Obi-Wan's Biggest Lie

The Personifid Books

I know this is yet another review two-fer, but I think I'm doing it for a valid reason. I just finished reading both of R. E. Bartlett's books so I figured I'd save some bandwidth and post them together.

So let's get started with the first, namely The Personifid Project.

At some point in the distant future, humankind will develop the technology that allows them to locate human souls. This leads to the creation of personifids, basically artificial bodies. People can shed their natural bodies in an attempt to become functionally immortal.

The book's heroine, Aphra, works for Sevig Empire, the leading producer of personifids. One day, in the course of her duties, she overhears something truly horrible and soon, she's caught up in a mad chase. Sevig wants her badly, so badly he's sent out assassins and bounty hunters after her. Aphra's only hope lies with a couple who believe in something called the Tri-une Soul. But can she survive as her whole life is turned upside down?

To be honest, the writing in this book drove me up a wall. Bartlett did a lot of telling and not a lot of showing. She would simply inform us of what Aphra was thinking or feeling and it often came off a bit stilted. Now that might have been a creative choice. Aphra, it turns out, likes hanging out with robots and androids better than humans. It could be that the "telling" was a way to show us how Aphra's thought processes would be different after keeping that kind of company for most of her life. But it's hard to say for certain.

The other major problem I had with the book is the odd choice that Aphra makes at the end of the book, but I can't really get into it without revealing some major spoilers. Suffice to say, if I were in her shoes, going through what I did, I wouldn't do what she did. Is that sufficiently vague?

So it was with a great deal of trepidation that I picked up the sequel, namely The Personifid Invasion.

The story picks up with Aphra shocked to discover that her brother Antha has located their sister, Ashley. The problem is, she's a personifid now in the city of San Edhem. Aphra wants to go with Antha to find Ashley, but he won't let her. San Edhem is Interterrestrial territory and Aphra couldn't survive. So Aphra and company head off to San Edhem in the company of Nik, an Infiltrator, to track down Ashley. But will Aphra follow their advice? Or will the beguiling Datricius convince her to put her life in jeopardy?

I was pleasantly surprised. Bartlett's writing has matured since Project, and the "telling" seems to have given way to "showing." The plot made a little more sense as well. The spiritual aspects also shone through much clearer than in the first book and it had some interesting things to say, especially through the character of Gun. My only gripe is how quickly everyting got resolved, especially given Aphra's journey. Her storyline especially ends with a deus ex machina that seemed a bit contrived and too pat for my taste.

Both novels share the same strength. Bartlett's futuristic world is an interesting one. Robots, androids, intelligent computers, personifids, sky cars, it all adds up to an intriguing setting, one that she explores and exploits quite well. While a bit bleak at times, it's realistic and seems like a genuine possibility.

The one really glaring weakness of both books revolves around Aphra. To put it bluntly, she seems too weak. She's got flaws (who doesn't?), but she has little to no strength. At least, she didn't seem to have much if any to me. There were times when I groaned because I wanted her to stand up, take charge, that sort of thing, but she always seemed to leave it to other people. Perhaps her character arc isn't done yet. Who knows?

Regardless, Bartlett's books are an interesting foray into Christian science fiction.

The Background Lie

CSFF Blog Tour: Beyond the Reflection's Edge Day 3

I hate to admit it. I got nothin'.

Normally when I read one of the books for the blog tour, I have half a dozen ideas pop into my head for posts. Most of these die a quick death when I realize that they can't support a full post. But this month, for some reason, I couldn't muster much.

So faced with the possibility of skipping out on the last day of this blog tour, I instead went out to see what my fellow tourists had to say about Beyond the Reflection's Edge by Bryan Davis.

Actually, I went out to see if I could find any interviews with him. And lo and behold, I did! S. J. Deal conducted an e-mail interview with Davis for his delightfully titled blog, It Comes in Pints! Check out the interview.

But I also found perhaps one of the most creative posts I've ever seen over at Steve Trower's Old Testament Space Opera: a list of songs that somehow are about mirrors.

And I even found a hint for something I'll have to track down today. Steve Rice, at Back to the Mountains, says he'll "have a post that will probably cause some readers' heads to explode, as [he'll] not only explore a theological issue but give an alternative that will probably tick off a lot of people." Don't keep us in suspense too long, Steve.

So there you have it. Perhaps next month I'll have more to say about Shade by John Olson. In the meantime, go check out the rest of the tourists and see what hidden gems I may have missed:

Brandon Barr
Jennifer Bogart
Justin Boyer
Keanan Brand
Kathy Brasby
Jackie Castle
Valerie Comer
Courtney
CSFF Blog Tour
Stacey Dale
D. G. D. Davidson
Shane Deal
Janey DeMeo
Jeff Draper
April Erwin
Karina Fabian
Marcus Goodyear
Andrea Graham
Todd Michael Greene
Katie Hart
Timothy Hicks
Joleen Howell
Jason Joyner
Kait
Mike Lynch
Magma
Terri Main
Margaret
Rachel Marks
Melissa Meeks
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Eve Nielsen
Nissa
John W. Otte
Steve Rice
Ashley Rutherford
Mirtika or Mir's Here
Chawna Schroeder
Greg Slade
James Somers
Steve Trower
Speculative Faith
Jason Waguespac
Laura Williams
Timothy Wise

CSFF Blog Tour: Beyond the Reflection's Edge Day 2

We continue our tour around Beyond the Reflection's Edge by Bryan Davis and today, I thought I'd do some musing about Nathan Shepherd's partner in crime, Kelly Clark. And as I usually do before launching into these sorts of ruminations, allow me to warn you:

I actually found Kelly somewhat refreshing because, to put it bluntly, she's pretty broken. She comes from a broken family. Her mom stepped out on her dad, her dad is bringing women home, and he even tries to use Kelly's sexuality to build a better basketball team. She has some serious self-esteem issues and apparently came close to making some pretty serious mistakes in the past.

