Rachel and Leeman have one half of Debs and Errol from our intro and outro on to discuss music, church, and why Leeman needs more Filipino friends.
Topics Discussed
Debs and Errol, Monkeyman Productions, the SCA, and The NaNoWriMo Musical
Check out: www.debsanderrol.com
And check out their Geeky Music-y Parody EP
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Huzzah! 😀
Thanks for the plug Errol.
You could have mentioned the life size TARDIS in my office – complete with TARDIS door poster….and the four archangels on a serving platter – John, Paul, George and Ringo – and the 1950s vintage record radio player….and…
…but other than that you nailed it!
Woot! Another mention!
You know it!
Rachel and Leeman,
Thanks for an entirely entertaining podcast. I first learned of you through the Strangers and Aliens’ recent Incredible Thing of Awesome that was the Podcaster’s Initiative. I’m a happily married geek with a loving nerd wife, so, needless to say I was immediately hooked.
On this recent episode, I was intrigued by Rachel’s comment regarding Christian Sci-Fi novels, and the lack of quality material available. I believe you indirectly mentioned Ben Avery, of Strangers and Aliens, as a fellow podcaster who is on a quest to prove that there actually is a lot of good, Christian Sci-Fi out there.
At the risk of self-service, we would like to offer you, as influential members of the HUGE and POWERFUL Christian Geek media, a complimentary copy of our novel, Flight of the Angels—the book that Ben said helps to erase some of the stigma associated with Christian Sci-Fi. (You can listen to Ben’s interview with us here.)
If you are interested in a free copy, we can provide a Kindle link, all we need is your email address.
If you prefer a dead-tree version, (so tactile) we can have one drop shipped to you. We will just need your address and we’ll sling-shot it over the border.
If you’d like, we can be contacted at:
email: mail@flightoftheangles.com
of on Facebook
Or on the web: http://www.flightoftheangels.com
Now, before your spam disruptor deletes me completely from existence, I would just like to say:
If you only read one Christian Sci-Fi novel this year,
Read ours, too.
P.S. Seriously, if that post was too spammy, just moderate it out of existence. (we’ll still give you a book, of course, if you’d like!)
Ooh! Ooh! I want to kvetch about being a Christian spec fic writer, too!
Another problem with writing explicitly Christian fiction (and based on what Christian music I’ve heard, it’s true there, too) is the pressure to be relentlessly upbeat. I don’t mean optimism in the sense that God is bigger than the boogeyman and we have the promise that no matter how much we suffer on Earth, God will triumph over Satan in the end; I mean the tendency to gloss over that whole “suffering on Earth” part and translate belief to worldly success. It borders on prosperity Gospel. The most explicitly Christian short story I’ve ever written (a post-apocalyptic piece I’ve described as “Canticle for Leibowitz meets Brigadoon”) was nigh unsalable; I had several secular sci-fi markets turn it down for being too Christian, and several Christian markets turned it down for being too bleak because the ultimate message wasn’t, “And then the Christian protagonist saved civilization from the ashes!”, it was, “yep, you sure are going to suffer in this post-apocalyptic hellscape and there’s a decent chance you’ll die, but join your sufferings to Christ’s and they’ll have meaning.” That message shouldn’t be a tough sell, but apparently it is.
(PS Shameless plug: I did finally sell it to an anthology called “While the Morning Stars Sing.” Shameless plug ended.)
Yay! Writers discussing things that frighten me! We’re actually going to try and have some Christian writers on our show if we can determine how to make Skype talk to Garage Band and hopefully address some of these issues as well as overcome some of the assumptions Rachel and I make.