Frank Creed's FLASHPOINT:Book One of the UNDERGROUND

The Writers Cafe Press: www.thewriterscafe.com/projects.html
if readers want free shipping within the US and Canada, plus a signed copy of Flashpoint.

FLASHPOINT BLOG TOUR - DAY 1.5

Interview with author Frank Creed:

How did you get started in writing?

I first knew I wanted to write mine was eight years old. My divorced working mom sent me to a program at the public library. Once I learned how to read, I loved it. It fascinated me. Among my strongest memories of elementary education were the libraries in the schools I attended.

What led you into Christian speculative fiction?

I've never thought about that. As a lad growing up in the Chicago suburbs, mid-1970s, there was network television, PBS, and a couple of UHF stations. The best station in town was an independent known as WGN. If if you have Direct-TV satellite television, I think that's Channel 300 something. On Friday nights I get to stay up late to watch a show with my mom called Creature Feature—the name of the show, not the name of my mom—that's a whole other issue I'm not going to get into :) My first exposure to speculative fiction was black-and-white movies of the mummy, as well as, Frankenstein, and Dracula.

Around the same time, an uncle bought me a fancy hard copy boxed version of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit. I had it for years before I finally read it and fell in love with fantasy. My first exposure to science fiction was probably 1976: Star Wars.

Then came Dungeons & Dragons, and so many other role-playing-games. My creativity was fired.

Mom, of course, loved that my sister and I were both readers. Whenever she took us to a bookstore and we found something we would want to read, she'd buy it for us. When we went into a regular bookstore, I could find speculative fiction. In the Christian bookstores however, all I could ever find was Chronicles of Narnia, and The Space Trilogy. It wasn't long before I stopped looking for speculative fiction in Christian bookstores.

There's so much creativity in speculative fiction with which to present the Gospel, it is a tragedy that publishers have completely neglected the genre. Many other worldviews package philosophy in speculative fiction. Why does it take us so long to figure these kinds of things out? So many souls can be reached . . .

What gave you the idea for Flashpoint?

It began in 19 years, back at the Iran Hostage Crisis. Reporters came on the television and talk about Fundamentalist Terrorists. At Lutheran church Sunday school, they said the Bible was fundamentally true, and that we were fundamentalists. That really bothered me. That was the real beginning.

Do you have many planned Flashpoint sequels?

If hard pressed I could force it into a trilogy. Writing in this setting with these characters is so much fun, I hope it lasts longer than that. But the business reality of fiction is that books must sell. Right now Christian science fiction is about as popular as stuffing one's toe, so we'll just see where things go.

I am currently writing Book Two of the Underground: War of Attrition (hopefully to be released summer '08 by The Writers’ Café Press). Also, The Writers’ Café Press has contracted Mike Roop, a role-playing game designer and member of The Underground, to write an RPG based on Flashpoint, in collaboration with me. It is due for release late spring 2008 and I am very excited about it. Roop designed a prototype a few months back that was extremely impressive. If anyone is interested in checking out the prototype and commenting on it, email me for a copy (admin@frankcreed.com).

Thanks Frank.

Official website: http://www.frankcreed.com/
Writers blog: http://frankcreed.blogspot.com/
Book review blog: http://afrankreview.blogspot.com/
Shoutlife page at: http://www.shoutlife.com/
His new book website: http://www.blogger.com/www.booksoftheunderground.com

Blog Tour Participants:

Fantasy Thyme
jamessomers.blogspot.com
Write and Whine
Hoshi to Sakura
Wayfarer's Journal
BlogCritics Interview
Daniel I Weaver
Disturbing the Universe
Grace Bridges
Queen of Convolution
Virtual Tour de 'Net
Christian Fiction Review Blog
Yellow30 Sci-Fi: Review
Yellow30 Sci-Fi: Interview
Back to the Mountains
MaryLu Tyndall
Cathi's Chatter