Interview & Giveaway with Author P.A. Baines

It's my pleasure to welcome Splashdown Books author P. A. Baines to the blog today!

Q:  What was your inspiration for Alpha Redemption?
A:  Would you believe, atheism? I was heavily involved with discussing and debating Christianity with atheists on various Internet sites. It was suggested on more than one occasion that belief in God is irrational. That got me wondering what a purely logical creature would think if it read the Bible. At that moment one the main characters of Alpha Redemption, Jay, was born.

Q:  How do you come up with your story ideas?
A:  Usually it is a single scene that comes to mind, often while reading a book. I do almost all of my reading using audio books, and I often find my thoughts wandering. Sometimes an interesting scenario comes to mind, and sometimes that grows into a complete story.

Q:  How does your faith impact your writing?
A:  It is at the very core of my writing. I do not just want to write "stories". Rather, I want to glorify God through my work. He is at the center of what I try to do.

Q:  How long does it take you to complete a novel? How many drafts do you go through?
A:  The first draft of Alpha Redemption took three months. Add to that, two months of thinking about the plot, and another six months of revisions and editing, so about one year in total. My current story, on the other hand, was one I started five years ago but never got beyond the first chapter. The number of drafts tends to be quite low for me because I always edit my first drafts as I go. So, really, my first draft is more like a third draft.

Q:  After becoming a published author, what surprised you the most?
A:  The biggest surprise was that selling your story is as difficult (if not more so) than finding a publisher. People are generally quite reluctant to take a chance on an unknown author, so it is an uphill struggle. Good reviews help, but that does not necessarily mean people are going to rush out and buy your book.

Q:  What event, writer, or book has most impacted your writing life?
A:  I think "On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft" by Stephen King had the biggest impact on me as a writer because it showed just how difficult it can be to get published, even for someone as gifted as Stephen King. It also showed me that being "gifted" is not what it takes to be a good writer. You have to work hard and push on, even when the rejection letters come. So often we read about people hitting the big time with their first novel, of finding a publisher without even looking, but these cases are extremely rare and we should not look to them as examples of how the industry works. To be a writer, you have to be prepared for a lot of hard work and a lot of rejection. If you don't have a thick skin when you start out, you certainly will by the time you see your book on the shelves.

Q:  What’s the one far out sci-fi technology you’d most like to see become a household item?

A:  Anti-gravity devices. I think they would transform our lives. While this is something I would love to see, I am not convinced that it would be beneficial for everyone. Can you imagine how lazy it might make us? I think far more of us would become couch-potatoes if anti-gravity suits became available at our local supermarkets.

Thanks for visiting with us today, Paul!


ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Paul writes science fiction that is both contemplative and profound. Educated in Africa, he works as an analyst/programmer and is studying towards a degree in Creative Writing through Buckinghamshire New University in England. He currently lives in a small corner of the Netherlands with his wife and two children and various wildlife.
Visit his website at www.pabaines.com. He is also a member of the New Authors' Fellowship.

ABOUT THE BOOK - Alpha Redemption
From despair he fled, through tragedy he lived on, and journeyed to innocence.

His trajectory: the stars. His companion: a computer poised at the brink of sentience.

An unlikely friendship on a prototype spaceship at lightspeed towards Alpha Centauri, and redemption.


WIN THE BOOK
If you’d like to be entered to win the e-book, Alpha Redemption, just leave a comment on this blog. I’ll pick a winner at random on Tuesday, August 23rd. Please leave an email address so I can contact you if you're the winner. (To prevent spammers from trolling for your email, please use this format with the brackets--you [at] yourmail [dot] com--or something similar.)

Fantasy Makes Christianity More Real by R.L. Copple

“Really?” you may ask. “How can that which is not real make reality more real?” A good question that I will seek to answer.

In the interest of full disclosure, I write Christian-based science fiction and fantasy. I have two fantasy books out from Splashdown Books with one more book to follow next year. Reality’s Dawn is a novel-sized set of stories about Sisko, who is given a task to “be his brother’s keeper” and the power to do so through a miracle enabling-ring. Through his experiences, his relationship with God is tested as he works to avoid the ring’s curse. Reality’s Ascent follows Sisko twenty years after the first book, now married with children, but a demon seeks out his ring, imprisons Sisko’s wife in a crystal that can only be unlocked by finding seven keys by people exhibiting a virtue, which sends Sisko and his two children, Kaylee and Nathan, on a quest that tests their character and souls.

I know there is a segment of Christians out there who automatically dismiss anything in those genres, either because they distrust anything that comes from imagination, or they have labeled such as a “lie,” or simply fear that giving credence to fantasy elements linked with God will make people feel God is a fantasy as well. Others see no value in what appears to be pure entertainment.

