What is it with Christians and zombies?

I was reading a blog the other day by a fairly-prominent pastor/pundit. He was talking about the events surrounding Jesus’ death and resurrection, it being Holy Week and all, and in one of the comments, someone referred to the mass resurrection that took place after Jesus expired as “the zombification of Jerusalem.”

Now, having spent some time in Christian spec-fic circles, this wasn’t the first time I’d heard somebody make this sort of allusion to the walking dead. Ezekiel’s vision of the Valley of Dry Bones is another passage that always gets a few zombie shout-outs. It bothers me, because what’s happening in both these scenes is the exact opposite of zombification—this is God restoring life in its fullest sense to the dead, not animating corpses like a troupe of puppets on strings.

If anything, we’re the walking dead, before we meet Jesus. We have the appearance of life, but we’re spiritually empty. Maybe this is why the image has a peculiar magnetism for some Christians. It’s a metaphor of a life disconnected from God–a decaying corpse shambling around aimlessly, devoid of purpose or even comprehension of its debased existence.

And zombies are the most pathetic of the undead. They’re slow, stupid, and easy to dispatch. They shed body parts at random. They pose a threat only in large groups, or to the unwary, who probably deserve to become zombies themselves if they’re dimwitted enough to be caught by one.

Christians have traditionally shied away from zombies in entertainment media because of their association with voodoo culture, but with the advent of science-fiction-oriented zombie stories driven by viruses, parasites, chemicals, radiation, or alien pixie dust, zombies are pretty much mainstream now. It helps that they’re funny to watch, at least when they aren’t gnawing on human flesh. I suppose there might be a cathartic release in fantasizing about knocking the block off that annoying neighbor up the street. Hey, she’s already dead! I’m doing her a favor!

Which brings me to my fundamental discomfort with the zombie image. Zombies are un-redeemable. You can’t restore a zombie to humanity. All you can do is kill the poor thing and put it out of its misery. You also have to lay on a substantial amount of mayhem to seal the deal—decapitation, incineration, acid bath, chopping into itty-bitty pieces, et cetera. In the process, we lose our sense of the body’s inherent sanctity, and for people who believe in the resurrection of the body, believe in a resurrected Savior who ascended bodily into heaven, and believe that human beings are created in God’s image, this is a problem.

I’m not trying to preach a “Christians shouldn’t watch zombie movies” sermon here, but I do think we need to be careful about  how we interpret and apply the metaphors we borrow from literature, film, and other media, particularly when we’re trying to share our faith. I’m a firm believer in using popular culture as a jumping-off point for spiritual discussion, but…“the zombification of Jerusalem?”

Come on. That’s an idea worthy of a zombie.

Do Christian writers want to write great literature? You know, the kind that will be around for another hundred years (provided Christ’s return doesn’t come before that)? Do we even want to write books that will stay on bookstore shelves longer than six months, or ones that won’t be the first to go on the yard sale pile or become donations to the local used bookstore? Do we want to write books people will want to re-read?

I ask because it seems like so much Christian fiction today is the temporary kind.

I work in my church library, and more than once I’ve helped a patron looking for the right book to read. They’ll often stand before a shelf of books by their favorite author and say, I don’t remember if I’ve read this one. They’ll read the back cover, thumb through the first chapter, then chuckle and say, I think I’ve read it, but I’m not sure.

Books like those are not “keepers.” They might give moments of pleasure, but they are just as quickly forgotten.

Shouldn’t Christians write “keepers”?

In the discussion to last week’s post, it seems we (writers and readers) might be divided on this subject. Author Mike Duran, implying he believes Christians should aim to write books that fall into this keeper category, said

As to the art is subjective issue, I am growing weary of Christians using that argument. From my perspective, it is usually employed when defending a work that others don’t like. Frankly, I wish believing artists would spend more time raising the bar, than arguing there isn’t one.

Others, however, defended the notion that readers could care less if a book is poorly written as long as it tells a good story.

Author and Tuesday’s Spec Faith contributor Fred Warren said

there’s a lot of pure dreck on the market that people embrace because it resonates with them on some level.

Galadriel said

I was recently thinking to myself that even if you divide art into catagories based on skill, there are times when lesser works are just what is needed.

Bob agreed:

If readers are like me, the story is the most important thing and the telling of it shouldn’t interfere by being too stylized.

So did Morgan:

The more and more I find out about the writing world, the more I realize I do not care as much about style and artistry as much as I care about a really good story. I will forgive an author of almost anything if they hook me.

The thing is, I think both positions have merit. I agree that “style and artistry” should not spoil a good story. At the same time, I think Christian writers should raise the bar because a lot of our books are not keepers.

Of course a lot of general market fiction isn’t of the keeper variety, either. But we Christians are writing about timeless, universal themes of eternal value. We understand the core needs of the human heart. And the stakes couldn’t be higher. So why are so many of our stories so … temporary?

I return to the idea that many people are looking for nothing more than a good story, a brief respite from the daily grind. But I wonder if that wouldn’t define almost all fiction readers. The difference might be in how we define “good story.”

I think an analogy might be helpful here. Everyone boarding a plane from LA to Denver wants to reach Denver. The destination is the same. However, the flying experience isn’t identical for every passenger. Some want window seats. Others sit in the turbulent tail section while others pay the extra fee and enjoy the ride in first class.

But if money wasn’t an issue, wouldn’t all passenger opt for first class? They might have different preferences — window seat or aisle — but I have to believe that no one would rather be cramped or prefer not to have special amenities or personal attention from flight stewards.

Is first class necessary? Clearly not. Every passenger will arrive in Denver. Not every passenger will have fond memories of the flight, however, or want to take that airline again. Some will consider the flight “good” as long as they arrive in Denver safely. Others insist the flight can’t be considered good because they hated the movies that were showing.

Of course, I can already hear critics of this picture saying, Some people don’t even want to go to Denver, they want to go to New York, so the destination for all passengers isn’t the same.

I agree. However, the destination in the analogy, I think, more nearly represents genre preference, not quality. Let me tap into another illustration.

Some people are regular meat-and-potato folks. They don’t need fancy French cuisine. In fact, they’d opt for a good burger and fries from Carl’s Jr. any day over caille en sarcophage from Lavendou. Preference.

And yet … can’t even a burger be better? Carl’s itself advertises their burgers are “Six dollar” burgers, only at a lower price. But how about a ten dollar burger or a fifteen dollar burger — more meat from a better cut of beef, garnished lavishly with the freshest ingredients and arrayed on the plate in an appealing fashion. Wouldn’t that burger be better? Still a burger. But the meal would be more nutritious, less apt to clog the arteries, more apt to give the body its necessary fuel. And I have to believe, the eating experience actually might be more pleasurable, too.

The question is, do we settle for the fast food version of our fiction because we don’t know we could have gourmet burgers instead?

Intro: again this interview is available on audio, by downloading episode 2 (right-click and select “Save As”) of Speculative Faith’s new podcast, The Portal. You can also listen to Part 1 of that audio interview, or read the transcript.

