| AN INTERVIEW WITH FRANK CREED Christian-fiction author of the cyberpunk Underground series, White Iron, part one of a fantasy braided novel, and contributor to Daniel I Weaver's Christian speculative-fiction anthology project answers tough questions about his tough worlds. |
 | |  | |  | |  | |  | |  | |  | |  | |  | |  |
Q: Writers have different motivations. What drives you?
A: I've always loved reading fantasy, sci-fi, horror and the other sub-genres of speculative fiction but until recent
years, Christian bookstore shelves have been barren of Christian spec-fic. Fans of this genre shop secular shelves
because we've offered them nothing. It's been said that spec-fic is the handmaiden of philosophy. It is a perfect
vehicle for delivering a worldview because it's so easily woven into your setting. Depending upon my intended
audience, my motivation is either evangelism or post-evangelism by portraying characters heroically living their
Fundamental faith even in the worst conditions. I feel that I use the best-suited but most neglected genre for the task.
Q: What is post-evangelism?
A: Post-evangelism is discipleship. Once someone is saved, then what? Many believers have a hard time applying
Biblical wisdoms to modern issues. Through Flashpoint and the rest of the Underground Series, I hope to inspire
direction and change in the lives of Christians who don't understand Scripture's lightning-strike answers to the
classical philosophical questions.
Q: I thought Flashpoint was for readers age-twelve and up? Isn't that kinda deep?
A: In our society, big ideas are dry and boring. Flashpoint is set in the 2036 Chicago Metroplex and, thanks to home-
grown terrorism, religious Fundamentalism is illegal. Teen-aged Calamity Kid and e-girl are the only members of their
home-church not taken into custody. Their only refuge is an underground "terrorist" cell called the Body of Christ.
Wide-eyed kids dodging barbed wire checkpoints, armed peacekeepers and violent gangers, while being hunted by the
Federal Bureau of Terrorism, are thirsty for answers: through them, so's the reader.
Q: Don’t you fear that such a story is too racy for the Christian market?
A: I knew going into this novel that I'd be walking this 'graphic' fine line. I know what the rock-music-is-
of-the-devil demographic of the Christian subculture will think of my writing, but controversy sells books.
Regarding the morality of peaceful resistance, I stand on the Biblical arguments of Francis Schaeffer.
Q: Aren't your beliefs threatened by Sci-Fi?
A: What’s to be threatened? The church feared Galilleo’s Heliocentric theory of the Solar System, yet here we are
today and the Earth is not flat. Fundamentalists already believe in intelligent alien life-forms: angels. If He created the
entire Milky-Way and Universe just for humans (angels are extra-dimensional), my finite sensibilities see the universe
as a terrible waste of space. Hebrews 1:2 reads, “Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath
appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds” --King James Version and the New King James
Version. Hebrews 11: 3 contains a second reference to ‘worlds’. Editors of the NIV chose to translate ‘world’ in
these verses as ‘universe’. The totality of worlds is indeed the universe, but A) this was written in a day when that
was not common knowledge, and B) He could be hinting that we are not alone. There are Christians who for some
reason believe that if alien life-forms were discovered, our faith would be disproven. Standing on these verses, I am
not among them.
Q: May I take that to mean, you believe in aliens?
A: My guess is that He created other planetary species in His own image and because His plan seems to rely on each
person's faith, I doubt that any of us will ever meet. I’d love to interact with a race-from-the-stars though, just to
compare Messiah-notes: did Christ's blood cover the universe or were there many Incarnations? It is mind-boggling
enough to know that He loves us humans enough to become mortal and endure what Jesus endured--the thought that
the Son endured this hundreds of thousands of times gives me goose-bumps.
Q: No War of the Worlds scenario?
A: That would take all the faith right out of it. I doubt He’d allow that kind of violence to befall Earth
Q: Since you brought it up, don't you see Flashpoint as violent?
A: I see violence all around me, and I’m not going to let Hollywood teach my kids about the proper uses of
violence. Should the United States have allowed the Third Reich to take Europe? My fiction is an opportunity
for a discussion of Biblical values, not just of violence but across the moral spectrum. In our fallen world, pacifism is
a pipe dream. In the world of Flashpoint, the government has set itself up as god, and underground Christians refuse
to bow to a false god.
A: I've always loved reading fantasy, sci-fi, horror and the other sub-genres of speculative fiction but until recent
years, Christian bookstore shelves have been barren of Christian spec-fic. Fans of this genre shop secular shelves
because we've offered them nothing. It's been said that spec-fic is the handmaiden of philosophy. It is a perfect
vehicle for delivering a worldview because it's so easily woven into your setting. Depending upon my intended
audience, my motivation is either evangelism or post-evangelism by portraying characters heroically living their
Fundamental faith even in the worst conditions. I feel that I use the best-suited but most neglected genre for the task.
Q: What is post-evangelism?