So what has moved me to write fantasy like the above books despite those objections?

If you’ve read much science fiction or fantasy, you’ll see a lot of secular influence, or in fantasy’s case, often some pagan influence. Fantasy specifically used to be dominated by Christians. Whether we’re talking about “Pilgrim’s Progress,” “Chronicles of Narnia,” “Lord of the Rings,” or many other such examples, the Church has had a history of writing good Christian-based fantasy, sometimes more overt, sometimes more subtle. But in recent decades, it seems due to the aversion many Christians have taken to such works, there has been a dearth of good Christian writers. Some of that is changing, I believe, but during the last century we left those genres of fiction to the secularist and the pagans.

And I believe this has resulted from the acceptance in the Church of a secular way of looking at life: over here is the sacred, and over there is the secular, and we can’t allow the two sides to intersect with each other or the sacred will be tainted and no longer sacred. But the problem is, this creates a realm where God cannot have influence, lest He become “unholy,” as if that could ever happen. Yet, isn’t that what we’re saying? Traditionally the Church has seen God as the source of all, and the only one who can make anything holy and sanctified for His purpose. God was understood to be involved in all areas of our life, so even the Israelites when it didn’t rain for a long time and their crops failed, didn’t look to any scientific explanation to explain that, because they weren’t interested in the “how.” They were interested in the “why.” And the “why” usually involved God.

Today, we label such things as “superstitions.” And sometimes for sure God wasn’t trying to say anything to people just because of the weather or a disaster. Such Jesus pointed out concerning the tower that fell upon people, that it wasn’t due to their sins that such a tragedy befell them, but just chance due to a fallen world. But sometimes God is using such things to speak to us, as when He had Elijah pray to prevent it from raining in Israel until Ahab gave into God’s demands. While I’m not promoting that we spiritualize everything, it is obvious that our secular culture has influenced us to the point that there are areas that are now off limits to God. And for many Christians, one of those areas if fantasy.

But fantasy goes against the secular grain. It posits worlds where miracles happen, where God influences everything, is Lord over everything, including “magic” or “wizards.” It expands the realm of “what’s possible” to include God’s miracles, because if we can’t imagine the supernatural to happen, it blocks God’s power in our own lives, keeps us locked in the secular vs. sacred box, unable to experience God because such fantastical things as we read about in the Bible just don’t happen today. Why? Is it because those stories are really fantasy, as many secularist would believe? Or is because we are so locked into a scientific mindset that if we can’t see it, measure it, touch it, break down its components in a test tube, it must not be real?

So one reason I write fantasy is because I believe it brings back the Christian understanding of a God who is not limited by our secular mindset, nor even really my imagination. He is so much more amazing than anything I could ever dream up on a written page. He will surprise us all once we see Him face to face. Writing and reading fantasy actually helps us to accept His “beyond our wildest imaginations” reality as real, instead of just some stories someone told us about that happened a long time ago, but nothing like that happens today. It makes His reality more real to us.

Is fiction’s primary purpose to entertain? Sure. When someone picks up a fantasy or science fiction book, they mostly want a fun and cool story they can escape into. But here’s the catch. It’s not the fact that they are escaping from real life that is the issue. We can all use some time to do that, to rest from the real word issues. That’s the definition of going on a retreat, which is so popular in many Christian circles.

But the real question is what are they escaping into? Into a secular based world, where God doesn’t exist except as some fallible beings with a lot of power that’s corrupted them? Or into a world that God controls? Are they escaping into literature which supports and promotes a secular world, where God is only relegated to church services for the purpose of keeping the uneducated masses in check, but shut out of anything really important, like creation of the world? Or is He working with the sinner, the harlot, and the murder as He shows us He does in the Scriptures?

One goal I have in my stories is to leave the reader pondering a new point of view. That is something fantasy stories, and other genres of fiction can do best. Not beating anyone over the head with Christianity, but help people see reality from a new perspective, leave them thinking, whether they are Christian or not, and hopefully move some one step closer to God in the process. That is what a good Christian-based fantasy story can do, in a way that no devotional, sermon, self-help book, or non-fiction can do. Once someone gets sucked into a good story, they experience things from that character’s view point. And if it is Christian-based, then it will ultimately support, promote, and “make real” God’s reality, even in the midst of failure, sin, and death. Because all good fantasy touches on the realities we all face, only in a different world and unique characters.

What are some benefits of fantasy that you see for the Christian life?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
As a young teen, R. L. Copple played in his own make-believe world, writing the stories and drawing the art for his own comics while experiencing the worlds of other authors like Tolkien, Lewis, Asimov, and Lester Del Ray. After years of writing devotionally, he returned to the passion of his youth in order to combine his fantasy worlds and faith into the reality of the printed page. Since then, his imagination has given birth to The Reality Chronicles trilogy, along with numerous short stories in various magazines. In his Texas Hill Country residence, he continues to create and give wings to new realities so that others might enjoy and be inspired by them.


