Early in my blog writing life, I found out about this blogging event called the Christian Science Fiction & Fantasy blog tour. Each month the leader of the blog tour would arrange for us to get a free copy of a Christian science fiction or fantasy book and we would read it and review it on three specific days.
In those days you could go to a site called Technorati and see how our all blogging on the same day had made that book into a Trending Topic. Doesn't work quite that way now, and the CSFF hasn't had a blog tour since last December.
I met a lot of good bloggers over the years doing that and some have become friends. So I decided to go over to the CSFF blog and start adding the blogs of participants and former participants that still have active blogs.
Joining this blogroll: If you have ever participated in the Christian Science Fiction & Fantasy blog tour, I will probably be adding you anyway. Comment on this post and tell me when you participated and what your blog link is and I will add you. If you never participated before, you can join up but the blog tour doesn't happen very often any more. (I will investigate and see if the blog tour can be revived with more help.)
Showing posts with label Christian Science Fiction. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Christian Science Fiction. Show all posts
Monday, July 11, 2016
Saturday, May 19, 2012
Facebook Group for Christian Sci-Fi and Fantasy
On PromoDay I've been learning more about using Facebook to promote your blog or book. Participation in appropriate Facebook groups was recommended.
I haven't done Facebook groups much, though I'm in one and active in it. I thought it might be good to start one up for Christian Sci-Fi and Fantasy writers and readers, and so I did: Christian Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers and Readers.
Hope we can get some good folks to join up to talk about good books, writing and the like. If it gets to be a significant and active group, it could be a real help to writers in promoting their books and blogs, and help readers find books they might like to read and authors they might like to interact with.
So--- check out the new group, join it, share it with your Facebook friends, blog about it, and before long we'll have conquered the galaxy! But in a good way.
I haven't done Facebook groups much, though I'm in one and active in it. I thought it might be good to start one up for Christian Sci-Fi and Fantasy writers and readers, and so I did: Christian Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers and Readers.
Hope we can get some good folks to join up to talk about good books, writing and the like. If it gets to be a significant and active group, it could be a real help to writers in promoting their books and blogs, and help readers find books they might like to read and authors they might like to interact with.
So--- check out the new group, join it, share it with your Facebook friends, blog about it, and before long we'll have conquered the galaxy! But in a good way.
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Why Christian Fiction Needs More Violence
Recently I've heard a lot of critics of 'The Hunger Games' say that both the books and the movie are 'too violent'. Sadly, even Christians have jumped on that bandwagon.
Christian fiction has a rep of being the opposite of violent. Bland romances in Amish or Prairie settings with nothing to do with the real world.
But should Christian fiction be like that? The Bible is violent--- from the murder of Abel to the wars in the book of Revelation (which is really all about the Eucharist, but still...). History is violent--- Masada, World War III, I mean II.... Mythology is violent--- remember that proto-god who ate all his children? Even peaceful anti-war protests often turn violent.
Violence is necessary to good fiction because fiction is about conflict. And it's hard to have serious conflict if there is no actual or threatened violence. Would we have been mesmerized by the Harry Potter series if Lord Voldemort had been threatening to lower Harry's grades rather than threatening to kill Harry?
The need for violence in fiction is an evidence of Man's fallen nature, as taught in the Christian apostolic tradition (which includes the Bible). Because there is so much violence around us, conflicts without a hint of violence possible strike us as bland, trivial. We don't buy mystery novels where the mystery involves finding a lost Latin missal in time for next Sunday's Latin Mass--- since the prospect of someone going to Latin Mass without their own missal and having to use the Latin Mass booklet provided doesn't thrill us the way the threat of murder does.
This does not mean that every Christian science fiction or fantasy series has to include a character-bloodbath like the ones at the end of Harry Potter or Left Behind, or the recent one in the BBC TV series Being Human. Character bloodbaths are harder for the Christian reader/author because most of us are firmly part of the culture of life and want every human life respected from conception until natural death. Which makes us worry about staging a massive character bloodbath, or even worry about reading one.