[audio:http://www.speculativefaith.lorehaven.com/theportalpodcast/JillWilliamson_part2_SF_04.22.2011.mp3]

Mostly it’s been difficult to break down [categories of] Christian, non-Christian; speculative, non-speculative; youth, non-youth. This one simplifies it a bit, because another one of the debates is: “hey, all this or most of this Christian fantasy and sci-fi that is out there is really YA-oriented.” And I’ve heard a few people ask, “Where are the God-honoring fantasy/sci-fi novels for adults?”

Do we even have a market for those yet, or should we maybe agree with Jeff Gerke, who at least said in one interview: Hey, I think the market for that is growing up right now. We’ve got all these home-schoolers, we’ve got all these Christian young people who are going to grow up, and they’re not going to want novels about buggies and bonnets and prairie romances — they want the sci-fi fantasy weird stuff!

I think that that’s true, that when those people grow up that the market will be bigger because of that. I think that the market’s there — it’s just hard to find it. And I think perhaps it will be easier, once people figure out — once publishers figure out how to market it, especially now with Christian bookstores not doing so well, they’re having to think of new ways to reach their audience. And if they can figure that out, then the audience [members] are going to find the books they want. That will be interesting to see how that works out.

Speculative, for adults, does really well, but not necessarily the fantasy and outer-space genres. Like if you do a thriller, with a speculative twist, that tends to do well. I don’t know what publisher would say if they’re looking for that kind of thing, but people read it when they can get their hands on it. And I know David C. Cook publishes several authors who do that, and Thomas Nelson does, with Ted Dekker and Robert Liparulo. And Travis Thrasher always does something strange in his books, doesn’t he? …

People do want it. Publishers just don’t know how to package it and get it to the right people. Because they don’t want to buy something that they don’t know how to sell, because then they lose money and the author ends up failing in a way, because they feel like they didn’t sell as many as they should have.

What do you think of the Marcher Lord model? With e-publishing and the way that they have it set up? Is that the future, in your view, or close to the future?

I’m not sure. I think that it’s really a good thing. But I get emails all the time from people telling me they’re going to the bookstore and going to buy my book. And I have to tell them: ‘No you can’t; it won’t be there.’ So there are people who really just want to buy the book — they just want to go to a store,  buy the book. And they’re never going to find a Marcher Lord Press book in a bookstore; that’s not the way the publishing model is set up.

That doesn’t mean Marcher Lord Press isn’t successful in what it’s doing — it’s doing exactly what it’s supposed to be doing. But there’s publishers out there, like the bigger publishers, who’ve always done the bookstore thing. Their books will get in the bookstores.

So if they can come up with a combination of Marcher Lord Press-slash-a big publisher, and they can figure out how to use the technology so that they don’t have to warehouse so many books … it saves money to print up a bunch in advance, but then you have returns. … They’re all figuring out how they’re going to use the new technology to save money all around and get books where people want to buy them, whether that’s online or in a store.

Here’s a related question, relating to the economy. I wondering, because I’ve seen conflicting statements about what happens to the speculative book market when the economy is rough. One source I [saw] said more people are looking for ways to escape their rough lives in real life, so they go read a speculative book. Then someone else says that no, books are difficult to sell even a good economy, so it’s not going to work in a rough economy. What have you seen?

Well my book has only been available when the economy’s been kind of rough. I think all my books have been. I think people buy books! People who like to read — who really like to read — keep buying books because the like them. And the Kindles and the Nooks of the world — whereas I don’t use mine to read for entertainment as much as the many people do — many people do use them to read for entertainment and the books are less money on there. So they can afford to buy more. And some people are just tree  book-shoppers. I have a couple of friends who subscribe to FamilyFiction.com, which has a section at the bottom that says whatever books are free that month, and they just stock up and they read whatever’s free. Interesting plan! People are finding ways to read what they want to read.

And the Kindle — you can loan books to your friends for a certain amount of time. … People are especially buying Kindle books. I’ve sold more Kindle books than I’ve sold paper copies of my books. Quite a bit more, I don’t know — I would say like sixty-forty, maybe.

See, I don’t have a Kindle. At this point I’m still in that primitive mood of only wanting to get the tree books, as you called them. …

I was very surprised to see them do that well; I had no idea there were that many Kindles out there.

So maybe the future is in e-publishing.

Now, Blood of Kings is finished, right? That’s the end of the trilogy?

Yes, it’s all done.

What other books are ahead, including this one that you’ve sold to ZonderKidz?

The one I sold to ZonderKidz is a young-adult science fiction suspense. And I called it Jason Farms, but I think they’re changing the name to Replication, to make it sound more sci-fi and not about a farmer, I guess! … That’s a book about a girl whose dad moves her to Alaska, and he’s a scientist, and he’s taking a job there. And she snoops around and finds that he’s working at a cloning lab, and that they’ve cloned the high-school jock. And she makes friends with one of the clones, and she actually had already made friends with the jock boy. So she’s going to try to help them. That’s what that’s about. And it was a fun story.

I wrote that story before I wrote By Darkness Hid. I had that one sitting around. That’s supposed to come out in January of 2012. That one was already written, so I didn’t have to do anything for that. I just have to wait to edit it.

How did you end up selling By Darkness Hid before this one?

I don’t think I pitched Jason Farms to anyone. I didn’t pitch By Darkness Hid to anyone either. I met [Jeff] at Mt. Hermon’s conference in 2007 … and I paid him to do an editorial review on my New Recruits spy kid story, because I thought there was something wrong with it and I couldn’t figure it out. So I wanted someone to read the whole thing and give me some feedback. … And when I went to the Oregon Christian Writers’ conference in 2008, there was — as usual, for those of us who write young-adult fiction, especially young-adult speculative — there was nobody — no publishers or agents wanted to see young-adult anything. That’s always frustrating, when you go to a conference, and you save money, and then it’s like “Nobody here wants to look at what I wrote!” So that was the case that year.

Jeff was there, and I thought, well, at that conference you get to put in three proposals in advance, without having to try to chase down an editor and make a pitch in an elevator or something. … I wanted to take advantage of that. So I gave my first chapter of By Darkness Hid, which was called Bloodvoices at the time, to Jeff, to see what he thought of it, because I thought he was really wise about editing and story. … He wanted to see me, and he asked me why it had to be young-adult. And I said, “I don’t know! ‘Cause they’re sixteen and seventeen years old?” And he’s like, ‘Eh, it’s medieval! It works.” … He asked me if it was done, and I said yeah, and so he wanted to see the full. And a couple of months later he wanted to buy it. … I had no intention of actually trying to sell it to him. But it works out that way.

I wondered, because on Marcher Lord’s submission site, they say, We’re not looking for YA. And yet here’s By Darkness Hid, which is not YA according to Jeff, but does really well with the YA demographics.

I can continue calling it young adult! I tried to sit down and think, “Could I write an adult book?” And maybe I could. But I don’t want to. That’s not what I feel called to do. So I just want to keep writing more books for teens.

With the ZonderKids book — I sent more ideas over to them, and they’re thinking about stuff. We’ll see. I’m trying to get a feel on what they might want to see next so that I decide which idea to write next.

I’m concerned about it a little bit. My agent seems to think that as long as I stay speculative I’ll be fine. But I might be trying to think up another fantasy novel soon, so that I can have another one out, just because I have people. And I like it! So we’ll see.

