Sunday NoitcelfeR

Ste. Chapelle

 It's slush time, which means I will spend the next month reading hopeful submissions to Abyss&Apex. I enjoy this time so much. It allows me to get my head out of my own little fictional world and peek around at what happens in other writers' heads.

Oddly, in the first dozen stories I read, two of them offered theological suppositions about the nature of God and the afterlife. One good, one cute.

Long ago, someone asked me why I don't write Christian fiction. By that, she meant chaste romance novels, or the Oke historicals, or even This Present Darkness-type fantasy. I have nothing against those books (well, except for the assertation that paddling is an acceptable, Bible-endorsed practice), but it's not what I'm called to do. 

I did have plans, at one point, for a series based on our experiences with a teen rock choir at church (the fictional choir was called God'Zone), but when I spec'ed it out to various Christian publishers, it was rejected basically because our Spirit-centered, prayer-centered teens didn't conform to their comfortable conservative Christianity. This was back in the '70s and '80s, when Christian rock music was still banned from Christian radio, and before Word took over all Christian radio and determined who was "worthy" to be aired, based on contracts, legal rights, and a lot of IP theft on their part. Don't get me started on the issue of IP theft on their part.

I do write Christian fiction, in the sense that my books reflect my perspective of Christianity and knowledge of church history, along with the vicarious theological studies I did when Jack was in seminary that helped me arrive at my particular perspective. My first fantasy series was steeped in the argument of faith / belief vs religion. The Twins of Bellesfées reckon with theology in every book as they comb through the Catacombs, play hostess to homosexuals and vampires, or figure out which powers make witches, according to the Church with a capital C.

I'm an unapologetic Christian, and I'm perfectly willing to offer my apology of my theology, but you can also figure it out by reading my works. Which I hope you'll be able to do soon.