Nearly everyone owns an anthology
of famous short fiction, but new
short fiction collections, like Leaps
of Faith, are neglected not only by
readers, but also by most in the
publishing world. When I discovered
Infinite Space, Infinite God, edited
by Karina and Robert Fabian, my
bandanna twirled. Contributors
include scientists and professors,
and all demonstrate excellent short
story ability.
Karina Fabian has a bad habit of
following her heart. She knows that
novels are a much easier sell, yet
she can't stop compiling collections
of excellent Christian science-fiction
short stories. So letʼs have an
intervention, and see if Karina needs
a twelve-step program.
of famous short fiction, but new
short fiction collections, like Leaps
of Faith, are neglected not only by
readers, but also by most in the
publishing world. When I discovered
Infinite Space, Infinite God, edited
by Karina and Robert Fabian, my
bandanna twirled. Contributors
include scientists and professors,
and all demonstrate excellent short
story ability.
Karina Fabian has a bad habit of
following her heart. She knows that
novels are a much easier sell, yet
she can't stop compiling collections
of excellent Christian science-fiction
short stories. So letʼs have an
intervention, and see if Karina needs
a twelve-step program.
FC: Anthologies like Infinite Space, Infinite God and Leaps of Faith don’t sell like novels. Many organizations won’t even
review them. What possesses you? Why can’t you quit?
KF: Well, I wouldn't say that I can't quit. Right now, we (my husband and co-editor, Rob, and I) have two anthologies out—
Infinite Space, Infinite God I and Leaps of Faith—and are working on Infinite Space, Infinite God II. However, Rob and I
learned that large presses generally don’t want the kind of anthologies we compile, and small presses don't pay much of an
advance. That means we're shelling out hundreds of dollars for the stories, then for marketing. Unless we see some better
sales of the existing books—and believe me, we're working on it—ISIG II may be the last.
FC: Sorry to start the interview on such a bummer note, but the key here is: Readers, if you like this kind of book, you have
to give it more than just moral support.
KF: To the rest of your question: Rob and I really just happened into anthology writing, beginning with the request of
Kathryn Lively, who then owned a small e-press called FrancisIsidore. She helped us compile Leaps of Faith and published it
as an e-book. It was an EPPIE 2004 finalist, but she moved on to other things and folded the company. In 2008, we found The
Writers Café Press, who put Leaps out in print.
In the search for a print publisher, however, I had sent Leaps to a Catholic press, Ignatius. Mark Brumley, the publisher,
loved the concept, but the stories weren't all Catholic. Rob and I took a chance and sent out calls for specifically Catholic
SF stories. Infinite Space, Infinite God was born. We even added some scholarly-type articles about the Church to introduce
the stories and maybe make it more in keeping with Ignatius' mission. However, Ignatius wasn't ready to take on SF after all.
We found a small press, Twilight Times, who loved it, however. Lida Quillen, the publisher, is terrific. She has a lot of faith in
the book and asked us to compile a second anthology.
So what possesses me to compile these? The encouragement of people in the publishing world who believe there is an
audience out there. Now, we just need to reach those readers—and convince them to make good our belief.
FC: Leaps of Faith includes both Catholic and Protestant authors. Have you experienced any Protestant discrimination while
writing and marketing these anthologies?
KF: LOL. You know I have. We had one author who felt there were too many "Catholic" stories and that it reflected the
religious beliefs of us the editors. In fact, many of those "too-Catholic" stories were written by non-Catholics. As they will tell
you, the Catholic Church, because of its visual appeal, clearly stated (if not always understood) doctrines, it hierarchy—even
the fact that the priests have collars—make it a great literary device. However, overall, people have been very supportive of
the work—in fact, most of the time, I am confronted with the rumor of Christians being against sci-fi than I am of the actual
fact.
An interesting counterpoint to this is that we've had some agnostics/atheists who have said outright, "I'm not Christian, but I
thought this was a great book." We were interested, not in preaching Christian beliefs of any denomination, but of exploring
the positive interaction of faith and science in the future. Obviously, when an open-minded reader gives the book a chance,
they say we've succeeded.
FC: How do you find such great stories? Where do you find these authors?
KF: Have to credit Kat Lively with that. She put out calls to ralan and duotrope and other places I'd never heard of at the
time. I joined some Yahoo groups and put the calls out there. We had some real stinkers of submissions—I remember a lot of
people wanted to clone Jesus and none of them could make a compelling story of it—but there were some diamonds. Some
were SFWA members (which was an honor) and others were talented first-timers. Several have written stories for ISIG as well.
