The Hound, the Lamp Post and the Seabird

Hi! I'm Sherry Thompson. I joined LGG just a few weeks ago, so this time I'll just introduce myself and describe how I started writing.

The Hound, the Lamp Post and the Seabird

In midsummer 1970, I was a discontented psychology grad student, halfway between a messy break-up with a long-term boyfriend and a semester in which I would take physiology with no biology since high school while teaching psych statistics. During the day, I worked fulltime at the university library and tried to make sense of the physiology text. I spent my nights fending off the Hound.

The Hound of Heaven was after me though, prodding me to make a decision about what I really believed. Glenn and I had both been agnostics. I had been exposed to Christian teachings via Sunday School from about 3rd to 9th grade and then virtually nothing. For a long time, my only response to the prodding was in bookstores where I picked up books with religious-sounding titles while on the eternal hunt for fantasy books. I had read The Hobbit years ago when I was a freshman and followed it with The Lord of the Rings. Glenn didn’t care much for fantasy and I was extremely busy, so I let my new interest drop until that summer.

Back in 1970, there was little fantasy to be had in spite of the popularity of Tolkien’s work. Lin Carter at Ballantine had reprinted a line of old titles by Lord Dunsany and Mervyn Peake. I found Lindsay’s Voyage to Arcturus in the university library. There was C. S .Lewis but, you see, Lewis was Christian and I wasn’t sure if I wanted to get into that whole “mess” of making decisions about things that might change my life.

I reached the point where I really had no other fantasy to choose from in our local bookstore, so I picked up all seven volumes of The Chronicles of Narnia. (I hate having broken sets.) When I was checking out, either the cashier or a customer suggested that I begin with The Magician’s Nephew because that way I would be reading the books in chronological order. I read The Magician’s Nephew that night and was captivated by the idea of a lion singing a world into existence and by a world so bursting with life that a fragment of a lamp post buried in its soil sprang to life. A week later, I went to an evening meeting on campus and accepted Christ as my savior.

Over the following years, I read everything I could find by Lewis and followed that with everything I could find by the other Inkling, Charles Williams. I searched repeatedly for fantasy books I had missed earlier and I found a few from time to time but Tolkien was just beginning to have an impact on the publishing world and I lived in a small town with a small bookstore. Plus, this was the 1970’s B.A. (Before Amazon)

Eventually, I decided to write a fantasy story. I had written a bit before, many years earlier and mostly time travel stuff, but this would be my first attempt at an actual novel. The first step would be to “become organized” and make a list of everything that my novel should have in it.

The Daydream Novel List went rather like this:

a heroine (who would actually be me),
no elves or dragons (maybe for fear of competing with Tolkien?),
wizards, but not like Tolkien’s;
a jump from one world to another (based partially on Narnia but running back to my childhood daydreams of time travel),
the heroine would not instantly cooperate about her visit or her role (aside from Eustace, everyone visiting Narnia seemed to just follow along);
an artifact, for two reasons—1. to be mysterious here on Earth and 2. at the end to be proof that it had all been real (I disliked the insinuation that Dorothy had envisioned Oz while delirious);
heroes who rode horses and carried weapons (a leftover from my early exposure to TV serial westerns;
a really –different- setting,
a sequel with overlapping characters.

I didn’t begin with an story outline—I hated making outlines—but just plunged in with Cara finding the as yet unidentified “artifact”. Each day, my novel grew by approximately eight sheets in my 8x5 spiral notebook. Sorry about the culture shock! This was before personal computers. I had a typewriter but I couldn’t carry it around so I opted for the notebook.

After a while, perhaps a week or two, my inspiration dried up. I had taken enough English courses to realize that I didn’t know what my characters wanted or where I was heading with my plot. Plot? What plot? My list of Stuph was all on the surface. What was going on inside? Staring at the wall established the fact that the wall had cracks and the room needed painting.

