After recently reviewing Theodore Beale's novels Eternal Warriors and The World in Shadow we knew we needed to interview him. We asked him the standard questions we ask authors and here are his responses.

I grew up in a Christian home, but rejected faith in Jesus Christ as a crutch for losers and intellectual weaklings around the age of 15. I subsequently went to an elite college and honed a predatory amorality which eventually led me towards a brief foray into the music industry. It was that or investment banking, you understand. In addition to working in marketing at a computer graphics firm, I was a founding member of the band Psykosonik, which was first signed to Wax Trax, and eventually TVT Records.

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

There are few things more pathetic or purposeless than an amoral existential hedonist who's run out of pleasures to seek. Such a creature faces a choice between total depravity and despair, or alternatively, to bag the whole self-seeking thing all together and begin the search for God.

I'm now a Southern Baptist, albeit one heavily influenced by the warfare theology taught by Dr. Greg Boyd, to whom "The World in Shadow" is dedicated. I'm a member of New Beginnings Baptist Church, and I also have strong ties to Woodland Hills Church, where Dr. Boyd teaches.

Do you write full time? If not, what is your day job?

Pretty much.

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

I have a list of my favorite 100 books on my web site. Tolkein, Cooper, Lewis, Herbert and Adams are my favorite SF&F writers, while Hesse, Wodehouse, Eco and Maughm are my favorite non-genre writers. The last five books? That's easy enough. The first three books in George R. R. Martin's Songs of Fire and Ice, (which are excellent, by the way), Biting the Sun by Tanith Lee, and a lightweight history of the Ottoman empire by Jason Goodwin.

What made you want to be a writer?

It was a natural progression from being a voracious reader. I like to tell stories, and as my background in marketing would indicate, I have a natural tendency to enhance the details.

Who would you say most inspired you to write?

Probably my mother and my grandmother. They were both always quite encouraging of any efforts in that direction. I also had a lot of help and encouragement from Bruce Bethke, an excellent and very funny SF writer I still consider to be my writing mentor.

What influence does your faith have on your writing?

It prevents me from writing the violence-drenched dark fantasy that tends to be my natural inclination. Although I suppose some might say that "The World in Shadow" indicates I haven't entirely avoided this prediliction. A desire to serve and glorify Jesus Christ also gives a degree of purpose and direction to my writing, as opposed to simply scribbling whatever I feel like for my own amusement.

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

"The War in Heaven" is an introduction to the Eternal Warriors series. It is a little more simplistic than the following books, mostly because I felt it necessary to introduce some of the basic concepts of Christianity to a younger audience that is surprisingly ignorant of such things. It tells the tale of a high school loser who's offered the ultimate chance to turn the whole system upside down, and willingly embraces evil as long as power comes as part of the deal. Naturally, he gets a little more than he bargained for, on both counts. I was a little tired of reluctant heroes when I started writing this, I suppose.

"The World in Shadow" is essentially my spin on the Columbine situation, which occurred just as I was starting to write the book. It was interesting to read the media reports and see what were unmistakable signs of demonic influence which the media missed, understandably, seeing as they don't believe in such things. I was fortunate enough to have been an athlete in high school, but I was very near the low end of the totem pole in junior high so I have a better idea than most of what those kids who turn into school shooters have experienced. The World in Shadow is very much about spiritual warfare, but is more firmly based in the day-to-day world than its predecessor.

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

I'm currently working on the third book in the series, which will be called "The Wrath of Angels". It's going to be a little more out there than the last book, as the title suggests, there's going to be more action occurring on the spiritual plane this time around. I'm really not interested in writing and rewriting the same book every time.

I also have a massive epic fantasy upon which I've been working for quite a while. There are three novellas set in this universe which I've written as world-building exercises which are up on my web site, along with about eight other short stories. It will be a while before I'm done with this next book, so if anyone's getting impatient, I'd encourage them to check out the short fiction there.

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

I'd certainly leap at the chance to work with Tanith Lee. She's a fantastic writer in a beautiful, very shivery sort of way.

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

I guess I've learned that many people can't seem to take a Christian worldview as a starting point and just read the books from there. If I had written a book centered around faster-than-light space travel, I rather doubt that every review would include a discussion of the imaginative physics involved in that hypothesis. And yet most of the reviews I've read seem to be more interested in discussing doctrinal issues, my beliefs, the cosmology, or Christianity itself. Anything but the actual books themselves.

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, about two hours a day. Try being the significant word, of course. If I can crank out a thousand words, then it's a good day. I usually fire up the old cappuccino machine and get myself good and caffeinated before I start typing anything.

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

Don't talk about it, just do it. Sit down and start typing. Most of what you'll write at first will be terrible, but that's okay. No one is a good tennis player at first either, it's the practice that's important.

I'd also recommend the Critters Workshop for anyone who's interested in writing science fiction or fantasy.