by Cathy Gohlke (Moody Publishers)
On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness by Andrew Peterson (WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group)

I have to say, in the “Visionary” category, which encompasses speculative fiction—science fiction, fantasy, supernatural suspense—and futuristic (in the Left Behind mode), I was excited to see two books the CSFF Blog Tour featured. OK, not really. The Blog Tour featured book one of George Bryan Polivka’s Trophy Chase Trilogy, The Legend of the Firefish. In my opinion, the third book is the best but the entire trilogy is excellent.

And it just so happens that in April, CSFF will feature the prequel—Blaggard’s Moon.
The book we did feature, Shade, stirred up some interesting discussion. To be honest, my first thought, though, was, Why haven’t I heard of Tom Pawlik and his novel? I mean, do people in the publishing industry still not know about the blog tour? Do they not search the internet for sites like Spec Faith or talk to others who have published in the Visionary category? It’s a mystery to me.

Apart from that, I was excited to see in the Young Adult category another of our CSFF features, Andrew Peterson’s excellent, funny, exciting kickoff to his Wingfeather Saga, On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness. Since there seems to have been more YA fantasy published in 2008 than adult, I would have been disappointed if none had been considered for the Christy.

I have to confess, I’m unfamiliar with Cathy Gohike’s work. I don’t know what type of YA it is. Thankfully, the title at least doesn’t sound frivolous. Hopefully Peterson’s speculative will prevail, but if not, I can hope for “not frivolous,” don’t you think?

Hunter Brown and the Secret of the Shadow by Christopher and Allan Miller (Warner Press) is an adventure fantasy written primarily for boys ages  10 and up. It is, however, a delightful story filled with spiritual truth and consequently, I recommend it to both boys and girls who enjoy “portal fantasy.”

One of the CSFF Blog Tour participants writing about the book, Crista Richey, brought the issue of freshness. Some of the conventions felt too trite such as the black cape for the villain and the lispy voices of some of the evil creatures. I guess I noticed some of those issues, especially at first, but there were surprises in the plot that kept the story from feeling predictable, so I overlooked the familiar accoutrements.

But now I am wondering. Is it the unique that makes a character memorable?

As I confessed in one of my posts at A Christian Worldview of Fiction, I actually ended up reading Hunter Brown and the Secret of the Shadow twice because by the time the blog tour arrived, I’d forgotten the story. And for me as a writer, this is disturbing (which is why I keep bringing it up in various venues).

Upon my second read, I realized how spiritually deep this first installment of the Codebearer Series is. The Miller Brothers don’t back away from some of the hard questions. How did the world come about? Why does suffering exist if the One in charge is good and all powerful? What happens when you die? Is God sovereign?

The good thing is, none of these big issues is dealt with as adults would treat them. In other words, answers are  clear but not delivered. Instead, the main character must ferret out the truth, and he does.

But my question is, does it matter if the readers forget the story? Granted, the forgetting-the-story issue might just be my problem, but I know that there are other stories, ones outside my genre, that I remember long after I’ve read them. Oh, sure, I might forget details, but I remember characters.

One idea is that a character with a strong voice is memorable, but I thought Hunter Brown had a strong voice. He reminded me so much of junior high boys I’ve taught. But maybe that’s the problem. Is he too ordinary?

So I ask you—what makes a character, a story memorable? This inquiring mind wants to know, and I think it’s important, because I would want readers to remember a book if it has deep spiritual truths.

And please, do take time to stop by the blogs of these March CSFF Blog Tour participants (the checkmarks indicate posts, with their links, that I know are up).