Since I was still something of a new Christian, it took a while for the penny to drop and for me to pray for guidance. I asked for help and promptly went into wool-gathering mode

What did I want? What had I been looking for at the bookstore? What had I wanted when I finished The Lord of the Rings? God wanted my salvation. I wanted another good story, not necessarily LotR II but a complex fantasy world with people I could relate to. I positively –loved- The Chronicles of Narnia but technically Lewis had written it for children. What a shame he hadn’t held off on The Last Battle and written more stories bringing in older protagonists from Earth…

Oh.

I “checked in” to see if I were on the right track, and felt I had the go-ahead. Along with it, came a flood of “new ideas”, which I should have considered critical from the beginning.

The Duh List.
The new list of necessary story elements included:

an actual reason for the protagonist’s presence on this other world (aka plot);
a varied cast of characters whom I must get to know intimately;
an agnostic teen or one struggling with doubts about his or her faith;
mistakes leading to regret and feelings of guilt; eventual reconciliation;
a world just as loved and saved by God as ours and Narnia—but in a different way; with a new representation for the Second Person of the Trinity;
the awe and delight of knowing God, shown as Lewis did it. Doing this meant a lot to me. In fact, this had become nearly the whole point of the exercise;
a deeply embedded yet subtle pattern in the setting and culture showing how this world’s reconciliation with God became possible.

And then a biggie, right out of the blue: An alternate history of the church beginning after the Incarnation, Christ’s Sacrifice and His return to Heaven where the abundant miracles of the Early Church would alter over time as needs changed. Enchanters would be called to wield these miraculous powers, each as granted from God. To the casual observer (or reader) it will look like magic but it wouldn’t be.

All of this subtly hidden in plain sight so as not to spook the person I used to be. No question: I was writing for all the other doubting or agnostic fantasy-readers like my old self who needed a subtle invitation to taste and see. If fellow Christians liked the book, that would be great but I needed to help those made nearly impervious to the call, by what Lewis named the Watchful Dragons.

I almost forgot one necessary element. Learning how to write. Sigh. I continue to work on the foundation for that one. I pray that my desire to share the joy of knowing God makes up for my abysmal execution of the message.

I used various plot ideas as testing grounds for my characters, jiggery-poking different elements until I knew what path I was supposed to follow. However, I was still missing a key element. I went to the beach on vacation and while I was there I searched vigilantly until I found it—a silver necklace shaped like a soaring seabird. My artifact, and the representation of Narenta’s Savior.


Under the Mercy,
SherryT

SF Anthology Looking For Submissions

Infinite Space, Infinite God, an anthology of thought-provoking science fiction with a Catholic twist, has been showing that well-written religious genre fiction can make it in today's markets. As an e-book, it won the 2007 EPPIE award for best science fiction. Now that it's in print, it's making steady sales in the Catholic and science fiction markets and got terrific reviews in both the Catholic magazine St. Anthony Maessenger and the sci-fi e-zine SFRevu. An even nicer sign of success is when your secular publisher says, "Sure, let's do another!"

So, in anticipation of its success in sales, Karina and Robert Fabian, in conjunction with Twilight Times Books, are taking a leap of faith by compiling Infinite Space, Infinite God II--and we want your stories!

ISIG II will again feature the best of science fiction with a Catholic world view. The guidelines are similar to ISIG I.

1. Stories should be 3,000-10,000 words. We'd like 12-15 stories, plus introductions, so we're looking for variety of lengths.

2. Science Fiction stories only. We're not looking for fantasy. While we're glad to look at the usual plot conventions of SF--time travel, faster-than-light travel, etc.--we do not want Star Trek-type technobabble where real science is available. In all cases, the science should be believable within the story's universe; projections of current science are encouraged. Do not break the laws of physics without a reasonable explanation, or we'll have to call the logic police.