A: Post-evangelism is discipleship. Once someone is saved, then what? Many believers have a hard time applying
Biblical wisdoms to modern issues. Through Flashpoint and the rest of the Underground Series, I hope to inspire
direction and change in the lives of Christians who don't understand Scripture's lightning-strike answers to the
classical philosophical questions.
Q: I thought Flashpoint was for readers age-twelve and up? Isn't that kinda deep?
A: In our society, big ideas are dry and boring. Flashpoint is set in the 2036 Chicago Metroplex and, thanks to home-
grown terrorism, religious Fundamentalism is illegal. Teen-aged Calamity Kid and e-girl are the only members of their
home-church not taken into custody. Their only refuge is an underground "terrorist" cell called the Body of Christ.
Wide-eyed kids dodging barbed wire checkpoints, armed peacekeepers and violent gangers, while being hunted by the
Federal Bureau of Terrorism, are thirsty for answers: through them, so's the reader.
Q: Don’t you fear that such a story is too racy for the Christian market?
A: I knew going into this novel that I'd be walking this 'graphic' fine line. I know what the rock-music-is-
of-the-devil demographic of the Christian subculture will think of my writing, but controversy sells books.
Regarding the morality of peaceful resistance, I stand on the Biblical arguments of Francis Schaeffer.
Q: Aren't your beliefs threatened by Sci-Fi?
A: What’s to be threatened? The church feared Galilleo’s Heliocentric theory of the Solar System, yet here we are
today and the Earth is not flat. Fundamentalists already believe in intelligent alien life-forms: angels. If He created the
entire Milky-Way and Universe just for humans (angels are extra-dimensional), my finite sensibilities see the universe
as a terrible waste of space. Hebrews 1:2 reads, “Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath
appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds” --King James Version and the New King James
Version. Hebrews 11: 3 contains a second reference to ‘worlds’. Editors of the NIV chose to translate ‘world’ in
these verses as ‘universe’. The totality of worlds is indeed the universe, but A) this was written in a day when that
was not common knowledge, and B) He could be hinting that we are not alone. There are Christians who for some
reason believe that if alien life-forms were discovered, our faith would be disproven. Standing on these verses, I am
not among them.
Q: May I take that to mean, you believe in aliens?
A: My guess is that He created other planetary species in His own image and because His plan seems to rely on each
person's faith, I doubt that any of us will ever meet. I’d love to interact with a race-from-the-stars though, just to
compare Messiah-notes: did Christ's blood cover the universe or were there many Incarnations? It is mind-boggling
enough to know that He loves us humans enough to become mortal and endure what Jesus endured--the thought that
the Son endured this hundreds of thousands of times gives me goose-bumps.
Q: No War of the Worlds scenario?
A: That would take all the faith right out of it. I doubt He’d allow that kind of violence to befall Earth
Q: Since you brought it up, don't you see Flashpoint as violent?
A: I see violence all around me, and I’m not going to let Hollywood teach my kids about the proper uses of
violence. Should the United States have allowed the Third Reich to take Europe? My fiction is an opportunity
for a discussion of Biblical values, not just of violence but across the moral spectrum. In our fallen world, pacifism is
a pipe dream. In the world of Flashpoint, the government has set itself up as god, and underground Christians refuse
to bow to a false god.
Feedback, comments, or suggestions? Reach him at admin@frankcreed.com
Frank Creed © 2004-2007
"Frank Creed is a Fundamentalist Christian and writer of fantasy and sci-fi ( Speculative Fiction ). Frank Creed has a Christian Speculative Fiction novella
published in Tales for the Thrifty Barbarian: An Anthology of High Fantasy and three short stories in Light at the Edge of Darkness. His Christian cyberpunk
novel Flashpoint will be released in September 2007. An avid fan of sci-fi and fantasy, Speculative Fiction is the vehicle that Frank uses to deliver his beliefs
and spiritual philosophy to readers. This "Lost Genre" remains very controversial in the Christian Fundamentalist community and Frank Creed and other
authors of Christian Speculative Fiction are the new kids on the block. They will likely spread the Christian message to a greater number of people because
they are willing to follow His voice and use the gifts He has given. To this end, Frank has created the "Lost Genre Guild" an organization to help promote
Biblical speculative fiction and assist fans in locating the best in the genre."
Editor,
The Writers' Cafe Press
published in Tales for the Thrifty Barbarian: An Anthology of High Fantasy and three short stories in Light at the Edge of Darkness. His Christian cyberpunk
novel Flashpoint will be released in September 2007. An avid fan of sci-fi and fantasy, Speculative Fiction is the vehicle that Frank uses to deliver his beliefs
and spiritual philosophy to readers. This "Lost Genre" remains very controversial in the Christian Fundamentalist community and Frank Creed and other
authors of Christian Speculative Fiction are the new kids on the block. They will likely spread the Christian message to a greater number of people because
they are willing to follow His voice and use the gifts He has given. To this end, Frank has created the "Lost Genre Guild" an organization to help promote
Biblical speculative fiction and assist fans in locating the best in the genre."
Editor,
The Writers' Cafe Press
