I was on the Baen Bar, a web forum for SF publisher Baen, the other day when an author referred to himself as a "fundie". I was immediately interested to know Baen had published an author who was a self professed Christian. So I went to Amazon looked up what he had written. Turns out his books had strong Christian themes and messages so I sent him an email. That author was Lars Walker, and he graciously submitted to my questions. Here is a little insight into this author.

We've also just reviewed one of his books THE YEAR OF THE WARRIOR.

Biography:

I grew up on a farm in southeastern Minnesota and was educated in Lutheran colleges in Iowa and Minnesota. In my college years and after I was a singer in a gospel/folk musical group. We were not famous, but stayed together for nine years and are still good friends. My work history has been checkered. I've worked as a crab meat packer in Alaska, a postage meter operator, a radio announcer and several kinds of administrative assistant. Today I work in a clerical/communications capacity for my church body. That I'm still unmarried at 51 is one of those Unexplained Mysteries you hear about.

Tell us your story of faith. How did you become a Christian? What flavor of Christian are you? Where do you go to church?

I was raised in the Lutheran church and remain a Lutheran. Some people may be surprised to know that there is a branch of Lutheranism (largely but not exclusively Scandinavian) that emphasizes the importance of being born again, although we also practice infant baptism. That's my background. I accepted Christ as my Savior as soon as I was old enough to understand the concept, around age 12. I managed to get through a mainstream Lutheran education without getting my faith ashcanned, and now work for the Association of Free Lutheran Congregations, a small, pietistic Lutheran church body headquartered in Minneapolis. I'm a deacon in an AFLC congregation.

Who do you like to read? What are the last five books you read?

My favorite fiction reading is actually mysteries and thrillers, but I can't write them. I probably enjoy a good fantasy better than a good mystery, but there are so few good fantasies.... I find mysteries much more dependable.

I also read a lot of history, because research never ends.

Right now I'm reading OATH OF SWORDS by David Weber, one of my publisher's heavy hitters. I'm also reading a Norwegian book about the conversion of Norway, TOLV VINTRER HADDE KRISTENDOMMEN VAERT I NORGE, by Fridtjov Birkeli. I've recently finished LETTERS FROM HIGH LATITUDES, a 19th century book of travel letters from a voyage to Iceland and Norway, and Tom Shippey's J.R.R. TOLKIEN: AUTHOR OF THE CENTURY. And in connection with my job I read SURPRISING INSIGHTS FROM THE FORMERLY UNCHURCHED by Thom Rainer.

Writing History:

What made you want to be a writer?

My home was an unhappy, dysfunctional one. I was small and weak and badly coordinated, so I withdrew into books at an early age. My first dream was actually to be an artist or a cartoonist, but I was never really happy with my drawing, though I drew constantly. Sometime in high school I started trying to write stories, and very quickly stopped drawing altogether. Writing "scratched my itch" in a much more satisfactory way.

Who would you say most inspired you to write?

I can't forget an elementary school teacher (though I've forgotten her name) who asked us all to write Halloween poems one year. When it was my turn to read my own she suddenly said to the class, "Wasn't that good? Wouldn't all of you like to read this poem for one of the other classes?" And she mimeographed the thing, had the class practice it, and then took us to another class for the recitation. I was asked to take a bow. I still puzzle over that event. I suspect she planned it ahead of time; she probably sensed that I was an extremely unhappy little boy, subsisting on almost zero affirmation, and just decided to give me a gift. God bless her, wherever she is.

I also ought to mention Mr. Maus, my high school guidance counselor, who got me into his office on some pretext one day and gave me an opportunity to spill my guts about all the pain I was living with. He couldn't help my home situation, but at one point, when I admitted I didn't think I was very bright, he brought out my IQ score, showed it to me and explained what it meant. I'm not a genius, but it's a comfortable above-average number. I had never known before that I was bright. I had, in fact, harbored a suspicion that I was retarded. After this discovery my grades went up and I decided I wanted to go to college after all. Whatever I accomplish, I'll always figure Mr. Maus gets part of the credit.

In high school I discovered J.R.R. Tolkien and (mea culpa!) Robert E. Howard. I loved Tolkien, but couldn't imagine writing something like THE LORD OF THE RINGS. When I read Howard though, I thought, "This is fun, and a guy like me could write something like this." But as a Christian, I wasn't sure if it would be appropriate. (More on this later.)