But the other ideas I have right now are just all over the place. The Jason Farms is sci-fi, but I have a dystopian one and I have a time-travel one. I guess anything goes when you write speculative, right?

Yes. But are you going to be writing any novels with forlorn-looking Amish women on the front of them?

Probably not! Unless she time-travels or something. No, I don’t have any plans to do that. I’ll stay speculative.

… I’ll just throw that out for you to take on, if you want to, because I certainly want no part of it — the time-traveling Amish. Throw in some androids or whatever. Tim Challies, the Christian blogger — he once came up with an Amish vampire end-times novel concept. [Editor’s note: but months after this.] I thought: actually, dude, that could work.

They would know how to survive!

That’s true! Thrown right back in time. They’d be familiar with that lifestyle.

Do you have a favorite sub-genre within the speculative genre? It sounds like you’re just open to a lot of them, so long as it’s speculative.

I don’t know if I have a favorite. I don’t think I do. … As long as it’s speculative — I like to have weird things, and obviously young-adult would be my favorite.

You think you’re going to keep writing for young adults, or ever try to branch out beyond that?

I have no plans to branch out beyond that right now. I’m going to keep going. And I find that a lot of adults like to read young-adult, maybe not in the Christian market as much as in the general market, but you find a lot of people who like to read teen books in the general market. … I might keep some of my adult readers, for a while, anyway.

Earlier, you mentioned that you feel like your calling is to write these kinds of books for teens or young-adults, even if they have broader appeal for older readers. I’m curious if you want to discuss more of what you believe your calling is, and how God has been working through your books.

Like you said, I feel like God has called me right now to write stories. And I didn’t know that’s what His plan was going to be. I had wanted to be a fashion designer, and then when I was done with that, I thought, maybe He wants me to use my story to speak to kids and be a motivational speaker or something because I grew up in Alaska and I have some interesting experiences. … And as I started to research how to get started as a speaker, writing articles is one way, and I started writing articles, and accidentally started writing that fiction book, and it was way more fun! And I did struggle with that for a while. But I feel like God’s kind of shaped me for this — because my entire life, growing up in Alaska, I’m cursed with an overactive imagination. I feel like now I finally found a use for this overactive imagination! It works really well as a storyteller to be able to use that imagination for something productive rather than just sitting around and coming up with bizarre scenarios in my head.

There are a lot of people, and I might be one of them, who also feel cursed with an overactive imagination, but aren’t ever — just because God has other things in mind — aren’t ever going to get published. … He has other callings for them, involving that imagination or not. What encouragement might you have for people like that, who think yeah, maybe, kinda sort of might want to get published someday, but ultimately won’t end up being published, yet are just as awesome and can be used by God in other ways?

Oh, there’s lots of ways to use an overactive imagination … just even working with kids. People who have an overactive imagination really relate well to kids of all ages, because kids tend to be closer to that imagination. … You could just sit there and start talking to them, and totally suck kids into your story or whatever you’re saying, if you’re talking to them on their level.

God calls us not just to specific things like writing. Overall He calls us to have relationships with people. If you can use your imagination to inspire others, or to even build friendships, who knows what you could do? I think that God wants us to care about other people, and people with overactive imaginations can do that, even though sometimes we like to be by ourselves! And maybe it’s just me. … Leave the room and actually meet people, and you’ll find that people like you and they like your overactive imagination. I call it being random.

I’m thinking of my wife, who used to write more stories and things like that, really enjoys speculative literature — including yours — but doesn’t do a lot of writing now, but she still has that imagination. I see how she gets along very well with children, just because she can, like you said, get down on their level and go, Oh really, yeah? Well how about that.

How many kids do you have? I meant to ask that earlier, actually.

I have two. My boy is nine and my girl is seven.

And — they’re madly in love with your books?

Well Luke is. Luke is the nine-year-old. He loves to read. Caitlyn likes to read too, but she doesn’t have the attention span to sit there and listen. She’s just different that way.

Luke is totally sucked in. In fact, I only read him half of book three because I was reading it to him out loud as a way to proofread, but I was going too slow, and I had to drop him out of the process, because it takes longer to read it out loud and plus it takes longer to find times where he’s with me where I can read it! So he keeps asking me to finish it.

What’s it like for your kids, having the Jill Williamson as their mother?

Oh, I think it annoys them, maybe, more than anything. Luke thinks it’s kind of neat; he likes my books. They both a little poster in their room — little postcard-sized things. Luke has book one, and Caitlyn has book 2, because Vrell’s a girl. But … Mommy’s always on the computer — is one of the things they’d probably prefer [not having]. … Last week, my husband’s actually been out of town, and so it’s been me and the kids, and my book was turned in, and so I was able to play with them a lot more this last week. … I finally got done with it! … I actually got out on the trampoline … and jumped with them. … It’s an antique one. I’m sure somebody’s going to get injured. Luke’s getting braver — he can do flips now.

This is one of those speculative fiction things — we like things that are a little bit dangerous, a little bit riskier.

… How often do you try to write per day? Do you have a word count you try to reach when you’re in the middle of a project? For those listeners or readers who want to know, what are your secrets to sticking with a project?

When I’m working on actually writing that first draft, I do try to have a word count per day, and usually, crazy person that I am, will try to figure out what my overall word count goal is, and then do the math and figure out how many days I have and how many words I need to do per day. Then I try to shoot for that goal. So if I have more time, I won’t write as much — unless I get going. It’s always good to get ahead of yourself when you’re trying to get that first draft done. I’ll shoot for how long it’s supposed to be.

Now with my new books — Jason Farms is only about 90,000 words. I can really, truly write regular-length books! I don’t have to just write 360,000-word Marcher Lord Press books.

What was the word count for From Darkness Won?

160 or 158 [thousand], something like that.

It was actually maybe 20 pages shorter than book two. I thought that was a victory.

When you had a Tweet that said that To Darkness Fled was 160-something thousand words, I rejoiced. … I have it in my head that if you write above 100,000 words, that’s it, you’re shot, your chances are gone. But I haven’t been able to write anything that’s less than that and do integrity to what I think is the story. So that’s an encouragement to me, just personally.

That’ll be tough to try to sell to most publishers. They’re kind of anti- the big books. But Jeff is not so. That’s something that’s really cool about Marcher Lord Press is he didn’t care how long it was. The first [draft of] By Darkness Hid was only about 95,000 words when I pitched it to him, and it got longer with his edits and asking for me to add more description and things like that. … He kept saying, Oh, it doesn’t matter. We can do what we want here.

That does sound like a dream. And yet you’re going with ZonderKids now. Will you keep writing for Marcher Lord, or do you think a traditional publisher, for those who do want to go into the bricks-and-mortar store and get a tree book, is the way that you’re headed inevitably?

I’m not opposed to writing more with Marcher Lord Press. Jeff and I were actually talking about what I might write, so I’m supposed to be thinking about whatever that might be. We’re discussing that and we’ll see how that works. Maybe I’ll keep writing fantasy! Woo-hoo! … But I am going to be, hopefully, writing books with ZonderKidz too.

Well, I’m sure I’m not the only one who looks forward to seeing what’s ahead for you. And your being on the ground floor of Marcher Lord has been a blessing to all of us who’ve read and enjoyed the Blood of Kings trilogy. I say that like I don’t know it, but sometimes I have to remember: it’s By Darkness Hid, To Darkness Fled and From Darkness Won.

