Part Four Of How To Bring Myths & Fairy Tales Back From The Dead and Into The Light: From Wolves To Lewis’ “Soul”
Mirtika Schultz, Nov 17, 2006
ChrisD was the only one brave enough to submit some variations on what one could do with a wolf tale and a wolf Scripture. Thanks, Chris. Anyone else game? Okay, off the top of my head, here’s how I’d begin […]
Looking At The Redemptive In … Nanny MacPhee
Shannon McNear, Nov 16, 2006
This might be breaking the rules a bit … Nanny MacPhee is a film and not literature, per se. But it provides a good example of what I mean when I discuss “redemptive.” One might describe Nanny MacPhee as Mary […]
Nine Marks Of Widescreen Stories, Part 4
E. Stephen Burnett, Nov 15, 2006
After a two-week break, I’m back to the series on what I consider Nine Marks of Widescreen Stories — speculative, epic-minded works of fantasy/sci-fi/whatever works for awesome storytelling. As we keep moving away from the original don’ts I find I […]
Alternate World Traveler
Stuart Stockton, Nov 14, 2006
One of the most popular styles of CSFF in the CBA has been that of taking a person from our real world and transplanting them through some means into an alternate reality. From Narnia to Arena, Chronicles of Anthropos to […]
Let There Be Snow—CSFF Blog Tour, Day 1
Rebecca LuElla Miller, Nov 13, 2006
Landon’s land. That’s not an official name for it, but the fantasy world that Landon Snow and eventually both his sisters are drawn into has a unique need for him. I am, of course, referring to the middle grade fantasy […]
Part Three: How To Bring Myths & Fairy Tales Back From The Dead & Into The Light
Mirtika Schultz, Nov 10, 2006
Do not throw stones at ravens. I said last week: “Ravens? What have ravens to do with anything?” Well, in myths and fairy tales—and symbolically—quite a bit. Odin had two, Hunnin and Munnin, thought and memory by meaning, and they […]
More Trouble With Time Travel
Beth Goddard, Nov 9, 2006
James Drury posted a comment to my previous post titled the Trouble with Time Travel: The Alternate Reality version of time travel has been the accepted theory in Marvel Comics for some time and seems to be the easiest route […]
Speculative Faith: Seeing Beyond Christian Story Stigmatisms
E. Stephen Burnett, Nov 8, 2006
This week, you’ll find the following a slight departure from the Nine Marks of Widescreen Fiction series, whose third installment went live two weeks ago. I’m still working on part 4, following a very harrowing Wednesday, but the following is […]
Speculative Politics
Stuart Stockton, Nov 7, 2006
And I bet you thought you could get away from it all by coming here didn’t you? But on this election day in the U.S. I thought it might be interesting to look at how the political systems we choose […]
Who Lost The Genre? An Interview With The Lost Genre Guild’s Founder
Rebecca LuElla Miller, Nov 6, 2006
Recently some of us here at Speculative Faith “discovered” a similar group of writers who also want to spread the word that Christian science fiction and fantasy does exist. This organization the Lost Genre Guild was founded by an author […]
Part Two: How To Bring Myths & Fairy Tales Back From The Dead & Into The Light
Mirtika Schultz, Nov 3, 2006
You will travel for a long time, holding your two torches. You must not stray from the path and you must not pick the flowers. You may ask for help. You will ask the sun for direction and you will […]
Focusing on The Redemptive
Shannon McNear, Nov 2, 2006
The complaint is often made that “Christian” novels, SF/F ones included, are too full of conversion scenes. As believers, it’s only natural that we like conversion scenes, to a certain extent—they remind us of our own experience, even help us […]
Why I Read Fantasy
Karen Hancock, Nov 1, 2006
This is the third day of the CSFF blog tour highlighting the Christian webzine Dragons Knights and Angels, which features Christian short fiction and poetry in the speculative fiction genre. If you’ve not had a chance to investigate it, I […]
The Original Problem
Stuart Stockton, Oct 31, 2006
It has been said that there are only thirty-six basic plots in existence, that there is nothing new under the son, that everything has been done before. This can cause issues for both readers and writers who are always looking […]
CSFF Blog Tour—DKA Stories and Fantasy Classifications
Rebecca LuElla Miller, Oct 30, 2006
Our October CSFF Blog Tour features something new—the science fiction and fantasy e-zine, Dragons, Knights, and Angels (DKA). Such a publication offers stories and poems that can satisfy the speculative desires of the busy reader who does not have time […]