What influence did your faith have on your writing?

My books are all theological/philosophical in theme. The things that I feel passionate about are the truths of the Christian faith as they relate to life in the real world. I suppose I'm obsessive about it - I'm like one of those maniacs walking down the street, lecturing, lecturing on the Trilateral Commission or UFO's or something else that they're convinced of. The truths of the Bible are so profound, so deeply satisfying to the hunger within us, that I can't understand why everyone doesn't see it. So I keep telling my parables, trying to find the magic story that will make it real for somebody.

How did you come to be an published author? How did you come to get your books published by Baen? Baen is a "secular" publisher, yet your books have strong Christian themes and scriptural references. Did this present any problems getting published?

I started my writing with short stories, almost like a sensible person. My first sales were published in "Amazing Stories" magazine back in the 80's, and the editor who bought them was a man named George Scithers. When George left "Amazing" he started a literary agency and asked me to come on board, so I was fortunate enough to acquire an agent before my first novel was actually finished. However it took another ten years or so to find a publisher. Our strategy from the beginning was to try to sell to the secular market, and George and his associates mostly stayed the course even when I doubted. My books are intentionally written for unbelievers. Back in those days Christian fiction was a literary ghetto. That's changing now, but in general non-Christians still avoid Christian bookstores. I never believed that God gave me whatever gifts I may have in order to entertain fellow Christians. I want to confront the world with the claims of Jesus Christ. So we got rejection after rejection, for about a decade, before my books found a home.

I have to say a few words about my publisher, Jim Baen. Baen is a unique house, somewhat like the legendary publishing houses of the old days, where one Fearless Leader actually runs the show and serves as chief editor, and does it because he loves books. Jim is openly skeptical about religion, but he doesn't judge authors by their ideology. He only asks that they write a good story. I have a tremendous amount of respect for him.

What does the future hold for you? What new books do you have coming out? What are they about?

I have an alternate universe/time travel fantasy, called BLOOD AND JUDGMENT, about Shakespeare's Hamlet and the historical Hamlet (a 6th Century Dane), sitting on Jim Baen's desk right now. It begins in the same town as WOLF TIME but has no characters in common with it, so it's not exactly a sequel. At the same time I'm working on a third book in the Erling Skjalgsson series, in which I send him and his household on a voyage to Iceland, Greenland and Vinland.

Are there any authors you'd like to collaborate with?

Jim Baen talked to me about setting up a collaboration at one point, but somehow it never happened. It would be interesting, but I have no idea how well it would work. I'm a slow writer and I freeze up under pressure, so I have reservations.

Your books:

Give us a short synopsis of your books. (I'll provide links to them on Amazon in the final version.)

THE YEAR OF THE WARRIOR I list this first despite the fact that it was the third published, because it incorporates ERLING'S WORD, my first published book (consumer's tip: buy TYOTW and you can skip buying EW, unless you want to invest in a rare souvenir of my career, bound to appreciate in value). This is the story of Erling Skjalgsson, an actual historical character from Norwegian history around the year 1000, who was a Christian and the most important man in the country for some time. His story is told through the eyes of Father Ailill, an Irishman who is (at first) an impostor priest. It was during this period that Norway was converted to Christianity by a couple of crusading kings who were not gentle in their methods. Erling represents a more peaceful, charitable approach to evangelism, which is not to say he's a pacifist. He ends up fighting the walking dead, werewolves, a warlock, and men both Christian and heathen.

WOLF TIME is set in a small Minnesota town very much like the one where I grew up, except that I transported into it one of the Iowa colleges I attended. Its main character is Carl Martell, a history professor who discovers that he has become unable to tell a lie but able to detect lies in others. At the same time a famous Norwegian poet comes to town, whom Martell begins to suspect is an incarnation of the old Norse god Odin. Spiritual forces gather for a battle between good and evil, but which is which may not be as obvious you think.

Why vikings?

I latched onto the Vikings when I was about ten years old, as I recall. Like all unathletic, unpopular children I was a hopeless romantic, but my early heroes - cowboys and Civil War soldiers - had the disadvantage that I had no direct link to them. My ancestors were all Scandinavians who immigrated during the 1880's; not a cowboy or a Civil War soldier among them. Then I discovered Vikings. Vikings are terminally romantic, and I can be quite sure that I'm the direct descendant of thousands of them. I began reading everything I could find on the subject, so you could say that I did better than thirty years of research on my novels before the first was published.