It's good to see someone like Kelly in a Christian novel because it's a good reminder that we all have sin we're struggling with. She's a reminder that we're all works in progress, striving to be more and more like Christ. As I pointed out in a post a year and a half ago, characters like Kelly allow us to remind us of how much we need salvation and Who it is who gives it to us.

But at the same time, we can't forget how Kelly's past can be redeemed. It seems as if she's improving herself solely for Nathan's sake. That might be good for a start, but Nathan Shepherd won't be the one who will ultimately save her because he can't. But I'm willing to bet that will come up in future books as well.

Be sure to see what else is going on in the tour:

Brandon Barr Jennifer Bogart Justin Boyer Keanan Brand Kathy Brasby Jackie Castle Valerie Comer Courtney CSFF Blog Tour Stacey Dale D. G. D. Davidson Shane Deal Janey DeMeo Jeff Draper April Erwin Karina Fabian Marcus Goodyear Andrea Graham Todd Michael Greene Katie Hart Timothy Hicks Joleen Howell Jason Joyner Kait Mike Lynch Magma Terri Main Margaret Rachel Marks Melissa Meeks Rebecca LuElla Miller Eve Nielsen Nissa John W. Otte Steve Rice Ashley Rutherford Mirtika or Mir's Here Chawna Schroeder Greg Slade James Somers Steve Trower Speculative Faith Jason Waguespac Laura Williams Timothy Wise

CSFF Blog Tour: Beyond the Reflection's Edge Day 1

This month, the blog tour focuses on Beyond the Reflection's Edge by Bryan Davis. I've loved Bryan's Dragons in Our Midst series, so I was very interested to see what he had up his sleeve for this young adult book.

It's the story of Nathan Shepherd, whose life is shattered when his special investigator father and concert violinist mother are killed. Nathan has to unravel why they were murdered and what this has to do with a creepy man named Mictar. Could it have something to do with the odd mirror that his father left for him? Soon Nathan and a young woman named Kelly are thrust into a life-or-death adventure that takes them through multiple realities, all while trying to keep Mictar from achieving his goal of interfinity.

When I read the book, I have to admit, I wasn't all that impressed. To put it bluntly, I was confused for the first couple of chapters. Bryan threw a lot of characters at me in rapid succession, some of which lived, some of which died. The problem was I didn't know how they related to Nathan. As a result, I had a difficult time deciding whether or not I should care about them.

The plot also left me scratching my head from the early going. I know that we should always start a story in media res, but in this case, I wodnered if maybe Bryan didn't start things a bit too media, if you understand what I mean. A little more build up to explain the characters at least might have been helpful.

My only other complaint is about the villain, Mictar. I couldn't wrap my head around him. I'm not so concerned as to who or what he is. He's clearly some sort of supernatural individual of some sort and I'm sure that will become more and more clear as the stories unfold over succsessive books. But I was completely mystified as to his motivation. We're told that he wants to bring about something called "interfinity." As near as I could tell, that involved merging disparate realities into one. But I couldn't figure out why Mictar would want to do that. What benefit would he get? Maybe that will unfold in the future books but it left Mictar seeming a bit hollow to me.

What really worked well was Nathan's relationship with Kelly. I have to admit that it left me scratching my head a little, but that was fine. Does Nathan have romantic feelings for her? Is it just platonic? It'll be interesting to see how this all plays out. I'll have more to say about Kelly tomorrow.

So that's about it. I was a bit confused by the book but it was a fun adventure through multiple realities. Go and see what everyone else as to say:

Brandon Barr
Jennifer Bogart
Justin Boyer
Keanan Brand
Kathy Brasby
Jackie Castle
Valerie Comer
Courtney
CSFF Blog Tour
Stacey Dale
D. G. D. Davidson
Shane Deal
Janey DeMeo
Jeff Draper
April Erwin
Karina Fabian
Marcus Goodyear
Andrea Graham
Todd Michael Greene
Katie Hart
Timothy Hicks
Joleen Howell
Jason Joyner
Kait
Mike Lynch
Magma
Terri Main
Margaret
Rachel Marks
Melissa Meeks
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Eve Nielsen
Nissa
John W. Otte
Steve Rice
Ashley Rutherford
Mirtika or Mir's Here
Chawna Schroeder
Greg Slade
James Somers
Steve Trower
Speculative Faith
Jason Waguespac
Laura Williams
Timothy Wise

Take On Me ... Literally

Summa Elvetica

A week ago while I was feeling under the weather (thanks in part to a reaction from a tetanus booster), I got a little pick-me-up. My order from Marcher Lord Press arrived. So after I finished up Stepping Into Sunlight, I decided to dive into the stack and read Summa Elvetica: A Casuistry of the Elvish Controversy.

