Please Welcome...Jeff Gerke
What a joy to have Christian novelist
and speculative fiction pioneer Jeff
Gerke as
our interview guest at WhereTheMapEnds.com.
Well, I can still say it's a joy if I'm talking about myself, can't
I? If I have a positive self-image... ;-)
At the last minute the interview guest I had lined up for this
month was unable to get the interview to me in time.
Instead of scrambling to find someone else quickly and then imposing
on that person to drop everything and do the interview, I've decided just
to interview myself.
I like to think I'm doing my bit to advance Christian speculative
fiction, so I think it fits with the interview series I've been doing. If
I weren't me, I'd want to include me as one of the interview guests on
this column. So there you go.
Besides, it serves as a very nice transition between the
innovators series I've been doing and the next series of interviews, which will feature
Marcher Lord
Press authors.
The dual photo above is supposed to be me on both sides. It's Jeff interviewing Jeff, after
all. The first is just a photo, obviously. The second is what came out
when I took a photo of me and applied it to a 3D computer model (via two
programs called Daz Studio and FaceShop).
The two personas act as a good introduction into my many roles.
Jeff Gerke is also Jefferson Scott, author of six Christian novels,
including a series of near-future technothrillers.
Jeff Gerke is also a freelance editor and book doctor. He has
served as a staff editor for three Christian publishing companies:
Multnomah Publishers, Strang Communications, and NavPress. At Strang, he
spearheaded the launch of Realms, still the only speculative fiction imprint at a
major Christian publishing company.
Jeff Gerke is also the founder of
WhereTheMapEnds.com. That's where you are right
now.
And, perhaps most pertinent to this interview,
Jeff Gerke is the publisher and CEO of Marcher Lord
Press, the premier publisher of
Christian speculative fiction.
He lives in Colorado Springs with his wife and children. He enjoys
Mountain Dew, the Dallas Cowboys, acoustic guitar, and computer strategy
games.
So without further ado, here's the
interview.
WhereTheMapEnds: Catch us up with what's
going on in your life.
Jeff Gerke: As I write this it is August 31,
2008, thirty days out from the launch of Marcher Lord
Press. So I'm pretty much going crazy.
The books aren't ready, the covers aren't finished,
the shopping cart system isn't working yet, the bonus books aren't
assembled, the credit card processing system isn't in place yet, the store
isn't up, and the prizes aren't all in yet! Did I mention that all the
books aren't finished?
Now, I'm confident in Christ. I know it's all going
to work out according to His perfect timing. Everything is proceeding
nicely and is on a trajectory to completion right on time. But there are a
billion things to do and remember and finalize and test, and I'm pretty
much doing it all on my own.
Plus I'm doing it all in my "free" time, because my
full-time job is working as a freelance book doctor, editor, and
co-writer. I also have a part-time job as a cognitive trainer at a place
called LearningRx. Not to mention family and church
duties. And the fact that we're
in the midst of an international adoption.
There's an amusement park in Denver called
Elitch Gardens. It has one big indoor food court. All the fast food vendors
are side-by-side and people can line up in front of whichever one they want
to eat at. But sometimes there aren't enough servers to man every counter.
So the Orange Julius girl becomes the hot dog girl or the Subway. The workers just
slip through little side doors and take care of business.
If you imagine that entire food court filled with
hundreds of people, all queued up in a dozen lines, and just one person trying to serve everyone, you'll get
a good idea of what I feel like right now!
Hopefully after Marcher Lord Press goes live on October 1 things will begin to
calm down again. But until then...I'm not counting on it.
Still, I'm not complaining. A bad day working for
yourself beats a hundred great days working for The Man.
WhereTheMapEnds:
That's very interesting, Jeff, but I think you're a big whiner. You
want some cheese with that whine?
Jeff
Gerke:
Yikes. I thought you were going to be
a friendly interviewer. Love yourself, man.
WhereTheMapEnds: Fuhgedaboudit. Now,
what is your favorite speculative novel of all time (Christian or secular)
and why is that your favorite?
Jeff Gerke: My favorite speculative novel is The Lord of the
Rings. That book, which I discovered in college, showed me that
fiction could have the same kind of power that a movie could have—as had
been demonstrated to me only a few years before by Star Wars
(1977).
Those two stories were both "hero's journey" tales, I
came to learn later. That's Joseph Campbell's name for the "monomyth," the
one story that appears in all cultures throughout human history. It's the
story of God. It's the story of
Man.
My current work in progress is an epic fantasy that follows the
hero's journey motif.
I also love Magician by Raymond E.
Feist.
The best Christian novel I've ever read is
Byzantium
by Stephen Lawhead.