I think I am out of questions. Unless you can think of anything else to close with — maybe you want to say something that I didn’t think to ask you about — do feel free. But otherwise I can let you go, get back to writing or taking care of the children or whatever your calling is this afternoon.

I don’t think I have anything else to say. Thank you for having me!

Absolutely. My guess is I’ll end up splitting this into a two- or three-part interview. And if you like I can send you the links so you can keep track of any discussion or feedback from readers. And hey, I appreciate getting to talk with you again. … How long has it been since that conference? Six, seven months?

Are you going to go this fall?

I’m going to try. Of course, the economy being rough and we’re all so morose and everything — it may be difficult, especially since it’s further away from me. But I’m going to try, because I’ve definitely been doing more this past year than I have before. … Maybe I’ll see you there. … I think they get more and more encouraging every year. Although you’re like the only author-slash-editor listed on the ACFW page who does not say: No fantasy, no sci-fi, no nothing, no paranormal, no end-times, no supernatural thrillers, nothin’.

We need to get more people willing to critique, huh?

Well, maybe. [Or] you could stay unique.

I’m fine being unique!

I’m sure that’s the case either way.

Well, I will let you sign off, and again, thank you so much.

Okay, thank you!

Talk to you later.

Subtitle: What do “it’s not [insert term] enough” critics mean?

Stop me if you’ve ever heard any of this: Christians novels aren’t edgy enough. They don’t show what the world is really like. Instead we get cleaned-up, black-and-white versions of reality limited to two dimensions or less. Also, conversion scenes are clichéd.

I’ve heard these criticisms. I’ve voiced some of these criticisms here on Speculative Faith. But here I’d like to ask: what do some of these complaints really mean?

Last week Becky Miller answered some critics by showing actual excerpts from several recent Christian novels. I also loved her clarification in a later comment: “Some people might think I’m playing both sides of the fence. I think I’m being realistic — Christian fiction has grown, and changed and improved, but it needs to grow and change and improve.”

Amen. Now I’ll join my friend and co-blogger by remembering that among the first Christian fiction novels I read were many that showed scenes of horrid violence, with decidedly non-believe-in-Jesus-and-all-of-your-life-gets-better themes, a grotesque mutated baby resulting from childbirth, hideous plagues that kill millions of people, military strikes, assassinations, profound faith struggles, supernatural miracles and even some Edgy™ doctrinal views.

And all of that is from the Left Behind series, by two older Christian authors (Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins), from deep inside the Evangelical Industrial Complex, and all dating before the year 2003 — before Christian fiction publishing began to shift somewhat.

With that in mind, here are some questions for Christian fiction critics:

1. When we say “Christian fiction isn’t edgy,” what do we mean?

Many novels are demonstrably Edgy™, certainly when it comes to violence and suffering in the world. Even the Left Behind series shows this (though it gets laughed at for its length of all things).

2. Do we perhaps mean that not enough Christian fiction is Edgy™?

If so, what then is the acceptable market quotient of Edginess? Maybe we should we somehow get rid of all those Amish Angst novels? (You are welcome to try — then you’re sure to experience some suffering.) I’m not trying to be facetious here; that’s what the answer to There’s Not Enough Edginess would thus become: all those other people ought to want better kinds of books.

I’ve had to remind myself that it’s readers who drive sales for those non-edgy Amish Angst novels. Yes, readers and publishers have a symbiotic relationship. But if we want better Christian books, I’d start with challenging readers to broaden and deepen their preferences. That requires heart-level work. Complaining about the publishers is a surface treatment.

3. By claiming “Christian novels aren’t edgy,” do we mean they’re not edgy in our favorite way?

If so, perhaps critics should clarify that better. We might concede that many Christian novels aren’t so squeamish about showing violence (which, after all, the Bible does, and often in detail, and which unlike other sins doesn’t necessarily tempt readers to commit violence themselves). Then we might say, “But there still aren’t enough novels about X.”

As a lead blogger for Speculative Faith, I certainly agree Christians need more novels with speculation. Such genres point to God and His old truths in new ways, and give us a much improved vision of living in this world in light of the next. After all, the prophesied New Heavens and New Earth (Rev. 21) will be a fantasy universe, where we’ll dwell for eternity!

But complaining because people don’t comprehend why visionary fiction best fulfills this longing won’t help much if people don’t have that longing in the first place. Again we come to that same deeper problem of the heart, which I’ll address in part 2.

Sub-complaint: “There’s not enough sex in Christian fiction.” Sigh. I must admit this one results in my nearly audible eye-rolls — and mainly because whenever I’ve read this objection it’s rarely been articulated well. (Maybe someone can do a better job in response to this?) But when I read a derivative of that line, I wonder: what is it you’re really asking for? Maybe more recognition that sexual sin is rampant in the world and even Christians struggle with it? If so, I’d agree, though likely for different reasons: writers must show in all kinds of art that people are far worse, and Christ is even more amazing, than we too often imagine.

If, however, you really mean that a Christian novel needs to follow characters, married or otherwise, into the bedroom, back seat or whatever, and hurl readers’ minds into exactly who kisses what where and what clothing item gets taken off in what order — that’s where I may just go all “Pharisaical” on your butt (or rear end in some Christian publishing-speak). How exactly would all that vivid description help? We have quite enough porn in the world, thank you very much; let us not toss more in and pretend it’s Art or even Edgy™.

Violence and (I would argue) even Bad Words don’t bring temptations to sin nearly as much as repeating descriptions or images of sexual encounters. So my suggestion: yes, let us not pretend that sexual sin isn’t widespread in the world or even in the minds of many struggling Christians. But let’s not make it worse by indulging in the details. That doesn’t honor God.

Finally, over-description may be a cheap trick anyway. Many of the best storytellers — The Dark Knight and Inception director Christopher Nolan comes to mind —  are geniuses at not showing everything and thus heightening the impact of what has just happened out of frame.

Sub-complaint: “Christian fiction is too preachy.” For this I’d want clarity, because there’s a wrong and right kind of preachiness. I’d like to know we mean the same thing.

But more about that will be in next week’s column. For now, if/when you critique Christian novels, are you careful to say what you mean and what you think would improve them? And how might critics address Christian readers’ heart problems that lead to actual lame fiction?

Good morning! I’ve caught up with another writer friend of mine and asked him to write us an entry based on a series of conversations and observations we’ve had on Jim Butcher’s The Dresden Files.   Jeremy McNabb is a steampunk author, youth director, and speaker. His latest e-novella, Gravesight, is available on Amazon Kindle. Hope you enjoy the read!

Solid or Static?
Jeremy McNabb

Typically, good characters change and evolve over the course of a novel. They change even more drastically over the course of the series. The author presents them with new challenges, new weaknesses, they take unexpected turns. In their core, they remain the same person usually, but the way they interact with other characters, their environment, even their own doubts and fears may change. And these changes are the very thing many readers are looking forward to. Ask any long-time fan of a series what they hope to see in the future, and you’ll get a wish-list of storylines that contain all sorts of variations on otherwise well-known characters.