I think it's no mystery why the Left Behind apocalyptic fiction series broke out of the Christian fiction ghetto and onto secular best-seller lists. The Left Behind series is not only Christian fiction, but it's centered on a theological belief--- the Rapture theory--- that the majority of the world's Christians believe is invalid. One would think it would not only repel secular readers but most Christians. But it sold, because it was set in a world where the main characters were under threat of death all the time as the Antichrist, Nikolai Carpathia, took power. In fact, several of the important Christian characters did die before the final battle. And this is what made the conflict in the story real and compelling to the reader.
Christian science fiction and fantasy, like Pagan science fiction and fantasy, or secular science fiction and fantasy, have to reflect the real world. Perhaps our worlds will have elves with enchanted spears or semi-Roman emperors with laser swords instead of Crips and Bloods with guns. But there has to be violence--- or at least the implied threat of violence--- to show that the conflict in the story matters.
Christian fiction has a rep of being the opposite of violent. Bland romances in Amish or Prairie settings with nothing to do with the real world.
But should Christian fiction be like that? The Bible is violent--- from the murder of Abel to the wars in the book of Revelation (which is really all about the Eucharist, but still...). History is violent--- Masada, World War III, I mean II.... Mythology is violent--- remember that proto-god who ate all his children? Even peaceful anti-war protests often turn violent.
Violence is necessary to good fiction because fiction is about conflict. And it's hard to have serious conflict if there is no actual or threatened violence. Would we have been mesmerized by the Harry Potter series if Lord Voldemort had been threatening to lower Harry's grades rather than threatening to kill Harry?
The need for violence in fiction is an evidence of Man's fallen nature, as taught in the Christian apostolic tradition (which includes the Bible). Because there is so much violence around us, conflicts without a hint of violence possible strike us as bland, trivial. We don't buy mystery novels where the mystery involves finding a lost Latin missal in time for next Sunday's Latin Mass--- since the prospect of someone going to Latin Mass without their own missal and having to use the Latin Mass booklet provided doesn't thrill us the way the threat of murder does.
This does not mean that every Christian science fiction or fantasy series has to include a character-bloodbath like the ones at the end of Harry Potter or Left Behind, or the recent one in the BBC TV series Being Human. Character bloodbaths are harder for the Christian reader/author because most of us are firmly part of the culture of life and want every human life respected from conception until natural death. Which makes us worry about staging a massive character bloodbath, or even worry about reading one.
I think it's no mystery why the Left Behind apocalyptic fiction series broke out of the Christian fiction ghetto and onto secular best-seller lists. The Left Behind series is not only Christian fiction, but it's centered on a theological belief--- the Rapture theory--- that the majority of the world's Christians believe is invalid. One would think it would not only repel secular readers but most Christians. But it sold, because it was set in a world where the main characters were under threat of death all the time as the Antichrist, Nikolai Carpathia, took power. In fact, several of the important Christian characters did die before the final battle. And this is what made the conflict in the story real and compelling to the reader.
Christian science fiction and fantasy, like Pagan science fiction and fantasy, or secular science fiction and fantasy, have to reflect the real world. Perhaps our worlds will have elves with enchanted spears or semi-Roman emperors with laser swords instead of Crips and Bloods with guns. But there has to be violence--- or at least the implied threat of violence--- to show that the conflict in the story matters.
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Writing Christian Science Fiction: An Impossible Dream?
Writing science fiction and getting published has long been a life goal for me--- but Christian science fiction for a Christian publisher hasn't been a part of my plans.
In part it has been because I've considered it unrealistic. Christian fiction publishers are mostly evangelicals; I'm Catholic. And being Catholic isn't something I'd want to absolutely hide in my fiction. Would my work ever be accepted by readers?
