News Post 572

Have you checked out the Lost Genre Guild's member directory? It's wonderful to see all the names and fields of interest. Are you on it? If not, you should think about joining. Click the About tab for information on how to do that.

The Splashdown Books newsletter is out. Check it out here, and sign up for future updates if you want to keep up to date with exciting new stuff from the Lost Genre.

 

Updates from Laser & Sword ezine:

 

The Great Search, Part Fifteen (http://lasersword.adamsweb.us/the-great-search-part-fifteen/)  Against Revelator's adviace, the Sword and the Dark Mystic meet at last.

 

The Emerald Avenger v. The Corruptibles (http://lasersword.adamsweb.us/the-emerald-avenger-v-the-corruptibles-part-fourteen/): Two crooked police officers take a most unusual trip downtown.

 

Day of Dread, Part Seven (http://lasersword.adamsweb.us/day-of-dread-part-seven/) Kendall officers Snyder a way out.

Mission Statement

Let's not forget what we're here for, folks - time for a revisit of our mission statement:

The Lost Genre Guild

For Christian Speculative Fiction

One Tiny Cell In the Body of Christ

Mission Statement & Purpose

The Lost Genre Guild's mission is to raise the awareness and respect for Biblical speculative fiction, and to encourage, educate and support the writers of such fiction.

Our Vision . . .

Welcome to the literary home for artists, editors, agents, promoters, and fans of Christian sci-fi, fantasy, and supernatural thrillers. Spec-fic is the best selling secular genre, but few Christian authors have been connecting with fans. Demographics show that many Christian genre fans are online. The Lost Genre Guild's been laying infrastructure for Viral Marketing, or, word-of-mouth buzz to promote our lost genre.

We're a tiny cell in the Body of Christ for other writers or groups to plug-into, for networking and teamwork for the Boss' glory.

We've been privately developing some hi-tech toys, like podcasting audio files & shows, virtual-reality meetings in secondlife.com at:

Terri Marathon's Town Square: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_world

The Lost Genre Guild has also been publicly promoting through the Latest in Spec newsletter, CFBA, CSSF, CFRB, Speculative Faith, and the Lost Genre Guild blog. Check out the discussion boards & forums at arjaybb.com, wherethemapends.com, doubleedgedpublishing.com's project page, and http://www.christianscififantasycentral.com/

Some links and places of interest related to the Lost Genre Guild

First is our private Yahoo group. If you'd like to join this list, let me know and I can send you an invite. The list can be crazy-busy with great email discussions and at other times slow. You can receive the emails in one of two ways: individual emails or the daily digest. Choose the best option for you at the Yahoo group page once you've been added.

Lost Genre Guild official website at lostgenreguild.com where you'll find links to LGG members' books (Bookshelves), the most recent LGG catalogue of fiction and resources, etc.

The Guild Review: an editorial review site for Christian and Biblical speculative fiction only.

The guild mentor and critique forums at lostgenreguild.com/phpBB3

The LGG blog at blog.lostgenreguild.com where industry news is posted several times per week, with the focus on guild members. You can signup to receive updates in your email box.

We have groups at both Shoutlife.com and MySpace.com

You may also like to signup for Frank Creed's Underground newsletter/ ezine (6 times per year): got to Frankcreed.com and there is a link on the front page (you can read the archived issues). It is filled with industry information, articles, writing tips, etc.

Marketing

The number-one reason people buy books is because they're recommended by family or friends. Publishers know the market is out there, which is why publishers have now been throwing the dice on spec-fic. Publisher's traditional shotgun marketing isn't hitting the target market.

Why?

Christian genre fans gave-up on Christian bookstore shelves. Shotgun marketing aims inside the box, and our readership isn't in the box. Nobody home. According to the 80-20 rule of marketing, 80% of sales comes from 20% of efforts. The trick is identifying and focusing on that 20%.

If we work as the Body of Christ, each contributing with our talents, His will shall be done for our genre.

Faith,

Frank Creed

novelist, manuscript critique, and founder of the Lost Genre Guild

thefinishers.biz

lostgenreguild.com

frankcreed.com/

afrankreview.blogspot.com/

War of Attrition: Book Two of the Underground

Into the Underground: The Role Playing Game

Congratulations all round

Congratulations to Mike Lynch for his 1st place in the Preditors & Editors poll!