This was one of the books I had been looking forward to reading ever since I heard of it. The story centers around the intriguing premise of setting a Roman Catholic Church analogue into a medieval fantasy setting. The Church would probably have to wrestle with any number of issues, the stickiest of which would be whether or not the non-human creatures had souls.

That's the question that the Sanctiff (the pope analogue) is out to answer. Do elves have souls? So he sends Marcus Valerius, a young church scholar who might someday become a priest, with two prominant theologians to the kingdom of Elebrion to answer that question once and for all.

The stakes are pretty high. If the delegation decides the elves do indeed have souls, then the Church has an obligation to send missionaries to them. If they decide they don't, then it's open season on the elves. They can be killed without any qualms and the human beings of the Amorran Empire can steal all their stuff.

Beale is an accomplished storyteller. This is evidenced by the fact that he stuck what amounted to two massive flashbacks into the front of his story and I didn't realize until I got to the end of the first. And Beale also put in a great deal of tension and I didn't see the ambush coming until it was too late. On top of that, the way the Sanctiff decides the question of elvish souls is so deliciously simple, I couldn't stop smiling after I read it.

That being said, there were two things that bothered me about this book, both of them related to craft.

First of all, there's the fact that the fantasy creatures are pretty much straight out of Tolkien. The elves are tall and willowy, the dwarves and stocky and earthy, the orcs are mean and stupid. Beale did put something of an interesting twist on the elves by making them both hedonistic and somewhat cowardly, but otherwise, it was pretty much stereotypical creatures. It might have been better if Beale could have done a little more "twisting," so to speak, to make the creatures truly his own. But a lot of authors do this, so it's not that big of a deal.

The second problem, though, really rankled me. Let's take a spoiler-free walk through the book. You start out with Marcus Valerius receiving his assignment from the Sanctiff and setting out for the kingdom of Elebrion. Along the way, we have the aforementioned "flashbacks." By the time you're done with them, 120 pages of this 322 page book is gone. When I realized that, I was a little surprised, but figured it would all work out because Beale had plenty of "room" to work.

But then I realized that the last 100 pages of the book are two shorter stories set within the Summa Elvetica universe. The story started to seem a bit more rushed and shorter than it could have been. And then Beale sums up some major developments in the books in one paragraph and tells us about a major event in one sentence.

At first, I was surprised by that and only a bit annoyed. But then, when I realized that that major event wasn't just major for Marcus Valerius, but was pivotal for the entire book, I got a pretty upset. This might be Monday morning quarterbacking, but it may have been better for Beale to show us this major event rather than describe it after the fact, especially because of its import to the hero's journey and the story as a whole.

That's not to say that I didn't enjoy this book. Beale created an interesting universe and I really enjoyed the short story "Master of Cats." If there's a sequel in the works, Beale has a ready reader. I just hope he doesn't gloss over future important events!

The Owen Lie

The Name Lie

Stepping Into Sunlight

Stepping into Sunlight is the latest book by Sharon Hinck and is, in my not-so-humble opinion, her best book to date.

The story follows Penny Sullivan. Her life has been upended recently because her husband has joined the Navy as a chaplain and is on his first deployment. But before he left, Penny witnessed a violent crime and is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. She has difficulty leaving her house. She finds herself sleeping through the day and experiences horrific nightmares. She wants to hold it together for the sake of her son, Bryan, but it's becoming too much of a struggle. Can Penny put her life back together before her husband returns home? Or will he find a wreck waiting for him?

Sharon weaves in some powerful emotions throughout the story as she tells Penny's tale. You definitely get a picture of what it's like to go through PTSD. The prose is rich and evocative (as usual for Sharon!) and really draws you into the story. I'll probably get in trouble for sharing this, but when my wife (who read this book before me) found out what Penny witnessed exactly, she actually had a few nightmares from it. I'm not sure if that's a good or a bad thing, but it certainly speaks well for how Sharon paints pictures with her words!

What's most fascinating is "Penny's Project." One of the things that Penny does to cope with her trauma is start a project. She sets a goal for herself. She'll do one good deed for a person every day in the hopes that each little step forward will get her closer and closer to being mentally whole again. Sharon weaves this idea in with Matthew 25:40. Look it up for yourself. Sharon even did some fun marketing with this idea. When I saw her at the ACFW Conference, she gave me a small notebook to give to Jill so Jill could carry out her own "Project" and keep track of her own good deeds.

So go get this book and enjoy it.

Oh, and one last thing. Speaking for myself, I was tickled pink to see Luther's evening prayer in the middle of the book. Go Lutherans!

The Military Service Lie

Friendly Aquaponics

It'd admittedly been a while since I listened to one of my favorite podcasts, namely The Late Nite JengaJam. I won't offer any excuses as to why I haven't been listening, but I finally listened to the latest episode this morning. I'm glad I did.

J. G. Edathil's latest guests were the folks who run Friendly Aquaponics, an aquaponics facility that's run in Hanokaa, Hawaii. I'd never heard of this technology before. I'd heard of hydroponics, but never the aqua- version. I wasn't sure what to expect but I decided to listen to find out more.

