Hey readers! Today I’m excited to welcome author Christina Shaw to my blog. Christina writes Christian SciFi and Fantasy for young adult readers. 

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CS: Hi! Thanks for having me!

LB: During a writing break, you taught at a Christian school. Tell us how this work experience shaped who you are today. 

CS: Yes! I taught there for five years. In so many of the jobs I have had I’ve seen God working through my life. Leading up to my years of teaching I had just finished my BA in English and was trying to get traditionally published as a YA author. I studied all the books on how to craft a story, read articles and blogs, and listened to so many speakers at writers conferences until the do’s and don’ts and the top ten how-to-write-a-best-seller lists only repeated what I already knew a new writer should do to write a publishable book. As instructed, I was also reading all these secular fiction YA/MG books (about 1000) that were increasingly attacking all the values and morals I cared about the most. I was frankly spiritually worn out from them. I also needed a paying job. Then out of the blue at the end of August a friend on Facebook mentioned this position at a Christian school. On a whim, a God-inspired whim, I applied and two weeks later I was teaching 9th grade history and literature. I also taught rhetoric and thesis for 10th-12th grade. For the next five years, I threw all of my creative energy into teaching and didn’t write much at all. One of our school’s focuses for each class was to approach it from a God-centered worldview. In thinking through rhetoric, history, and especially literature with God at the center and in studying all these authors for my literature class, like Poe or Shelley, who were held up as examples for new writers to follow, I began to see how contrary what I had been taught as a writer was to how writing for God is. Poe said didacticism was poor literature, but godly teaching does not have to be dull or pushy like he said it was. New writers are told teen characters don’t need adults, but God created families to protect children and teens. New writers are also instructed that if you have to have good characters to show their good character traits as having an exploitable weakness, yet this is completely contrary to who Christ is in His character. His compassion, courage, and justice were not used to manipulate Him or lead Him to a point of regret for having that character trait like new authors are told to do. With each passing year, and even after I moved on from teaching, I began to question all I had been taught in my English classes and at writers conferences, and I started to pursue writing with God at my center, with characters who strive to be moral, and with values like appreciating family/parents/babies, and exalting heroes over villains, etc. 

LB: Wow; your teaching career turned into an education! That’s quite a lesson. Are you a full-time writer now? 

CS: I would love to be a full-time writer, but as it is, I currently work full time and write in the early hours of morning, if I’m not too tired. But at my job I get to help people which is also very rewarding. And God has the perfect timing for everything! He also provides the energy and inspiration each day for everything He has called me to do and that’s really what I need.

LB: That’s a win-win if you have a rewarding job and get to write! What role do you think SciFi/Fantasy plays in a Christian’s life? 

CS: This question is tough for me because it is hard to make an argument for the role of Sci-fi/Fantasy specifically in a Christian’s life without first needing to present the beneficial qualities of fiction, and more broadly art itself. God has created us to be creative, to have imagination, and to be able to communicate in ways that can use words and can also go deeper than words can express through ideas, concepts, and themes. This is why beauty matters and can affect us profoundly. Sci-fi/Fantasy both have the ability to do the same things, but in ways that are specific to those mediums. There is so much that can be done implicitly in Sci-fi/Fantasy through world building and plot development that can point back to Christ in a way that the reader may not automatically realize, which makes these genres great for sharing biblical truths to any reader. But for Christian readers it can help us grow and think through truths in new ways that will draw us closer to God.

LB: That’s a great explanation! Do you have a favorite character you’ve written? 

CS: Oh boy. Probably not. I enjoy all of them! There are so many things I like about all of my characters, the little differences that make them unique or the things they go through that make them better. But if I have to pick a favorite, I’ll say it’s the one I am currently working on because that’s the mindset I’m in.

LB: I can understand that. What is a key takeaway you hope readers glean from your books? 

CS: Each of my books have a different takeaway. The White Lilac was my first book that I originally wrote with a secular audience in mind, but I wanted my readers to come away from it with a value for human life and hope, with hints of biblical morality. The takeaway for Light-Bringer, which I wrote in the vein of Pilgrim’s Progress/Hind’s Feet on High Places, would be that we can trust God. I really want readers to want to draw closer to God as they are reading it too. And for The Just Man, including the rest of the books in the series, that we should strive to do what is right even, and especially, if there are consequences, that we cannot let evil rise unchallenged, and that doing what is right is a better life than if you compromise.

LB: Those are some powerful takeaways! Where do you have your best brainstorms?

CS: Mine come anywhere honestly. Any time I am doing something that doesn’t require my full attention they can come. There’s normally no specific place or activity. Although I have noticed that when I am stuck in a scene or on a plot point, by writing out the reasons why I think I am stuck it really helps me to get my juices flowing again enough to keep going. But I wouldn’t necessarily say they were my best brainstorms. lol

LB: Haha, well I suppose every brainstorm can’t be the best. What are you working on next? 

CS: I have two books I’m currently working seriously on. I say seriously because every now and then I’ll whip out a different book idea and write ten pages, but then go back to my serious projects. The first book is a sequel to The Just Man and continues the story of Sean in his efforts to work hard at becoming someone capable of heroic deeds. The second is the first book in a new series that will be for ages 8-12 about a family of 6 kids (with more to come) growing up in the late 1980’s-early1990’s that is really just a celebration of being with family and the adventures you can have when you’re a kid.

LB: These sound like fun projects! I know what you mean about suddenly having a totally separate writing idea and needing to get the initial thought written down, but then deciding to stay on task with the current project. I look forward to hearing more about your current serious manuscripts as they develop 🙂 Where can readers find you?

CS: I have a website, and I am on Facebook and Goodreads.

Christina Shaw Author Website – Facebook – Goodreads

LB: Thank you for taking time to chat with us, Christina! Readers, sign up for Christina’s newsletter and get a list of over 500 fiction books for Christian teens!

CS: Thanks so much for having me and for your great questions!

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Christina Shaw has been writing and engaging in the writing world since 2003. She’s written several YA Sci-Fi/Fantasy novels including The White Lilac, The Just Man, and Light-Bringer and is currently working on the sequel to The Just Man that she hopes to release in a year. She loves God and learning about God because knowing Him is the best way to live and to interact with reality. Although she has read hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of young adult books and middle grade novels, there are still many, many more out there she has not yet read.