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When Science Fiction Meets Fairy Tale

At first glance, science fiction and fairy tales appear to have little in common. They’re like water and oil. What could tales about nasty step-mothers and magic share with stories of high-tech gadgets and trips to other worlds? For starters, both address themes of human experience through the fantastic, and both bear the imprint of the culture of their time. · Jeff Chapman

Stealing Faces

I firmly believe that the human desire to create, the creative drive of the novelist, musician, craftsman, etc. is evidence of the existence of God. · Patrick W. Carr

The Christian Writer and Fiction

Fiction is not very good fiction, if fiction at all, without ‘flawed characters and narrative.’ As such, the gospel-story (narrative) is the story of sinful men and women (flawed characters) coming to repentance and faith in Christ, the Redeemer, whose sacrifice atones for their sins. The narrative does not stop at the point of conversion but continues with how such persons struggle with the remaining sin within them (flawed characters, again) and the sin in the world around them. · Thomas Clayton Booher

Every Bit Of My Heart

I no longer knew how to love God with the creative side of me. Life had changed. I was different, but part of my heart was dedicated to an old dream, a child’s dream. And I didn’t love it for God’s sake. · Shannon Dittemore

The Echoes Of Christmas

God is the Author of the Christmas story. I wonder how far its echoes can, and should, reach in all stories. What would a story look like, written in a spirit that, like Scrooge, honors Christmas and keeps it all the year? · Shannon McDermott

How Storytelling Conveys Truth Better Than Non-fiction

I would suggest that what plagues much Christian fiction isn’t so much the desire to convey theological truths, but the mixing of non-fiction with fiction. Both forms are valid and have their place, but when they are mixed into a story, the result tends to be a story that isn’t engaging and/or sloppy/incomplete teaching. · R. L. Copple

Speculative Fiction And The Spiritual Journey

As devotees of speculative faith-based fiction, our genre’s cultural “neutral” ground should inspire us to literally move readers to consider their individual spiritual journeys. If, as readers, we find a great spec-fiction book that sends us digging through the scriptures, or pursuing a more active and honest relationship with our Creator, then we should share that book with our agnostic/atheist/lukewarm-believer friends. · R. J. Anderson

Preference V. Weakness

Reader differences go far beyond genre or gender. Each person brings his or her own preferences, prejudices, expectations, beliefs, experiences, and assumptions to the story. · Keanan Brand

Why Fiction Is The Wrong Vehicle For Theology

I suggest that this expectation of “right theology” in our fiction not only keeps writers creatively hamstrung, it keeps Christian speculative fiction from reaching a larger swath of more serious genre readers. · Mike Duran

Inside Another Mind

The entire plot of Treasure Traitor unfolded before me from the single image of this outcast girl with a bird on her shoulder. While my creative process sure took a round about way to get me from that original childhood short story to my first published novel, the journey was not in vain. · Laura Popp

The Fine Line Between Reality and Fantasy

When I started writing my recently released young adult novel, Fathom, I knew there would be otherworldly creatures involved and that they would play a big part in the story. However, I always felt that at its heart, Fathom was a contemporary story · Merrie Destefano

Classic Sci-Fi Meets A Christian Worldview

What is it about science fiction that draws us in? Mom, wife, and debut author of Asylum: The Circeae Tales Ashley Hodges Bazer shares why she chose to write science fiction and discusses how Asylum went from concept to published book. · Ashley Hodges Bazer

You’re As Relevant As A Wimpy Mustache!

Here’s the funny thing about pursuing relevance–if you’re trying to be it, you probably aren’t. Coolness can’t be faked any more than singing with Auto-Tune makes you a vocalist (sorry T-Pain), or growing a handlebar mustache makes you a man (though I envy any man who can pull it off). · Christopher Miller

Writers Slay Dragons (and You Should Too)

The truth is, the dragon is real and living among us. But what is this dragon really up to? What’s his goal? Is he merely trying to slow us down in our life journey? Is he simply keeping us from taking chances, fulfilling our dreams or doing great things for God in this world? · Christopher Miller

Why Aren’t Adults More Inclined To Read Fantasy?

George MacDonald, a contemporary and friend of Lewis Carroll and Mark Twain, wrote fairy tales not only for children, but also for adults, and surprisingly, from our 21st century context, his work sold in the thousands of copies throughout Europe and also here in the U.S. · Dean Hardy

Familiarity Versus Originality

Old stories, as “typical” as they are, speak to a deeper longing in all of us. We want to know that good wins. That there is hope. That love is just around the corner. Life doesn’t always demonstrate that to us, so we find ourselves at Story’s door, wanting to escape to a place where magic is still alive. To fly in the face of that child-like expectation is almost a betrayal of Story. · Greg Mitchell

Ancient Realms Of Imagination

The stories that I read while growing up inspired me to be a better person–to better follow God and to deal more rightly with other people. A good story isn’t just penned or typed; it grows out of the heart. · Scott Appleton

Writer’s Block?

This is one of the things that makes us different from the rest of the animal kingdom. Our creativity. Other animal species may have developed forms of communication, but so far as we know only humans engage in storytelling. · Tom Pawlik

The Sword Endures

With all the different kinds of speculative stories, with fantastic weapons and wars, why is the symbol and themes of the sword so transcendent? · Rebecca P. Minor

Sex, Violence and Dark Events

I understand that some readers are made very uncomfortable reading “graphic horror and implied sexual abuse,” but does that mean neither can ever be acceptable elements in Christian fiction, regardless of the purpose they might serve in that fiction? Should Christian authors of speculative fiction – or any fiction – refrain from putting “dark and violent things” into their novels as a matter of principle? · Karen Hancock
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