• What if Hermoine Granger was romantically involved with Draco Malfoy, instead of Ron Weasley?
• What if Leverage’s character Eliot suddenly became addicted to performance enhancing drugs?
• What if Jesus had a wife?

Fan-fiction websites are full of such speculative stories. And really, bookstores are starting to see their fair share, as well. That leaves us with a few questions: What do we do with an unchanging character? Do we have any use, whatsoever, for a person who has found their equilibrium with the world in which they reside?

One of the most effectively enacted, unchanging characters of the modern age is a man named Michael Carpenter, who appears in Jim Butcher’s urban fantasy series The Dresden Files. Here is a character who drips with Christian symbolism. He shares his first name with the leader of Heaven’s armies. His last name, which also happens to be his profession, is also the earthly profession of Jesus and Joseph. He carries a not-so-symbolic sword. A brief biography looks something like this: Carpenter, devoted husband and father of seven kids, is a descendent of Charlemagne, a Knight of the Cross, and his prayers succeed where Wizard Dresden’s magic fails. We read that God repeatedly calls upon him to take up his sword Amoraccius to vanquish the Denarians, thirty rogue arch-demons each possessing one of Judas’ silver coins. Butcher does a terrific job of making Carpenter into the very definition of holiness without employing even a hint of self-righteousness. When Michael isn’t battling demons and dragons, he’s politely reminding Harry not to take the Lord’s name in vain, and that black magic is of the devil. If ever there was a successfully executed character who had attained entire sanctification, Michael Carpenter is the one.

But therein lies the catch. The man never changes. Ever. From every angle, Carpenter should be a failure of a character. He never loses his cool. He never breaks down. He never falters and rarely hesitates. In every way, he is static in his perfection. Or would be, if that was the whole story.

Rather than presenting us with a character who fails to interact with reality—the problem behind most static characters—Jim Butcher has provided us with an excellent example of a character who is rooted in something beyond reality. Michael doesn’t ignore temptations and trials as much as he seems to rise above them. It isn’t that he doesn’t react to his environment, but that he sees his environment for what it really is. It isn’t that he’s static.

It’s that he’s incredibly solid.

Jim Butcher has created a character who has built his house upon the Rock, and because of his mastery of the written word, he has made Michael’s surety in Christ as realistic as that of any believer we could meet on the street. And that’s what makes for good writing. Jim Butcher seems to understand the folly of a static character, and writes in such a way that Michael Carpenter sidesteps all the pitfalls into which even seasoned Christian writers stumble. And in doing so, he sets a standard for the rest of us.

A guy in a chicken suit walks into a bar…

“Hiya, Murray.”

“Joe! Long time no see. How’s the wife?”

“Broody. Gimme a bowl of popcorn and a Rhode Island Red.”

“Comin’ up. Hey, did you hear? Chick Poulet has another book out.”

“Whatever. I don’t read Poulet anymore. He stopped wearing the suit. I can’t respect anybody who doesn’t wear the suit.”

“I hear you. I still wish he would have stayed with us. ‘Scratching in the Barnyard’ was a classic.”

“Says you. He never had any real suit content in his books. Lots of clucking about the joys of feathers and corn meal, and crowing to make the sun come up, but he never closed the deal. Somebody in the story needs to step into a suit, zip it up, and start flapping. When the man leaves that part out…well, you have to doubt his commitment to our way of life. There’s no doubt anymore—he’s wearing trousers, for pity’s sake!”

“But aren’t the feathers, and the corn, and the crowing what wearing the suit is all about? It’s what brought me in. I realized life could be different. Better. I mean, just having a beak—I didn’t know it was even possible.”

“So you think going over to the non-suits was the answer? He’s just another slob with a book now. Nothing special about him. No wings, no comb, no wattles. Who’d guess he ever pecked for a grain of wheat his entire life? It’s disgusting.”

“I read his book. Everything’s still there—the grit, the strutting, all the important stuff. Maybe he can reach more people this way. There’s a whole world of suitless people who need what we enjoy every day. A lot of them won’t listen to you and me. They see the suit and, zoom—they can’t get away fast enough. Chick knows how to tell them what the suit means. Once they understand that, it’s not such a big step to take the plunge and start shakin’ a tail feather.”

“Listen, Murray, he’s either in the suit or out of the suit. There’s no halfway. You can’t just stick a pinfeather on your lapel and say you’re part of the community.”

“It’s a good book. You ought to read it. What else you gonna do on a Friday night?”

“I think I’ll go to the Roosters game and kick dirt on the umpire. Wearing the suit.”

“More power to you. Toss a bucket of confetti for me. Who they playing?”

“Penguins. Glad I don’t have to wear that suit.”

“You and me both. Never seems to go out of style, though.”

“Funny man. Get me another bowl of popcorn. Say, Murray…you got Poulet’s book here with you?”

“Yeah, what about it?”

“There’s a lot of dead time during the game, you know, when they’re actually playing baseball. Maybe I’ll take a look at it.”

“No problem. Here you go. And, Joe…stay zipped.”

“Heh. Count on it.”

There’s been considerable discussion at Decompose, author Mike Duran’s site, regarding Christian fiction. The initial article, “The New Demographic: Christians Who Don’t Like Christian Fiction,” began by discussing an audience of Christians who want “faith-based” stories, but not the usual fare. The discussion, however, soon turned to why this audience wants something different.

One statement in particular generated much conversation:

THE VAST MAJORITY OF CHRISTIAN FICTION TITLES ARE STYLISTICALLY, CREATIVELY AND LINGUISTICALLY SUBPAR.
– Katherine Coble April 15, 2011 at 7:59 AM

Some commenters pointed out that not all writers, not even a majority of writers, publishing in the general market succeed in creating the best fiction. In fact, some suggest, the proportion of good writers to bad is the same in both the larger arena and the smaller.

All this conversation got me to thinking about speculation — how one person can make a statement like the one in the last paragraph, and people will leap to contradict it or repeat it based on their presuppositions. In the same way, a reader can read a small sampling of a genre and speculate that the entire genre is X or Y or Z based on how their one experience either met or contradicted their expectations.

All this to explain how I got to today’s topic. In the end, I found myself asking, Is one person’s good book another person’s mediocre fare? And if so, is there in reality a standard of art writers should be aiming for and readers should be looking to support?

Is “Art” a real thing, or is it merely a term we use for our subjective response to what has been created? I’ve made a case before that art is real in the same way that beauty is real. No one questions that sunsets or rainbows are beautiful. It’s a given that they are, though some might be more so. In the same way, I believe there is human imitation which we call art that draws closer to the reality of beauty than do others.

Which means, there are some stories that are “better” — more artistic, more skillfully created — than others.

However, not every reader may realize the difference or care for the books considered artistic. Does that make those readers ignorant or wrong in their assessment? I don’t think so.

Along with true artistry is personal preference.

Let me illustrate this with visual art. I happen to prefer landscape paintings to portraits. I’ve been to museums before where portraits by the masters hang. They’re fine, in my opinion, but not pictures I’d want hanging on my walls. I understand they are great works of art because someone has put them in a museum and the artists have great reputations, so I don’t disparage them. I may even appreciate them. I just don’t really like them. After all, I’m not a painter. I don’t understand all the things the artist accomplished in that work. I’m mostly looking at the subject matter and responding according to my preference.