(And yes, some of them are not Catholic. Frankly, we never asked anyone what religion they practiced. We were looking for
the faith in the story, not the writer. After all, this is sci-fi, but we didn’t demand to see anyone's physics degree.)
FC: Do you find advantages in marketing science fiction to the Catholic crowd?
KF: Not really, actually. I run in both crowds with equal ease so it's never been an issue. The bigger bias I come across has
nothing to do with religion: it's the "Oh, I'm not smart enough to read science fiction" attitude. Like you need a PhD to read
about a nun scared to step outside her spaceship ("Leap of Faith") or a test pilot lost in space and desperately trying to fix
his damaged ship ("High Hopes for the Dead").
FC: Will there be any Leaps of Faith II, and if so, should friends pressure you to seek professional help?
KF: I think that will depend on how well our readers support us by purchasing copies of Leaps for themselves...their
friends...their clergy...
Professional help? Hey, you want to spring for a professional publicist, I'm there! Otherwise, the best help my friends (and
fans—do we have fans?) can give is to go to their bookstore and ask them to stock a couple of copies.
FC: Please tell us about your pet dragon named Vern, and any other fiction projects that you and Robert are crafting.
KF: Never call Vern my "pet." He has only been a "pet" once and that was to the Faerie Pope Pius (the Only), back after St.
George (of Faerie) had put a spell on him that took away his powers and grandeur until he was little more than an intelligent
and good looking Gila monster, as Vern would say. Since then, he's been trying to earn back all his dragon greatness by
serving God and His creatures.
Currently, Vern is a dragon from the Faerie universe now living as a private detective in our universe. He has a partner, a
Faerie mage and nun, Sister Grace. Together they solve mysteries, find lost items, save the worlds...whatever brings in a buck
or does the most good. (Vern prefers when the case does both.) It's been nearly 900 years since St. George, and he's earned
back a great deal of his wisdom, some of his magic, his ability to fly and his fire. (He's especially happy about that one.) He's
sarcastic and cynical, naturally sure of his own superiority and a ton of fun to write about. Grace has a magical singing voice—
in both senses of the word—and a strong sense of humor, which is necessary to live with Vern.
I have several stories written about him and two DragonEye, PI novels coming out this year: Magic, Mensa and Mayhem and
Live and Let Fly. I intend to write a lot more. You can learn more about him, Sister Grace and their adventures at their
website, www.dragoneyepi.net. If you like what you see, register on the site, and you'll get the DragonEye, PI newsletter, A
Dragon's Eye View, with a little about them, the Faerie and my adventures writing, plus news and special offers on DragonEye
stories and stuff.
Other projects: Infinite Space, Infinite God II goes to Twilight Times Monday (Jan 5), and Lida wants final say on all the
stories. We're pretty confident. The book is radically different in tone from ISIG I, but has some terrific stuff! Like Rob says,
these are stories you want on your shelf because you'll want to read them again. In addition, I'm working on a sci-fi novel,
Discovery, which features three nuns from the Order of Our Lady of the Rescue, which readers will recognize from stories in
ISIG I and ISIG II. Rob, on the other hand, has a fellowship to Rand Corporation for the Air Force (Los Angeles, here we
come!) and will spend the next year using that fellowship to write the space control book he's wanted to write for over a
decade.
FC: You and I are both presenting workshops for the Catholic Writer's Conference Online (Protestants like me are welcome,
y'all). It's free and includes pitch sessions with publishers. Please tell us more.
KF: This is our second year doing this conference; last year was a blast! We have authors and editors from all over the
Catholic and Christian publishing world—from Vinita Wright of Loyola Press to Devon Ellington, who has published in multiple
genres under multiple names—to talk about everything from idea generation to marketing your novels. Sponsored by the
Catholic Writers' Guild, there is a strong Catholic slant to many of the presentations—we even have one on Canon Law for the
Catholic writer—but there are also chats and workshops on character development, editing, plotting, finding markets... Over
50 presentations through the week. In addition we have four confirmed and maybe six total publishers who will hear pitches.
This will be like a pitch session you might find in a live conference, just via chat room. Only 5-7 people per publisher will get
this chance, so there is separate registration for this, and those applying must ensure they are meeting the publisher's needs.
The conference is run via our website, www.catholicwritersconference.net using live chat rooms and a forum. It's a great
opportunity to learn more about the craft, meet like-minded authors, and get yourself and your works known.
