Have you signed up to become first to know when Lorehaven magazine debuts?

If so, when issue 1 has launched, you’ll get the download link. Then you can feast your eyes and imaginations on this landmark publication. Our mission: review and help you find only the best Christian-made fantastical novels, and explore new authors, the lifestyle of a biblical “fanservant,” Roundtable discussions of hot topics, and beyond.

Please pray for our team as we come together for issue 1—and then issue 2, this summer.

Here at SpecFaith, we’ve been announcing this crew of Lorehaven fanservants. These include:

• Stephen Burnett, editor in chief;
• Elijah David, editor;
• Austin Gunderson, review chief.

Now comes sci-fi-and-steampunk-and-beyond novelist Steve Rzasa, a great friend of biblical truth, fantastical stories, and library service.

For Lorehaven, Steve will coordinate our book club-formation project. It begins with this new Facebook group, where fans of Christian-made fantastical novels can explore these stories in detail together. We’ll also explore new book clubs not just in virtual reality, but in your families, churches, and other groups.

Name, role, and crew

Steve Rzasa is book clubs coordinator for Lorehaven magazine.

Steve has been married to Carrie for 18 years, having met at Boston University at the tail end of the last century. They have two teenage boys, Benjamin and Nathan. Steve’s happy to say they are well versed in their Lutheran beliefs as well as a variety of things geek-related.

Personal log

Steve loves creating stories and artwork to go with them. Sketches help him plan out characters, settings, and scenes. They breathe life into his concepts so he can better depict them on the page.

Steve is also a sci-fi nut who enjoys Star Wars and grew up on Star Trek, and who has inhaled all the cinematic offerings of Marvel and DC. When he’s not binge-watching speculative fiction, he’s reading non-fiction and novels. History is his favorite subject.

Mission

Steve describes himself as a “Christian mutt.” His family raised him nominally Roman Catholic. He didn’t have much to do with religion outside the church walls during high school or college until he met his wife, and she reintroduced him to Christ.

Steve spent those college years with the Chi Alpha Christian Fellowship, attending an Assemblies of God church. After they graduated and got jobs in Maine, they settled on a conservative independent fundamentalist Baptist church that was a wonderful home for 7 years. Upon moving to Wyoming, they found the gospel best being preached at a church belonging to the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, which is where he and his family have been since 2008.

Steve believes the gospel is the best hope for humanity. The more he learns about the world and what other faiths teach, the more the Holy Spirit convicts him of that truth.

New worlds

Steve’s favorite authors include, in no particular order, David Drake, David Webber, Timothy Zahn, Kerry Nietz, Max Brooks, Robert Heinlein, Christopher Walley, Alyson Peterson, Kirk Outerbridge, and Kathy Tyers—and too many more to list here.

Lately Steve has added near-future sci-fi to his favorites (for a while, he preferred exclusively space opera) as well as some modern-day suspense novels and the occasional historical fiction. As for themes, he prefer stories in which the good guys win, or at least, which end with the hope of heroes triumphing. (Steve considers the real world so dark and gloomy that he prefers fiction with happy endings.)

As for his own work, Steve has written space opera, near-future sci-fi, and fantasy. His stories have grand starship battles, epic contests of strength and magical skill, and high-speed adventure. What they all have in common, though, is the supremacy of God and gospel, whether or not Christianity is explicit in the story. Most have at least one, if not several, Christian characters.

Home base

You can find Steve at SteveRzasa.com, which is primarily a holding page for his book links. He does most of his correspondence and news on Facebook and on Twitter @SteveRzasa.

Love to read Christian fantastical novels? Love to explore them in detail—virtually and perhaps in real life? Then you can join the Lorehaven Book Clubs group! And watch for more news about book clubs and beyond as Lorehaven Issue 1’s release date draws nigh.