In the same way, I believe most readers respond to novels based on subject matter and preference.

But here’s the key question. Wouldn’t the reader have a greater experience reading a story containing his preferred content if it was also executed with great artistry?

Back to my visual art illustration, because I prefer landscapes, I might choose an amateurish pastoral scene to put on my wall, but how much better if I had a true work of art depicting that same scene?

Taste drives our likes and dislikes. Many people like speculative literature. Many Christians like faith-based stories.

Writers of Christian speculative fiction can find an audience based on who likes our content — overt Christian themes or cool superhero characters or fast-paced car chases, or whatever else readers are looking for.

I believe, however, we can broaden that audience considerably by writing artistic Christian speculative fiction. The more we invest in our stories, the more content will be present for a wider audience.

Do readers love The Lord of the Rings for the spiritual message? Some do. Others may love the adventure or the magic or the characters. The point is, the more that’s there, the more reason a variety of readers has to like the story.

I suggest that the stories that aim to do the most have the best chance of reaching the greatest audience and staying around the longest.

What do you think?

Introduction: today Speculative Faith begins expanding to other media with The Portal podcast. Download the audio edition of this interview (right-click and select “Save As …”). Part 2 will be available Friday, April 22.

[audio:http://www.speculativefaith.lorehaven.com/theportalpodcast/JillWilliamson_part1_SF_04.15.2011.mp3]

How has your day been going?

It has been going fabulously. I’m almost caught up with things — it makes me feel very good.

I’ve got ten questions written down for you, but I imagine that we’ll go in all kinds of directions besides that. Let’s begin, of course with discussing the now-complete Blood of Kings trilogy. For those who don’t know, do you want to recap where your ideas came from? Then you might venture to guess why the series has proven so popular with readers.

How I got the idea to write it? … Sure! I was walking with my son, and he was a baby in the stroller, and we were walking in Burbank, California. We passed by a house that had burned down, and I stopped to look at it. And there was a tree in the yard that had half burned down, but the part that was hanging over the street — it was still alive and leafy green.

So I just stared at it for a while and thought it was really cool. And so I ran home and I Photoshopped it, as best I could. And that’s kind of the image that’s on my website header, the JillWilliamson.com site — the header there is kind of what I came up with after that. I was just really inspired by the idea of a land cursed in darkness, and what that would mean. I started brainstorming my story world. It took me about three months, but after that, I was ready to write.

Now when you say brainstormed your story world, do you write all the details of this world, or have by any chance a giant notebook about it?

I do have a giant notebook.

I think I’ve seen your giant notebook! But can you tell what it’s like for others who haven’t seen it?

(Laughing) I was like, How did you know? I forgot I had it. … When I started brainstorming my story world, I drew a map to start, and then I had dots all over the map to represent cities, and I needed to come up with names for those cities.

I also wanted to have information about the different areas of the land that made these places different from the other places in the land. And so I started to brainstorm, and I actually made little character charts for each city. So I would write down the names of the lord and the lady and the children and anybody important in that town.

I researched comparable locations in the world, to how I wanted it to be in my map, so if I had a place that was supposed to be desert-like, I might look up Arizona, or a place in Africa, and come up with a list of the kind of animals that lived there, and what they did for industry. That would help me think about what the people in that village might do. So I spent time doing that for every city on my map, and I started adding that to the binder. I had a pile of papers what was just too big, and I needed to organize it. So that’s what I started to do, and it took me a while. I had a fun time doing it! And sometimes I would draw a castle sketch, if I thought it was important, and a lot of the story would take place there. I like to be able to see it in my mind, a little clearer, so I could then see it on paper — so I would sketch out things too, and add those to the place in my binder that had that city.

So for you — do you think it was sort of a combination, or which came first: the world-plotting or the story-plotting?

Ah, it’s hard to remember! I think I had an idea about the story first. But I didn’t know what to do with it, until I saw the tree. I think that’s what happened.

I had this weird dream that gave me this idea for a story, and it was like a science-fiction-world dream that was like, floating cars and blasters and things like that. … But it gave me an idea for a plot of the story. I hadn’t started to write it, but I had wanted to, and didn’t know where I was going to go with it. Then when I saw the tree and started brainstorming about what that might be, I thought that that would work really well with that plot idea.

Then somewhere along there I made the choice to make it medieval and not science fiction, futuristic planet.

Once I did that — I got distracted. I still didn’t spend any time writing the story until I spent about three months playing with my story-world. And that’s when by husband finally said, Aren’t you going to write a book? And I was like, Oh, okay, yeah. I guess could be done with this story world. Then I started to actually write the story.

That’s where I’d like to ask about the themes of By Darkness Hid and the rest. By the way, I haven’t read the third one yet; I have definitely read the first two and recommended them and done all that good stuff.

So I’m curious about the story theme. Some of them are familiar to readers, especially Christian readers, like the need for faith in God and that sort of thing. Others, though (at least to me) they seemed pretty new, like the dilemma between the (keeping this spoiler-free!) between the male and female lead characters at the end; they have this dilemma. And I’m wondering if the themes just seem to develop themselves, or before you start writing, or started writing one of the books: do you have a pretty good idea of where they’re going to go?

No. (Laughs) I did know how I wanted book three to end, obviously; I had that much down. So I knew what I wanted to happen to my characters very vaguely. But how book two ended had to end that was if there was going to be a book three — because if I had ended it the way everybody wanted, there wouldn’t be so much motivation to read book three. Know what I mean? … I had to be careful. But I also felt like that’s what my character would have done, even though people are mad at her. (Laughs)

I did see a few reviews that said, Hey, don’t worry, for those of you who are mad at Vrell, things get all straightened out in book three.

I think that girls could stand to be a little … they could stand to have higher standards for the guys that they’re interested in, than most girls do today.

Most girls would be like, Well he likes me, so we’re going to go out. That’s it? Is there anything else you’ve chosen? You know, you can have choices too.

I kind of wanted to explore that. And I never intended to go there with it, but that’s where it ended up and that’s where the story was. It made good sense, and it made room for some very interesting themes in the third one, because of where I left off in the second one. None of that relationship stuff was planned.

Do you want to give us a little hint as to what themes you explore and flesh out further in book three?

Ah, hmm.

Themes — not who dies and who marries whom or any of that! Abstracts.

(Laughs) Well, let’s see. There’s always the theme of light and darkness — that’s been a theme through all three books. … There’s a thread in there about Vrell coming to think about the lies she told and how they’re controlling her and changing her and forcing her, how they’ve affected her life. Then there’s a theme in there about Achan and discovering like a generational sin kind of a thing — like that’s a possibility for his life and he needs to guard against that. So I had some of those threads in there … I didn’t plan those, really, they just came about because of where the story was.

You’re a youth pastor’s wife, I’ve read in other interviews. So a lot of these, I think, are ringing true with readers because although the setting is fantasy, they’re familiar situations. I’m curious how your real-life experiences with teenagers have contributed to where your story goes and how you understand your characters?

Oh, very much so, especially in book two; I had the knights trying to train Achan in the ways he should behave with girls. … Vrell already has been trained that way, and that’s why she’s very guarded. I think that our culture could really use some of that wisdom.