I'm so glad I did. This is an incredible technology, one that deserves a lot of research and development. Basically, it's a system that allows people to grow vegetables and fish in the same farm. According to their data, they can produce 30 times the vegetables as a traditional farm in the same land area while using only 1% of the water. In the interview, they make a great case for using this technology since it can be built on any type of land.

If you've never listened to the JengaJam, this is a great episode to start with. Fire up your iTunes and head on over to "Late Nite JengaJam" and download Episode 89. Take a listen. It'll be an enlightening 50 minutes.

The Lightsaber Lie

The Dark Foundations

Earlier this year, as part of the Christian Science Fiction and Fantasy blog tour, I reviewed The Shadow and Night by Chris Walley. In my review, I said that I was actually rooting for evil to show up because the first half of the book proceeded so slowly.

Well, I don't have that complaint for The Dark Foundations, the second book in the series. It was an action packed tale from beginning to end.

The book picks up where the first left off. The people of Farholme celebrate after their victory at Fallembet Lake. But they can't rest on their laurels. The evil Dominion now knows of their existence and Lord-Emperor Nezhuala is bound and determined to take on the Assmebly, for both personal and political reasons.

Merral D'Avanos, the hero of Fallembet Lake, is placed in charge of Farholme's brand new military, but he finds he doesn't have an easy task. The society of Farholme is splintering under the effects of sin, creating situations D'Avanos has never experienced. Can he keep things together long enough to defend his home from the invasion he knows is coming?

I loved reading this book. My previous complaint about a slow pace no longer apply. From beginning to end, this was a great read. It was interesting to watch Farholme's society fall apart as more and more sin entered the picture. Walley's battle scenes were also well crafted and exciting. While there were two deus ex machina moments, they were organic to the story and worked out well.

My only complaint about the book is its marketing. On the cover, this is called "A fantasy in the tradition of C.S. Lewis & J.R.R. Tolkien." I take issue with that. This isn't fantasy. It's sci-fi. I mean, this is set in the future, approximately 13,000 AD. There are spaceships. There are artificial lifeforms. They talk about terrforming planets. I just can't figure out why they would classify this as "fantasy," aside from a few fantastical creatures like the Envoy and the baziliarch.

I suspect that the publisher (Tyndale) classifies this as a fantasy because in the Christian world, fantasy has been selling a bit better while sci-fi hasn't. It seems like a dodge and one that I'm not entirely pleased with.

But the story makes it worth it. More people should read Walley's works. I know I'm certainly looking forward to reading The Infinite Day. It might be a while; I've got a stack of six books to read right now and five more are on the way. But when I get through that, you know I'll be looking forward to seeing how this epic story concludes!

Demon: A Memoir

So what would you do if someone sat down across from you at dinner and introduced themselves as a demon? What's more, what would you do if he told you he wanted to tell you his story and you were going to write it down?

That's the central premise of Demon: A Memoir by Tosca Lee. Clay, an editor for a major publishing house, is confronted by Lucian, a demon who wants to tell his side of the story. Over a number of harrowing months, Lucian spins his tale, explaining why he and his brethren were expelled from paradise. Clay becomes more and more obsessed with the beguiling tale and he has to know, how does it end? And why does Lucian keep insisting that it's also Clay's story as well?

In some ways, Lee's story is nothing new. While she spun some interesting speculation over what happened before Genesis 1:1 kicks off the human story, once we got into Adam and Eve's story, it was all very familiar. That isn't a bad thing. Lee tells the story with passion and a great deal of voice. It carries through the familiar and makes it incredible, a thing of beauty. I had a very difficult time putting it down and this book kept me up late last night so I could see how the story ended for both Lucian and Clay.

What really made this story sing for me was the fact that it left me asking a lot of tough questions. It made me see salvation in a whole new light and that's a great, great thing.

Needless to say, I can't wait to get my hands on Havah. I'll just have to wait since my book budget is spoken for until sometime around November.

CSFF Blog Tour: Marcher Lord Press Day 3

So now we're less than a week away from the launch of Marcher Lord Press. If you haven't been able to tell, I'm pretty excited about its launch. I can't wait to read the first three books to come out. I can't wait to find out what the next three will be. I can't wait to see the back list that Jeff Gerke will assemble. It's my dearest hope that Marcher Lord will become an industry success story.

But it's not there yet. There's still a big question mark hovering over all of it. It'll need our help to turn into an exclamation point. There are a few things we can do to make sure this is a roaring success:

1) Pray. As Psalm 127:1 says, "Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labor in vain." I have no doubt that Jeff Gerke has sought the Lord's counsel in this venture. But he'll need us to help hold up his hands, so to speak, by praying that Marcher Lord will be a roaring success.

At the ACFW Conference, Jeff specifically asked us to pray for his shopping cart. The way he explained it was that right now, you can go shopping, put books in your virtual cart, but you can't pay for anything. Apparently the software is having difficulty working with PayPal. Hopefully things will work out in time.

Even if it does, we can continue to support Marcher Lord via prayers. We can pray that many people will find and enjoy the books. We can pray that Jeff Gerke will continue to find excellent authors with wonderfully bizarre stories. I'd say we can even pray that the success of Marcher Lord will show the rest of the CBA that speculative fiction can work and work well.