Congratulations also to other Guild members (see below) for their Top Ten finish in the P&E Poll!

And thanks to all of our readers who voted.

“Beyond Horizon’s Edge” by Mike Lynch
1st place in the Preditors & Editors 2009 science fiction/fantasy short story reader’s poll...
http://www.invirtuo.cc/prededitors/votesssff08.htm
And Mike's winning story is posted here - go have a read if you haven't already!



Leaps of Faith, Karina & Robert Fabian, editors, The Writers Cafe Press,
Top Ten (#8-Anthologies) in the Preditors & Editors 2009 Readers Poll... http://anotherealm.com/prededitors/voteanthology08.htm



Lost Genre Guild (bulletin board)
Top Ten (#8-Writers Forum) in the Preditors & Editors 2009 Readers Poll
http://anotherealm.com/prededitors/votewriterforum08.htm


Ray Gun Revival
Top Ten (#10-Fiction Magazine) in the Preditors & Editors 2009 Readers Poll
http://anotherealm.com/prededitors/votefictzine08.htm

Latest news in Christian Speculative Fiction: newsletter

LATEST IN SPEC

A collaborative effort of the Christian Science Fiction and Fantasy Blog Tour and the Lost Genre Guild, Latest in Spec aims to create a forum where authors of inspirational speculative fiction can inform others about their work. Inspirational speculative fiction,as we define it, refers to science fiction and fantasy written from a Christian and specifically, a Biblical worldview.

Our hope is that this free newsletter can facilitate the promotion of the kind of fiction we long to see available in bookstores everywhere.

The most recent issue of Latest in Spec is found here: latestinspec.org

If you'd like to download a copy to print off and taken to a bookstore or give to anyone interested in Christian Speculative Fiction, get your copy here.

Subscribe to Latest in Spec

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CSSF Tour of the Lost Genre Guild: Reflections

It was a busy 3 last days in 2009 for the tour members of the Christian Science Fiction and Fantasy blog tour as they featured the Lost Genre Guild. We at the LGG would like to thank the CSFF bloggers for their time and efforts!

Some stats and reflections:

• 37 bloggers participated in the Lost Genre Guild tour with 40+ posts! Grace did a great job of noting some memorable posts earlier in the week and I'd like to give a special shout-out to a couple of people:

Make sure to read Stephen Rice's 3 days of posts. He makes good use of his characters to provide information, good laughs and truths.

Timothy Hicks' posts give some great insight into the guild as he interviewed Frank Creed.

Two guild members, Karina Fabian and Terri Main deserve special attention. Karina interviewed a few guild members on what the LGG means to them and Terri wrote a beautiful essay about the impact of the LGG on her writing life.

And finally, a nod D.G.D. Davidson's direction for gathering the most interesting responses that veered off into discussions of speculative fiction and even romance!

• The LGG Blog visits were up ~60% from the previous week.
• The Lost Genre Guild site hits doubled over the tour days (up to ~1300 hits)
• 21 new members have joined the LGG in the past 30 days and we've received 10 new requests since the beginning of the tour.
• The LGG now has 143 members.

Some Reflections:

• We received some very complimentary posts and thank people for promoting the guild and its goals. While promoting the guild, please remember y'all are promoting the entire industry of Speculative fiction respectful of a Christian worldview!
• We received great feedback about our site, even though lostgenreguild.com is NOT the whole of the guild's raison d'etre.
• Some criticism we received about the website was very useful and constructive; others not so much.

I am afraid that the LGG website is not about glitz and fancy stuff—it is simple and yes, amateur (just like we are!). We want to disseminate information, we want our pages to load quickly. CNN and Yahoo!, for example, are Web 1.0 AND are user-friendly.

However there are some really good ideas that we will implement (or have implemented):

• dead link from site to Mentors bulletin board (fixed! and thanks for pointing this out)
• a page with a range of graphic buttons for others to use to promote the guildthe LGG shield is out of sync with the overall look of the site (yes, it is, and it is a matter of debate about what to do about it since there is sentimental value attached to it)
• fonts in the LGG catalogue are often difficult to read (thank you to Robert Treskillard for the last 3)
• embed the blog in the website so that the navigation bar links directly to the blog html site description tips for better browser presence (Phyllis Wheeler, thank you for this idea; Phyllis even gave us an example of a good description for the site!)
• update the speculative fiction subgenre list (as a result of Rebecca Miller's post) mission statements on both the LGG site and Guild Review that makes it clear that the LGG is not an elitist organization—that we support ALL Christian spec-fic no matter who the publisher is (thanks to posts made by Rebecca Miller, Jason Joyner, and more! obviously we haven't been clear about our mission).