WhereTheMapEnds:
What made you
want to write Christian speculative fiction?
Jeff Gerke: I
think the original Star Wars set me on the path. I thought, I
want to be able to produce stories with that kind of power. I felt like
Star Wars
unscrewed the top of my head and plugged
directly into my subconscious.
That direction was solidified when I discovered
The Lord of the Rings.
It showed me that an author of a book could have
the same kind of mythic power over a reader that Lucas had had over
me as a viewer.
In college I studied filmmaking and have become a novelist. Readers tell me
they like the visual richness in my fiction. I think that comes from the
filmmaker part of me.
But my current WIP is my first attempt to consciously
use the power of the hero's journey. I've studied Joseph Campbell's
seminal work, Hero with a Thousand Faces,
pretty carefully. I'm ready to use the monomyth
for my story now.
WhereTheMapEnds:
But isn't that just
a formula? You're writing formula books
now?
Jeff Gerke: No. The monomyth is
fluid. It has main recurring components, but they can come in any
order and can even be left out. Any time you're dipping into the power
of a story that resides in the heart
of every human (part of the fingerprint of God, imo),
you're accessing Truth. It's not a
formula.
WhereTheMapEnds:
Hmm.
Anyway,
how was your first
idea for a Christian speculative novel received (by anyone: spouse,
friends, parents, agent, publisher, readers, reviewers,
etc.)?
Jeff Gerke:
My first speculative project was an adventure
module I wrote for Dungeons & Dragons. It never got published, but I
was obsessed with creating it. I made maps and charts and weather
forecasts for three years in this land I'd created. I think my parents
were just glad
to see me working on something I was interested
in.
After that, I wrote a fantasy novel. It was terrible
and too short and full of cliches, but my goodness, I loved it. It will
never be published, I hope. But what it did was show me that I, too, could
be a teller of tales, that I, too, could create a magical world and tell
of fell deeds and ethical
dilemmas. And that I could write a really long
story.
I don't think I ever showed
it to anyone, so I don't know how they
reacted!
WhereTheMapEnds:
You're a big chicken!
Bwawk-bok-bok.
Jeff Gerke:
You know it, baby. Next
question?
WhereTheMapEnds:
What is your favorite speculative genre to read? To write? If they're
different, talk about that.
Jeff Gerke: I
have two kinds of fiction I dearly love to write: speculative (both SF and
fantasy) and military. My two published trilogies are just that:
speculative (the Ethan Hamilton series) and military (the Operation:
Firebrand
novels).
My current WIP combines them: military
fantasy. Oh, the ultimate goodness that is that story
world.
As for what I read...I don't read much fiction. That
surprises people since I'm a
novelist, a book doctor specializing in fiction, and a publisher producing only Christian speculative
fiction. But that's probably why I don't read much of it in my free
time: I read it all the time for my
work!
When I do read for pleasure,
I enjoy nonfiction that helps me research my own
fiction.
WhereTheMapEnds:
How would you
characterize the current state of Christian speculative fiction writing
and/or publishing?
Jeff Gerke:
Stunted. I personally don't think the Christian publishing industry (at least
in its current CBA/ECPA form) will ever embrace
speculative fiction. The CBA has its own pet audience, and that audience does
not like weird fiction.
I know we've had Peretti and Dekker and Left
Behind.
I know there are editors
saying they'll accept fantasy and SF. I know
the industry has made progress in the last few years in terms of
what may be published.
But I am unconvinced. Aside from the
notable exceptions, Christian speculative fiction has not sold
well for publishers. The big hits (praise God
for them!) have not created a demand for more and more
speculative fiction from any author who can write
it. Speculative is not the fastest-growing genre in CBA. I'm not even sure
it's growing at all.
In my view, we'll continue to have
a few good attempts to broaden what the
CBA will allow, but it will make no difference in the
end. Until and unless the core CBA fiction
demographic suddenly gets younger, male-er, and fascinated by something besides romance, the situation
will not change, imo.
There are
many Christians out there who are not being served by the
current Christian publishing industry. Those people want awesome
"weird" fiction from the Christian worldview. But they know they won't get it
from Family Christian Bookstores.
Thus the need for Marcher Lord
Press. It's a Christian publishing company for the people not being served
by Christian publishing companies.
WhereTheMapEnds: What do you think Christian
speculative fiction writing and/or publishing will look like in three
years? Five years? Ten years?
Jeff Gerke:
There will be the status quo police who will fight to
keep things as they are. The core CBA fiction demographic will continue to
want what it wants, and therefore it will receive that kind of content
from Christian publishing companies.
