The more fiction I write, the more I’m completely fascinated
by it. And by how it’s totally not what I thought it was. So as I wrote my
little book I had a handful of questions that I wanted to answer.
The first one is how do you fight a war without a weapon in
your hand.
The second was what does it take to turn a nice boy into a
murderer.
But there’s more.
With this book I wanted to think about Church politics. If
you haven’t read the book, I have it set up so that the “favored” community
represents the church as a body of believers set up over several locations.
With my Academy set up as a representative physical church. A place my
characters assume they’ll be safe from the murderous Underlanders.
But as most Christians are aware, standing in a church does
not make you a Christian in the way that standing in a garage does not make you
a car.
My characters are not safe in their church. The church has
just as much internal conflict as any other organization that mankind dreamed
up. Administrative runaround, discrimination and cliques, putting the needs of
one’s self ahead of the needs of the group at large. No one likes to admit that
these things exist within the church, but they do.
So much untapped tension in the church. I love it. So much
more I can’t wait to point out in the future.
Don’t call us goody-two shoes. You have no idea. We’re just
as messed up as you are.
So not so much of a question this time around as a comment
on human nature.
True safety will never be found with another human or within
a building.
The whole Christianity faith has so many different little nuance-y
conflicts. Internal conflicts, external conflicts, some are more pronounced than others. But they're all rather beautiful in their own right, I’m not sure how many I’ll be able to address with these books. Some
day. All of it. All these pretty little threads that tangle up my mind will be
woven into something that makes sense to someone else.
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