Q&A with Bryan Thomas Schmidt discussion

Open to any of the topics mentioned in rules. Feel free to ask anytime. Thanks for joining!

I was wondering how much you allow Christian influences in your writing. Christian speculative fiction is a tough niche. It seems you are targeting the broader science fiction market, while acknowledging the judeo-christian inspiration for your story arc.

Great question! I do not shy away from who I am and, in fact, exploit it some for world building in this novel. The Moses story being the basis and ideological differences being core to that story, I felt the setting of the modern conflict between Conservative Evangelicals and more Liberal churches/secular society was a great milieu for storytelling which would help the readers relate to the story and ask interesting questions--which despite my desire to entertain rather than teach still is important in fiction. So it's in there. I make sure to present the characters and their views accurately. And since my faith IS my worldview, it does influence how I view the world, life, etc. so that can't help but sink in. What I didn't want, however, was to be preachy. In fact, on purpose, I used non-believing, even Athiest, beta readers without telling them about that content to gauge their reaction and it was uniformly positive. In fact, most didn't even mention that, which I took to mean I succeeded. So yes, it's in there and unavoidable for me, but yes, you're right, I wrote this book and most of what I write to appeal to a broader base and I plan to continue to do so.

Anyone else have questions?

Yes, I'm curious about your writing process. Do you write daily, or are you a burst writer? By that, I mean do you sink a whole bunch of time into a project, then take extended breaks between projects in order to recuperate?

Hey, JA. Well, actually, I write daily as much as possible. My chaotic life has prevented that some times but even if it's just blogging, I really try and get some words out daily. At my best, I do prose writing daily as well. And that's the majority of the time. What I tend to do is have multiple things going on. So, for example, while I may focus on a book project most of my time, I have short stories I can work on when I get blocked or as deadlines arise. This way I always have something I can make progress on. I do take about a month minimum away from a project before I start second draft and polishes. I need that for fresh perspective.

LOL You can tell I'm a new writer. Questions are really coming in fast and furious here.