J.F.Penn

Thrillers, Dark Fantasy, Crime

christian

Religious Truth Vs Fiction. Playing Saint With Zachary Bartels

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Zachary BartelsZachary Bartels' latest book Playing Saint opens with an exorcism and a murder scene with satanic symbols. It also features a mega-church and Vatican operatives, and in this interview, I ask Zach to talk a bit about the book and the thoughts behind it.

As an introduction, Zachary Bartels is an award-winning preacher and Bible teacher, serving as pastor of Judson Memorial Baptist Church in Lansing, Michigan, where he lives with his wife Erin and their son. He holds degrees from Cornerstone University and Grand Rapids Theological Seminary. Zachary enjoys film, fine cigars, stimulating conversation, gourmet coffee, reading, writing, and cycling.

Tell us about your own religious background and how you've incorporated that into the books.

zachart bartelsWell, I used to be a Vatican assassin from 1999-2004, during which I dealt with a very large number of occult-related murders.

Just kidding; I’m a Baptist minister with a pretty vanilla background. I do tend to incorporate my experiences as a pastor into characters (part of my “brand,” as they say), but mostly I would imagine my religious background relates to my books much like yours does to your books—meaning that, when you spend so much time studying all sorts of fascinating beliefs, rites, traditions, etc., from East to West and from ancient times to the present, your imagination starts spinning off what-ifs, which then grow up into full-blown stories.

How do you walk the line between what some consider religious truth and fiction?

playing saintI think it works in my favor that I really do believe in the religious angle of my novels (the reality of demonic oppression, the power of Christ’s cross, etc.).

Don’t get me wrong; I’ve enjoyed many a supernatural/religious thriller (in print or film) created by people who were approaching their work as straight-up fantasy, but my readership is primarily made up of evangelical Christians who share my beliefs. For that reason, I have to tread lightly around issues of doctrine and avoid writing in a way that might come across as flippant when dealing with things sacred. I’ve already had a couple negative reviews along the lines of: how can he employ all that snarky humor when dealing with such serious topics? However, I like to think that most readers (regardless of their personal beliefs) know that picking up a novel generally means suspending disbelief and giving a little latitude for the sake of entertainment.

this present darknessMy early influences in religious fiction included ‘This Present Darkness' by Frank Peretti.

What were some of your influences for your books? What do you read for pleasure now?  

Peretti’s work is definitely one of the strongest early influencers on me as well. I also love Stephen Lawhead’s stuff and Paul Maier’s religious thrillers.

Less predictably, I love Chuck Palahniuk’s works and the late Elmore Leonard, as well as the more out-there stuff like Duane Swierczynski. In the last couple years, I’ve also been tearing through Cliff Graham’s gritty biblical war epics.

I read your first book, 42 Months Dry, about the prophet Elijah a few years back, which covers a more historical thriller perspective.

How has your writing developed since then?

42 months dryFor starters, it’s gotten a lot tighter. 42 was my first stab at writing a novel. I took my time and gave it a number of passes, but flipping through it now, it’s a lot less polished than Playing Saint. Of course, that’s also because I did that one indie in pretty much every sense, which means no macro-edit with a project editor, no line edit, etc.

I was already listening to your podcasts while I was putting it together and I always heard you and your guests telling everyone to hire an editor, and I always thought, “Yeah, that’s a good idea…but not for me of course.” I wonder how many indie writers have that same assumption and how much better their work could be if they tossed it and let someone else inject some years of editorial experience into their work.

What are the themes that keep recurring in your writing? That obsess you?

This was totally unplanned, but I recently realized that both of my contracted novels with HarperCollins (as well as 42 Months Dry to some degree) are about the issue of identity.

By that I mean, determining who you really are underneath your titles, degrees, profession, etc. And, not surprisingly, there’s a whole lot about Jesus in there too—hopefully presented in a way that appeals broadly to readers of varying beliefs and backgrounds.

Many thriller authors are criticized for portraying violent crime and too much death in their books. How do you handle that criticism?

A couple of my early editorial reviews have mentioned the “on-screen” violence and rather bloody crime scenes, but it hasn’t been a deal-breaker. It’s a curiosity of the CBA marketplace that violence has kind of been given a pass, while a naughty word or even sidelong reference so something sexual would be shot on sight by pretty much any editor.

Personally, I think Playing Saintis PG-13 at most and I tried not to include death and violence for death and violence’s sake.

What's next for your writing?

My next novel, The Last Con (about a reformed con man forced back into a life of crime, with some secret societies, relics, and conspiracies to boot) comes out next June. It’s in line edit now. I’m just starting to outline another book that I hope to pitch soon..

Where can people find out more on you and your books?

My website is  www.zacharybartels.com or you can follow me on Twitter @AuthorZBartels

Thrillers That Mix Science And Religion With Randy Ingermanson

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One of the themes I revisit in most of my books is the issue of what I really believe. For many of us, that's the internal journey of a lifetime!

Randy IngermansonToday I talk to physicist and Christian, Randy Ingermanson, about his City of God series and how he reconciles faith and science in his books.

You can watch the video below or here on YouTube, or listen to the audio on SoundCloud.