√ Brandon Barr
√√√ Keanan Brand
√ Melissa Carswell
√√√ Valerie Comer
√√ Amy Cruson
CSFF Blog Tour
√ Stacey Dale
D. G. D. Davidson
√ Shane Deal
√ Jeff Draper
√ April Erwin
√ Karina Fabian
Marcus Goodyear
√ Todd Michael Greene
Katie Hart
√√ Ryan Heart
√√√ Timothy Hicks
Jason Isbell
Cris Jesse
Jason Joyner
√ Carol Keen
√ Mike Lynch
Magma
√√√ Rebecca LuElla Miller
Nissa
√√√ Wade Ogletree
√√√ John W. Otte
√√√ Steve Rice
√ Crista Richey
√ Chawna Schroeder
√ James Somers
√ Rachel Starr Thomson
√ Steve Trower
√ Jason Waguespack not on the original list
√√√ Fred Warren
√√√ Phyllis Wheeler
√√ Jill Williamson/



My first book was sort of a Christian Agent Cody Banks. I got stumped when I tried to write the marketing proposal. I had no genre. At first I thought it was suspense. But it was also action/adventure. Or maybe an urban fantasy. Urban or contemporary fantasy? Was there a difference?

Since my spy kids story was driving me nuts, I wrote a book called Jason Farms. The same problem cropped up when it came to genre. Jason Farms is about a girl who discovers her father is working at a cloning lab. I was pretty sure this one had to be suspense. But wasn’t it also science fiction? What were Double Helix by Sigmund Brouwer or Blood of Heaven by Bill Myer considered? My next book was a medieval fantasy. Finally, something I could stick in a category without difficulty! But what kind of a random author was I trying to be, anyway? I kept stumbling onto these discussion on the ACFW loop about author branding and how important it was to write the same genre, at least at first.

At Mount Hermon 2007, I sat in on a workshop by Jeff Gerke who talked about “weird” fiction. My eyes got wide. Oh, yes. I liked the sound of this “weird” thing. It made a lot of sense. Turns out I wasn’t as random as I feared. I was, and am, a speculative fiction writer.

Aren’t you glad there is a genre that encompasses such variety? I sure am.

I’ve invited Jill Williamson, author of By Darkness Hid (Marcher Lord Press, April 2009) to become a regular here at Spec Faith. For now she’s agreed to contribute several guest blog posts. Her first one will acquaint you with her a little more.

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Hi. I’m Jill. My family moved to rural Alaska when I was five. We went from house to house those first few years. My dad was a carpenter and he’d get free rent as long as he was fixing up the places. When I was nine, Dad bought his own land. Our first house was a combination of a turquoise bullet trailer and what Dad called “the hooch,” which was an almost see-through addition to the trailer made from a spindly pine tree frame that was covered in Visqueen—the stuff construction workers use to hold insulation in walls. Dad took more sappy pine trees and built a triple bunk bed in the hooch. Being the oldest, I got the top bunk. I’d stay up until the middle of the night reading under that never-darkening Alaskan summer sky. I usually woke up from mosquitoes buzzing around my head or a twitching dragonfly that had somehow managed to get trapped between the Visqueen layers of the ceiling three feet from my face.

We didn’t have electricity. Town was twenty-five miles away. So when I ran out of library books, I daydreamed. I came up with all kinds of characters, most of which had electricity and running water and didn’t have to use the two-seater outhouse my dad was so proud of. (“You don’t have to wait,” he’d said when he first unveiled it to mom and us kids.) So that’s where I came from.

I’ve always love reading, especially teen fantasy. When the first Harry Potter movie came out, a huge debate started in our church as to whether or not the books were evil. I decided to write a book Christians wouldn’t complain about. (I know. Naïve, huh?) But once I started writing that novel I was hooked. I’ve been writing ever since.

Some of my all-time favorites? The Thief, The Queen of Attolia, and The King of Attolia, Harry Potter, Blink, This Present Darkness, anything Randy Ingermanson wrote, LOTR, Timeline, the Narnia books, Ender’s Game, and The Giver.

Thanks for letting me be a part of Speculative Faith.