2) Buy stuff. This may seem obvious, but it needs to be stated: Marcher Lord will only work if people actually purchase the products. We can't just pray, we need to pony up the money and help support this venture financially. I'm personally planning on buying all three books the day Marcher Lord goes live. It'll take pretty much my whole entertainment budget for October, but it will be worth it, especially since you can get cool bonus books. I've been really interested in the virtual coffee table book, especially after seeing the samples on Hanna Sandvig's blog.

3) Spread the word. This blog tour is a good start, but we need to reach out beyond the blogosphere to those we know who would like these books. The more people who learn about Marcher Lord, the bigger and better it'll be. Word of mouth can be incredibly powerful.

If you need to give them incentive, remind them of the cool giveaways, the greatest and coolest of which is a trip for two to the 2009 ComicCon. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for that.

4) Write. For those of us who are speculative authors, Marcher Lord Press represents a phenomenal opportunity. But we can't squander it. While we are encouraged to submit our wild stories to Marcher Lord, we should do our best to make them the best we can. That means studying our craft, perfecting our stories, making them shine. That way, when people speak of Marcher Lord Press, it won't be, "Oh, that's that small press that publishes weird stories." It'll be "That's the house that publishes fantastically weird stories that you have just got to read!"

It'll be a wild ride. But it's one I'm looking forward to.

Be sure to check out what the rest of the tourists are saying:

Brandon Barr
Justin Boyer
Keanan Brand
Kathy Brasby
Jackie Castle
Valerie Comer
Karri Compton
Courtney
CSFF Blog Tour
Stacey Dale
D. G. D. Davidson
Janey DeMeo
Jeff Draper
April Erwin
Karina Fabian
Kameron M. Franklin
Beth Goddard
Andrea Graham
Todd Michael Greene
Katie Hart
Timothy Hicks
Joleen Howell
Jason Joyner
Kait
Mike Lynch
Terri Main
Margaret
Shannon McNear
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Nissa
Steve Rice
Ashley Rutherford
Hanna Sandvig
Mirtika or Mir's Here
Greg Slade
James Somers
Steve Trower
Speculative Faith
Laura Williams
Timothy Wise

CSFF Blog Tour: Marcher Lord Press Day 2

Let me tell you a fun story. This past Thursday, the ACFW Conference held its annual editor panel. Most of the editors at the conference were put in front of the firing squad and were asked submitted questions from the slathering horde of writers, both published and unpublished.

Okay, perhaps I'm being a bit melodramatic. But we ran through the usual questions: what's good, what's not, what are you looking for, that sort of thing.

And then the question the editors dreaded popped up: what about speculative fiction? What is that, exactly?

The editors looked a bit stumped. They hemmed, they hawed. One took a long, exagerrated look at her watch and declared, "Oh, look at the time!" They offered a few pat answers, one of them raising the question of whether or not to include the Left Behind series.

And then Jeff Gerke of Marcher Lord Press leapt to the rescue. He strode up, politely took the mic from the moderator, introduced himself, and then explained to everyone present that speculative fiction could be summed up in one word: "Weird."

How true it is. And how wonderful it is as well! That's part of the reason why I'm looking forward to October 1st. On that day, just one week away, three books will hit the market which are, to put it bluntly, weird. Gloriously, superbly, creatively weird!

The first is The Personifid Invasion by R. E. Bartlett. This is a sequel to the previously published The Personifid Project. In this sci-fi story, people can cheat death by having their souls transferred into artificial beings called "personifids."

Admittedly, this is the book that I'm least enthusiastic about. I haven't read the first one, and while I know that Invasion can stand alone, I wasn't too thrilled about dipping my toe into a story that's a continuation of a previous one.

But after nosing around the blog tour yesterday, I saw that several of my fellow tourists (for lack of a better term) are impressed and excited to get their hands on this. Perhaps now's the time to say that I held a copy of this book in my hands already. Jeff Gerke had a copy with him at ACFW and he showed it off a lot. Very well done.

Anyway, seeing the enthusiasm of others has piqued my interest, so much so that I placed an order on Amazon to get a used copy of Project. That way, I can read the original before I delve into the sequel.

Moving right along, we have a book with a mouthful for a title: Summa Elvetica: A Casuistry of the Elvish Controversy by Theodore Beale.

This one has intrigued me ever since I heard its premise. Most fantasy novels are set in an alternate version of medieval Europe, but they leave something pretty big out of it. That's the Roman Catholic Church. So what if the Catholic Church existed in a fantasy world? How would they relate to the fantastical creatures such as elves? To put it bluntly, would they believe elves have souls?

That's what a young priest has been sent out to determine, only he gets caught up in a great adventure as he wrestles with that issue. What a crazy premise, right? But I can't wait to see this and read it for myself because it sounds like a great speculative story and should prove to be a wild ride.

That brings us to the last book being released, namely Hero, Second Class by Mitchell Bonds.

Jeff Gerke raved about this book the whole time he was at ACFW. Bonds was 19 when Jeff acquired the book. Jeff says Bonds's writing is phenomenal. Reading the description on the website has me salivating already. I have a bizarre sense of humor to go with my weird taste in stories. This is going to be a wild ride and one I'm sure I'll remember for a long time.