And, that's all folks! All Christian spec-fic writers, published or unpublished, thank you for helping promote the genre.

cyn

Why the Genre is "Lost"? Part 2 of the LGG Tour Wrap-Up

During the three-day CSFF tour of the Lost Genre Guild, I was pleased to see so many positive responses to the guild and its mission. Grace has done a fine job of highlighting these responses in her "Blogger Buzz on the LGG" and "Quotable Quotes"

I'd like to take a couple of quotes:
Terri Main responded to Keanan Brand's post on Adventures in Fiction by saying,

[The LGG] has also been an inspiration to Christian writers who's stories didn't always fit into the Christian romance or contemporary "mainstream" fiction of traditional Christian publishing.

Genie (aka Steve Rice) noted at his blog Back to the Mountains,

So it's accurate to say that the status quo hinders new writers. The Lost Genre Guild helps new writers get noticed and read, even though it isn't a publisher itself.

For our curious readers, the Lost Genre Guild also promotes and represents authors whose novels do not fit into the big Christian publishers' mold (or is that "molt"? see Ansric's post "Deep Enough, Let's Try to Get Back Out").

To again quote Frank Creed:

Major Christian publishing houses have experimented with trials in the young adult fantasy market and signed a handful of authors. (Unfortunately, the major houses have yet to venture further-the adult fantasy market remains largely untapped.) The independent houses are taking the lead, and the risks, to get good Christian speculative fiction to readers but their efforts are blocked in several ways.

Horror, disguised on Christian bookshelves with spiritual thriller or chiller labels, has been accepted since the late 1980s with Frank Peretti's first novels. T.L. Hines and Ted Dekker carry on today with their supernatural thrillers.

That leaves science fiction. Thought Probes: Philosophy Through Science Fiction Literature, a college textbook, describes sci-fi as "the handmaiden of worldviews." For over a decade, Christian sci-fi authors have seized this opportunity as the perfect vehicle for the Christian worldview. The genre, alas, remains virtually nonexistent in Christian bookstores.

Christendom has always been suspicious of and slow to accept new things. Science fiction, horror and fantasy stories of faith have long been marginalized by believers. Not just believers who once said that rock music was of the Devil and could never glorify God, but even by actual genre fans. (Christian Spec-Fic in the Publishing Industry, July 2008)

While it is apparent, and understandable, that many Christian readers and lovers of our genre don't know about the state of the publishing industry where spec-fic is concerned, writers know this all to well. It is one reason why they approach independent and small publishing houses or even self-publish. The Big Christian houses won't touch what they write.

Rebecca Miller, in her post on Speculative Faith, hits the nail on the head: "My thinking has been that many writers have grown frustrated with waiting for changes in Christian publishing."

However, she goes on to wonder, "I'm not sure why those writers haven't pursued publication with general market presses. Maybe they have, with no success."

It could well be the lack of facial expression and voice intonation that comes with internet correspondance, but I would like to address these statements as I interpreted them.

Dear readers, please do not ever assume that all the best in Christian fiction comes solely from the large Christian publishing houses.

Yes, there are some mainstream publishers now taking on Christian fiction in their imprints, but these places primarily market to the Christian Booksellers Association-affliated bookstores. Point is that whether they are Christian or General market publishers, they will still not readily offer some types of fiction (same old, different name).

And, there are excellent offerings from the small traditional houses, the independent traditional houses and from self-publishers. It is from these places that you will find that which the big boys won't touch and it has nothing to do with quality.

How do I know this, you might ask?

Well, first of all, look around your local bookstore, whether Christian or Barnes & Noble. Do you see Christian sci-fi? Have you ever seen the label Christian horror? I am here to say that these subgenres do exist but not in great numbers nor are they published by the big houses.