3. Catholic stories only. You don’t need to be Catholic, but your stories do! Characters and/or settings must be genuinely Catholic. Catholic theology and practices must conform to the Magesterium--or have an incredibly good reason to veer! (We'll be tougher about it this time.) This is especially true for any doctrine that is ex cathedra. This does not mean all your characters need to be saints or even Catholic, but that the Church itself is portrayed with the same steadfast morals and doctrine that it has maintained throughout history. Please research any questions: check with a reputable Catholic site online, the Catechism of the Catholic Church or a Catholic priest or deacon. Don't rely on what you remember the nuns telling you in grade school back in 1972.

4. No re-runs. Please read Infinite Space, Infinite God to avoid repeating a story idea/treatment. (You can purchase ISIG at www.twilighttimesbooks.com, www.amazon.com, or from your favorite bookstore; ask your library to order it (Baker and Taylor and Ingrams distribute it), or at least read the synopsis of stories at http://isigsf.com.)

5. Tell a good story. Write well. 'Nuff said.

Here are some of the things we rejected for ISIG I or are wary of for ISIG II:

--Lectures disguised as stories. Purpose Number One of ISIG is to entertain.
--Long sermon/discussion sandwiched between a plot. This includes political as well as religious diatribes. We want to reach a wide audience and while we hope some folks will be touched by the stories, we're not out to evangelize with them.
--Jesus is cloned. Not against it per se, but no one yet has made it work, story-wise.
--Generic Christian with a crucifix. No nuns praying someone will "accept Jesus as his personal savior."
--Telling, not showing. This goes for faith characteristics as well as plot.
--Deus ex machina or Deus ex Deum. If you're going to use a miracle of technology or a regular miracle to resolve your plot complications (as opposed to being part of your plot complications…), you'd better write a really compelling story!
--Black-and-white absolutes. Catholics are good; others are bad. The world has gone to hell--except for the Church. Evil scientists versus good believers. We're trying to break those stereotypes.
--Apocalyptic fiction. Please make sure you know the Catholic understanding of Revelations.

5. No reprints.

6. You may submit more than one story.

How to submit: Send stories to Karina at karina(at)fabianspace.com. Send it as a Word or .rtf attachment. Type ISIG II in the subject line.

Tell the Story!

When I first started writing in college, I sent a story to Marion Zimmer Bradley's Fantasy Magazine. I got back a personal rejection letter. Not realizing how rare those were, I've since lost it, but I do remember one line, a piece of advice she said she received as a novice writer that she now passed on to me:

Stop showing me how good you can write and tell me a story!

As writers of Christian fiction, we need to keep in mind the corollary to that:

Stop showing folks how good a Christian you (or your characters) are and tell a story!

Tonight on FabChat, I interviewed publisher Lida Quillen of Twilight Times Books. Twilight Times is a growing publishing company, which moved from eBooks to print in 2004 and has about 50 titles to claim, many of which are award winners and some of which are in national bookstore shelves. Several of her titles, like Infinite Space, Infinite God, are Catholic and Christian in nature. I asked her if religious content influences her in any way.

"I'm looking for a great story," she insisted. Not a great message. Lot a life changer. A great story.

Certainly, there are niches for message works--but if you want to write spec fic, you find a way to make the story demonstrate the message, not fit a story into your message. Genre fiction has with it certain expectations: fantasy had better have an adventure and elements of the fantastic--whether magic or fairy creatures or stepping into a make-believe world. Sci-Fi had better have some internally consistent and legitimized science. (Has anyone read some of the early "Christian SF" novels which read like Pilgrim's Progress with a spaceship or dismiss science as inherently evil when it's all that's keeping them from the vacuum of space? No wonder it's a hard sell now.) Horror better, as Daniel Weaver puts it, scare the Jesus into you.

And no matter what, you'd better have a character who feels conflict, doubts, grows and eventually meets his challenges in a "realistic" and meaningful way. To suddenly have all their troubles solved--or have their ability miraculously empowered, simply because they "accept Jesus as their personal savior" is as much a cheat as having the Good Witch Glenda send Dorothy home at the start of the book. Faith gives us strength for the struggle; it doesn't remove it. Not in real life. Not in a well-crafted story.