You may have noticed that in all these cases, I have not taken advantage of the sample chapters that have been posted on Marcher Lord's website. That's a personal choice; I wanted to wait to read the books for the first time after I have them here. So I have to go on the little bits and pieces I've picked up here and there.

Now here's the fun: Jeff Gerke is already hard at work getting the next books that Marcher Lord will put out. He told me a little bit about one of them at ACFW. It's a sci fi book that includes a mystical talking wooden puzzle box. Seriously. I can't wait.

He also said that he's hoping that Marcher Lord will be able to acquire out of print books so readers can continue to enjoy them.

Whatever the case, here's hoping that Marcher Lord will soon have a massive list to keep those of us who love "weird" fiction in wonderfully bizarre stories for years to come.

Go out and see what the other tourists have to say:

Brandon Barr
Justin Boyer
Keanan Brand
Kathy Brasby
Jackie Castle
Valerie Comer
Karri Compton
Courtney
CSFF Blog Tour
Stacey Dale
D. G. D. Davidson
Janey DeMeo
Jeff Draper
April Erwin
Karina Fabian
Kameron M. Franklin
Beth Goddard
Andrea Graham
Todd Michael Greene
Katie Hart
Timothy Hicks
Joleen Howell
Jason Joyner
Kait
Mike Lynch
Terri Main
Margaret
Shannon McNear
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Nissa
Steve Rice
Ashley Rutherford
Hanna Sandvig
Mirtika or Mir's Here
Greg Slade
James Somers
Steve Trower
Speculative Faith
Laura Williams
Timothy Wise

CSFF Blog Tour: Marcher Lord Press Day 1

It's been an interesting couple of days. For those not in the know, the annual ACFW Conference took place just a few miles from my house. I've spent the past four days learning more about the craft, meeting with editors and agents, and mingling with fellow authors, including many speculative fiction types.

And the one man I saw quite a bit of was Jeff Gerke. As a matter of fact, I worry that he might have thought I was stalking him on Friday, since I was in both of his classes and I attended the Late Night Chat he led. Jeff is an incredible guy. He's published six novels. He worked in the industry for twelve years at Multnomah Publishers, Strang Communications, and finally at NavPress. He now works as a freelance editor. He also maintains a website dedicated to speculative fiction, namely Where the Map Ends. And if he wasn't busy enough, he's launching a new publishing company, namely Marcher Lord Press.

This past Thursday, I sat down with Jeff and two other speculative fiction authors (hey, Stuart and Steve!) and we had a conversation about this latest venture:

LRB: When did you first think of Marcher Lord Press?

JG: Probably the first inklings of it came in the last couple of years I was at Christian publishing companies. After twelve years in the industry, it finally dawned on me what the real problem was with publishing Christian speculative fiction. I had thought all along that just the good fiction hadn’t come out yet, so the solution was to get good fiction out there. And then I thought, well, we’ve got some good fiction out there but it didn’t sell so now what? Maybe people just didn’t know about it, so the solution is to get good fiction with good marketing. And we would do that at whatever house I was at and it still wouldn’t go. Well, we need good covers, good stories, and good marketing. So we got all of that and they only did okay.

My theory all along had been that if I could get everything together, the books would go. People want this. But I realized, no they don’t. It isn’t that the book isn’t great or doesn’t have a good cover and people don’t know about it, it’s they do know about it and they just don’t want it. It finally occurred to me that the problem isn’t the package, the problem is I’m trying to sell something people don’t want. If you run a golf store and you start selling paint, the people who come in there don’t want that. They came in for something else. So why are you doing this? They don’t want what you’re selling.

So right around in there, I started asking what demographic does CBA publishers, with their fiction, reach? And I started thinking about who that is. It’s white American evangelical women from child rearing to empty nest age. Those are the people it reaches. So the books that are going to do well are the books that will appeal well to that demographic. Those aren’t the people who like speculative, by and large, as a group. They don’t like alien mutants who will eat your brain. They don’t. I do! Well, not in reality, but a story about it. The industry is not reaching the market that would be interested in this kind of book. So what do we do?

So I started thinking, what would you do and how would you reach those people? Where are those people? I wouldn’t go to Christian bookstores because they’re not going in there anymore. And they’re not in the Christian shelves at Barnes and Noble. Where are these people? They’re on-line. They’ve banded together in these blog tours and alliances and forums. They have found each other, but they’re not in family Christian anymore, at least, looking for this kind of fiction. That’s kind of when I started thinking about what I would do, what I would offer, who I’m going for, and where are they, and how I could reach them?

LRB: And that’s why you went with print-on-demand also?

JG: People hear print-on-demand and they think, "Oh, vanity press, subsidy publisher, self-publishing!" I guess that’s because the first companies to embrace print-on-demand were those kind of companies.

Print-on-demand is just technology. I had been in the publishing industry for twelve years and I kind of knew the different parts of publishing. And I knew the headaches. Some of the big ones are the big discounts you have to give to retail chains and distributors to get them to take your book. And then, after they’ve ordered fewer copies than you wish at lower discounts than you want, then they send them all back and demand their money back. And sometimes, they send them back to you in an unusable condition. You’ve got warehousing, you’ve got shipping, you’ve got warehouse staff, you’ve got the whole distribution thing, you’ve got to get sales staff to go out and meet with all the chains to see if they’ll take your book at all, you’ve got returns, you’ve got refunds ... it’s just crazy. Why are we doing this? So I said, if I ever do a company, it won’t play that game at all.