But recently I've reconsidered and am reading books about how to write Christian fiction. None of the books have any high hopes for a work of Christian science fiction. The one that is most optimistic seems to indicated that 'spiritual warfare' science fiction is the kind that gets published, not something with space aliens.
The books have a lot to say about who is reading Christian fiction: mostly women, mostly evangelicals.... But who is reading Christian science fiction? Have there been any studies, formal or informal, of that? Perhaps I ought to ask some Christian science fiction writers what sort of people they believe are reading their books.
The second question: what do the readers of Christian science fiction most want to read? What Christian science fiction books are the most popular? What secular science fiction books are most popular with Christian readers?
I wish I could find the answers to such questions. Not that I would concoct some plotline based on what's popular. But knowing who the readers aare and what they like to read might help me pick what story-ideas might be the best one to pursue.
In part it has been because I've considered it unrealistic. Christian fiction publishers are mostly evangelicals; I'm Catholic. And being Catholic isn't something I'd want to absolutely hide in my fiction. Would my work ever be accepted by readers?
But recently I've reconsidered and am reading books about how to write Christian fiction. None of the books have any high hopes for a work of Christian science fiction. The one that is most optimistic seems to indicated that 'spiritual warfare' science fiction is the kind that gets published, not something with space aliens.
The books have a lot to say about who is reading Christian fiction: mostly women, mostly evangelicals.... But who is reading Christian science fiction? Have there been any studies, formal or informal, of that? Perhaps I ought to ask some Christian science fiction writers what sort of people they believe are reading their books.
The second question: what do the readers of Christian science fiction most want to read? What Christian science fiction books are the most popular? What secular science fiction books are most popular with Christian readers?
I wish I could find the answers to such questions. Not that I would concoct some plotline based on what's popular. But knowing who the readers aare and what they like to read might help me pick what story-ideas might be the best one to pursue.
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
How Robin Parrish got his First Novel Published
Photo credit: Ashley Morgan.Getting a novel published these days can be hard, even if your novel is good. The advent of home computers with word processing software has increased the number of people able to throw a manuscript together by great amounts. Most of these novels are bad, and most publishers and agents have received so many that they adopt draconian policies to avoid unsolicited manuscripts and unproven writers.
Robin Parrish, author of our current blog tour book Offworld, found away around the barriers. He had a website called Infuze. One of his ideas for Infuze was to have a serialized story, with new sections brought out every two weeks. His website became popular enough that several publishers became aware of the story and were willing to publish.
Can other writers use Robin Parrish's method? Possibly--- but the story in question not only needs to be well-written, it needs to be a real page-turner that will get the reader totally addicted and coming back for more. It must be posted on a website or blog with a lot of traffic. And the writer must have a lot of luck!
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OFFICIAL BLOG TOUR STUFF:
THE BOOK: Offworld by Robin Parrish: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0764206060
THE AUTHOR: Robin Parrish on Twitter (Yes, he tweets): http://twitter.com/robinparrish
THE BLOG TOUR GANG:
Brandon Barr
Jim Black
Justin Boyer
Keanan Brand
Gina Burgess
Canadianladybug
Melissa Carswell
Valerie Comer
Karri Compton
Amy Cruson
CSFF Blog Tour
Stacey Dale
D. G. D. Davidson
Jeff Draper
April Erwin
Karina Fabian
Linda Gilmore
Beth Goddard
Todd Michael Greene
Katie Hart
Ryan Heart
Becky Jesse
Cris Jesse
Jason Joyner
Julie
Carol Keen
Krystine Kercher
Dawn King
Melissa Meeks
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Mirtika
Eve Nielsen (posting later in the week)
nissa_amas_katoj
John W. Otte
Lyn Perry
Steve Rice
Chawna Schroeder
James Somers
Speculative Faith
Stephanie
Rachel Starr Thomson
Steve Trower
Fred Warren
Dona Watson
Elizabeth Williams
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