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!
Today 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 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
geeky, 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
