Meet Karina Author and Editor of Leaps of Faith - CFRB

Originally Posted at Bibliophile's Retreat by Melissa Meeks

This week CFRB is featuring Leaps of Faith a Christian Sci-Fi Anthology. Now Sci Fi isn't usually my thing nor short-stories but like food I've found everything deserves a shot before I rule it out. I'm just starting in on these stories but they are looking promising.

Now for today's installment - an interview with Karina Fabian who is one of the editors as well as a contributor to this anthology. You'll also see a couple of references to Vern who has nothing to do with this anthology unfortunately but as he is one of Karina's characters, I couldn't leave him out.

1. Who do you want to meet and why?
I don't have a specific person I've been dying to meet. I've met so many wonderful writers and readers over the years. I'm pretty content to meet anyone God puts in my way.

2. What’s your favorite comfort food?
Chocolate or popcorn, depending on how fat I feel and whether I have the need to munch. Lately, however, I'm trying to replace that with veggies. Sometimes, that works.

I love veggies myself but there are times when only chocolate will do for me.

3. What would be your dream vacation?
All-expense paid to somewhere I've not been before, like Greece. OR A quiet, inexpensive vacation with my husband, with a couple of well-attended book signings and lots of time together working on our next collaboration. Maybe with a sci-fi convention tossed in.

LOL Can't leave the books out of the picture I see. I always have to find the local bookstores when I go anywhere myself not that I always buy but gotta know where the good ones are just in case.

4. Is there anyone who has influenced / encouraged you to write other than God who ultimately gives us any talents including creativity? Who and how / why?
My husband, Rob. He's the first one I go to for brainstorming, information or a logic check on a scene or idea. When I get down about the bills or the house or the kids and think I need to give up writing and get a job like normal women, he reminds me how much I love what I do and how good I am at it. He makes enough money to keep us comfortable. Plus, he and I sometimes collaborate on stories.

5. Can you give a brief synopsis of your journey to publication with your first piece of fiction?
The very first? I used to write fanfic, and entered some contests at the Denver StarCon, then got them published in fanzines.

For my first original fiction that I wrote: In college, while thinking about God and paradoxes and time travel, I wrote a story I later named "Tampering with God's Time." I didn't know much about the market at the time, so I never really tried to sell it; however, when we decided to create Leaps of Faith, I thought it was a good fit. That was nearly a decade later, however, so I re-wrote a lot of it.

For the first story that was published: I was just starting up writing after a hiatus of being in the Air Force. We lived in Cheyenne, WY, and I came across a local Christian magazine. In it was a story about a man who was kind, loving and generous, but never said the words, "Jesus, I accept you as my savior" and went to Hell. I was furious at the "magic formula" approach to Salvation the story took, so I wrote a rebuttal story of a man who said he accepted Jesus as his Savior, then was a law-abiding man, but not a particularly good or compassionate man. Upon his death, he discovered words are not enough. They published it, thought it was a free magazine, so they didn't pay.

6. What else have you written / are you currently writing (including unpublished works)?
Published: Infinite Space, Infinite God (sci-fi with a Catholic twist); Leaps of Faith (Christian sci-fi); "DragonEye, PI" in Firestorm of Dragons

Coming soon: Magic, Mensa and Mayhem: From the Case Files of DragonEye, PI (Swimming Kangaroo, Feb 2009); Live and Let Fly: From the Case Files of DragonEye, PI (Swimming Kangaroo, TBD); "Mishmash" in Book of Tentacles (SamsDot, TBD); and "The Faerie Truth behind the Faerie Tales" in Mother Goose is Dead (DragonMoon, TBD). Learn more about these at Vern's Website, the Dragon PI himself.

7. What first gave you the idea for your story in LOF?
Rob and I had been creating this near-future universe where humans have colonized the solar system and an order of nuns worked in space doing the dangerous job of search and rescue. I'd also read a story about a woman who had a repressed childhood memory that was affecting her adult life in ways she didn't understand until she forced the memory out into the open. Combining these ideas I came up with "Leap of Faith," in which a nun with a repressed childhood memory of nearly drowning while trying to rescue someone finds herself unable to "leap" out of her ship to rescue a spacer.

