Monday, December 29, 2008

Lost Genre Guild - Day 1


This month's Christian Science Fiction & Fantasy Blog Tour spotlights the Lost Genre Guild, dedicated to the promotion of--drum roll, please--Christian science fiction and fantasy. Well, to be more specific by using a broader term, Biblical speculative fiction.

Lest that multi-syllabic term make readers cross-eyed, here's a brief definition provided on LGG's website:
Biblical Spec-Fic then can be
defined as speculative fiction that is
written from a Christian world view:

entertainment
+
scriptural framework.
But what in the world is speculative fiction? Again, borrowing from the LGG website, it is

"an inclusive term that encompasses fiction genres like science fiction, fantasy, horror."


There have been a few writers who have become well-known for their work in these genres, and have written from a Biblical worldview, but the Lost Genre Guild seeks to expand the allotted shelf space for this kind of fiction by exploring beyond the safe boundaries of what is currently called "Christian fiction": romances, historicals, chick lit, modern teen life, children's books, occasional adventure tales.

For the interested reader, The Guild Review offers reviews of current titles, as well as thumbnail images showing details from the book covers. I am familiar with a couple of books on that list, but have only encountered Wind Follower on the shelves of local bookstores.

And that leads us back to the point of LGG: providing more Biblical speculative fiction to the reading public.

10 comments:

Pappy said...

I've heard a few preachers who were pretty good at speculative fiction. Pappy

Mike Lynch said...

I appreciate your comments. The more we talk about this, the more speculative fiction becomes a viable genre in Christian literary circles.

Mike

Frank Creed said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Frank Creed said...

Biblical spec-fic is the ultimate genre for tales of good & evil. Post-modernism was born of literary criticism; some days I wonder if a neo-Reformation couldn't come from an equally unlikely source.



Faith,
Frank Creed



thefinishers.biz

Brandon Barr said...

Good post.
by the way, I dig your blog name...adventures in fiction. I love adventure in my fiction.

Rebecca LuElla Miller said...

I love how you brought your post back to the key point: And that leads us back to the point of LGG: providing more Biblical speculative fiction to the reading public.

Interesting that you and several others have focused on defining the term--something I wanted to address in my post today as well.

Becky

Terri main said...

Yes, this is a good overview of Christian Speculative fiction and LGG's role in bringing it to the public. It has also been an inspiration to Christian writers who's stories didn't always fit into the Christian romance or contemporary "mainstream" fiction of traditional Christian publishing.

It gives us support and hope for being able to pursue our part in God's calling to Christian writers.

It changed my life. That's what I said in my blog

Keanan Brand said...

Thanks, all, for the comments.

I'm late responding (and posting for the second day) due to work and family obligations, and I'm going to go crawling about the blogosphere, visiting other CSFF tour members.

(Almost) anything that gets more folks reading spec fic is a good thing.

Grace Bridges said...

Thanks Keanan, your support is much appreciated! Gonna join us? You know you want to :)

TLBoehm said...

Kudos to the Lost Genre Guild as well as "Christian Spec Fic" reading blogs and posts from the LGG inspired me to start my own Christian Spec Fic trilogy, one of my New Year's Resolutions is to finish the first book...peace.
TL Boehm
http:// www.eloquentbooks.com/BethanysCrossing.html