WHAT WOULD CS LEWIS DO?

What Would CS Lewis Do?
by Keith Giles

The other day a good friend of mine asked me if I ever thought about writing anything other than spiritual matters? Like fiction, for example.

The truth is that I did write fiction before I started the whole "Subversive" thing that's going on now. I had started to write a sci-fi novel called "Digerati" which dealt with memory replacement, bio-engineering and identity. Eventually that novel-in-progress inherited an artist and suddenly it was a comicbook/graphic novel-in-progress. Out of that project sprung a second project called "Hard Video" which was based on a short story I wrote. That project got an artist attached and soon I had several other sci-fi/graphic novel projects going all at once. After that came "Durango Silver" and "UV:Target" and then it totally snowballed.

The result was something we called "Plastic Animal Studios" and you can take a look at the projects we had going at the website: http://www.plasticanimalstudios.com

We actually had some of our stuff published in a giant anthology called "Prophecy" (not a Christian publication, in spite of the name). The "Hard Video" short story was in there first (and only) edition. We had finished pages on a second short called "The Devil's Riding Horse", and you can read that entire story at the website link provided, but it never got published because they went out of business.

One day, I will get back to my sci-fi projects and self-publish those as well. When I do, the question is whether not I should combine the fiction and the spiritual books into one blog/website or if I should create a separate identity for the fiction. My friend asked me about this the other day. He wanted to know if I would feel comfortable with people who follow my spiritual writings being exposed to my fiction, and conversely how I would feel if those who followed my fiction discovered my writings on being a Jesus follower. Good question.

I admit I've thought about this, but my kneejerk reaction is to ask, "What did C.S. Lewis do"? He just wrote and allowed the two worlds to co-exist. Go to Amazon.com and search his name and you'll find books on Christian Theology side by side with books on science fiction and books for children based on myth and fantasy. I think that's what I'll do too.

Granted, it's inevitable that some will read my fiction and be offended that I include violence and adult situations, and some will outright reject my fiction completely when they discover that I'm a "Christian Author"…so in some ways I can't win either way. That's just the way it will have to be, I guess.

I've done a lot of thinking lately about the false distinction of "Sacred" and "Secular" created by the Christian subculture. In order to further demonstrate my desire to eliminate the kind of mentality created by this man-made evil, it makes even more sense than ever for me to bundle everything into one unsafe package.

At the moment, however, I am firmly focused on publishing my books on spiritual matters.
Very soon I will announce the availability of my book, "Nobody Follows Jesus (So Why Should You?)" and provide a link here on this blog for online sales of the physical book, and pdf download option as well. This book is over 200 pages long and contains 50 articles on spiritual formation and discipleship I've published over the last four years at RelevantMagazine.com, TheOoze.com, and several other outlets. It really is a great collection of some of my very favorite articles on the subject of following Jesus. I can't wait to release it!

Following that I will make "The Gospel:For Here Or To Go?" available for online purchase. The cover, by Scott Laumann, is already finished and it is totally gorgeous. I'd buy it just for that cover image. The hold up on this book has been the introduction which Neil Cole (the author of "Organic Church") has been working on for me. He's been travelling a lot lately, and he's also in the middle of finishing up his own book too, so I have no problem waiting on him to provide me with his introduction at his earliest convenience. It will be worth the wait, I assure you.

After the New Year I will publish "Top 10 Things Every Christian Should Know (But Probably Doesn't)" based on the monthly series I wrote this year, with additional material which wasn't included in the online version of those articles.

Following that I want to release another set of books collecting my interviews with Dallas Willard, Matt Redman, Jim Wallis, Todd Hunter, Spencer Burke, Dr. Scott Bartchy, Tim Hughes, and uh…a lot of other people. I'll call that "Subversive Interviews" I think.

After that I'll publish a collection of my articles on house church called "The Mission: Adventures in House Church" and another collection after that of my articles on caring for poor called "Secret Service:Developing a Heart for the Poor".

Some of you may also remember that I have been writing another book of totally original material called "The Power of Weakness". This book has not been published in any online format. Right now, the book is still in the development stage and I will insert that book into the release schedule as soon as I have the time to put that final bit of polish on the manuscript. I mean, it's totally done, but I need to add a bit of narrative to the beginning of each chapter and just haven't had the time to do it.

Taking a look at that list, I think I have plenty to keep me busy in the self-publishing department.

Just between you and me, I'd really LOVE it if a publisher would offer to do all of this for me. As much as I love the freedom of self-publishing, it would really great if I could just write my books and someone else could handle the editing, the layout, the cover, and the marketing for me.

Ahh….yeah, that would be SO nice. If you know of any Christian publishers looking for great writers send them my way.

Until then…

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