I read my first Marcher Lord Press book this week – Jill Williamson’s By Darkness Hid (April 2009), first in the Blood of Kings series. Well, actually I read an Advance Reader Copy (ARC), but I suspect there will be few changes in the finished product. The book is excellent.

The Story. Achan Cham wears the orange shirt that marks him as a stray, as does the brand he bears on his back. For as long as he can remember he’s worked in Lord Nathak’s kitchen under the watchful eye and heavy hand of the cook, but all that changes when Sir Gavin chooses to elevate the boy and make him his squire.

Vrell also wears the orange, but she does so of her own choosing and in the guise of a young boy because she has gone into hiding in order to avoid a marriage neither she nor her duchess mother wishes for her.

Through an unlikely turn of events, Achan’s and Vrell’s paths cross, and they become the targets of greedy, power-hungry men who wish to kidnap and exploit them.

Strengths. By Darkness Hid is a fresh old-style fantasy. The story is captivating and unpredictable, with numerous well-foreshadowed twists. The characters are likable. Their motivations are clear and believable which makes them all the more realistic. I especially thought Jill hit a homerun creating Vrell, a girl masquerading as a boy. The things Vrell did to protect herself, the conscious ways she tried to mimic male behavior and to check her own natural actions and reactions made the character quite engaging.

The fantasy world of Er’Rets comes to life, including the innovative concept of a land divided between light and darkness, literally.

Jill’s writing is strong. She paints scenes using vivid prose so that a reader is transported into the barn of Lord Nathak’s manor or onto the trail through Nahar Forest. She provides lots of tension and suspense, so the story’s pace is fairly fast. There is a good amount of internal as well as external conflict, which makes the story more intriguing.

Weaknesses. There are two things I’d like to see changed, and neither has to do with the actual story. The first is that the back cover copy, at least what appears on the ARC, gives away too much of the story, in my opinion. The thing is, the detail didn’t really make a lot of sense to me when I read it before reading the book. Afterward, I realized how much of the story was given away. But the real point is, I didn’t feel drawn in by the back cover blurb, so it doesn’t feel like a fair representation of the book.

The second thing I’d change would be to add an important caveat: this book is Part One of a continuing story. Yes, there is a measure of closure, but this story is far from over, and I think readers should know going in. I didn’t. What kept me from feeling cheated in the end was the fact that the last twist came so late in the story, I thought at the time there would be no way to tie up all the threads. Consequently I was prepared, and I found the story so satisfying, I couldn’t really be mad about the fact that it would go on. Still, I can see how some readers who expect a true stand-alone might feel undercut when they reach the end, but it’s not the end.

Recommendation. I just may have a new favorite fantasy series. This is my kind of story. For those who are drawn to epic fantasy or classic fantasy, this is a must read. For everyone else, I highly recommend By Darkness Hid.

Over at A Christian Worldview of Fiction, I’ve written a more thorough review of this month’s CSFF Blog Tour feature, Cyndere’s Midnight by Jeffrey Overstreet, but there are a couple observations I wanted to make and they didn’t really fit into my normal review pattern, so I get to include them over here at Spec Faith instead.

First, I’ve read in a couple places Cyndere’s Midnight is reminiscent of Beauty and the Beast. I discovered by looking through Jeffrey Overstreet’s fiction blog archives that the story actually borrows from a couple science fiction sources: H.G. Wells’ The Island of Dr. Moreau, and the invention of Replicants in Blade Runner (screenplay by Hampton Fancher and David Peoples). I found that interesting—fantasy growing out of science fiction.

Another point has to do with characters. Several people on the blog tour (see list below) have identified the Ale Boy as their favorite character. He is delightful, I have to agree, but beastman, Jordam is my favorite by far. And the place in the story where he won me over was when he first learned to make comparisons. He began to see the world and himself differently because he began to think storm clouds were like a pile of plums or like coals gone cold. Later he thought of himself broken like a barrel at the bottom of some stairs, and of Cyndere like a cornered animal.

