CSFF Blog Tour: Marcher Lord Press Day 2

And now, we're back for more...

www.marcherlordpress.com
- click to find out more about their launch giveaways and contests... refer me please. :)


Tell me about books, tell me about authors?

"Summa Elvetica: A Casuistry of the Elvish Controversy" by Theodore Beale is the philosophical fantasy I spoke of before. Most fantasy novels show a medieval Europe that is lacking in the main element of medieval Europe: the Catholic Church. What if that church existed in a world shared by Elves, Dwarves, Trolls, Goblins, and the rest?

At some point, church leaders would decide to grapple with the question of whether or not these demi-humans had immortal souls, and were thus mission fields for the gospel. That's exactly what happens in this novel. Theodore Beale is the author of spiritual warfare novels for Pocket Books. MLP is blessed to have him as a debut author.

"The Personifid Invasion" by R. E. Bartlett is a SF about a ruined earth in which humans transfer their consciousness to artificial bodies to cheat death forever. Unfortunately, some spiritual beings with less than righteous character discover that they too can dwell in theese artificial bodies quite nicely. If the human soul in the body has to be enslaved in the process, so much the better.

R. E. Bartlett is a New Zealand author. She also wrote the prequel, "The Personifid Project" (Realms), that introduced the world and the characters of her speculative future.

"Hero, Second Class" by Mitchell Bonds is a hysterical send-up of all the fantasy elements we hold dear. Cyrus longs to be a Hero in a world in which Heroes owe monthly dues and Villains have to fill out the proper paperwork before trying to take over the world.

Mitchell is a very young man--he was 19 when MLP acquired his book--who has more authorial voice and comic sensibility than many novelists ever acquire.

I'm thrilled with all three of these launch novels. And have you seen the covers? They're incredible. All illustrated and designed by Kirk DouPonce of www.DogEaredDesign.com.

Tell me something that you haven't told anyone else?

I paid Theodore Beale's advance in Swiss Marcs. He's an American living in Switzerland, and that's how he wanted his advance.

Where did the idea come from?

The idea for Marcher Lord Press arose out of my own frustrated attempts to gain more elbow room for Christian speculative fiction within the CBA publishing industry. Though I had some successes along the way, most of my endeavors and hopes failed. I finally realized that the people CBA sold fiction to were not the same people who wanted the kind of wierd fiction I had been trying to promote. The people I was aiming for, I realized, were not in CBA bookstores anymore.

And so I began noodling about what a publishing company would look like that could connect these incredibly creative novels with the fans who would devour them. It wouldn't be a company that would be like the others, I realized. It wouldn't try to get books into Christian bookstores (why, if the target market isn't going to those bookstores?). It would be something that operated small, produced excellence, and tried to absolutely capture a small but wonderful niche.

Where do you hope to be in five years? ten? fifty?

In five to ten years I would love to be presiding over Marcher Lord Press while someone else runs most of it, so I can spend my time creating more Jefferson Scott fiction. Like the epic fantasy I'm working on now. In fifty years I'll be 93 and will probably either be in heaven or at its door!