Most kids today wouldn’t want to hear a word about it from anyone. … But I think that deep down they do want to hear … if that makes sense. They have so many questions, and most families tend not to talk about these kinds of things until their kid is a teenager and is already, like all of a sudden — Oh wait, you said you had a boyfriend at school; when did this happen? And then it’s like, We’d better have a talk.

You’ve got to start when your kids are little, and just mention things to them from the start so that you always have that open communication and your kids are kind of trained.

That’s always been something I noticed in the years of youth ministry I had … not most, but many parents just don’t talk to their kids about these kinds of things. And relationships are huge for teenagers, not just dating ones but just friendships too. They sometimes will rank that higher than any other relationship when they’re in that age. If you’ve been talking to your kid all along, then your kid will listen to some of that stuff.

I try to give my characters in the story mentors that they would at least hear from and consider heeding that wisdom.

[That] matches what I’ve heard about some youth ministries, where — while not to paint all Christian parents like this — I’ve heard that some Christian parents seem to think, Well, that’s the youth pastor’s job, is to teach my teenager or pre-teenager how to interact with the opposite sex and stay pure.

I’d disagree on that one! … No one can show their kids a better example of a relationship than a mom and dad. I know that’s not always possible for every family because of circumstances. … But they’re with you twenty-four-seven, when they’re with us once or twice a week. Mom and Dad have much more time to invest.

We do our best. We do. But we need to be a team effort!

The best youth ministries I’ve heard about add to what the parents are already teaching their kids at home … what the Bible says and what the Gospel is.

Getting back to By Darkness Hid, though, and the Blood of Kings trilogy — a personal note: I’ve tried to figure out, what is it about these books that I’ve enjoyed? Some of it seems really traditional fantasy: the castles and the swords and the knights and the kings. One could think, Well, we’re heard all this before. But to me it’s almost like hearing a song that seems like I’ve heard it before, even though I know that’s a new song.

I guess I’m asking you to brag a little bit here! Is it intentional that you’ve combined traditional elements with newer things?

That’s always how I wanted to write. Before I started writing, I was frustrated with people — parents, mostly — complaining about certain types of books their kids were reading. And I could understand them concerned about the content. But I thought, Well, why can’t there be a Christian book that writes about this stuff that kids care about in an equally  entertaining way as the general-market books do? So I started to read a lot of the Christian fiction that was out there and … come up with my own game plan and way of trying to do that.

I’ve always always been a ministry-minded person, and it’s always been on my heart to try to help — help anyone who might be looking for help. I’ve always wanted to try to provide that realism in my stories.

Do you see stories as a great way to do that? Teenagers still like stories, it seems.

Oh sure! Stories are a great way to do that, if you don’t do that in a preachy way — which I hope I haven’t done. Kids will read a story [who] will never give you the time of day, face-to-face. I’ve had kids in my youth group who — they’ll show up one week, and I’ll never see them again. But what’s kind of funny is if one of them grabs my book and reads it, then they’ll personally open up to me in a different way. It’s like they connected with me then.

Even though I can’t be a youth pastor to everybody who reads my book, it softens them, if that make sense. The story got them thinking about things that didn’t even think they were going to want to think about.

Sort of like Jesus and parables, by any chance?

I guess, yeah!

Interesting you should mention it, because this was one of the very next questions I had written down. You’ve said that it was the Harry Potter debate that gets around a lot that originally was part of the process that helped you to want to write stories that would glorify God. And for me, it was seeing you write on  the old version of Speculative Faith a few years ago — you had some constructive, critical comments about Twilight — that’s what made me want to read your books. … Any further comments on either one of those series? Are they helpful to kids, harmful, a mixture?

(Laughs) I don’t want to go on one side or the other of them. I think that you could find good and bad things in any story. I think what tends to happen with any of these stories that get so big so big, is that they just become a kid’s everything. Like what’s happening with the Twilight books now — it’s just crazy. (Laughs) We are just out of control! … It’s a romance novel, and they added weird to it! People went crazy. But that’s what it was.

They’re very different series. Harry Potter is very different than Twilight. Twilight is about a romance, and Harry Potter is about defeating evil if you had to pick something. …

I guess I’d say a mixture, then. The less we — people who are against them throw a fit, the quicker they go away. A lot of times when you start saying This is an evil book! — or whatever people might say — kids just want to read it all the more. Instead of saying that, hand them a different book, if you’re concerned about it! There’s some themes in there that can be dangerous, but there’s also some good themes in there. I think there’s more good themes in the Harry Potter books than I would think would be in Twilight. Twilight just is a little bit obsessive-relationship-themed. (Laughs) In my opinion!

That very topic is addressed on Speculative Faith today — Becky Miller, April 11th, wrote about that. She has a nice black-and-white picture of Edward and Bella there on the front; it’s absolutely delightful.

What do you like that is out there, from either Christian authors or non-Christian authors, anybody. You mentioned, hand them a different book. Aside from your books, what do you like, either from traditional publishers or new arrivals like Marcher Lord Press, your publisher?

… If you like fantasy in the Christian fiction market, I love Andrew Peterson’s Wingfeather Saga; the first one’s called On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness. Those are really fun.

There’s also Donita K. Paul’s books.

But if you try to go more current … Robert Liparulo’s Dreamhouse Kings is a really fun series, and boys really like that one, as well as girls.

There’s another new series from Thomas Nelson called Chaos, which is about spies that fight aliens, I think is how you would classify it! That one’s called Invasion, and that’s a good one for boys too.

Ted Dekker has his Lost Books that did really well.

(As soon as we’re done talking, I’ll probably be like, I should have said that one!)

… And Marcher Lord Press has great books for teens too. Teens would read any of them.

But especially The Word Unleashed … that’s Steve Rsaza: this is about a boy in outer space and that’s cool.

Then there’s the Hero Second Class and Hero in Hiding, which are satire fantasies. …

Anything Marcher Lord Press does is pretty fun. …

Teens in the Christian market for non-speculative: some great girl books would be anything Jenny B. Jones writes — she writes contemporary humor. I just laugh so hard I cry. I love her books; they’re fun and wonderful. …

You can go to NovelTeen.com … and you can find anything that myself or some of my review buddies have read that’s Christian teen fiction.

This is a math question I was thinking about earlier — a math question for a writer, if you don’t mind if I spring this one on you. It is about the readers of your books. I’m curious about how many of them are young-adult readers / teenagers and how many are older readers? I’ve heard people say, Oh yeah, Jill Williamson, I love By Darkness Hid and the rest, who are among both groups.

I have idea what the breakdown would be. … I would say I hear more from teens, but it’s probably like a two-thirds, one-third [ratio], as far as people who email me and tell me that they read it and liked it — that would be my guess. I do hear from quite a few adults, and most of the time they tell me too, because they must have heard me say that I write for teens: I’m such-and-such years old, and I liked your book. Okay! Thank you!

And of those, who is trying to write a book of their own? … It seems like everybody who enjoys fantasy and science fiction stories — of Christian teens or teens who enjoy Christian books — they’re also like, Yeah, I’ve also got this other story that I’m working on.

