Interview with ISIG2 editor / author Karina Fabian

Yesterday, we had guest blogger Karina Fabian, editor of Infinite Space, Infinite God II (ISIG2) give us her views on faith, science, and writing science fiction.



If you didn't read yesterday's post, feel free to go back and read it, we'll wait for you....



All caught up now?  Good.



Now, as a bonus blog, we get another shot at Madam Fabian.  Now, it's time to sit her down and ask her some questions about the book itself. 



You all remember that ISIG2 is an anthology of Catholic science-fiction short stories.  What exactly does that entail?  Are we going to have more acts of blantantly violanting the laws of physics?  Will we have alien converts?  A patron saint of starships?  Worse yet, a Saint Captain Kirk?



Read on to find out.



1. So, you're now on ISIG 2 -- Since this blog didn't even exist for the first ISIG, how about you tell the readers why you got started on these collections?



Karina: We sort of happened into it. Rob and I had decided to write stories together on our date nights, and when we had a few, I sought a publisher. That led a publisher to ask us to edit and anthology of Christian sci-fi, then one to suggest Catholic SF. Leaps of Faith was our first anthology and covers a broad range of Christian faiths. Infinite Space, Infinite God I and II are exclusively Catholic in their stories, although many of the authors are not Catholic--just great writers.



2. Why do science fiction in particular?  Nowadays, it seems that anytime a religious person makes an appearance in any genre, the audience can usually guess "Yup, s/he's the villain."



Karina: Exactly! We wanted science fiction that recognized faith, established religious faith, as a natural part of the human condition, and a positive force for our future. We also wanted a book that didn't demonize science in comparison to faith. The two work together just fine for the most part in real life--why let the fringe elements dictate what we have in fiction?



3. In the description of the book, it is described as "Infinite Space, Infinite God II offers solid sci-fi and life-affirming faith."  How much of this is "hard" science fiction (SF that relies on actual scientific principles), and how much is it the treknomancy of Star Trek, or the magic wand that is Dr. Who's sonic screwdriver?



Karina: It's a combination. We have some hard SF, some space opera, some "furry" sci-fi (anthropomorphic animals), some classic SF, and some cyberpunk. So readers are going to get a wonderful variety. Of course, because Star Trek and Dr. Who are copyrighted, you won't see the Enterprise or sonic screwdrivers, much as we love them!



4. What science fiction do you both generally read?  And how did it impact the choices for the collection of ISIG 2?



Karina: Rob (co-editor Robert Fabian) is the real reader in the family, and we reads everything from military SF to SF-fantasy. I tend more toward fantasy, personally, although I used to love Asimov. However, we tried to think of the readers when we chose stories. We had three hard-and-fast rules: There must be convincing science (convincing to the world, not necessarily scientifically possible now); there must be an accurate depiction of the Catholic faith as it stands now (i.e., the Magesterium); the interaction of faith and science must be positive, as must the individual depictions of both faith and science. Really, those three rules enabled us to weed a lot out. Next, we looked for great writing. We wanted to get whisked away. Finally, we tried to get a variety of sub-genres: time travel, near-future, space opera, etc. I wrote "Otherworld" specifically because no one gave us a virtual reality story that really worked.



5. You're both Catholic.  How much of an impact does it have on the series?  Can we expect to see Rabbis in space? And if so, can alien food be kosher?



Karina: We did Infinite Space, Infinite God as Catholic SF because a Catholic publisher asked us to. When they decided science fiction was too risky for them, we were blessed to find Twilight Times to publish the book. ISIG I has won both popular and critical awards, so Twilight Times asked us to do another.



There has been some Jewish science fiction, but I don't know the faith enough to judge it well; ditto, Muslim, Buddhist, etc. And, frankly, we have enough on our plate and not a lot of interest in compiling those anthologies--though we'd love to know they are out there!



6. This blog is about A Pius Man -- essentially a thriller that seeks to take every Catholic cliche, turn it on its head, inside out, throw them in a blender and hit "frappe."  Was there any particular cliche, or set of cliches, that ISIG 2 took joy in subverting?



Karina: Read Alex Lobdell's "Battle of the Narthex." Alex is a genius with humor. The Saturday Mass-and-Spaghetti dinner becomes the battlefield for alien assassins and their targets.



7. So, what does one do with alien life forms?  I know of three major science fiction novels /series (and one tv series) that directly address faith and alien life: CS Lewis's science fiction trilogy, Andrew Greeley's The Final Planet, and the television show Babylon 5.  How about ISIG 2?  Will there be ET on a crucifix?



Karina: We pretty much took the view that God will manifest Himself to each species in a way that they can relate to. "Dyads" is the best example of this. The foxlike aliens who mate for life understand the trilogy as Husband, Wife, and Holy Dance, and the spiritual danger comes when humans try to convert to their faith or they to human faith. It's a fabulously complex story with a very rich universe. Ken Pick and Alan Loewen have a talent for worldbuilding!