WIN THE BOOK
If you’d like to be entered to win the ebook of either Reality's Dawn or Reality's Ascent, just leave a comment on this blog. I’ll pick a winner at random on Monday, June 27th. Please leave an email address so I can contact you if you're the winner. (To prevent spammers from trolling for your email, please use this format with the brackets--you [at] yourmail [dot] com--or something similar.) E-book in the winner’s choice of format (nook, Kindle, PDF) can be downloaded from Smashwords (with free coupon code) or emailed.

Interview & Book Giveaway with Author Keven Newsome

It's a pleasure to introduce today's guest, author Keven Newsome. Welcome, Keven!

Q: What was your inspiration for Winter?
A: Many different factors contributed to the formation of Winter. I suppose the original germ was to write about a Goth Christian, to show how God can use any person no matter what other people may think of them. And in truth, that’s the simplest description of the book. In the flashback story, we see Winter’s decline into the Gothic subculture and her self-destructive behavior as she deals with the slow death of her mother and a new life with her estranged dad. But in the primary story, we see her having overcome her past. She’s now being used in a miraculous way by God. Giving her the gift of prophecy and having her fight a Satanic priest, was just for fun. To me, the real story is about Winter.


Q:  Have you always wanted to be a writer?
A:  I got an early start writing. My first piece was fan-fic based on a RBG video game. Oh, and I was eleven. I had wrote about three pages in the King’s English. Why? Because the video game used that kind of language. My classmates tell me I never stopped writing, but I don’t think I seriously considered writing until Junior High. That’s when I started to develop story ideas that I would write in High School. I took a break in college, writing my “practice book” after graduating. I’ve been working on Winter for four years now. Have I always wanted to be a writer? No. At times I wanted to be something else. But I think I have always been a writer, even if I wouldn’t admit it.


Q:  How does your faith impact your writing?
A:  This question is the reason I didn’t write in college. In High School, I didn’t care about mixing faith and writing. But as I grew closer to God, I couldn’t bring myself to write contrary to my faith. It took several years for me to get an answer. In part I have Frank Peretti to thank for inspiring me to write exciting stories of faith. My heart was originally for fantasy, and there was little Christian fantasy to be found for me to learn from. After much prayer, I began my “practice book” and wrote it as a fantasy allegory. Winter, a modern day supernatural thriller, came a little easier. Now, I enjoy creating stories that bring the supernatural to light in a very real way. But fear not…I have another fantasy in cue to write, too.


Q:  Do you plot out your story ahead of time, or do you think it up as you go?
A:  I am a meticulous outliner. I didn’t even start Winter until I had done a basic outline for the whole series. Then I did a complete outline for Winter. THEN I went back and wrote at least a paragraph describing each chapter in the outline. Only after completing that step for half the book, did I actually start writing. I do let the story grow and become what it wants to become. But when the story makes changes, I have to go fix my outline.

That being said…I have never outlined a short story.


Q:  What’s your favorite part of the writing business? What’s your least favorite?
A:  My favorite part is writing, of course. Being created in the image of God, humans can’t help but be mini-creators. Immersing in the creative process is the closest I can get to being like God. And isn’t that what we’re supposed to do? Try to be like God? I just pray that my efforts are pleasing to Him. My least favorite part is submitting. Nobody likes to be rejected over and over and over. Can’t we find a way to skip that part?


Q:  What’s the most important piece of advice you would give to a fledgling writer?
A:  Write. Write. Write. You want to be a writer? Write. Don’t dream about it. Don’t talk about it. Don’t spend all your time studying about it. Do it. And while you write, assume that every other writer is better than you. Listen to them. Learn from them. Grow. And keep writing.


Q:  Scenario: You’re about to be dropped off on a deserted island. You can take along one survival item, one book, and one person (living or dead… but they’ll be alive on the island). What and who do you take?
A:  Item – satellite phone. Book – A Practical Course in Wooden Boat and Ship Building. Person – the Survivorman, Les Stroud.


Q:  What’s the one far out sci-fi technology you’d most like to see become a household item?
A:  I want my flying car. Seriously, it’s 2011. Where’s my flying car?


I agree. I want the flying car and the briefcase it folds up into :+} Thanks for stopping by today, Keven. It was a blast!



ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Keven Newsome is a graduate student at the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, where he is pursuing a Master of Arts in Theology specializing in Supernatural Theology. He writes stories that attempt to portray the Supernatural and Paranormal with an accurate Biblical perspective. He is the author of Winter, a thriller published by Splashdown Darkwater. He currently lives in New Orleans, LA with his wife and their two children. Keven is also the founder and administrator of The New Authors’ Fellowship and produces music and video through Newsome Creative.

