Meet and Greet Monday: PA Baines

Book Giveaway Drawing!

Read the details at the end of this post.

P.A.Baines is the author of Alpha Redemption, a Christian speculative fiction novel that asks the question: “If a man-made artificial intelligence became self-aware and developed a belief in God, would God recognize it as having a soul?”

Educated in Africa, he works as an analyst/programmer and is studying towards a degree in Creative Writing through the Open College of the Arts in England. He currently lives in a small corner of the Netherlands with his wife and two children and various wildlife.

BRC: How would you describe your book?

"Robinson Crusoe" meets "2001: A Space Odyssey", with soul.

I like to think of it as science fiction that can be read by people who don't normally read science fiction. Half the book takes place on a trip to Alpha Centauri, but the other half deals with Brett's life prior to the mission and with the events that made him the bitter loner he is at the start of the story. Brett makes a mistake and spends the rest of his life trying to come to terms with that mistake. It is only with Jay's help that he is able to deal with the tragic events of his life and, ultimately, find his way back to God.

BRC: What message do you hope it conveys?

That God is always in control of our lives no matter where we are, and that He will be there for us if we will just call out to Him, even if we run half way across the galaxy to get away from Him.

BRC: What did you enjoy most about writing this book?

I loved writing my two main characters, Brett and Jay, because they both struggle with issues of life and love and faith, and with what it means to be alive. I had terrific fun with the interactions between the two of them on the space ship. The astronaut (Brett) starts the journey as a grumpy loner being constantly pestered by the computer (Jay) who just wants to learn. Over time, Brett and Jay become buddies and go through the usual ups and downs of friendship. In the end, Jay is prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice for Brett.

I also enjoyed the challenge of writing half the story in reverse. I wanted to emphasise the time-dilation effects of near light-speed travel and so wrote the two threads in opposite directions.

BRC: What did you dislike most about writing this book?

I knew exactly where the plot was heading at each chapter, and so I had very limited freedom with regard to where the story could go. Normally I like to give the plot some freedom, but I did not do that so much with Alpha Redemption.

BRC: What inspired you to become a writer?

I have always loved reading and the whole process of story-telling. When I became a Christian, I asked God for a ministry. Not long after that I discovered a story rattling around in my head and I set about writing it down. From that moment I was hooked and have been unable to stop since. I feel a definite calling to write and my aim now is to improve my abilities so that I can be as effective as possible.

BRC: Tell us about your writing process.

I commute by bicycle for about forty-five minutes each way and I use this time to listen to audiobooks. I find that the act of reading usually triggers my creative processes, and so I get many of my ideas during this time. Once I have an idea for a story, I think about it until I have a very broad outline in my head. In fact I only start to write once the story feels to me like a memory of an enjoyable movie. The details are hazy at this point, but my story has a rough shape. I then start writing.

I don't dump my ideas onto the page, as I have heard many people do. I tend to write more slowly and correct things as I go. By the time the story is down I am roughly at third of fourth draft level. I seldom have to perform a rewrite, but can concentrate on tweaking and polishing. I prefer writing this way because it allows me to find and correct a lot of problems as I go, thereby removing them as potential future distractions.

BRC: What are you working on now?

A humorous science-fiction epic called "Hanzet, the Universe, and Everything." It is about a group of people searching for a book containing the meaning of life. Along the way, it pokes gentle fun at "new atheists" and scientists who refuse to even consider the possibility that the universe may have been created. I started it about six years ago but never made it beyond the third chapter. I am now just past the halfway point.

BRC: What books do you enjoy reading?

I discovered love for reading through Stephen King, but I tend to read very little of his work these days. I love the Discworld series by Sir Terry Pratchett. I am currently reading Alastair Reynolds. Recent authors that I have enjoyed include Michael Palmer, Jonathan Safran Foer, Philip K. Dick, Carlos Ruiz Zafón, Audrey Niffenegger, and Cormac McCarthy.

BRC: Where can readers buy your book?

Amazon  

Barnes and Noble

Book Depository

Splashdown Books  

Note: Janalyn Voigt is
an Amazon Associate
and benefits when books
are purchased on Amazon.com
through links from
Book Readers Central.

BRC: Where can readers find you online?

http://www.pabaines.com/ (personal site)

http://newauthors.wordpress.com/  (joint blog with other aspiring authors)

Book Giveaway Drawing: To enter, leave a comment to this post and include your contact information. Entries without contact information will become ineligible. Entries will be accepted until this Thursday at midnight (Pacific Time/US). The winner will be announced on this blog on Friday. Detailed rules of giveaways on this blog are located in the footer.

Meet and Greet Monday: Grace Bridges

Book Giveaway Drawing!!!

Details Below...

Grace Bridges is a sci-fi author (Faith Awakened, first published in 2007, and Legendary Space Pilgrims, 2010) and owner of Splashdown Books, an independent publisher of inspirational sci-fi and fantasy. She's a Kiwi of Irish descent living in beautiful New Zealand, and a chocaholic cat-lovin' Trekkie, Jesus freak, web designer, and all-round DIY gal who also takes care of the Lost Genre Guild blog.

