New Member Introduction Thread

[Janelle]

Hi Jason nice to meet you

[Glen]

Hi, I'm Glen. I live in north Texas, where I teach college (mostly writing classes) at a Christian university. I am very interested in both Christian fiction and science fiction, am learning as I both read and write in these fields, and am interested in developing Christian science fiction as a valid genre.

[Janelle]

Hi Glen nice to meet you and hope u enjoy being part of Christian Speculative Fiction.

[R.J.]

Hello, I am Robert. I am a writer currently working on several projects that succeed well enough at keeping me up at night with sudden bursts of inspiration. Some could be called fantasy, some science fiction. Some historical fiction. Some romance.

My first published work (self-published for the Amazon Kindle) is a young-adult fantasy adventure that was originally dreamt up as a cliff-hanger-style Bible study for middle-schoolers. My wife says it's a bit preachy, so I toned down most of the theological discussion in the sequel (which I'm still editing).

I'll be releasing an antediluvian sword-and-scorcery piece soon, but I'm fighting some real spiritual battles, digital, physical and emotional, so I can't set any kind of date for release (I was hoping for May, but we'll see). I'm also trying to put my books on CreateSpace but I'm hitting the same paranormal intention that has stopped my work elsewhere. I'm not sure if I'm fighting without God or against Him, but I'm definitely not gaining any ground.

--Has anybody else had trouble importing their self-published work from the Amazon Kindle store? I've tried but GoodReads just cant't find my book, even when I cut and paste the web address that takes me straight to it.

[Janelle]

Hi Robert, nice to meet you. Hope you can sort out the issues with getting your books out there. Sounds rather frustrating.

[Glen]

Robert wrote: "Hello, I am Robert. I am a writer currently working on several projects that succeed well enough at keeping me up at night with sudden bursts of inspiration. Some could be called fantasy, some scie..."

I published two indie books with Kindle. One showed up right away, the other seemed to take forever to show up. Even now you have to put both the title and the author's name to get it to show up. Weird.

Best wishes and welcome.

[Yohan]

Hi, this is Yohan from Mumbai, India. Currently doing my Aerospace Engineering UG+Grad. This is my last year, and I have only my thesis on my hands, so had some time free and just looking to expand on my reading horizon. Also a Christian by birth, and thought an open-minded reading group like this might be interesting. Thanks.

[Janelle]

Hi Yohan, welcome to the group. Hope you enjoy being here and your extra free time reading.

[Jason]

Hey Yohan, welcome!

[Lil_Miss_Roe]

Hello! My name is Rochele I live in Illinois. Really the only Christian books that I've seen for teen is the Chronicles of Narnia and I just recetnly learned that Lor of the Rings is a Christian series. So, it's nice to read some of the comments and see that there are Christian authors who are working to write more varied options. I'm curretly writing a Christian dystopian novel that is very early in the writing process, but I hope to have the draft done by October. Blessings!

[Jason]

If you're into YA Christian fiction, look up D. Barkley Briggs, Jon Lewis, or Veronica Roth. They're more recent Christian authors.

[Janelle]

Hi Rochele! Welcome to the group. I hope u enjoy looking around. We're a bit quiet, but still friendly.

[Lil_Miss_Roe]

Thanks for the warm welcome! Veronica Roth is Christain? I had an inkling when I was reading her books Divergent and Insurgent but wasn't entirely sure. I'll be sure to check out the other two. :)

[Reeda]

Hi all! I am new here and a huge christian fiction fan. I mostly enjoy end times scenarios and speculative fiction dealing with nephilim and aliens and such. If any of you have read "Progeny" by Shawn Hopkins, you get the idea. I also enjoy christian thrillers of any type and fiction biblical history.

I am married and a mother of one and live in the Northeast. Looking forward to making new friends and hearing about new books to read! I am a voracious reader and will read between 150-250 books a year!

[Janelle]

Wow Reeda, that's a lot of books. Your Goodreads shelves must be very full. Glad to see you here and hope you enjoy the group.