But
as I've written elsewhere on this site (see Tip #79) I believe we are living in
a publishing revolution.
The status quo brigade will see things changing
around them, even as they stay the same.
In ten years there will probably still be a few
Christian publishing companies doing business very much like
they're doing it today. But the environment will have
changed.
Things will have been opened up to the
masses.
There will be many, many new
indie presses getting their products directly to consumers and bypassing brick-and-mortar bookstores altogether.
Indeed, there probably won't be many Christian bookstores
left. Or they will have also become tea house
cafes.
It's a great time to be alive if you hanker for
Christian fiction (and film, music, online content, etc.) that the
Christian establishment isn't currently providing. Soon everyone will be
able to get whatever he
wants.
It will be a sobering time, too. Many people in the
Christian publishing industry complain about the little old ladies in
Pasadena and the rest of the industry that acts as censor for what can be
included in a Christian novel. However, in this new age, that censoring
body will be bypassed entirely. Publishers will have to figure out for
themselves what they do or don't want to put in their fiction. It's a
brave new world.
WhereTheMapEnds: What advice would you give
to someone who aspires to write and publish Christian speculative
fiction?
Jeff Gerke: Do
it! Your day has come. In
three to five years there will be all kinds of markets clamoring for your speculative fiction.
They may not be the kind of markets you see now, and
they may not offer big advances or multi-city book tours, but they will
want your stuff. Speculative will suddenly be in
demand.
The
first thing is to write it. The second thing is to improve your craft.
With the array of books and seminars and workshops and conferences (and of
course my own Fiction Writing Tip of the Week
column) available to you now,
there's no excuse for not having first-rate fiction
craftsmanship.
But
after you avail yourself of
those and
you find you still need help, I offer a full menu of editorial services in which I'll look directly at your
writing and tell you what's working and
what needs improvement, and how to do
it.
WhereTheMapEnds:
Good advice, I guess.
A little self-serving, though, wouldn't you say? So what would you say
is
the best book or seminar on fiction writing you
know?
Jeff Gerke:
Certainly it's Self-Editing for Fiction
Writers by Browne & King. I'm a disciple of their teaching. Most
of my own writing tips arise out of their philosophy of
fiction.
WhereTheMapEnds: What’s the best part about
writing and publishing Christian speculative
fiction?
Jeff Gerke: Going on incredible adventures. Writing the ultimate story ever (as I see it) and creating the
book somebody else should've but didn't. And then getting to take like-minded people along
with me. Dreaming the coolest journeys and sharing them with friends.
Personally, I
think God likes Christian speculative fiction. It's arguably the most creative genre of all.
And...I just get the feeling that He loves these stories, too.
WhereTheMapEnds: What’s a cool speculative
story idea you’ve had lately?
Jeff Gerke:
I'd like to write an entire novel from within the mind of an autistic
protagonist. His internal world is normal, of course, and he
is normal and very smart. It's just everyone else who
has freaked out and does bizarre things and speaks in a terribly difficult
language.
Because he is brilliant, he manages to decypher enough of their ways to survive.
Now if they'd just quit saying he's "challenged." They're the ones with the
problem...
WhereTheMapEnds: What’s a cool
speculative story idea you’ve had
lately?
Jeff Gerke: I'm extremely excited about
two books I hope to publish in a future season of Marcher Lord Press. One,
I've already got under contract. The other, I'm still working on. I can't
say much about them, but they've sent my mind soaring to incredible
realms.
WhereTheMapEnds: Well, Jeff, you
narcissistic silly person, what else
would you like to say to the readers of WhereTheMapEnds.com?
Jeff
Gerke:
Just that it's been
such an enjoyable interview experience for me. Thank you for being
so...kind.
Also
that I'm just as eager as everyone else to see what happens on
Launch Day for Marcher Lord Press. October 1
could be a smashing success or a cricket-chirping silence festival. We'll
see!
That's
all for this time
What a wonderful interview, huh? Thanks again to Jeff
Gerke. Be sure to visit Jeff online.
As
a special gift Jeff has given us a sneak peek at the incredible art e-book
he's releasing as part of the launch of Marcher Lord Press. A Marcher
Lord Gallery
will be available for
free to anyone who purchases two or
more Marcher Lord Press novels on Launch Day. It's posted in the Special Features
section. Be sure to
check it out.
If
you missed the previous months' interviews with other speculative authors,
including Frank Peretti, Jerry Jenkins, Karen
Hancock, Tosca Lee, and Ted
Dekker, you can read them here.
And be sure to come back next month for an interview
with another mover and shaker in the world of Christian speculative
fiction.