… At least half of that two-thirds, I think … at least half probably like to write. Most of the time, if someone emails me, I usually ask them: do you write? when write them back, because I’m just curious. But I never actually kept track. Might be kind of fun.

How about a non-math question? This is a frequent topic for Speculative Faith, as we’re exploring speculative literature from a perspective that seeks to honor God and truth, and presenting beauty in new ways. Let’s talk about Christian fiction, whether it’s speculative or not. … What is your opinion about the current Christian novel market? Do they address issues facing teens, or just facing people? Or from what you see, what changes might you suggest, perhaps to address underused themes, or answer questions that aren’t often discussed?

Non-speculative books, in my experience, having read almost anything I can get my hands on — Christian young-adult literature-wise — the non-speculative does a really good job. Contemporary books by like Melody Carlson and Cindy Martinusen Coloma … just all kinds of books that are geared towards girls do a wonderful job. They’ll talk about anything, and Christian publishers will publish just about anything in that genre for teen girls.

But they haven’t done it so much for the boy audience. Boys don’t tend to read contemporary fiction. So it doesn’t really work there. It worked for that To Save a Life book, which became a movie — I think the movie really helped it. So I don’t know how many boys would read the book by itself, though, had they not seen the movie.

So contemporary-wise, usually, especially for girls — they’re doing a really good job, and they’re really on top of things.

For the speculative market, though, it’s different. That’s just something I wanted to do; I thought, why not write about these things in the speculative market? … The stories sell well, as they are, just being fun stories for boys without having to really think about some really current issues. That’s what I like to do. I think that they could do a little better on that.

But I know that some publishers area really gearing up to try to do that.

Such as?

I don’t know if I can say it! I think ZonderKidz is, from what I know about them. They bought my next book, and I know they’re excited about young-adult — not just speculative, but about the future of young-adult in the Christian market. I think that they’re excited about making that a little bigger and publishing some more books than they normally might have done in the past. And they’re open to paranormal and steampunk and dystopian and weird genres that most Christian publishers haven’t really done yet. They’re open to doing that in an edgier kind of way. They’re looking to do what the general market’s doing.

I haven’t heard that out of the mouth of an editor. I just sense it. And from what I’m hearing that they’re interested in. … I would think that maybe they’re not the only ones. But they’re the ones I have experience with because of recently selling to them; that’s that I’ve heard.

That is great to know. … I did not know that they actually bought your book, and I’m going to ask you about in a moment and try to get as many spoilers as I can get for sure!

You’re sitting in a doctor’s waiting room, and likely about eight years old, and you pick up a children’s magazine. Remember those puzzles inside, based on two nearly similar drawings and the challenge: Find the Differences Between These Two Pictures?

If I weren’t already occupied putting together tomorrow’s interview with Blood of Kings trilogy author Jill Williamson, I might draw some actual pictures here. But try this:

Picture One:

He had it all. (Name), an aspiring (select one: dancer, singer, athlete, reality-television contestant, immigrant), is close to reaching his life’s ambition. Then (insert catastrophe or tragedy) occurs and that amazing destiny seems dashed. Follow along as he finally learns to pursue his dreams, no matter the cost, and believe in himself!

Picture Two:

He had it all. (Name), an aspiring (select one: dancer, singer, athlete, reality-television contestant, immigrant), is close to reaching his life’s ambition. Then (insert catastrophe or tragedy) occurs and that amazing destiny seems dashed. Follow along as he finally learns to pursue his dreams, no matter the cost, and believe in Jesus!

Answer key: only the last word is different.

Now for the questions I’ve been pondering: does replacing himself with Jesus make that story a Christian Story? Second, even if that is a Christian Story, is this the best kind of story a Christian writer or film director could offer? Third: should we support that kind of story with money and word-of-mouth just because God’s or Jesus’ Name is somehow included?

I doubt I can answer all that here. Instead I have a few reminders while exploring the issue:

1. A Christian’s main story is not simply “fulfill your dreams with Jesus’ help.”

Last December I wrote more about Pelagianism in fiction (one definition: humanism with Christian labels). Those came after I was disappointed by a certain highly anticipated film.

In short: two popular ideas of why God does all things — either because He has a Wonderful Plan for Your Life or He Kept You From Going to Hell so You Can Tell Others — are both true in some senses. But they are partial truths without the far better purpose told in Scripture: God saves people, and does all things, for His own glory. Knowing that can help His people worship Him with even more amazing art forms, and have the freedom to tell new and unique stories that needn’t be constrained by some kind of Motivational Moral.

2. Still, not even the Bible tells its own complete story in every chapter or book.

Maybe knowing this can help keep a God-glorifying author from feeling he must include a Study Guide in the back, so readers don’t miss anything, or give a direct Gospel presentation, start-to-finish-with-John-3-16, somewhere in the pages.

The Psalms alone remind Christians: God-honoring art, inspired by God Himself, includes some tricky parts, and may only hint at the complete Gospel message. Rather it’s His full body of work, all of Scripture, that reveals the main story. And similarly, one should not expect any Christian-made song, book or movie to say everything about God, Christ or the Gospel; instead, an author’s full body of work should point to that complete Gospel account.

So if I am bothered about a movie or book labeled as Christian or Inspirational™, and its main message is only “fulfill your dreams with Jesus’ help,” I don’t want to be a jerk and overcorrect. Jesus does give us blessings in this life. And He can indeed, and often does, fulfill our dreams, if for no other reason than God will give us new and even better dreams:

Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.

— Psalm 37:4

3. Nevertheless, why act as if these are the best kinds of stories we can offer?

I’m not as concerned about stories that include Gospel results as I am with the evangelical market’s evident obsession with only these stories as if they’re the greatest. And in response, thousands of evangelical readers or film viewers, eager to support Good and Decent Faith-Based Products in the Secular World, ignore compassionate-critical thinking (if they do find anything to criticize!) and simply go along with it.

I love some Christian films, such as Fireproof. For what it set out to be, it was great. I saw it with my girlfriend on opening night: Friday, Sept. 26, 2008. (The very next day I proposed as planned — not wanting to sit through a movie about Christian marriage without trying it!)

Yet is that all Christian-made movies can offer? Do we not have better stories to tell? Yes, I’d love to see more God-glorifying speculative films, though I know they’d need bigger budgets. But why not at least try for more artistic assaults in less-expensive genres that point to Gospel roots, not just fruits?

Otherwise, when yet another story comes along with the same “fulfill your dreams with Jesus’ help” theme, it’s not that much different from yet another “beleaguered team / family / music star makes good, thanks to Faith and the Human Spirit” story. It gets a little old.

And when so many other kinds of stories available, based on the Greatest Story Ever Told — the holy and loving God saves sinners for His glory and delight — I can’t help but think we’re being just a bit myopic and predictable.

Therefore, perhaps what I need to do is simply Believe in Myself and reach for new heights, be all I can be, write that different God-glorifying story, make that epic film, climb every mountain, ford every stream, until I find that dream thanks to Jesus’ help and His love in my life based on the promises of John 3:16, Jeremiah 29:11 and Philippians 4:13!

Or maybe I should instead apply my own thoughts consistently, and keep on doing what I think God wants me to do. Perhaps I can trust Him to know, better than I, when American Evangelical Pop Culture finally will turn to seek more of those greater stories.