Registration for the conference closes Jan 15. Go to www.catholicwritersconference.com and register on the website. It's
that easy.
FC: I admire both your confidence and your craft. It's an honor to feature your fiction. Thank you for taking time for this
interview.
KF: Thanks, Frank!
review them. What possesses you? Why can’t you quit?
KF: Well, I wouldn't say that I can't quit. Right now, we (my husband and co-editor, Rob, and I) have two anthologies out—
Infinite Space, Infinite God I and Leaps of Faith—and are working on Infinite Space, Infinite God II. However, Rob and I
learned that large presses generally don’t want the kind of anthologies we compile, and small presses don't pay much of an
advance. That means we're shelling out hundreds of dollars for the stories, then for marketing. Unless we see some better
sales of the existing books—and believe me, we're working on it—ISIG II may be the last.
FC: Sorry to start the interview on such a bummer note, but the key here is: Readers, if you like this kind of book, you have
to give it more than just moral support.
KF: To the rest of your question: Rob and I really just happened into anthology writing, beginning with the request of
Kathryn Lively, who then owned a small e-press called FrancisIsidore. She helped us compile Leaps of Faith and published it
as an e-book. It was an EPPIE 2004 finalist, but she moved on to other things and folded the company. In 2008, we found The
Writers Café Press, who put Leaps out in print.
In the search for a print publisher, however, I had sent Leaps to a Catholic press, Ignatius. Mark Brumley, the publisher,
loved the concept, but the stories weren't all Catholic. Rob and I took a chance and sent out calls for specifically Catholic
SF stories. Infinite Space, Infinite God was born. We even added some scholarly-type articles about the Church to introduce
the stories and maybe make it more in keeping with Ignatius' mission. However, Ignatius wasn't ready to take on SF after all.
We found a small press, Twilight Times, who loved it, however. Lida Quillen, the publisher, is terrific. She has a lot of faith in
the book and asked us to compile a second anthology.
So what possesses me to compile these? The encouragement of people in the publishing world who believe there is an
audience out there. Now, we just need to reach those readers—and convince them to make good our belief.
FC: Leaps of Faith includes both Catholic and Protestant authors. Have you experienced any Protestant discrimination while
writing and marketing these anthologies?
KF: LOL. You know I have. We had one author who felt there were too many "Catholic" stories and that it reflected the
religious beliefs of us the editors. In fact, many of those "too-Catholic" stories were written by non-Catholics. As they will tell
you, the Catholic Church, because of its visual appeal, clearly stated (if not always understood) doctrines, it hierarchy—even
the fact that the priests have collars—make it a great literary device. However, overall, people have been very supportive of
the work—in fact, most of the time, I am confronted with the rumor of Christians being against sci-fi than I am of the actual
fact.
An interesting counterpoint to this is that we've had some agnostics/atheists who have said outright, "I'm not Christian, but I
thought this was a great book." We were interested, not in preaching Christian beliefs of any denomination, but of exploring
the positive interaction of faith and science in the future. Obviously, when an open-minded reader gives the book a chance,
they say we've succeeded.
FC: How do you find such great stories? Where do you find these authors?
KF: Have to credit Kat Lively with that. She put out calls to ralan and duotrope and other places I'd never heard of at the
time. I joined some Yahoo groups and put the calls out there. We had some real stinkers of submissions—I remember a lot of
people wanted to clone Jesus and none of them could make a compelling story of it—but there were some diamonds. Some
were SFWA members (which was an honor) and others were talented first-timers. Several have written stories for ISIG as well.
(And yes, some of them are not Catholic. Frankly, we never asked anyone what religion they practiced. We were looking for
the faith in the story, not the writer. After all, this is sci-fi, but we didn’t demand to see anyone's physics degree.)
FC: Do you find advantages in marketing science fiction to the Catholic crowd?
KF: Not really, actually. I run in both crowds with equal ease so it's never been an issue. The bigger bias I come across has
nothing to do with religion: it's the "Oh, I'm not smart enough to read science fiction" attitude. Like you need a PhD to read
about a nun scared to step outside her spaceship ("Leap of Faith") or a test pilot lost in space and desperately trying to fix
his damaged ship ("High Hopes for the Dead").
FC: Will there be any Leaps of Faith II, and if so, should friends pressure you to seek professional help?
KF: I think that will depend on how well our readers support us by purchasing copies of Leaps for themselves...their
friends...their clergy...