[Reeda]

Janelle wrote: "Wow Reeda, that's a lot of books. Your Goodreads shelves must be very full. Glad to see you here and hope you enjoy the group."

Thanks Janelle! I know, I read ALOT!! My Goodreads shelf doesn't have all of my books listed like my Shelfari account does. I didn't want to look them all up again. If I run into a book I have read, I will mark it, otherwise I am just going to leave as is and add from this point.

[Randy]

Hey, love that there is already a group for this! My name is Randy Blackwell. I am a reader and an author. My first novel (Rise of teh Magi) in a series called Forgotten Portals is coming out within the next month. Please go check it out and pre-register if interested at http://soterion.com/Stories.html

[Janelle]

Hi Randy, glad you've found us. Good luck with your book. It must be exciting to finally get it out there. You'll have to tell us more about it.

[Randy]

Thanks alot Janelle. Its like a bad joke with a twist of sci-fi... "So, a con artist, an atheist, and an assassin walk through a portal..." lol, just kidding.

Here is the description:

Rise of the Magi is a book that blends Christianity, science fiction, and fantasy in a story describing the journey of an atheist scientist, an illusionist con-man, and an assassin across the stars through a dimensional galaxy ending in a fantasy world beyond the characters' imaginations. The characters struggle against a great evil in the center of this dimensional galaxy as they come to face their own inner demons. This book uses the elements of adventure, action, romance, science fiction, Christianity, and fantasy together to present an epic tale of redemption.

Dr. Omar Metzger has discovered a link to another dimension. With funding being pulled in one week, Omar does not have enough time to appropriately substantiate his findings, so he enters the dimensional shift…

Myles Callaghan, an illusionist con-artist, has bitten off more than he can chew by swindling the Don of an Italian family out of several million dollars. On the run, and wanting to get far away from Italy, Myles goes much further than he could imagine…

Kasey is an assassin with orders to assassinate the Israeli prime minister. Betrayed, Kasey must escape before she is captured. As she crosses through an archway in the prime minister’s basement she realizes she has crossed much more than the threshold of a door…

These three unlikely companions come together in a world far different than where they began. Together, they must find their way through an ever changing maze, understand the inhabitants of the Core of the planet, fight their inner most demons, and escape before the forces of evil close in on them.

"Great story, great characters, great universe! The clash of civilizations, old and new, and mix of ancient cultures and ancient hi-tech flavor is wonderful. Rise of the Magi is much more in depth and "steam punk" like than I imagined. My first impression was that the world was going to be too similar to other fantasy worlds but it is very unique. I love the parallel universe and multi-dimensional elements; they are brilliant.

The fact that I'm so passionate with my opinions about this story only proves how moving and fresh it really is. There is no question that this story and universe is movie and video game worthy.

Congrats Randy, you wrote a wonderful story!"

~Jamie Wiggs
Game Designer
(Squaresoft, Microsoft, EA Games)
Works including: Middle Earth 1 and 2, Shadows of Mordor

[Janelle]

Thanks Randy, sounds intriguing. I'll make sure I check it out.

[Michael]

Hi everyone,
Here is an article in the Purdue University newspaper, The Exponent, about my speculative christian fiction novel, ALL LIVING. Very cool to go to work and find this in the paper this morning. =)
Michael


http://www.purdueexponent.org/feature...

[Jake]

Hi, my name is Jake and I live in Pennsylvania. My favorite genre both to read and to write about is philosophy, but I have a deep love for fantasy literature; especially JRR Tolkien and CS Lewis - they were masters at their craft. I've written a fantasy novel, which I decided to self-publish because I felt it would not be something a traditional publisher would be interested in.

The Punishment of the Gods

[Alexandra]

Hi, everyone. I am Alexandra Swann, author of The Planner, which is a Christian dystopian novel, and co-author of The Chosen, which is its sequel. The Planner is a free download on Kindle now through March 5th, so I invite you to download it to your Kindle, PC, Droid or Iphone and let me know what you think.Alexandra Swann The Planner