What was the most interesting thing you learned in the process of writing your books?

I'll never forget the day I purchased C.S. Lewis' SCREWTAPE LETTERS in college, and noticed that it was dedicated to J.R.R. Tolkien. It was a transcendent moment for me - it spliced my intellectual world to my imaginative world. I hadn't read the Narnia books then; to me Lewis was a writer of apologetics. That he and Tolkien were friends indicated a continuum between reason and romance. From Lewis (and Francis Schaeffer) I learned that Christianity was a religion of reason, which was a bit of a shock at first. The connection to Tolkien and fantasy made my inner world a perfect sphere. Does this make any sense?

Have you ever seen the movie "The Adventures of Baron Munchausen"? It's a very entertaining, creative film. In the story we are presented with two conflicting world-views, the Age of Reason, personified by Mr. Jackson the bean-counter, and the Romantic Age, embodied in Baron Munchausen the dream-figure. In the end the people of the city are forced to choose between the two; they can't follow Mr. Jackson and the Baron both; they have to choose one. When I saw that movie, I thought, "You don't have to choose. In Christ you can have both."

Christians are always being told that we're rigid and narrow-minded because we believe in "either-or". You must choose Christ or reject Him. There's no middle ground. People tell us that they prefer the "broader" point of view of the Eastern religions, where there is no "either-or".

But there is an "either-or" in the Eastern religions, and it's an important one. Eastern religions teach that only the spiritual world is real. The physical world, they say, is an illusion that we need to get beyond. For them only the subjective is real; the objective and the rational is a bad dream. On that point it's the Christians who have a more broadminded view. We believe that the Word became flesh. We believe that both spirit and matter are real. We accept both reason and emotion.

Your website says your next book has been delayed because of technical problems with the publisher. Care to elaborate?

My manuscript BLOOD AND JUDGMENT represents the third and last stage of a three-book contract with Baen. It was supposed to be delivered in 2000, but 2000 turned out to be The Year That the Locusts Ate in my life. My father, who lived in Florida, became ill and required surgery, and I had to go down and spend time with him. I had to do the same a second time when he had a stroke and was dying. After his death, which as you can imagine made it difficult for me to continue work on the book, an aunt of mine who lives in a nearby city was hospitalized, and I found myself making almost nightly drives to see her, as she has no other family in the area. What it all added up to was major delays on the project. When I finally got it completed and submitted, Baen moved their offices from New York to North Carolina, and somehow the manuscript (actually a disk) fell into one of those space/time singularities that tend to litter the workplaces of science fiction publishers. So while I was waiting to hear from them, they were waiting to get the book from me, and there we sat. We've finally gotten it straightened out, and I and my hordes of fans are eagerly awaiting the announcement of a publication date.

On Writing:

What words of wisdom do you have to people who want to write?

Perseverance is the key. There are two reasons for this. One is that you never know when your break will come, and if you give up you won't be there to take advantage of it. No doubt there is a more talented writer than me out there somewhere who could have filled the space in Baen's stable that I occupy, but he or she gave up and so the chance fell to me.

Secondly, writing is a craft, like carpentry or shoemaking. Mastery comes from doing it over and over again, making all the mistakes, learning from them, and improving on yourself. Someone once said that everyone has about a million words of garbage in them (actually "garbage" wasn't the word he used). Once you get those million words out, like rusty water from a pipe, the good stuff starts coming.

What is your writing process? How often and how long do you write? Do you have any rituals that you go through when writing?

I try to write every day, except Sundays (I decided years ago that if I wanted writing to be my life's work, I would not do it on Sundays, not stuff for money anyway). Note I said, "try". My writing process consists mostly of writing up to the place where I can't think what to have my characters do next. I then stop and think about it. Some people would call this "Writer's Block". I just call it part of the process. Once I figure out what comes next, I write on to the next block. And so on. Until it's done. Then revise, revise, revise until I'm satisfied that everything hangs together and has the proper number of arms and legs. Then, if possible, I set it aside for a few months so I can read it again with objective eyes and discover the Screaming Howlers I've overlooked. I then fix them and send the whole thing off to the publisher.

I usually write in an armchair, with my laptop on my lap, and often with the television on. I do not recommend this method.

Ron Davis April 2002