An introduction is in order...

[lucidghost]

Hello Anomaly community,

As you can see I am brand new around here and its awesome to find a community of Christian writers in the scifi/fantasy/spec fic genre!

Like many on here, I am an aspiring author seeking publication and hoping to get feedback/critique for my work. I wrote my first novel 8 years ago and I never went back to edit it since I was still finishing college. Then I got married, went back for my MA, and my wife had our first child a year ago.

Earlier this year, the writing itch hit me really bad and I wanted to go back and edit my novel. But before I did that, I entered a writing contest for a local Christian radio station and even though I didn't win, I made the top five. I was later surprised to find out that the top five in the contest would receive a consolation prize of having lunch with two editors at a Christian publisher! That lunch with editors motivated me to get into gear with editing my fantasy novel and seeking out fellow Christian writers who are involved in the genre. So I'm glad to be here and I hope to glean some valuable knowledge from you all ;D

[Bethany J.]

Welcome, lucidghost! What genre/s do you write in? That lunch sounds like it must have been a lot of fun.

[lucidghost]

Hi Bethany,

I like to write scifi and fantasy mostly, but I do have an idea for a political thriller-type novel that isn't speculative in any way. I also have written down some notes for a historical fiction novel that has some superhero elements in it (think Zorro). I just like to write whatever tickles my fancy, but its generally the scifi/fantasy worlds that intrigue me the most

[Bethany J.]

Same here - I'll dabble in other genres from time to time, but I write almost exclusively scifi and fantasy. My scifi tends to be soft science fiction about other worlds, or the occasional dystopian political statement. For fantasy I run the gamut from epic high fantasy to urban fantasy. Once in awhile I like to write superhero stuff.

[rjj7]

For whatever reason, all of my Sci-fi ideas are movies or tv series in my head. Guess I'm stuck with writing fantasy.

Hi lucidghost. Welcome to the fruitbasket off the edge of the map.


EDIT: "Fruitbasket at the end of the world" has a better feel to it, but I wouldn't want to imply that we have any limits in how far we can go.

[lucidghost]

Thanks for the welcome rjj7! I totally agree with you that most of my ideas feel like TV shows and movies that I would watch.

Is everyone on here part of the sandbox group? I'm thinking of joining up and maybe putting some of my stuff out there for critiques and such.

[Kessie]

Yeah, the sandbox has been pretty dead lately. Everybody got publishing contracts and are slaving away at their editor revisions and rewrites. It'd be nice to have some fresh blood!

I write young adult urban fantasy about teens with time and space powers running around Phoenix, AZ. :-)

[lucidghost]

I'd like to read some stories about those Phoenix teens, Kessie. I assume that you live in that city? My sister-in-law and her husband live there. I could see some good monster scifi about those javelinas that roam in those parts.

[beckyminor]

Welcome to our little corner of the universe, lucidghost. As for whether things have been quiet here, I can take some blame for that. I have been largely AWOL for the past 3 months or so due to writing and conference planning obligations. But it's good to have new faces in the mix! I hope you enjoy some excellent doses of encouragement here.

[Kessie]

You can see some samples at spacetime.netraptor.org. :-) Storm Chase has the first (heavily edited) chapter available, while Chronocrime has four (unedited) chapters available. Chronocrime needs to be broken down and rewritten just about from scratch, so Storm Chase is better as a sample.

[lucidghost]

Hi beckyminor, thanks for the welcome! I am enjoying reading the threads on here and I am getting some good info about writing.

Kessie, I'll have to check out those samples and let you know what I think

[Kessie]

Psst, Becky's books are really good. She's on Amazon under Rebecca Minor. :-) High fantasy with a very grouchy elf captain hero who doesn't say anything unless it's extremely negative. He's great.

[j2starshine]

Welcome! And congrats on the contest and lunch with the editors!

I second Kessie's recommendation. And Valor's Worth is the best of her work so far, but you'll want to start with the first in that series. :-)

Kessie, I feel so bad about my lack of participation in the Sandbox. I can barely keep up with life outside of writing. ha! I've contemplated withdrawing, but we'll see how the end of this year goes.

[Kessie]

I haven't done much in the sandbox lately, either. I figure we'll all want it again once we have some fresh material that needs critique. We're all just trying to polish up what we have right now, and hopefully get things published.

[beckyminor]

Aw, you guys are too nice in plugging my books for me! Thanks for the good words.