Call of the Creator: Fantasy Writing from a Christian Worldview

We Minors are about to head out on a major adventure, and you know what? Adventures are expensive. And I don't have a contract from a bunch of dwarves promising me an equal share of the treasure at the end. As the old saying goes, necessity is the mother of invention. Here's a little context to help you make sense of things. Every year since we began Realm Makers, I have designed the official Conference T Shirt as well as a "fun design" that we sell as a simple artistic endeavor. From fandom to geekery, these shirts have definitely been popular--and I've enjoyed seeing friends and strangers alike wear them. This year, we've been working with the fabulous Kirk DouPonce, illustrator extraordinaire, to generate some updated branding for the conference and our awards. Out of that process, this awesome dragon graphic arose. Being the dragon freak that I am, I was immediately ready to slap that puppy on everything, from our awards seals to our car to ...

Image Credit: Dog Eared Design, Kirk DouPonce At the header for this blog, the graphic reads "Author-Artist-Ringleader," and for some of the folks who stop by, the "ringleader" part is a bit of a puzzlement. I thought today that I would shed some light on the reason people attach words like that (or nerd-herder) to me. A little over 5 years ago, I started planning this thing called the Realm Makers Conference. It came into being because of several factors that exist in the publishing world that make it difficult for Christians who write fantasy and science fiction to find publishers for their work. On the general market side--that means the Big Publishing Houses of New York, stories that center on traditional values are often passed over as "been there, done that" at best, or "dangerously misogynistic/insensitive/out-of-touch" in more critical scenarios. This climate  has only gotten worse over the decade I've been following publishin...

Maybe some of you have noticed...I sort of suck at blogging. I mean, really. I don't know why, but article-writing just seems beyond my capacity...any point I want to make is basically able to be summed up in the space of a Facebook post, so that's pretty much where I've been doing all my ruminating for the past couple of years. So in terms of my blog, I have decided to allow myself to let it be for the occasional announcement, periodic update, or sampling of "here's what I'm up to." Today is a "here's what I'm up to" day. I've decided to share a couple pieces of artwork with you fine folks, hopefully for your enjoyment and not just the stroking of my ego. Ah, Harry Moon--the project that has me drawing about 15-20 drawings a day right now. Fun stuff! Praying for a strong finish and excellent reception of the final product. This was just a moment I had to take to acknowledge that working as an artist still leaves you a lit...

For a limited time only, you can pre-order the shirt that captures the spirit of the 2015 Realm Makers Conference! If you're coming to the Realm Makers Conference in St Louis from August 6-8, you can pre-purchase this year's "fun shirt." In the past, I've designed a fun shirt choice, like the Geek Girl shirt of previous years. This year's fun shirt will work for both sexes, and plays on the super hero mania that is the current media trend. Printed on a deep blue shirt and available in sizes adult small through 2XL, get yours today. Sorry if you're just finding this--preordering is now closed.

It has been my privilege, as the founder of the Faith and Fantasy Alliance, to sponsor the Clive Staples Award for Christian Speculative Fiction. Readers weighed in for the past two weeks to nominate their favorite books, and now the award is accepting readers' choice semi-final votes. If you are interested in weighing in on which books should go to the judging panel for the final round, you'll find the voting survey HERE . It's really exciting to be able to "put your money where your mouth is," in terms of sponsoring the award, because as the Realm Makers conference gains momentum and the Clive Staples Award gains name recognition, I'm happy to do whatever I can to help authors build their audience and gain legitimacy in the marketplace. In order to see a full list of the semi-finalists in the award, visit the Realm Makers conference blog , Read the voting rules carefully so that the award has the fairest outcome possible. Good luck to all the semi-fi...

Yes, it’s taken this introvert a week and a half to even begin sorting my thoughts on Realm Makers: 2014. Mental fatigue is a formidable foe for me. On any project, I tend to idle for a long time, or else just tootle around through the early stages at the task at hand, and then, once lateness is a real risk, I go full throttle until the end. This makes for a long cooling period after any creative sprint, but thankfully, this pattern hasn’t burnt me out yet. A lot of that avoidance of burnout has to do with the steady flow of encouragement that has been coming through a long list of blogs and emails and facebook posts that have been cropping up over the past week-plus. (And if you’ve emailed me to say thank you or contribute ideas, please know I am not ignoring you. I just can’t write checks and dig out my office and answer emails all in the short space of my evenings yet.) Those who have reflected publicly on their Realm Makers experience have shared a refrain: Realm Makers is uni...

