1. Sarah Sawyer says:

    Nice interview, Steve and Stephen! I’m currently wrangling with my own massively long novel (though not quite as long as yours once was), so I can sympathize with the challenges of the editing process. 🙂

  2. Galadriel says:

    Very interesting

  3. C.L. Dyck says:

    “Authors would stop worrying about how they can best attract “secular” or non-Christian readers to their work and just write what they want to write the way they want to write it.”
     
    ESB reposted that quote on Facebook…thank you for that, Steve. I had a great conversation with a non-Christian recently about how sci-fi is possibly the most faith-filled genre in existence, and for some people, almost constitutes a religion unto itself. We talked about how that probably contributes to difficulties in speculative fiction’s ongoing quest to find a place the religious publishing market.
     
    I find that when I don’t apologize for being in Christian publishing, people settle down, accept it, and start asking questions instead of giving knee-jerk reactions. The key is simply to refrain from knee-jerks of my own in the process. I’m disheartened when I see the concept of truly authentic Christianity subsumed by a drive for relevance at all costs.
     
    High-fives for community journalism! I got my start as a rural gardening humor columnist. Turning dry botany trivia into fun for farmers…

  4. Steve Rzasa says:

    “Turning dry botany trivia into fun for farmers…”

    Yeah. That brings back memories of trying to make stories about property tax assessments understandable and not breathly boring…
      
    I too get past knee-jerk reactions pretty well when I talk about my book being Christian fiction. Of course, the Bible features pretty centrally in it so it’s not like it can be avoided. The whole idea of being “relevant” seems silly to me, anyway. Church entertainment? OK, well, why are we going to church? To have a party where we’re entertained or to worship God?

What do you think?