How To Bring Myths and Fairy Tales Back From The Dead And Into The Light: Part One
Mirtika Schultz, Oct 27, 2006
If you’re scratching your head wondering, “Um, where’s part two of that soul-opening spec-fic thing she was gonna do?”—yes, yes, sorry. I was supposed to continue with that today. However, I’ve not written something that satisfies me enough to post […]
The Trouble With Time Travel
Beth Goddard, Oct 26, 2006
Since some of us are exploring the various genres within the SFF umbrella—all of the subgenres and quirky hybrids, I thought it would be interesting to discuss time travel. At the ACFW conference I heard that while editors aren’t actively […]
Nine Marks Of Widescreen Stories, Part 3
E. Stephen Burnett, Oct 25, 2006
The last, and second, installment in this Nine Marks of Widescreen Fiction series, Staying off ‘the bench of bishops,’ went a little long, much more so than part 1: Building a foundational, permeating Biblical worldview. Of the two, the first […]
Shortly Late
Stuart Stockton, Oct 24, 2006
My apologies for the lateness an brevity of this posting. We live in a fantastical world. Can you remember back to when you first saw an elephant? Or perhaps a kangaroo? What about the first time you saw the ocean, […]
Fantasy—Not Your Leftover Stale Bread
Rebecca LuElla Miller, Oct 23, 2006
Why spend time dissecting fantasy and categorizing the different types? Besides the reason I quoted last week from The Writer’s Guide to Fantasy Literature, edited by Philip Martin (The Writer Books), I think there is knowledge that readers (and CBA […]
The Quest To Write Soul-Opening Speculative Fiction For A Broader Audience
Mirtika Schultz, Oct 20, 2006
I added the following about how I write in the comments section of yesterday’s post: The character and plot come from my head, but how I shape them comes from my heart and soul, where the themes that speak to […]
A Shining Star In The Speculative Sky
Shannon McNear, Oct 19, 2006
Sometimes … a particular author or piece of writing is so good, it doesn’t seem to matter whether the work is secular or Christian. Lois McMaster Bujold is one of those authors. I basically quit reading secular SF/F years ago […]
Nine Marks Of Widescreen Stories, Part 2
E. Stephen Burnett, Oct 18, 2006
In late 2005, the Christian world, and especially its media, were in quite a bit of a frenzied excitement — a state almost unparalleled even by the excitement of The Passion of the Christ — because this time the children […]
SFF: Genre Of Genres
Stuart Stockton, Oct 17, 2006
One of the things I love about SFF is the fact that you aren’t bound into a strict set of genre conventions, but that you can meld and mesh genres together for a nearly limitless ability to create unique and […]
SFF—The Genre For The Ages
Rebecca LuElla Miller, Oct 16, 2006
SFF is the genre for all Ages and for all ages. It is timeless, and it reaches across generational boundaries. One way the latter occurs is through the various types apparent within the general classification. In reality as the name […]
Supporting The Molehills That Surround The Mountain: One Way To Advance CSF This Year
Mirtika Schultz, Oct 12, 2006
This will be a shameless plug, but it’s an altruistic one. It may seem as if I’m plugging MYSELF, but I’m not. Pay attention. I’m not the subject, just a way to get at what the subject is. So, don’t […]
Dry Bones
Beth Goddard, Oct 12, 2006
So last Monday I took my daughter to performing arts practice where they’re working on their dance/enactment called “Arise” based on the dry bones in Ezekiel 37: 1-14. The performance presents the spiritual aspect of it all. There are demons […]
Nine Marks Of Widescreen Stories: Part 1
E. Stephen Burnett, Oct 11, 2006
For a few months now I’ve been keeping up with Speculative Faith, quite overjoyed at the number of sci-fi and fantasy authors who’ve found a cyber-gathering place like this. Now it’s my privilege to start contributing headliner installments of my […]
Leggo My Ego and Inspiration
Stuart Stockton, Oct 10, 2006
I had planned to write on the effect ego can play in the writer’s life today, but it just kept feeling a bit petty and cynical. Suffice it to say that we all need to constantly keep our egos in […]
SFF Friendly Editors Do Exist: An Interview With Andy Meisenheimer
Rebecca LuElla Miller, Oct 9, 2006
As I announced on Friday at A Christian Worldview of Fiction, we have the privilege here at Spec Faith of an exclusive, first-time interview with Zondervan acquisitions editor Andy Meisenheimer. I didn’t discuss this with him, but I’m hoping he […]