8. In addition to being editors, you're both writers.  Robert writes articles on the military and commercial use of space.  Karina writes about zombie exterminators.  How did that affect your editing of the book?



Karina: Rob was the tech guy, and in a few cases, we requested rewrites not only because of the technology but also because the characters didn't use the technology logically. I am more character driven, and edited for story flow and emotional content.



9. What did you enjoy most about ISIG 2?



Karina: Like with Leaps of Faith and Infinite Space, Infinite God I, we loved discovering new writers, reading fabulous stories from established writers--and putting the whole thing together over a candlelight dinner at Olive Garden.



10.  Hmm, the Olive Garden, my condolences ... So, in the future, does the Pope's spaceship look like the Popemobile?  Is there a Saint James T. Kirk?



Karina: In one story, the Pope has had to move the Vatican to Mars. It's very traumatic.



St. Kirk? *headdesk* No. No, no, no. However, there are some new saints who are born and bred in space; including St. Gillian of L5, the founder of the Order of Our Lady of the Rescue. Rob and I wrote stories about these sisters, who do search and rescue operations in space. Those stories are what led us creating these anthologies in the first place.

We here at the A Pius Man blog would like to thank Karina for her time.   Everyone please recall that Infinite Space, Infinite God II can purchased through the publisher at Twilight Press. It is also carried on B&N and Amazon.  Again, the Kindle version of ISIG is on sale for 99 cents through April 13. It and ISIG II are for sale for 2.99 through April 23rd.

For those who have any interest in Karina Fabian's work, she can be found at her site at 

www.fabianspace.com

What's going on with the book? A Pius Man, Doubleday, and the Market

We interrupt this series of DragonCon reports for a news update.......



Ahem....



So, what's going on with A Pius Man and Doubleday, you ask?



Some time ago, I mentioned that A Pius Man was under review with one of the larger distributors of books in America; these are the people who put Dan Brown on the map with a little book about art history and word puzzles. After I mentioned that it was under review, most of you probably noticed that it was never mentioned Ever Again.



I figured that some of you may be wondering what the heck is going on.



The very short version. I had a strong advocate in one editor, who fully supported the book. He liked it, despite some admittedly stupid copy-editing errors on my part (which have since been tended to). Basically, he would support the book no matter what superficial things were wrong with it. This was THE book for him. He would back it all the way....



Then he was fired....



No, there isn't a cause and effect relationship.



Here's the problem...



To start with, the publishing industry is, in essence, owned by about five people. One company is owned by another, and another.



In this case, Doubleday is owned by Random House.



For those of you who don't keep track of economic news as obsessively as I do, a little review.



Around November of 2008, Random House had a minor bloodbath. Employees were slashed in the ten-thousand range. Some blamed the economy, some blamed the rise of electronic media (e-books, Kindles, Nooks, Crannies, etc) and traditional media's “failure” to compensate. Some blamed Random House itself for “wild expansion” during a five year period where the price of hardcovers (their bread and butter) went up as cheap e-books came out by the bushel. (Footnote: NY Times, November, 2008... look it up if you don't believe me)



And it's NOT just Random House that has been hit upside the head by this economy. Books are wounded in general: look at how Barnes & Noble is fairing if you want a good example. Last year, it looked like the clock had started to run out on Star Trek novels; “to be continued” and multi-book series were frozen, because the publisher wasn't going to lay money on how things were going to look three years down the road. Not only that, but in the 2008-2009 year, they had gone through five editors on the Star Trek novels alone. When you consider that Star Trek novels used to come out once a month, and sometimes more, it says something that they questioned the profitability of a long standing franchise. (Footnote, DragonCon, 2009.)



And there are solutions, of course. The Random House Slaughter was followed by massive hiring. Publishers have to cut costs while, AT THE SAME TIME, keep up their output. In the larger houses, this means they still have to put out a hundred books a month. So they have to hire people to replace everyone they had just let go. Personnel who can be hired at lower cost who can do the same job.





However, in a bad economy, personnel hired because they were less expensive can always be replaced by personnel who are even cheaper. (I dislike referring to people as "cheap," but my mental thesaurus isn't firing on full thrusters right now, and “even less expensive” didn't seem right).



My supporter was one of the “cheaper” employees. However, in the current atmosphere (10% or 17% unemployment, depending on how you jostle the numbers), there is no shortage of warm bodies to hire, and it's possible to find employees who are even cheaper still.  And since the rule right now is “Last in, first out,” my supporter wanted a trump card. A property that he could bring into the company, and would guarantee his position... Guess what book he wanted to use.

 

However, if you have ever played a card game that use trump cards, there is only one major rule. You have to have a sense of timing about when you use the trump cards, otherwise, you don't get anything by using them.



And, of course, speaking of timing, my own timing was also perfect. I finally landed an agent five months into this particular situation (word to the wise: if you have a choice between trying for a Post-Graduation degree in liberal arts, or shooting at your true goal IN the arts, ditch the degree).



Right now, the status of A Pius Man is simple: we're back at square one. I'm going to copy-edit the entire manuscript, again, and then, we start anew.