Consider these comments:
Jeff Gerke who wrote and worked for Strang Communications, NavPress, and Multnomah said,

"After twelve years of beating my head against the wall, it dawned on me that the entire CBA fiction industry is set up to service a demographic that is not interested in speculative fiction. Nothing against the CBA or that wonderful demographic. But no matter what I tried, so long as this was the demographic those publishers reached, Christian speculative fiction would never become a beloved genre." ("One-of-a-Kind Christian Publishing Company," May 2008)

An acquisitions editor for a major Christian publishing house responded to a post on a popular speculative fiction group blog. The editor publicly stated that more genre fiction would be published if only submitted manuscripts were of a higher-quality. His message was: go out and learn the craft.

Just a few months after the interview, a guild member spoke with the same editor on the phone. The editor (who asked that his name be kept private) admitted that of the five or six excellent science fiction projects that had been pitched to the company's board, all were rejected outright; not because of quality, but simply because they were sci-fi.

Another editor for a different "large" press made this statement:

The ECPA [Evangelical Christian Publishers Association] houses will never publish a book about vampires, or should I say, that contains the word "vampire."

I'd say that these are good enough reasons for novelists of adult fantasy (not the XXX variety!), horror and science fiction (respectful of Christian beliefs) to bypass the big boys. For anyone to suggest these writers should have more patience and wait for large press publication (or that they've been turned down from, as if their work didn't have the quality necessary) is naive, in my opinion.

Christian readers of speculative fiction: look to the small presses as well as the larger ones for your reading selections. And, please read further than the publisher labels.

Lost Genre Guild Promotes ALL Christian Spec-fic

An interesting few days it has been as the Lost Genre Guild was toured by the Christian Science Fiction and Fantasy blog tour. This is a three-part post and at the end I will summarize the tour's impact on/ for the guild. Now, however, I'd like to address an important concern and begin with a quote from Frank Creed the sole founder of the Lost Genre Guild:

At least part of every Christian writer's motivation is bringing glory to God. The Christian publishing world is not as golden-rule as they would have readers believe. There exists an ugly profit-motive double standard, even for genres like Biblical sci-fi that traditional houses won't touch.

Anyone who takes the time to look at LostGenreGuild .com will see that the Guild promotes quality speculative fiction no matter who publishes it. Members of the guild promote the good CBA-approved fiction alongside Indie novels.

It's what we who love the genre must all do, no matter how the prejudice swings. Raising awareness for Christian and Biblical speculative fiction, or any non-CBA genre, is a team effort.

Our art is not about fortune, glory, and power. As long as we allow profiteers and pride to squelch such powerful worldview literary ministries, we're not doing our best for His glory. ("Christian Speculative Fiction in the Publishing Industry," July 2008)

Not news to anyone in the Lost Genre Guild this is what we are all about, promoting the genre and helping each other promote our work.

Rebecca Miller, the mover and shaker behind the CSFF, and a great hard-working proponent for Christian speculative fiction wrote a tour follow-up post at Speculative Faith to address an issue that concerned her—her opinon, in turn, concerned me!

A couple of the bloggers on the tour pointed out that the Guild Review contained reviews of only non-"CBA" books. While on the face, this is true at this point in time, the problem the Guild Review has isn't about excluding "CBA" books—it is a matter of logistics and . . . well, I could go on at length. Check the mission statement of the Guild Review to see that the site isn't elitist.

I mention the Guild Review only because it was comments about the site that "has given [Rebecca Miller] pause." She goes on to say:

But here's the bottom line. Shouldn't we who want to see more Christian speculative fiction support it no matter what form or from what venue it comes to the reader? I don't see the value of segregating traditional from non-traditional. (Speculative Faith, December 2008)

Two things:
First is a note to self: update the LGG website to ensure that everyone who comes by understands that the guild is not elitist. To this end, today I updated the Guild Review to provide a direct link to the mission statement on every page.

Second: I am confused. The only place I don't see segregation of "traditional from non-traditional" is at the Lost Genre Guild. So I do take exception to this statement; let me explain,

The guild was set up to raise awareness about all well-written speculative fiction that is respectful of the Christian worldview. Among our membership, for example, are some of the best-selling fantasy authors published by the big Christian houses—one only needs to look at the LGG Bookshelves to see that our guild doesn't discriminate as far as membership goes.