When people ask me the question, ‘Where did you get the idea to put the Realm Makers conference together?” I can’t help but chuckle a little. You see, as much as I was part of the conversations about how Christian speculative fiction enthusiasts needed a place where they could enjoy their genre without being confronted with either near-nudity, aggressive atheism, or wide-eyed, “Well isn’t that . . . interesting? What’s a nice girl like you doing writing about zombie . . . what was it? Assassins?” I definitely never saw myself as the person to create that place. After all, I’m an introvert to the point where answering the phone is a struggle if I don’t know who’s calling. I have young children, a full time job, and novels of my own to write. Why would I take on something as terrifyingly behemoth as a writers conference? The answer is, I didn’t “get the idea,” so much as it marched up to me, grabbed me by the shirt, and said, “You’re doing this.” Thankfully, because I have been ...

 I've been batting this idea around for over a year, now, and I think I've finally got it worked out. Of course, this being my idea, I think it's cool, but as with my books, my opinion doesn't matter much. What I want to know is if people would buy this design if I offered it for sale.  I think I will probably load the text designs to Zazzle, just to give them a place to live until conference time. But come Realm Makers: 2014, I am going to have to print a batch to sell, and that means picking a color or two. That's where you come in! In the comments below, I'd love to hear what color you'd buy, if any. And if you wouldn't spend any amount of money on something like this, I want to hear that too. So please, comment away! I'd love your feedback, even if it's just to tell me I'm crazy. If you love these and want your own shirt, visit my Zazzle store at  http://www.zazzle.com/faithandfantasy  and see what colors I've loaded for...

My awesome social media coordinator, Ralene Burke posted a status on the Realm Makers facebook page today, asking how life has changed for our fans over the past year, and like many posts there, I felt compelled to respond. I mentally worked my way through 2013, and came up with this list of what big events happened over the year. I settled into a new position at work OK, so I changed positions, technically, near the end of 2012, but 2013 was the first year that I had to go through the “busy season” for my new job. The busy season runs from about May to August, and during that time, I am responsible for obtaining and preparing about 6500 (no, really) jpgs of the covers for different pieces of choral, band, and orchestra music to populate our half dozen catalogs that go out before the beginning of the school year. I spent the first half of the year learning who’s who at about 50 different publishers I need to contact for these covers, and by some miracle, survived juggling all ...

The Realm Makers Conference is a wrap for 2013, and if the feedback is to be believed, was a great success. Valor's Worth has been released. We're (for the most part) in the winding-down phase of the renovation on our home. So why is it I feel closer to a nervous breakdown now than I did in the thick of all three of those things at the height of their production? Don't get me wrong...I am still very excited for what's been going on with these three monumental events that have characterized the summer of 2013. But justifiably, I'm tired. I have told myself that I would do nothing that causes artistic pressure during the month of August. However, we all know that's not realistic. After all, books that have been released require a high level of talking-up and promotion if they're not going to go off with a fizzle. The conference needs wrapping up from a bookkeeping standpoint, and if we're going to do this annually, we honestly need to start thinking abou...

Whew. The last 10 days have been, in a word, insane. On April 30th, my husband and I became first-time home-owners through a fairly complicated loan process called a 203K loan, which is a federal loan that lumps home purchase and renovation into a single closing. The loan type exists to make it possible for home buys who can't simply pay cash for a house that needs rehab in order to be livable. (As I understand it, you can't finance a home in any other way when the place has no plumbing due to vandalization, needs electrical work, and generally needs overhauling.) The house we bought isn't much to look at right now, but when we're done, we hope to have a cozy little place to call home that we can enjoy together for the long haul. While I am excited to finally quit renting, the purchase has reinforced my hatred of wall paper. Then on May 1st, we rolled out the registration for Realm Makers: 2013, the first-ever symposium to address the creation of science fiction a...