Dear Reader,

Hello folks! It's your friendly neighbourhood science fiction activist, happy to be Janalyn's guest today. So what is it about sci-fi that's drawn me in ever since childhood and the days of Star Trek reruns, Greatest American Hero, and Superman movies? Well, I think it's the limitless nature of the thing. In sci-fi, you can do anything you want to - call marvellous inventions into being to accomplish impossible feats, but also creating unheard-of conundrums for my characters. What would you do if you went sailing off into space in a tiny pod and you hated reading manuals? What if you had to gather supplies on a planet with very low oxygen? What if you suddenly discovered your culture is not the only one in existence?

These situations and many more what-ifs are waiting for you in the pages of Legendary Space Pilgrims. As you may have guessed by now, it contains echoes of Pilgrim's Progress, except that this journey is through space.

On a planet that has never seen the sun, a harvester hears a Voice from beyond. It's time to leave the oatfield. Mario and Caitlin escape the mind control of Planet Monday, following the Voice to unknown worlds where wonders and challenges await.

The transition from mind control to freedom is not an easy one for our escaped workers. Abusive situations abound in the real world, and I've certainly had my share - this story provides hope that there is a way to get past the hurt and grow into all you're meant to be.

Currently I'm working on Godspeed, the sequel to my first book, Faith Awakened: If you could end world hunger, you'd do it, right? What if governmental experiments caused your miracle fertiliser to become a weapon of mass destruction? Meet Naomi, the Belfast biologist forced to run from her own creation.

Then there's CyberDublin: Oodles rules the world. But when its global hyperweb network falls prey to sabotage, society spins towards chaos. In Dublin, the heart of the fallen cyberworld, an orphan rebel and her housemates face a reality far less virtual than they're used to.

And I'm also writing Comet Born at a rate of one chapter a month, as a serial which is appearing in "Digital Dragon" magazine. Gases from a comet's tail bestow superhuman powers on the babies born as it passes through Earth's atmosphere. As they grow older, they discover their talents, but there are those who wish to control them for evil purposes.

My favourite books include those by Stephen Lawhead, Frank Creed, Jeremy Robinson, Chris Walley, Amy Deardon, and of course C.S. Lewis. I also do a roaring trade in unpublished manuscripts, which I devour as often as I can - to find the best and offer them publishing contracts through my own Splashdown Books.

Purchase Legendary Space Pilgrims

Website: http://www.gracebridges.com/
Lost Genre Guild blog: http://blog.lostgenreguild.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/gracebridges

Click here for a history of all Grace's publications.



Book Giveaway Drawing: Leave a comment to this post to be entered in the drawing for a free copy of LEGENDARY SPACE PILGRIMS. Please include a way to reach you online or your entry will be ineligible. Entries will be accepted until this Wednesday at midnight (Pacific Coast time/United States). The winner will be posted Friday. A link to detailed rules for Book Readers Central giveaway drawings is located in this blogs footer.

Meet and Greet Monday: Steve Rzasa

Today's guest, Steve Rzasa, was born and raised in South Jersey, and fell in love with books—especially science fiction novels and historical volumes—at an early age. He and his wife, Carrie, have two boys and live in Buffalo, Wyoming. Steve’s short story, “Rescued,” which is set in the universe of The World Reclaimed, won the 2009 G.K.Chesterton Award in the Athanatos Christian Ministries Writing Contest.


Dear Reader,

The Word Reclaimed, my tale of a young man named Baden who discovers what may be the last Bible in existence, releases this October from Marcher Lord Press, the premier Christian speculative fiction publisher.


I grew up in southern New Jersey with a love for books and sketching. My parents were quite willing - thankfully! - to indulge my insatiable appetite for reading materials. I’ve always enjoyed science-fiction, particularly space opera, which is somewhat less finicky about the “science” part but big on fast spaceships hurtling across the depths of space. I tried my hand at writing my own space adventures off and on in school, mostly in short story form. In high school I wrote a novel-length story called Unifying Factors that will probably never see the light of day (Lord willing).

Soon it was off to college at Boston University and I suddenly had a whole lot of free time – excluding homework and studying, of course. I worked on several short ideas that didn’t really pan out. It was later in my junior year that I committed myself to following Christ. I dove into Bible study, and came up with a space opera of clashing empires called This Stirring Strife. It eventually became a 220-page novel involving Christian protagonists and interstellar war that I self-published through Booklocker.com as an experiment of sorts.

All this took place as I began a post-collegiate career in journalism. As anyone in that field can tell you, you do a lot of writing - even if, like mine, your work appears just in weekly newspapers. For the next eight years I wrote about eight articles a week, approximately. You can imagine my reluctance to go anywhere near a keyboard when I got home from work.

As a result, my fiction writing languished for years. But during this time, the idea for The Word Reclaimed came when I asked myself a question: What would happen if a man on a spaceship found a Bible floating in space? That idea exploded into a universe of starships that jump between solar systems in the wink of an eye. In a world where all printed materials are banned, the royal family and its religious secret police control all electronic information sources. A religious tolerance act ensures that all faiths are equal – anyone who claims a certain path is the sole path winds up imprisoned, or worse. It took me several years to get just partway through the book. But after I began working at a library – and didn’t have to write all day – I finished the book in nine months.

 I encourage you to read the prologue and first part of Chapter One of The Word Reclaimed here. Even if you don’t usually read science fiction, check it out. Several women who don't like science fiction told me they enjoyed the story.

You can buy The Word Reclaimed at the Marcher Lord Press website. Visit my website, www.steverzasa.com, for more information about my book and its universe.



Baden picked up the wrong book - and dark forces will stop at nothing to take it back.