Heard an interesting news bit today.  Apparently Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest has made 960+ MILLION dollars worldwide in box office sales alone! And it has only been out 7.4 weeks. (source)

That’s quite a haul. But is proof yet again of the desire for the fantastical adventure that is being craved worldwide. (So I guess all of you writing your fantasy pirate tales had best get crackin’)  But then we all knew that already, right?

Becky’s post yesterday brought up some good points. How does one ensure that their readers can separate fantasy from reality? I don’t know that you can for everyone. Some people simply can’t make that leap. But for the rest I think it is just a matter of letting the fantastic be just that.

Don’t couch the outlandish aspects of a world in detailed explanation (unless of course you’re doing hard science). Don’t feel like the world needs to be justified. If you must, tackle these things outside the novel, but never let them seep into it.

The same goes for readers. If you want to truly understand and experience speculative fiction (as I’m sure most of you know) you have to approach the world on the author’s terms. Don’t second guess everything or ask “Do they really believe dragons existed or that there really are aliens?”

I’m probably preaching to the choir here (or am I singing to the conductor), but while we have a responsibility to examine everything we do in light of Scripture, that doesn’t mean that if it isn’t mentioned in Scripture that something is impossible (or evil).

And when dealing with Truth and the revealed nature of God, I believe it is less about specifics and more about the spirit. If that makes sense.

I feel like I’m rambling… so I’m going to cut it off here for this week.  Maybe you can make sense of what I just said and enlighten me to it in the comments.

And be sure to come back next Tuesday as I’ll be featuring an interview with the one and only, Jeff Gerke, author and editor. The man instrumental in founding the Realms imprint and who has recently gone freelance.