As one writer put it, the only difference between secular fiction and Christian fiction should be that when evil is done, the protagonist doesn't rejoice--and neither should the reader.

The really incredible thing, however, is that if you do write a really incredible story, the message will come through more powerfully than if you concentrate on message first and story second. We've seen that with Infinite Space, Infinite God. When Rob (my husband) and I solicited stories for ISIG, we wanted stories that entertained first, made you think, second; and showed the Catholic faith in its complexities but with a positive light, third. As a result, not only was it picked up by a secular publisher like Twilight Times, but it won the 2007 EPPIE award for best electronically published sci-fi. Not religious or Christian. Just sci-fi. But even better are the reviews it's getting. Even readers who are not Catholic say they are enthralled by the book. I've been told it should be required reading for teens because of the issues covered in many of the stories. One reviewer called it a terrifying and invigorating read. Some have been led to reconsider what they thought they knew about Catholicism; others are considering anew the moral issues of progresses like genetic engineering.

We're seeing a gentle upsurge in "Christian" spec fic--or should I say spec fic with Christian values? If we are to build this gentle upsurge into a tidal wave that sweeps our readership, we need to keep in mind what spec fic readers want. They can get "message" on Sundays or from their Bible or from any number of non-fiction testimonials. When they come to spec fic, they are looking for story.

So stop showing them what a great Christian you (or your characters are) and tell them the story! Do it right, and they'll get the message.

Catholicism, Progress and Science

Just a few weeks ago, Pope Benedict XVI issued a motu proprio making it easier for Catholic parishioners and priests who prefer the Latin Mass to request that this style of Mass be celebrated more regularly in their parishes. Many have held this up as "yet another example" that the Church is stalling progress and in fact, stepping back to the Medieval Ages.

As a writer of science fiction and a Catholic, I find the assertion that the Catholic Church is moving backward amusing. It's always been my impression that, while conservative and at times, slow to change, the Catholic Church is nonetheless forward-thinking. My research for the introductions to Infinite Space, Infinite God affirmed that impression with fact.

Infinite Space, Infinite God contains 15 thought-provoking stories about Catholics and the Catholic Church meeting the challenges of the future: determining the soul-status of genetically engineered humans and human hybrids, developing orders of nuns and monks to serve the needs of those in space as well as on Earth, and exploring how technology will create new situations that both challenge faith and can be resolved by faith.

Catholicism has always affirmed man's great imagination and creativity as a result of the divine nature God has graced us with. After the fall of the Roman Empire, the Church held onto what wisdom it could, preserving it for centuries until society was ready to build upon it again in the Renaissance. Many of the great early scientists--Mendel, the father of genetics, and Copernicus, who proposed heliocentric theory--were Catholic monks. Even today, the Church supports scientific study with its Vatican Observatory, the Pontifical Academy and symposiums involving scientists of all religious beliefs. Catholicism has always affirmed man's great imagination and creativity as a result of the divine nature God has graced us with.

However, the Church also advocates caution and conservatism with new discoveries. For example, it wasn't heliocentric theory itself that the Church objected to with Galileo, but Galileo's assertion that his then-unproven theory was fact and that anyone disagreeing (like the Pope) should be disregarded.

Many of the stories in Infinite Space, Infinite God deal with the tension between rushing to the new and moving slowly into the unknown. My husband Rob and I compiled these stories with the goal of doing something unique in the sci fi world--examining the future of faith. However, this book is not just for Catholics alone. The questions raised are questions we should all be asking: how far do we go in our science? How fast? Is exploration for exploration's sake justified? How do we preserve the past without moving back to it?

Just as the Catholic Church endeavors to steer a careful course, preserving the best of the past while moving into the future, so should humankind in matters outside of religion.

After all, a step forward is not progress unless you've pointed in the right direction.

Infinite Space, Infinite God by Karina and Robert Fabian, will be available August 15 in bookstores, Amazon.com or online at www.twilighttimesbooks.com.