So what about print-on-demand? Then I could print exactly how many copies as I have orders. No warehousing, no sales staff, no returns, no big discounts. The problem is, I don’t have stores all over the country featuring the book, but I saw how that worked and it usually didn’t work. If you’re not Tyndale or if your book isn’t by Jerry Jenkins or whatever, it’s not going to get big coverage, so why would I even go there at all? So that definitely influenced my decision to use print on demand.

LRB: What do you like best about speculative fiction and what do you like least?

JG: Best is easy. It’s cool. It makes my imagination soar. When I read a book that takes me to a place, even just in a moment, that I just thrill at, in that moment, the world is real, the adventure is real, and I’m there. My brain has opened up and I’ve seen a whole new reality. That’s the power that you guys bring as speculative authors.

It’s cool because it helps you look at the normal through a new lens. You can examine any kind of issue you want to, but people are distracted by the weirdness so they don’t realize you’re talking about redemption or forgiveness. Not that you want to write it as an agenda-driven story. It’s this experiment table where you can mess around with things because you’ve taken it out of reality to a certain degree.

I don’t think there’s anything I like least about it. It’s cool, 100%.

LRB: What can speculative fiction do that the rest of Christian fiction can’t?

JG: I addressed some of it already, but I think fantasy especially is the most native platform for examining ultimate issues of true goodness. What is heroism and what does it mean to be a responsible person and a Christian in the midst of danger? It allows you to put it in this special environment and play around with the idea.

LRB: Are there are any subjects that you would consider taboo? Like vampires or aliens or anything like that?

JG: I don’t think so. Sometimes the weirder the better. I’ve received vampire stories, superhero stories, alien stuff, completely bizarre alternate universe things. For me, if I like the story, great.

LRB: Have you received a lot of over-the-transom submissions?

JG: I have. As a matter of fact, almost all of the submissions I have are over-the-transom and I invite those.

There aren’t many publishers that accept unagented, unsolicited manuscripts; I’m one of them and I’m one of the few that accept this genre at all. That’s great. There’s so much excellent unpublished speculative fiction out there and nobody wants it. They all find their way to me. It works to my benefit because I can cherry-pick the best stuff. This is a neglected genre that a lot of creative people are writing excellent stuff in. I’m in the premiere position. It’s delightful.

So I have received a lot but I don’t request all of them. I have a link and form on the web-page that I have people fill out and a lot of people who would like to submit to me can’t because they haven’t finished their manuscript, or it’s way too short, or it’s to the wrong audience or it doesn’t have any Christian content. I probably say "Okay, I’ll look at it," to too many because I like the premise and I’m an encourager at heart.

LRB: What kind of stories are you looking for and what kind of authors are you looking for?

JG: I get two kinds of authors, and I love both kinds. One is the unpublished, frustrated author. "The big houses say they want fantasy but they won’t accept my weird story or my friend’s." They’re frustrated, unpublished, and passionate. One of my opening novels is by one of those guys. Mitchell Bonds with his Hero, Second Class. Unpublished young guy, 19 years old when I acquired him. You would not believe when you read this book that he’s 19. He’s 20 now.

The other kind I get is the sadder but wiser novelist. Usually published several books before in the CBA industry. "Been there, done that, didn’t do what I thought what it was going to do. Burned and disillusioned. I ended up writing things that weren’t my passion. I want to get this story to the people who will love it, even if it’s the 500 you can reach." So then I can get a Theodore Beale, one of my debut novelists (author of Summa Elvetica: A Casuistry of the Elvish Controversy), who’s written for Pocket Books. I’m friends with a lot of these published people and I want to get them to write for me. A lot of them are considering writing for me because they can write the exact kind of novel they wished they could have published before.

As for what kind of stories, anything weird. That’s the kind of stories I want. I want it to be 65,000 words or more, I want it to be written to an adult audience, not a young adult audience. I want it be speculative, I want it to arise from a Christian worldview and have some kind of Christian component in it. But aside from that, anything goes. I just want to be amazed.

LRB: What advice can you give to speculative fiction authors?

JG: I’ve said this in a couple of other venues and I’ll say it here. It is really a great time to be an author of fiction that is not being served by CBA. It doesn’t feel like it yet because we’re just at the beginning of the small press revolution. The move in technology is always toward allowing people to better produce what they want and get it to the people who want it. It bypasses the big power blocs, which serves most people but leaves some on the fringe. But now all these disenfranchised genres in Christian publishing, whether it’s speculative or literary or men’s fiction or military fiction or whatever is a legitimate genre in ABA but isn’t being served by CBA, can now get it to people through the independent presses. I predict more presses like Marcher Lord will rise up. The model I’m using is one anyone can use for relatively low cost.

So be encouraged, because people who have completed speculative manuscripts will be in demand. It may not be the standard "rich and famous" contract you were hoping for, it may be with a publishing company you’ve never heard of, but if you want to get your book produced and get it to the people who want it, your time is now.

