Whether using dragons, firefish or sword-wielding soccer
\nmoms, writers in the emerging category of Christian fantasy fiction are
\nclamoring for a spot in the marketplace.
\nFantasy fiction in general commands a large following and copious
\nreal estate in bookstores. But while Web sites and Christian writing
\nconferences brim with writers working on Christian fantasy, publishers
\nmostly are just starting to open to these new books.
\nThe books may carry overt references to Jesus and Scripture — or
\nsimply an understated Christian perspective with clean content, positive
\nrole models, and unambiguous depictions of good and evil in the style of
\nC.S. Lewis or J.R.R. Tolkien. Writers and fans use the term “Christian
\nspeculative fiction” to include fantasy, science fiction or anything
\nother-worldly.
\nTo raise awareness of Christian fantasy and promote his books, Bryan
\nDavis has spoken to 30,000 kids at public and private schools in the
\nlast year — including 112 talks in two months, and 12 in one day.
\nDavis, a father of seven, writes the “Oracles of Fire,” “Dragons in
\nOur Midst” and forthcoming “Echoes from the Edge” series, all for youth
\naudiences; his newest book, “Enoch’s Ghost,” in the Oracles series, was
\nreleased June 15.
\nThis month, he and three other authors will try to jump-start
\ninterest in Christian fantasy with a nine-day road trip: the Fantastic 4
\nFantasy Fiction Tour, stopping at bookstores, churches and home school
\ngroups in the East and Southeast.
\n“There’s probably a lot of the Christian community that doesn’t even
\ntrust us,” said Davis, who works to counter associations with Satanic or
\nshadowy influences. He also offers Christian readers guidelines for
\nchoosing fantasy books.
\n“One of the main things to look for is whether or not the author has
\na clear delineation of good and evil,” he said.
\nAnother obstacle for Christian fantasy writers, according to Jeff
\nGerke, a fantasy-loving freelance editor who writes novels under the
\npseudonym Jefferson Scott, is that the Christian publishing industry has
\nyet to get behind the genre in a major way. Gerke says there are plenty
\nof readers and writers of Christian speculative fiction out there, but
\nthe Christian presses mostly target evangelical, white women readers —
\nwho don’t tend to be fantasy enthusiasts.
\nPopular Christian fiction stars Jerry Jenkins and Tim LaHaye
\n(co-authors of the “Left Behind” series), Frank Peretti (“This Present
\nDarkness”) and Ted Dekker (“Thr3e”) command front-table display in
\nbookstores, but their success has created little demand from Christian
\npublishers for writers working on similar themes, Gerke said.
\nFor Christian writers who think mainstream presses might be an
\noption, “It’s a very crowded area, and there’s debate about whether if
\nyou write for a secular publisher are you able to be as Christian as you
\nwant to be.”
\nStill, a few new releases include notable Christian fantasy
\nofferings.
\nFrom Harvest House, George Bryan Polivka’s “The Legend of the
\nFirefish” and “The Hand That Bears the Sword” contain overt Christian
\nthemes; its hero is a failed seminarian struggling with his faith.
\nPolivka said his work is not typical fantasy. “In fact, there’s no magic
\nin it. There are lots of movements of God — miracles that happen at
\njust the right moment.”
\nSharon Hinck’s “The Restorer,” first in a “Sword of Lyric” series
\naimed at women, is told through the voice of Susan Mitchell, a mother of
\nfour who is disenchanted with her ordinary life and wants to be like the
\nbiblical Deborah. Then Mitchell is dropped into an alternate world where
\npeople think she might be a Restorer, someone “with gifts to defeat our
\nenemies and turn the people’s hearts back to the Verses,” the books
\nsays.
\nThe same publisher, NavPress, also released Tosca Lee’s “Demon: A
\nMemoir.” And July brings “DragonFire,” the latest in Donita K. Paul’s
\n“DragonKeeper Chronicles” youth series.
\nGinia Hairston, a vice president for Random House’s WaterBrook
\ndivision, said “there is a God type figure (in Paul’s books) but he is
\nnot referred to as God. There are evil characters that certainly are not
\nreferred to as demons.”
\nIn September, WaterBrook plans to release “Auralia’s Colors,” first
\nin Jeffrey Overstreet’s “The Auralia Thread” series, and next March will
\npublish Christian singer-songwriter Andrew Peterson’s “Lost Jewels of
\nthe Island King.”
\nDavis, the “Oracles of Fire” author, believes the proliferation of
\nwriters working on Christian fantasy serves as a barometer of the supply
\nof readers hungry for it. The power of the fantasy genre, he said, is
\nits ability to create situations for heroism.
\n“Fantasy opens up the kind of vision,” he said, “to be able to see
\nbeyond where we are.”<\/p>\n
\nJuli Cragg Hilliard
\nRNS<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Whether using dragons, firefish or sword-wielding soccer moms, writers in the emerging category of Christian fantasy fiction are clamoring for a spot in the marketplace. Fantasy fiction in general commands a large following and copious real estate in bookstores. But while Web sites and Christian writing conferences brim with writers working on Christian fantasy, publishers…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n