Mind Flights Magazine: a defender of the Christian short story

I want to start with two marvelously speculative ideas.

Idea 1:
Many Christian speculative fiction authors have passed through the Christian Science Fiction and Fantasy Blog tour. And there are many other quality Christian spec authors published by top Christian publishers. Why not send them a friendly email alerting them to a new anthology being put together. Take the magazine Mind Flights for instance: they are a reputable magazine (having a long established history as both DKA and TSR) and they could garner the enthusiasm. Speculative fiction authors tend to love short stories, why not get these established authors to put together an anthology. Afterall, someone, sometime, needs to put out a big antho of Christian spec fiction that can match the secular quality. The talent is out there, now someone needs to take that first step (or "giant leap")

Idea 2:
What if magazines such as Mind Flights, Residential aliens, Ray Gun Revival, The Christian Sci-fi Journal, Wayfarers Journal, and Third Order got together and put out an anthology of their best works? Sounds interesting to me.

The dillemma...

Sadly, if one walks into their local Christian bookstore, or even secular mega store like Barnes and Noble, and searches for Christian short story collections, one will find very little if anything in that category. Why? Where are the short story collections by Christian authors? Or where are the short story anthologies with themes like "Faith and Science Fiction," or "Deeper Magic". My friends, they are coming...

Mind Flights is a Christian Magazine of fantasy and science fiction. They alongside other Christian fiction magazines, are paving new roads for Christ-reflected short fiction. Not preachy, but still a reflection of the truth and light.

Examples of this are of course in the writings of Lewis and Tolkien, but there are others, Walter M. Miller and Cordwainer Smith (Paul Lineberger) come to mind. These authors published short stories. However, modern day examples of popular Christian authors writing short stories are scarce. I know of none.

Mind Flights Magazine, and other Christian fiction magazines are tenaciously changing the landscape. An underground revolution is being stirred to life. Already there are anthologies that are popping up. Lyn Perry's "Residential Aliens ezine" put out a silly fantasy anthology titled "Strange Worlds of Lunacy". And Relief Journal put out a fun weird fiction anthology as well.

As this underground movement builds, these magazines will be able to afford to pay their authors higher and higher rates, allowing the talent pool to expand. As Christian fiction magazines grow, so will the quality of their stories. But the momentum needs to continue. It's time to get innovative and join forces.

Please check out Mind Flights, our featured magazine this month.

And please check out other CSFF blog tour sites

Brandon Barr
Justin Boyer
Jackie Castle
CSFF Blog Tour
Gene Curtis
D. G. D. Davidson
Jeff Draper
April Erwin
Karina Fabian
Kameron M. Franklin
Beth Goddard
Andrea Graham
Todd Michael Greene
Katie Hart
Michael Heald
Christopher Hopper
Joleen Howell
Jason Joyner
Kait
Carol Keen
Mike Lynch
Terri Main
Margaret
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Pamela Morrisson
John W. Otte
John Ottinger
Rachelle
Steve Rice
Ashley Rutherford
Mirtika or Mir's Here
Rachelle Sperling
Stuart Stockton
Steve Trower
Speculative Faith
Robert Treskillard
Linda Wichman
Laura Williams
Timothy Wise

8 comments:

Mike Lynch said...

Brandon,

As always, a very insightful and engaging review.

Mike

Rebecca LuElla Miller said...

Great thoughts, Brandon. Actually someone has put together an anthology. The folks at Lost Genre Guild also started a small press called The Writer's Cafe, and their first publication was an anthology. They now have a couple novels out and more on the way. I think there's also been talk about producing a second anthology. I don't know if this is open to the public for submissions or only for LGG members.

I like the idea of A Best of ... volume. That has some real promise. Boy, I hope editors from MF stop by these blogs!

Becky

John said...

An anthology would be great, but I fear it would suffer from the same fate that most long fiction faces, namely disappearing into the sea of romance and mystery novels that populate the shelves!

Still, it's a great idea and worth pursuing.

Brandon Barr said...

Mike,

Hey you're the first to stop in!
Thanks for your kind words.

Rebecca,
Thanks! I'll Have to look further into the possible 2nd LGG Anthology. That would be cool. I also hope some of the editors of the magazines I mentioned stop in. I'd love to hear what they think.

Hi John. I know the fear. I think it would need to be marketed to the broader market rather than just Christian bookstores. Because you're right...it could get swallowed alive by prairie fiction!

And on that line...I'm still waiting to see my first alternative history prairie fiction (with dragons preferably)

Linda Wichman said...

Brandon,

You are an insightful person. I applaud your ideas for anthologies and I would love to see established authors of speculative fiction rally around these smaller publications and help get them further recognition among the mass of speculative fiction readers.

I also think our genre and these webzines needs expand into the secular market where they would hopefully get the attention they deserve.

Soon as I can, I'm going to back step and read your other posts.

Lyn said...

Thanks for the mention! :-)

Brandon Barr said...

Hi Linda,

Thanks for your compliments. I'm passionate about short stories. I went and checked out your blog. You have a book out! Very cool!

Hi Lyn,
I couldn't resist... :)

Bilik Romance said...

Great story. Thank you for the author.

Lela
www.romansa-club.blogspot.com