Sharing Faith: The Right and the Wrong
The best Christian books seem to know how to weave their thinking into the fabric of story.
It’s not a sentence thrown in or a dogma exposited in a stilted conversation or internal monologue. It’s a concrete reality that warps the whole path of the universe. Here is this thing, this presence, and it’s an elephant in the room, and why don’t people notice it?
And out of those few who do, why do they despise it?
“A good science fiction story is a story about human beings, with a human problem, and a human solution, that would not have happened at all without its science content.”
~Theodore Sturgeon, via Simon Morden
Let me rephrase that to tackle the faith theme: A good story of faith is a story about human beings, with a human problem, and a human solution, that would not have happened at all without its faith content.
In other words, the existence of God makes things go wrong in concrete ways. And people have to deal with that. And if the story can happen without its faith content, then it’s not a story of faith.
We set ourselves a double goal and a more difficult standard in writing Christian + genre fiction. There must be a story which, without the faith and the murder/science/whatever, never would have happened.
Some are doing it very, very well. They deserve all the more extra credit.
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Love that definition. That’s why I have to define my book as Christian fantasy. Without the faith element, the story doesn’t exist. Without the fantasy element, the story doesn’t exist.
Now it’s going to take a miracle to attain to any kind of success with it. Good thing I believe in miracles.
Likewise. I have no idea if mine will end up large-house CBA-style or more indie-targeted, at this point. One thing I do know from listening carefully to Jeff Gerke and some of the others is that it’s always worth it in this genre to make the connections in the online reader market, because mags like Mindflights and such are actually finding that elusive audience and bringing them to writers.
What else do you suggest besides Mindflights?
The Mindflights site has several sister publications with different focuses, and one really easy online submission form that allows you to send to whichever one you’re aiming at. They pay token. They should also have links to some others, if you browse around a bit–either author bios, forum notes, or link exchanges. I can’t remember what all their system is for that. But they’re kind of positioned as the main one.
Digital Dragon is brand new, for-the-love, but man are they keeping the quality high, and they’re going to attract readers if they keep it up.
Ray-Gun Revival is strictly space opera, and Wayfarer is similar, so they won’t fit your project’s profile.
Down the far right sidebar, I have links kind of in the middle of everything. “Great E-Rags” heading.
Thanks.