Find him online at http://www.kevennewsome.com/ (mind the Es, there are four), on Facebook at www.facebook.com/thewordcrafter, and on Twitter at www.twitter.com/kevennewsome.

ABOUT THE BOOK - Winter
Winter Maessen didn’t ask for the gift of prophecy. She’s happy being a freak – but now everyone thinks she’s crazy. Or evil. Goths aren’t all the same, you know. Some are Christians….Christians to whom God sends visions.

Students at her university are being attacked, and Winter knows there’s more than flesh and blood at work.

Her gift means she’s the only one who can stop it – but at what price?


View the trailer below



WIN THE BOOK
If you’d like to be entered to win the e-book, Winter, just leave a comment on this blog. I’ll pick a winner at random on Monday, June 20th. Please leave an email address so I can contact you if you're the winner. (To prevent spammers from trolling for your email, please use this format with the brackets--you [at] yourmail [dot] com--or something similar.) E-book in the winner’s choice of format (nook, Kindle, PDF) can be downloaded from Smashwords (with free coupon code) or emailed.

Interview & Book Giveaway with Author Caprice Hokstad

Today's guest is Splashdown Books author Caprice Hokstad. Welcome, Caprice!

Q:  Do you treat yourself to something special when a project is completed?

A:  Yes. Sleep. Seriously. I almost always have to burn a lot of midnight oil to get something completed and getting done means I can catch up on sleep.

Q:  Do you plot out your story ahead of time, or do you think it up as you go?
A:  Both. My first book was almost completely seat-of-pants, but the second one was outlined and then filled in.

Q:  There’s been a lot said about the future of publishing and the possible death of the print book. What’s your take on eBooks, self-publishing, and such?
A:  I would like to see print reserved for only the most special books, with people buying the majority of their books in electronic formats. It’s easier, more cost-effective, more convenient, and saves trees. We do need a waterproof Kindle/Nook/whatever for the beachgoers and bathtub readers, such as myself, but once they put those out, I am all for closing bookstores completely and running the entire industry on the Internet.

My only problem with self-publishing is quality control. I have self-published myself, so I have seen both sides. It’s hard for readers to wade through all the choices, but eBooks are almost always offered with free samples, so it’s less of a risk. Self-published are actually better off in the land of eBooks.

Q:  How long does it take you to complete a novel? How many drafts do you go through?
A:  It really varies. My first novel’s first draft was done in four months, but then it needed the most extensive rewrites and redrafts. I didn’t count how many. It was a LOT. I edit as I go and now I don’t really do full roughs followed by full rewrites anymore. I do usually have a few crit partners read the draft and make suggestions and then I go back and polish.

Q:  What’s the one far out sci-fi technology you’d most like to see become a household item?
A:  Rosie, the robotic maid from the Jetsons.

Rosie is quite a popular choice. Whoever comes out with a viable robot-maid is going to make a fortune! Thanks for visiting with us today, Caprice. Lots of fun :+}

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Caprice Hokstad spends most of her time dreaming up other worlds to live vicariously in. Her first half-million words were spent on the fantasy setting of Byntar (where her published Ascendancy Trilogy novels are set). Her current obsession is a future Earth where the oceans are colonized (manifesting as seaQuest fanfiction). She attended Baylor University in Texas and lived in a log cabin in the mountains for ten years directly following college. She now lives--with her husband, two teens, a 7-year-old, a dog, a cat, two big rats, a tankful of guppies, and a leopard gecko--in a mobile home in southern California. She regularly stares at her simulated aquarium screensaver, singing "I Wish I Were a Fish" from "The Incredible Mr. Limpet". Her ultimate aspiration is to live in the first undersea colony, Atlantica, currently being built off the coast of Florida. She has been assured they will have electricity and internet and that there will be room for her laptop, so she can continue to write. At that point, she may change her screensaver, but no promises.

ABOUT THE BOOK - The Duke's Handmaid
Slavery. Loyalty. Torture. Passion. Betrayal. All the young outcast wanted was security in a world that destroyed her family and left her despised and rejected. Can the simple farmgirl find a new family through voluntary enslavement to the duke's household? Not if the prejudiced and conniving duchess has her way!


WIN THE BOOK
If you’d like to be entered to win the e-book, The Duke's Handmaid, just leave a comment on this blog. I’ll pick a winner at random on Monday, June 6th. Please leave an email address so I can contact you if you're the winner. (To prevent spammers from trolling for your email, please use this format with the brackets--you [at] yourmail [dot] com--or something similar.) E-book in the winner’s choice of format (nook, Kindle, PDF) can be downloaded from Smashwords (with free coupon code) or emailed.