Professional help? Hey, you want to spring for a professional publicist, I'm there! Otherwise, the best help my friends (and
fans—do we have fans?) can give is to go to their bookstore and ask them to stock a couple of copies.
FC: Please tell us about your pet dragon named Vern, and any other fiction projects that you and Robert are crafting.
KF: Never call Vern my "pet." He has only been a "pet" once and that was to the Faerie Pope Pius (the Only), back after St.
George (of Faerie) had put a spell on him that took away his powers and grandeur until he was little more than an intelligent
and good looking Gila monster, as Vern would say. Since then, he's been trying to earn back all his dragon greatness by
serving God and His creatures.
Currently, Vern is a dragon from the Faerie universe now living as a private detective in our universe. He has a partner, a
Faerie mage and nun, Sister Grace. Together they solve mysteries, find lost items, save the worlds...whatever brings in a buck
or does the most good. (Vern prefers when the case does both.) It's been nearly 900 years since St. George, and he's earned
back a great deal of his wisdom, some of his magic, his ability to fly and his fire. (He's especially happy about that one.) He's
sarcastic and cynical, naturally sure of his own superiority and a ton of fun to write about. Grace has a magical singing voice—
in both senses of the word—and a strong sense of humor, which is necessary to live with Vern.
I have several stories written about him and two DragonEye, PI novels coming out this year: Magic, Mensa and Mayhem and
Live and Let Fly. I intend to write a lot more. You can learn more about him, Sister Grace and their adventures at their
website, www.dragoneyepi.net. If you like what you see, register on the site, and you'll get the DragonEye, PI newsletter, A
Dragon's Eye View, with a little about them, the Faerie and my adventures writing, plus news and special offers on DragonEye
stories and stuff.
Other projects: Infinite Space, Infinite God II goes to Twilight Times Monday (Jan 5), and Lida wants final say on all the
stories. We're pretty confident. The book is radically different in tone from ISIG I, but has some terrific stuff! Like Rob says,
these are stories you want on your shelf because you'll want to read them again. In addition, I'm working on a sci-fi novel,
Discovery, which features three nuns from the Order of Our Lady of the Rescue, which readers will recognize from stories in
ISIG I and ISIG II. Rob, on the other hand, has a fellowship to Rand Corporation for the Air Force (Los Angeles, here we
come!) and will spend the next year using that fellowship to write the space control book he's wanted to write for over a
decade.
FC: You and I are both presenting workshops for the Catholic Writer's Conference Online (Protestants like me are welcome,
y'all). It's free and includes pitch sessions with publishers. Please tell us more.
KF: This is our second year doing this conference; last year was a blast! We have authors and editors from all over the
Catholic and Christian publishing world—from Vinita Wright of Loyola Press to Devon Ellington, who has published in multiple
genres under multiple names—to talk about everything from idea generation to marketing your novels. Sponsored by the
Catholic Writers' Guild, there is a strong Catholic slant to many of the presentations—we even have one on Canon Law for the
Catholic writer—but there are also chats and workshops on character development, editing, plotting, finding markets... Over
50 presentations through the week. In addition we have four confirmed and maybe six total publishers who will hear pitches.
This will be like a pitch session you might find in a live conference, just via chat room. Only 5-7 people per publisher will get
this chance, so there is separate registration for this, and those applying must ensure they are meeting the publisher's needs.
The conference is run via our website, www.catholicwritersconference.net using live chat rooms and a forum. It's a great
opportunity to learn more about the craft, meet like-minded authors, and get yourself and your works known.
Registration for the conference closes Jan 15. Go to www.catholicwritersconference.com and register on the website. It's
that easy.
FC: I admire both your confidence and your craft. It's an honor to feature your fiction. Thank you for taking time for this
interview.
KF: Thanks, Frank!
Click on Leaps of Faith book
cover for description, author
bios and to purchase a copy.
Of course, you can also
purchase it at Barnes & Noble
or Amazon.com, but we're
not keen on amazon.
LEAPS OF FAITH
ISBN: 978-1-934284-10-0
Editors Karina & Robert Fabian
The Writers' Cafe Press
Nov. 2008; Retail Price: $12.95
cover for description, author
bios and to purchase a copy.
Of course, you can also
purchase it at Barnes & Noble
or Amazon.com, but we're
not keen on amazon.
LEAPS OF FAITH
ISBN: 978-1-934284-10-0
Editors Karina & Robert Fabian
The Writers' Cafe Press
Nov. 2008; Retail Price: $12.95
 |  |  |  |