Randy IngermansonRandy Ingermanson is a physicist and geek suspense novelist. His books include the Oxygen series, the City of God series and Double Vision, as well as books for writers.

We discuss:

  • What is geek suspense anyway? How Randy loves books by Michael Crichton, and how his writing always includes city of godgeeky, smart people who have adventures. How he became a physicist and then started writing
  • How modern physics is a story about how the Universe got here. I talk about how I did Theology at Oxford and my boyfriend was a physicist so I combined religion and science. We discuss the line between religion and science.
  • Randy was raised in a religious home as a 7th Day Adventist. This has impacted his writing, and he continues to try and explore what he believes in his books through the eyes of his characters. How physics is very good at understanding HOW the Universe works, but not WHY the Universe works. We started with hydrogen and we ended up with people.
  • About Randy's City of God series. A rogue physicist travels back in time to kill the Apostle Paul. The book has a Messianic Jew, Rivka, who ends up with a Jewish theoretical physicist and accidentally walks through a portal to 1st century Jerusalem. Now they must stop the assassination of Paul.
  • On the culture shock of using Jerusalem as a backdrop to the story. A short history of 1st century Jerusalem and what was to come in that century, including the destruction of the Temple and the emergence of Rabbinic Judaism, as well as Christianity moving out of Israel to Rome.
  • How Randy visited Jerusalem in 1991 as part of his research and how Jerusalem is one of my favorite cities that keeps appearing in my books. How we were both influenced by The Source by James Michener.
  • How we have to write out of our own experience and passions – for us, it's religion and the supernatural! Plus, Randy brings in an element of romance – he's far more romantic than me! We both write powerful female characters.
  • On Randy's research for the Oxygen series which features a journey to Mars.

You can find Randy at Ingermanson.com and you can get his first book in the City of God series, Transgression, for free on Amazon here. [Read more…] about Thrillers That Mix Science And Religion With Randy Ingermanson

Ancient City: Carcassonne. Religious Music, Religion And Violence

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I recently spent a few days in the Languedoc region of France, mostly relaxing but also exploring the rich cultural heritage of the Pays Cathare, Cathar country.

Ancient city CarcassonneIt's an evocative place, historically and for religious reasons and I wrote a great deal in my journal about faith and violence.

During the 12th century a new type of Christianity arose in the region, characterized by simplicity of faith, clothing and way of life. The Cathars were opposed to the corruption of the Catholic Church and spread their simple beliefs among the common people, preaching the scripture in local tongue so people could understand and believe. They were against violence and had a flat structure where no person was considered above another.

Carcassonne crossesBut the Church couldn't allow such a threat to the established faith. Between 1208 and 1321 the Cathars were systematically hunted down and murdered, besieged in the castles of the region, tortured by the Inquisition and burned alive.

Listening to religious music in Carcassonne BasilicaOne day, I sat in the Basilique of Carcassonne's Old City and wrote these words while a male choir sang religious music. These are the notes from my diary.

“I sit in the nave, a male quartet sing. Their voices resound, praising God, soaring into the vaulted space above. They are lit by the sun through stained glass, the blood red of massacred saints, the azure blue of heaven. Why do these sounds bring delight to the soul, when the tomb of the mass murderer reminds us of the slaughtered innocents here? The veil is ripped wide between heaven and earth in places like this, where death and eternal life struggle for dominance. Doves roost in the ancient stone, wings lit by the fragility of candles. My vision is blurred by the smoke that carries prayers to heaven, in memory of the final faithful burnt alive at Montsegur.”

I love church music. When I write, I either listen to rain and storms or Gregorian chants, which evoke images of the great cathedrals of Europe, some of my greatest inspiration.

So it was glorious to listen to the music in that place and yet incongruous to do so under the tombstone of Simon de Montfort, who led the mass murder of the Cathars. His body was actually removed from the church for fear of it being desecrated later on.

The Devil at CarcassonneThe juxtaposition of faith and violence is something that I return to again and again. They seem inextricably linked.

I'm currently writing the last chapters of Exodus, the third ARKANE novel, and have returned again to Jerusalem which is perhaps the place where it collides in the most fierce manner. I don't know if Carcassonne itself will make it into my fiction, but the emotions conjured by these places and the music that echoed there remains my central inspiration.

You can sign up to be notified when Exodus is released here. Pentecost and Prophecy are available on Amazon and all other ebook stores now.

You can read more about the Cathars here. For fiction based in this region, I recommend Kate Mosse's Labyrinth.

 

Ancient Religion: National Geographic Apostles Article Supports Pentecost Research

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Ancient ReligionThanks to Werner Meyer for directing me to this article in National Geographic on the Apostles, which goes into the research I used for Stone of Fire (originally published as Pentecost), the first in the ARKANE series.

It covers Thomas in Kerala, India; Mark in Coptic Egypt and then Venice and goes into the study of relics, which is also a theme in Prophecy.The article also talks about Mary Magdalene, who I didn't include in my list of “official” apostles, despite the popularity of The Da Vinci Code!

“To study the lives of the Apostles is a bit like what we've been doing with the Hubble telescope—getting as close as we can to seeing these earliest galaxies. This was the big bang moment for Christianity, with the Apostles blasting out of Jerusalem and scattering across the known world.”

Click here to read the National Geographic article.