As our fearless leader and spokesperson, Frank Creed's public statements and promotion of speculative fiction have only ever been inclusionary, however, he does not ignore the inequities of the Christian publishing industry as a whole.

In her post entitled "CSFF Presents: Lost Genre Guild Promotes Christian SFF Beyond Its Group" Karina Fabian, LGG member and CSFF blog tour member said:

One thing Frank [Creed] and others in the LGG have always said is that we're not just here to promote our own works, but the genre in general.

What I would dearly love to see is other sites and organizations do the same: promote well-written works in the genre that are respectful of Christian beliefs and values, no matter what the name or affliation of the publisher.

Welcome to our world

Let's begin our new era of Lost Genre blogging by introducing the world of the Lost Genre Guild, that mysteriously-named group of writers. I'm Grace Bridges, and I'll be compiling this blog with occasional help from other Guild members. If you want to pitch in, just give me a yell!

Why Lost Genre?
We call it lost, but we want it to be found. Hence this blog and the other sites listed below.
It's "lost" because it falls in the gap. Many Christians (not you I hope) don't want weird in their fiction. And there are hard-core sci-fi and fantasy fans who don't want God in their fiction.

But we're that peculiar people who want both God and weird in our fiction. So read on...

The Lost Genre Guild homepage is the central hub for all this activity. Here you'll find a whole lot of interesting stuff. For readers, the yummiest tidbit is no doubt the Bookshelves section, containing a complete list of titles arranged by genre. These books were written or edited by Guild members. If you ever need something to read, this is the place to look.
Don't forget to check out the Catalogue, Resources and Media Room sections, and also the Guild Review for more information about member books.

Then there's the Yahoo group, where the writers of the Guild gather to discuss issues relevant to working in our genre. Not all members are authors; there are several supportive readers in there as well. Don't click that link if you're not a member, because it won't let you in. If you want to be let in, you need to go to the About LGG page on the main site and look for the section on Membership Enquiries. Yes, it's free.

We also have the recently inaugurated Lost Genre Guild Forum, open for discussion and a place to exchange critiques with other writers. Yeah, yeah, I know I said this news blog is mainly aimed at readers, but have you noticed? Readers of our genre often aspire to write it too. And those of us who write it should be reading it as well. It goes both ways.

There's also a Shoutlife group. You need to be logged into Shoutlife to use it, though you can view the page if you're not. We recommend you sign up for Shoutlife in any case. It's a good place to be.

Last and currently least on the list is this very blog, intended as a gathering-place for news from across the genre.

We'll be featuring members' own websites regularly as we continue our dive into the Lost Genre world. Let's see where it goes from here...

...and, we're back!

It's not often a blog is born again. But this one is.

After a year of team blogging (which you can find in the archives) we let it fizzle out. Die a natural death, so to speak.

But the time has come for the Lost Genre Blog to return in a different form. Same address, new content.

What content, I hear you ask?

News.

Where beforehand this blog contained essays by writers and for writers, henceforth it shall bear tidings of the world of the Lost Genre...for readers.

Lord willing, this will be a place for fans of Christian speculative fiction to find what they're looking for, and even what they weren't looking for but will definitely enjoy.

So...if you're a reader, kindly subscribe to this blog. If you're an author, please do likewise, and also send your news to webmaster at lostgenreguild dot com. Do you have an author newsletter? Let us know.

Look out in the next few days for a post containing submission guidelines and the kind of news we want.

Name that Christian SF Title!

Current Christian speculative fiction: how many 2007 titles can you name? Did you ever wonder what new SF has hit or about to hit the market? There are certainly lists of Christian spec fiction around. Jeff Gerke at Where the Map Ends has a great annotated list of titles and earlier this year, the folks at Spec Faith and A Christian Worldview of Fiction compiled a list of the 2006 titles they could recall. But what about a current listing of new fiction?

Johne Cook said earlier this week, "It would be cool if there was a clearinghouse of the latest new fiction in a database, sortable by date, author, genre, etc. As it is, if I don't see it in front of me, I lose sight of what I was waiting for."

The Lost Genre Guild is going to take on this little job and develop a database of the latest in Christian SF, beginning with 2007 titles. But, we need your help! Please list any 2007 Christian SF titles, preferably with date of release, publisher, and short synopsis!

Write the Caption contest!

Back By Popular Demand . . .