8. What else would you like to share with readers about yourself or your contribution to LOF?
This book was first published in electronic format in 2004 and was an EPPIE finalist for best anthology. Not best Christian--best anthology. It appeals to a large audience. The stories are excellent--some are still my favorites.

9. Share with us one of the craziest things you've done or that's happened to you?
A mutual friend, Jeff Louie, introduced me to Rob, my husband. The day we met, the three of us went out to buy me a TV and go out to dinner. By the end of the evening, Rob had made up his mind about me and to "test the waters," stuck his arm though mine. I didn't know what to do--I was not in a potential romance frame of mind--so I stuck my arm though Jeff's and started skipping while singing, "Follow the Yellow Brick Road."

They joined in. Imagine three young officers skipping down the parking lot of San Angelo's mall singing Wizard of Oz tunes.

Rob said he knew then I was the woman for him!

10. What five books would you take with you to a desert island?
The Bible. The complete lectionary of the Catholic Mass. The most comprehensive survival book I can find, preferably with instructions on how to make ink and paper. A star-watching guide. Some thick classic I've never read before. This is assuming I'm getting abandoned there, or course, and not on a vacation. If it's vacation and I can't have a laptop, then five of the thickest notebooks I can buy.

11. What concept or scripture is God revealing more deeply to you in this season of your life? And how is that revelation influencing your life?
I recently did a series of blogs about the Commandment against taking God's name in vain, and how that translates into action as well as words. As a writer of Christian fiction, and especially with my DragonEye series, in which the Faerie world has one united Christian faith--called Faerie Catholicism--I have to be careful with my words and my actions when writing words. How do I use God as a name, as a concept, as a Person in my writings as well as my life.

12. Why did you start writing and when?
I've been writing all my life. It's the only way to quiet the voices in my head.

13. How do you choose names and get to know your characters?
Most of the time, they give me their names. For lesser characters, I'll get suggestions, or find a regional phone book and pick something that fits. A good example is in my WIP, Discovery: From a Jamacian phone book (love the Internet!), I came up with Captain Jamal Addiman of the space liner Edwina Thomas. Someone suggested Edwina Thomas to me as a joke, but I love it and gave the ship a whole history around it. Then I had a Sister Thomas Aquinas. Thomas--what a name for a nun! I tried to change it, though, and she keeps changing it back. At least her friends call her Tommie.

14. What’s your favorite character / scene from your books or stories (so far)?
Vern is by far my favorite character. He's a dragon drafted into service of the Faerie Church by St. George and currently serving God and His creatures as a detective on the Mundane side of the Interdimensional Gap. He's sarcastic, judgemental, and sure of his own superiority. Come on--he's a dragon! He's also fiercely loyal, very witty, and honest about things that baffle him. A good friend of mine call the DragonEye tales a "conversion" story of Vern. I never thought of it that way, but I can't really deny it, either.

15. Do you have any teasers you can share for your next piece to be published?
In Magic, Mensa and Mayhem, Vern and his partner Sister Grace are "volunteered" by their bishop to chaperone a bunch of magical creatures at a Mensa convention in Florida. It should be a cushy job, but when pixies start pranking, Valkyrie start vamping and intoxicated elves declare war on Florida, it turns out to be the toughest job they've ever NOT gotten paid for.

16. Are there any closing remarks you’d like to share?
Just a couple of information sites:

To learn more about Leaps of Faith, out now by The Writers Café Press.

For more information about Vern, DragonEye, PI and the upcoming stories and books

For more about me and my works, published and coming!

Thank you for taking the time to share with my readers.

Thank you for being such a great host!

Codicil:
Thanks again Karina and you're welcome. Readers be sure and check out Karina's sites and books above. Purchase a copy of Leaps of Faith using the bookcover, visit Karina's site by clicking her photo or the link above. Visit other CFRB members posting about the book this week. And don't forget my interview with Susanne (another LOF author) tomorrow and my review on Friday. See buttons below for links to other CFRB members posting original material this week and when you visit the Leaps of Faith site check the listing of other bloggers touring the book this month.

Oh and on other topics I'll be posting about Firestorm of Dragons, Vern and some of the other authors who contributed to that anthology later this month.