Meet the Fantasy 4 Fiction Tour Authors, Part 3

Hey, all! I can't believe the Fantasy Four Fiction Tour is only a month away. This time next month, we'll be in Atlanta, GA at the International Christian Retailers Show(ICRS). Please pray about that event--especially for the Fantasy authors out there. ICRS is where a lot of new authors get their first contracts (or at least have a publisher get interested in them). It was just four years this summer that I went to ICRS (in Atlanta then as well) and pitched The Door Within books. A nice editor from Tommy Nelson took a real interest in the books and God did the rest.

But ICRS is also when Bookstore Chains and Indie Stores put orders in to their distributors for more or different titles. So, if you'd like to see your local Christian Bookstore stock more of what you like to read, please pray that Chains and Locals would buy lots of new fantasy/spec fic titles!

Tonight I've posted the third in a series of Meet the Author threads. The author's words are taken from a Q&A we participated in to promote the Tour. I'll post all four authors responses to one question in each thread. Hope you enjoy getting to know these wonderful fantasy writers.

Wayne Thomas Batson--The Door Within Trilogy and Isle of Swords
Bryan Davis--The Dragons in Our Midst and Oracles of Fire
Sharon Hinck--The Becky Miller Books and The Sword of Lyric Series
Christopher Hopper--The Rise of the Dibor and The White Lion Chronicles

I'll also be including a new piece of desktop art with each new post--Tonight's pic is from Sharon Hinck's The Restorer which released in stores last month. Feel free to save the file and use it as your computer's background. Share with friends or post wherever else you blog!


Q: Who is the intended audience for your novels and why do you write for this audience?

WB: I write for anyone who loves a pure adventure, but I guess you could say that my target audience is that 10-16 Tween/Teen age. I’m a middle school reading teacher. Over 16 years of rubbing elbows with them, I really developed a love and understanding of those interesting kids. By God’s grace I have NOT forgotten what it was like when I clawed my way through the 11-17 corridor. And as a teacher, I am reminded of it everyday. Once kids enter middle school, it’s like they leave the kind world behind and enter a place that is full of danger and cruelty—much of it self-inflicted. We adults sometimes forget the enormity of what they experience, the level of emotion, and the intellect.

BD: My intended audience is youth, ages ten to sixteen, or anyone young at heart. I even heard from one ninety-four-year-old reader who has enjoyed my books. Our youth culture has been attacked by forces far greater than what my generation encountered. They need spiritual weapons to defend against, and even to go to war against, those forces. Unfortunately, too many times our culture, and even the church, has told young people that it’s normal to be rebellious, that they don’t have the power to completely obey God. I believe young people still feel how God wired them, to be heroes and heroines for His kingdom. I want to fuel that fire before they’re too old to remember their wiring.

SH: (answered above)

CH: At first, I started writing out of my own life and all my experiences, so it would have to be for those in their twenties. But then I’m a youth pastor, so I’m always trying to make things relevant for Teens and Tweenies (those between being a child and a teen). Of course, I work with adults all day long in business and when I travel and preach, so I wanted that demographic to be impacted, too. I laugh at myself now, but I realize I feel like the Apostle Paul when he spoke about being “all things to all men.” So you can imagine how overjoyed I am to get an e-mail from an ecstatic 9-year-old when he says he loves the book, and the next day get a letter from a 55-year-old mom who is hounding me for book II. That’s just amazing to me.

If you are interested in the books written by any of the Tour authors, see my sidebar for links to Amazon. Or visit Christianbook.com where all books can be found.