"Frank Creed is a Fundamentalist Christian and writer of fantasy and sci-fi ( Speculative Fiction ). Frank Creed has a Christian Speculative Fiction novella published in
Tales for the Thrifty Barbarian: An Anthology of High Fantasy and three short stories in Light at the Edge of Darkness. His Christian cyberpunk novel Flashpoint was
released in September 2007; Flashpoint's sequel will be available winter 2009. An avid fan of sci-fi and fantasy, Speculative Fiction is the vehicle that Frank uses to
deliver his beliefs and spiritual philosophy to readers. This "Lost Genre" remains very controversial in the Christian Fundamentalist community and Frank Creed and
other authors of Christian Speculative Fiction are the new kids on the block. They will likely spread the Christian message to a greater number of people because they
are willing to follow His voice and use the gifts He has given. To this end, Frank has created the "Lost Genre Guild" an organization to help promote Biblical speculative
fiction and assist fans in locating the best in the genre." Learn more about the Lost Genre Guild at www.lostgenreguild.com.
Editor,
The Writers' Cafe Press
Tales for the Thrifty Barbarian: An Anthology of High Fantasy and three short stories in Light at the Edge of Darkness. His Christian cyberpunk novel Flashpoint was
released in September 2007; Flashpoint's sequel will be available winter 2009. An avid fan of sci-fi and fantasy, Speculative Fiction is the vehicle that Frank uses to
deliver his beliefs and spiritual philosophy to readers. This "Lost Genre" remains very controversial in the Christian Fundamentalist community and Frank Creed and
other authors of Christian Speculative Fiction are the new kids on the block. They will likely spread the Christian message to a greater number of people because they
are willing to follow His voice and use the gifts He has given. To this end, Frank has created the "Lost Genre Guild" an organization to help promote Biblical speculative
fiction and assist fans in locating the best in the genre." Learn more about the Lost Genre Guild at www.lostgenreguild.com.
Editor,
The Writers' Cafe Press
| The Rise of Christian Speculative Fiction |
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Chronicles of Narnia and Space Trilogy graced the lonely shelf. Every modern genre author credits Lewis as their inspiration for
good reason: he's all that genre fans could find.
In the seventies and eighties of my childhood, Mom would take me into the local Christian bookstores, and I'd straight-edge for
the fiction shelves. After years of only finding Lewis' titles, I stopped looking in Christian stores. My favorite fiction came from
secular stores.
I'd given up in the early eighties—about a year before Steven Lawhead's Empyrion was published. After Peretti's Darkness books
came out, I hopefully scanned Christian shelves again for a couple more years before abandoning hope. Obviously this was a once
per decade event.
A year ago the only Christian spec-fic authors of which I'd ever heard were Lewis, Peretti, Dekker, and arguably, Jenkins. Since
then, I've discovered dozens of Christian spec-fic authors on the Web. I formed the Lost Genre Guild in September of 2006, and
we've erected a respectable Web infrastructure for the promotion of our favorite fiction. Genre fans, read on for a killer link with
more traditionally published titles than you'd ever dreamed existed.
Some spec-fic sub-genres have recently broken the CBA (Christian Booksellers Association) publishing dam.
* Doors opened for Christian fantasy after the Lord of the Rings films scored at the Box-Office.
* Genre purists and book-retailers don't lump horror into the genre, but the definition of setting and characters does. The
race we call "angels" are supernatural extra-dimensional beings. At some point when nobody was looking, some creative librarian
tacked up a "spiritual thrillers" label on the shelf that ought to have read "horror." "Spiritual thrillers" sounds more like Hannibal
Lecter sitting across a confessional from Clarisse Starling than fallen angels under the bed, but at least the belief system that
inspired The Exorcist is also moving forward. I wonder if The Prophecy series of films, featuring Christopher Walken, didn't also
have an effect. And Anne Rice accepting Christ surely looked good to the CBA world.
That leaves one of spec-fic's three main sub-genres still floundering behind the dam: science fiction. I believe there are several
reasons for this. There have been no sci-fi cross-over films or popular culture fiction to shoehorn publishers into risking bets on
new authors. Many view Christianity and science to be a contradiction in terms. Sci-fi's been such an anti-Christian world-view
genre it's no real surprise that mothers dodge children around the aisle.
You've just read introduction to a four part series that will explore the concept of Christian science fiction.
Because you're still reading, you get a cookie! The most complete Biblical spec-fic book store I've ever found belongs to Jeff
Gerke, AKA novelist Jefferson Scott. Any genre fan will want to see and bookmark this site of Lost Genre novels: www.
wherethemapends
Reprint from Frank Creed's The Christian Writer's Notebook
good reason: he's all that genre fans could find.
In the seventies and eighties of my childhood, Mom would take me into the local Christian bookstores, and I'd straight-edge for
the fiction shelves. After years of only finding Lewis' titles, I stopped looking in Christian stores. My favorite fiction came from
secular stores.
I'd given up in the early eighties—about a year before Steven Lawhead's Empyrion was published. After Peretti's Darkness books
came out, I hopefully scanned Christian shelves again for a couple more years before abandoning hope. Obviously this was a once
per decade event.
A year ago the only Christian spec-fic authors of which I'd ever heard were Lewis, Peretti, Dekker, and arguably, Jenkins. Since
then, I've discovered dozens of Christian spec-fic authors on the Web. I formed the Lost Genre Guild in September of 2006, and
we've erected a respectable Web infrastructure for the promotion of our favorite fiction. Genre fans, read on for a killer link with
more traditionally published titles than you'd ever dreamed existed.
Some spec-fic sub-genres have recently broken the CBA (Christian Booksellers Association) publishing dam.
* Doors opened for Christian fantasy after the Lord of the Rings films scored at the Box-Office.
* Genre purists and book-retailers don't lump horror into the genre, but the definition of setting and characters does. The
race we call "angels" are supernatural extra-dimensional beings. At some point when nobody was looking, some creative librarian
tacked up a "spiritual thrillers" label on the shelf that ought to have read "horror." "Spiritual thrillers" sounds more like Hannibal
Lecter sitting across a confessional from Clarisse Starling than fallen angels under the bed, but at least the belief system that
inspired The Exorcist is also moving forward. I wonder if The Prophecy series of films, featuring Christopher Walken, didn't also
have an effect. And Anne Rice accepting Christ surely looked good to the CBA world.
That leaves one of spec-fic's three main sub-genres still floundering behind the dam: science fiction. I believe there are several
reasons for this. There have been no sci-fi cross-over films or popular culture fiction to shoehorn publishers into risking bets on
new authors. Many view Christianity and science to be a contradiction in terms. Sci-fi's been such an anti-Christian world-view
genre it's no real surprise that mothers dodge children around the aisle.
You've just read introduction to a four part series that will explore the concept of Christian science fiction.
Because you're still reading, you get a cookie! The most complete Biblical spec-fic book store I've ever found belongs to Jeff
Gerke, AKA novelist Jefferson Scott. Any genre fan will want to see and bookmark this site of Lost Genre novels: www.
wherethemapends
Reprint from Frank Creed's The Christian Writer's Notebook
