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Is writing Christian speculative and scientific fiction wrong?
by Marie Grossett Before I came into this industry I was very wary about reading Christian speculative (thrillers, mystery, fantasy) and scientific based books, simply because they weren't 'holy' enough for me. To my understanding Christian books were supposed to be about God, forget about all this drama we shouldn't be writing about books that were suited to the secular market. When I became an agent assistant I was even more wary about this genre, and I was surprise when the agent I was working for started representing books like these. It really got to me so I questioned her about it, her response was, "We like to read about the nice things, act like we're holier than thou. But we forget in the Bible there is a murder, demons, giants, nephilim we tend to overlook the not so pleasant parts but they are mentioned.' She then went onto say, 'There is nothing wrong with speculative or sci-fi Christian fiction as long as they have an allegory of a biblical aspect, no foul language then they are actually very entertaining you should try reading one.' "No thanks," I said still unconvinced about this type of genre. It was when, through God's help I set up The Authors Care Services, I began to see this genre in a whole new light. Upon reading one of my authors Heather Letto manuscript, I realised it came under the sci-fi category. "You need to keep an open mind Vanessa," I thought. But as I went on reading I found the story so entertaining plus it had Christian related themes. I was pleasantly surprised on how much I enjoyed reading this. "Maybe sci-fi is not that bad after all, I may have changed my mind about sci-fi but I'm certainly not going to change my mind about speculative fiction." Well I spoke too soon I read Brita Skinner's DayBreaker which is part of the Nightlife series, this was an instance success, it contained spiritual warfare and mentioned the nephilim each chapter became more and more likable. "Okay so I've changed my mind about speculative fiction." So in answer to the question, is writing Christian based speculative and scientific fiction wrong? No and I'm not being bias, remember I was very cautious about this type of genre. As Pauline states there are murders, nephilim and giants mentioned in the Bible. As Christians we tend to overlook these because we are uncomfortable discussing them. My advice is to keep an open mind about this type of genre as they are becoming increasingly popular. I believe you could also learn something from them as extensive research is carried out to get the book as close to scripture as possible, since we do not want to misinterpret God's word. You never know once you have read, your view on speculative and scientific Christian fiction may never be the same again. For more information about Brita and DayBreaker please visit http://britaskinner.wix.com/britaskinner For more information about Heather Letto please visit http://www.heatherletto.com/#! Marie Grossett aka Vanessa Grossett is a published Author, and has interviewed best selling and award winning Christian Authors. She is a Literary Agent at The Authors Care Services ltd. www.theauthorscare.co.uk [email protected] Article Source: http://www.faithwriters.com |