Don’t just rest on the fact that your book is different and weird and an outsider and let that be your distinctive. You have to write great fiction. You have to hone your craft. I have my fiction writing tips column on where the map ends. I’m up to 95 tips. That should keep you busy for a while. Apply it to your manuscript. You have to have great content too.

LRB: This one’s just for fun. Who is your favorite speculative fiction character and why?

JG: I’m going to name a few. Bernard Cornwell is a secular novelist who wrote an Arthurian trilogy. His Merlin character is unforgettable. The first name that popped in my head was Shrek. Shrek is a beautiful speculative character. Another bizarre one is Horton from Horton Hears a Who. That’s a science fiction spectacular story. It is weird and fabulous. He believes this thing that no one else can perceive and that is cool. I could say Farimir in Lord of the Rings. I would have to say Luke Skywalker even though he’s something of an Everyman. That’s a good enough list.

The interview with Jeff was great fun. Like I said, he's an incredible guy with a real passion for what he's doing and it's easy to see he has a heart for ministry. Marcher Lord launches in eight days and I couldn't be more excited. It's going to be great.

Be sure to see what else is pinging around the blog tour:

Brandon Barr
Justin Boyer
Keanan Brand
Kathy Brasby
Jackie Castle
Valerie Comer
Karri Compton
Courtney
CSFF Blog Tour
Stacey Dale
D. G. D. Davidson
Janey DeMeo
Jeff Draper
April Erwin
Karina Fabian
Kameron M. Franklin
Andrea Graham
Todd Michael Greene
Katie Hart
Timothy Hicks
Joleen Howell
Jason Joyner
Kait
Mike Lynch
Terri Main
Margaret
Shannon McNear
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Nissa
Steve Rice
Ashley Rutherford
Hanna Sandvig
Mirtika or Mir's Here
Greg Slade
James Somers
Steve Trower
Speculative Faith
Laura Williams
Timothy Wise

ACFW Advance Scout Week 4: The Minnesota Suvival Guide

And so here we are. In a week's time, the ACFW Conference will be over. We'll all be home. The Genesis contest winners will be celebrating. Some will be frantically getting proposals ready for agents and editors. I suspect that more than a few of us will simply go catatonic, overwhelmed from the excitement. I know I'll be incommunicado for a day or two.

That being said, first we have to make it through the Conference. Soon you will all be descending upon Minnesota, my beloved home state, which is quickly approaching California for the number of former entertainers who have entered politics. But I digress.

Let's talk about the weather. In my original scouting report, I said that temperatures would probably be around 70. I based this on the average for this time of year. But then, about a week or so ago, the mercury dipped. Not horribly, but enough to put a little bit of a chill in the air. On top of that, it's been raining on and off. I worried that I may have given out some bad information. My reputation as an advance scout would be in tatters!

But I've been keeping an anxious eye on the forecast and as of now, it appears we'll have great weather throughout the conference. Highs in the mid 70s. Partially cloudy skies. Should be pretty good.

So let's move on. I thought I'd clue all of you into some general information about Minnesota.

Let's begin with nomenclature. Minneapolis and St. Paul form what we Minnesotans call the Twin Cities. I guess they're fraternal twins. We Minnesotans tend to shorten that, though, and we'll often refer to them as "the Cities." That's not arrogance on our parts; we know there are other cities out there, many of them bigger than Minneapolis and St. Paul combined. My personal theory is we call them that because they're really the only true cities in Minnesota (no offense to St. Cloud or Duluth).

A while ago, someone either on the Loop or the forums asked if Minnesotans said "Eh?" I hate to be the bearer of bad news. That's Canada, not Minnesota. But we Minnesotans do have our own way of speaking. But if you're expecting to hear thick accents like in the movie "Fargo," you'll be disappointed. I've lived in Minnesota for most of my life and I've heard someone talk like that only once.

But most Minnesotans do have a little bit of an accent. We're infamous for elongating our "Os." As a matter of fact, that might be why children in Minnesota play "Duck, duck, gray duck." If they tried to play "duck, duck, goose," pronouncing "goooooooose" would take too long and the game would be over.

Minnesotans, by and large, are a friendly and helpful bunch. We refer to that as "Minnesota Nice." But that does have a downside, and that's the use of the phrase, "That's different."

See, Minnesotans don't like offending people. To spare people's feelings, we'll often use "different" as a dodge. Someone will ask our opinion on something. We won't like whatever it is but won't want to hurt the asker's feelings. So we'll tell them, "That's different." So while you're here, if you're telling a Minnesotan about your book and they say, "Well, that's different," they're not commenting on the uniqueness of your story.

The population of Minnesota is mostly made up of the descendants of Norweigian, Swedish, and German immigrants. Because of this, we tend to tell Norweigian jokes. If someone starts telling you a story about two guys named "Ole and Sven" or a husband and wife named "Ole and Lena," you can pretty much guarantee that it's going to end with a punchline.

I could keep going, but I don't want this post to drag out for too much longer. I could discuss how casseroles are known as "hotdishes" here (and are a staple of most church dinners). I could make more jokes about Minnesota politics. But instead, I'll leave you with this:

Only one of these is referred to as a Coke in Minnesota. And all three are called "pop," not "soda." Oh, and for our friends from Wisconsin, drinking fountains are called just that, not "bubblers."

Anyway, it's been fun being your advance scout! See you all in three days!