This photo is in dire need of a caption;

can you do it justice?

www.lostgenreguild.com

Preview of what's to come!

This week at the Lost Genre Guild Blog . . .

Starting tomorrow, June 5th, the Lost Genre Guild blog will become

Virtual Book Tour & Scavenger Hunt Central as we tour

LIGHT at the edge of DARKNESS

What's it all about?

1. Virtual Book Tour

Various blogs will host LIGHT at the edge of DARKNESS June 5-7 and come tomorrow, a list of these hosts will be posted for you to visit (as well, you can navigate from one blog to another via the list each blogger provides).

a. Simply visit each blog, read their post, and leave a comment -- and you will automatically earn 1 entry (per blog) for the daily draw; return here to the Lost Genre Guild Blog, leave another comment about the most informative tour post and earn an additional entry!

(in order to be eligible, you will have to either sign into your google/ blogger account, or leave your email address with the comment. You can always bot-proof your address by including "at" and "dot" in lieu of @ and .)

b. Daily prize: a copy of Light at the edge of Darkness, a Light t-shirt and beautiful fridge magnet (value over $30).

2. Scavenger Hunt

When you return back to this site to leave a comment about your favourite blog post check out the Scavenger Hunt clues (these will be changed daily).

a. Follow the link provided with each clue, find the answers, and email them to admin@lostgenreguild.com

b. Return June 6 and 7th for new clues (and repeat the process);

c. All entries must be emailed to (and received by) admin@lostgenreguild.com by noon (Eastern) Friday June 8;

d. You can either email the clues daily or wait until the end and email them all at once;

e. only correct entries accompanied by an email address and name will go into the draw.

THE TREASURE!

the Grand Prize will be drawn on Friday June 8th and announced that evening here at Scavenger Hunt Central. Treasure valued at over $65!

3. Contest

On Friday, with the public announcement of the Treasure Winner, look for an announcement about our fun and easy "caption the photo" contest!

Small print:

Contests 1 and 2 not open to Light at the Edge of Darkness contributors nor virtual book tour bloggers. Caption contest open to absolutely everyone!

Review for Light at the Edge of Darkness

Many in the Lost Genre Guild had been awaiting this day: the original release date of Light at the Edge of Darkness. I thought posting a review would be appropriate.

Here's what Kevin Lucia had to say at Infuze Magazine:

Light at the Edge of Darkness
edited by Cynthia MacKinnon:
anthology strives to showcase new work

-----------------------------------------------

A man who's been robbed of his eyes and soon his only son by those demanding he deny Christ, crying out to God for mercy, justice, and sight...and receiving it. A man named Steven caught by a sadistic killer, denying not only his faith, but the tremendous gift he's been given... even though it's his only hope for survival. Futuristic societies in which believing in God is a crime, because all Christians must be registered with the government. Alternate universes who have sworn allegiance to the dark, rather than the One who died for them, and a writer so obsessed with success, he sells his soul to his agent -- and the devil Himself -- to become the next literary great.

If you're lingering on the edge of darkness and you see the light, do you dare cross over to what waits beyond? Or do you lie immobilized by your fears and sins in the dark, until what waits in the shadows claims you?

Light at the Edge of the Darkness, edited by Cynthia MacKinnon, is an interesting and eclectic anthology of dark, speculative tales musing about what goes on in the shadows we don't dare think of in the light of day, and how God's mercy shines at the shadow's edge, beckoning to all, saving some, and judging others. Consisting of genres ranging from science fiction, cyberpunk, fantasy, suspense, and horror, this anthology is a collection of talented writers; some making their first published foray into the writing world, others simply adding to their resume these dark and haunting tales.

Among the notables are stories from writers Frank Creed, Daniel Weaver, and A.P. Fuchs, writers who are clearly making their way in the world of fiction. Both Creed and Weaver are writers/reviewers active in several different book review blog organizations, and Weaver himself is currently seeking a home for his current project, When Nightmares Walk; and AP Fuchs is the creator of the comic book Axiom Man.

Light at the Edge of the Darkness was created by The Lost Genre Guild, a collective of writers who focus on creating a place of Biblical speculative fiction in the publishing world.

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Light at the Edge of Darkness is available for advance ordering at www.thewriterscafepress.com

Order now and receive $1 off retail price and some freebies.