The new way of thinking had a profound affect on his understanding of the world, and Overstreet used that most effectively. One example is when Cyndere explained to Jordam that he had to choose between his old life with his beastmen brothers and his longing to live with Auralia’s colors. Your heart has only one hand, she said. You can only hold one thing or the other. Those lines provided the perfect motivation for what Jordam proceeded to do.

By the way, Robert Treskillard has a wonderful interview with Jeffrey Overstreet as part of the tour. In that discussion Jeffrey explains how he arrives at themes:

It’s like the opposite of preaching. Preachers usually begin with a lesson and finds ways to illustrate it. I start with an illustration and start exploring it. If it’s a good picture, it will eventually reveal all kinds of themes, all kinds of insights.

I liked that explanation primarily because it was the first time I understood how authors without a purposeful theme work. Mind you, I still believe more can be accomplished with a purposeful theme, and I definitely don’t think it comes from preaching. Teachers are also purposeful. Most writers are too, I would suggest. But among Christians, purposeful equals propaganda for some reason.

I had more thoughts, but rather than me blathering on, why not pick a couple other bloggers and see what they are writing about in regards to Cyndere’s Midnight.

Brandon Barr/ Keanan Brand/ Rachel Briard/ Melissa Carswell/ Valerie Comer/ Amy Cruson/ CSFF Blog Tour/ Stacey Dale/ D. G. D. Davidson/ Shane Deal/ Jeff Draper/ April Erwin/ Karina Fabian/ Marcus Goodyear/ Todd Michael Greene/ Katie Hart/ Timothy Hicks/ Jason Isbell/ Jason Joyner/ Kait/ Carol Keen/ Magma/ Rebecca LuElla Miller/ Eve Nielsen/ Nissa/ Wade Ogletree/ John W. Otte/ John Ottinger/ Steve Rice/ Crista Richey/ Alice M. Roelke/ Chawna Schroeder/ James Somers/ Rachel Starr Thomson/ Robert Treskillard/ Steve Trower/ Fred Warren/ Jill Williamson/

We had some very good comments to last week’s post. Thanks for responding.  Some of you highlighted the link science fiction creates between reality and imagination, and I think this is where much of the power comes from.

In most science fiction, no matter how incredible the technology, it has a sense of being real and plausible. All the incredible things we see and experience are only out of reach due to technological limitations.

Yet it also so often shows how important the human heart/soul/being is amongst all the technology.  That without that spark, all the technology ends up cold and ruthless, unless it is seeking that elusive spark that makes one human itself (or has found it).

I think that’s where the power of the science fiction we grew up with came from. It painted a bright vision of the future where humanity prevailed and it was the human nature coupled with technology that allowed us to overcome any odds. That is a powerful message and gets us to look beyond the limitations and trials of the present to what could be.

Unfortunately, at the same time the foundational world view of much of that science fiction wasn’t a Christian worldview. There was no higher authority than those which man imposed on himself. There was no higher goal than attaining knowledge and higher technology. If there were any higher planes of existence then they were just a natural extension of evolution.

The interesting thing with this is that the worldviews weren’t necessarily thrust upon the reader as a means of the story. Often the story was completely independent of the world view, and it was simply the result of a character’s choices and the general way in which the universe works that reveals the worldview that forms the foundation.

If I’m correct here, then there is no reason that science fiction written from a Christian worldview need be all that different from any other science fiction read. Whether it is chronicling first contact with an alien race, pondering the ethics of killing the person left behind after someone has been copied to a location on the far side of the universe as a transportation method, or just examining the adventures of the crew of an intergalactic spaceship.

You don’t always have to focus on the theology or use grand symbolism to discuss the redemption of man.  Just go with a story idea that looks at what life looks like in the setting and let the rules of the universe play out.  And let Christian characters be themselves, right or wrong.

More thoughts along these lines coming next week.

What do you think?