Author Interview ~ Jeff Gerke

Jeff Gerke, a.k.a. Jefferson Scott, is a published Christian novelist and professional book editor living in Colorado Springs. He's published six Christian novels of his own and co-written two Christian nonfiction books. He has been on staff at Multnomah Publishers, Strang Communications (where he launched the Realms imprint of Christian speculative fiction), and NavPress. He has done freelance editing for Howard, Barbour, WinePress, and more. He teaches at Christian writers conferences and has been an acquisitions and developmental editor for several years. He maintains two Web sites: www.jeffersonscott.com and www.wherethemapends.com.

He and his wife and two children life in Colorado Springs, where they are pursuing the adoption of a little girl from China. Jeff recently left NavPress and is pursuing the life of a freelancer.

What book or project is coming out or has come out that you’d like to tell us about?

Today I’m most excited about the launch of www.wherethemapends.com. It's a Web site dedicated to Christian speculative fiction.

WhereTheMapEnds.com is full of good stuff for anyone who reads or writes this kind of fiction. I’ve got interviews from the “pillars” in the field, a giant booklist of books in the genre, a “fantastic visions” gallery of Christian speculative art, and tons of information about improving your own fiction writing and how to get published in the Christian publishing industry. Plus sundry fun.

What is speculative fiction?

That’s an umbrella term for the “weird” subgenres in fiction: science fiction, fantasy, alternate history, time travel, supernatural thrillers, chillers, pure speculative, spiritual warfare, and more. Since www.wherethemapends.com is devoted to that kind of fiction, I like to think of it as the unofficial House of Weird.

What about speculative fiction is appealing to you?

It takes me to places I’ve never imagined. There’s something very right, even godly, about an imagination soaring to the heights of invented planets or kingdoms or realms. When my imagination becomes engaged by a speculative story or idea, it’s as if a door has been opened in my mind, as if I’m gaining a peek into the creative forge of God.

Why aren’t there more CBA houses willing to publish speculative fiction?

Because it typically doesn’t sell well. If you’re a publisher and you’ve got two novels before you to choose between, a historical romance and a science fiction, you’re probably going to choose the romance. Why? Because romance is an easier sell than the SF. It’s something the market is asking for and always responds well to. Why would you give the market something it isn’t asking for and has said repeatedly that it isn’t very interested in? You’d quickly go out of business doing things that way.

One thing that surprised me as I was building the booklist for WhereTheMapEnds.com, however, was how many Christian novels there really are in these genres. I currently have over 250 titles on my booklist, and suggestions have already come in pointing out dozens I’ve missed. We sometimes complain that there just isn’t anything to read in these genres, but I’m finding that that may not be true.

There are publishers—and editors at those publishers, and writers like many who visit your site—who love Christian speculative fiction and desire to see room made for it in the Christian publishing and bookselling industry. It’s slowly growing.

Tell us about your journey to publication. How long had you been writing before you got the call you had a contract, how you heard and what went through your head.

I’d been writing, in the sense of making up stories, since I was a kid. I didn’t start actually writing fiction until after my college years. Then in my mid-twenties I made a concerted effort to try out this Christian fiction publishing thing.

I wrote three chapters of this near-future technothriller about virtual reality, prepared a proposal, and sent it out to a bunch of publishers. After months of rejections and just silence, I finally received a call from Rod Morris, then senior fiction editor at Multnomah Publishers. He was interested in the trilogy, and Multnomah eventually contracted me for the books. They came out in the mid-1990s.

What went through my head? About a gallon of adrenaline, I think! By the time I got the call from Rod I had pretty much decided God must not want me to be published. I’d gone off and gotten a day job with a terrible commute, a situation that left me with virtually no time or energy to write. When I got the contracts I was like, “Okay, God; now what?!” LOL. Glory days.

Do you still experience self-doubts regarding your work?

Hmm. Not really, not in the way you’re thinking. I believe I could write my way out of a tin can, thank you, if I needed to. I feel secure in my skill-set and storytelling abilities. I know my weaknesses (creating rich characters) and my strengths. I know what stories I want to tell and how I want to tell them. There’s a confidence there that comes with working a long time to improve yourself at any skill or hobby.

When I get doubts is when I push myself to attempt something audacious. My first trilogy was great fun, but I sensed (and reviewers confirmed) that some of my characters were weaker than they could’ve been. So for my next trilogy (the Operation: Firebrand books) I set myself an audacious challenge: write an ensemble cast series with at least six major protagonists who each have to be finely drawn. Yikes. I got nervous about that.

Now I’ve set for myself the challenge of building on all I’ve learned and also creating an epic fantasy in an alternate world. Those are things I’ve never attempted before. I could go write more technothrillers and military thrillers any day, but I’m always pushing myself. And that’s where I start to shiver.

What’s the best advice you’ve heard on writing/publication?

The best is this: procure for yourself a copy of Self-Editing for Fiction Writers by Browne & King and master its every technique.

Another is “Don’t write what you know; write what you’re interested in.” I didn’t know squat about virtual reality, artificial intelligence, genetic engineering, or military tactics and nonlethal weapons before I wrote novels on those topics. But I wanted to learn about them. Writing the books became my excuse for fully exploring things I was curious to learn more about.

What’s the worst piece of writing advice you’ve heard?

Write what the market wants, even if you have to compromise what you want to write. There’s nothing wrong with trying to accommodate market preferences within a story or series you already want to write. But writing to the market just feels a lot like selling out to me.

You might be more successful writing to the market, and maybe it would allow you to write what you want later. But then the conventional wisdom will tell you to keep writing what you’ve always written because that’s what people know you for.

Me, I’m always writing what I want to write. (Just ask my poor agent, who can’t sell anything I want to write!) I have an independent streak in me, coupled with the assurance that there are lots of people out there who would like to read the story I want to write, if I could just get it to them.

One of my long-term dreams for WhereTheMapEnds.com is to become a small publisher of original Christian speculative novels, including my own. The people who would like such a thing are the people who would already be drawn to the site, so the problem of getting the books to the people who want them will have already been solved.

What’s something you wish you’d known earlier that might have saved you some time/frustration in the publishing business?

Maybe that who we’re really writing to is the Audience of One. I got very caught up in counting my sales and gauging my worth on the number of books of mine that sold. That kind of math is a sure way to bring you to misery.

Currently God is showing me that all my life I’ve sought to achieve the approval and affirmation of people around me. That’s why the mediocre sales hurt so badly. To me, it said I was a loser. The Lord is showing me that I couldn’t be more delightful to Him if I tried. And suddenly I don’t care how many units I sell. All I’m starting to care about now is being pleasing to Him.

What’s the worst mistake you’ve made on your road to publication?

I don’t think I made many. But I see other aspiring novelists trying to take shortcuts. You can’t. You’ve got to take the time required to master your skills or you’ll never get published. Self-Editing for Fiction Writers is the place to start.

Is there a particularly difficult set back that you’ve gone through in your writing career you are willing to share?

Oh, I could point to various things like poor covers or what I perceived as anemic enthusiasm about my books on the part of the various publishers.

But I understand now that that last is just the nature of the business. Everybody is an unproven commodity until they go out and prove themselves. Everyone is a new and untried author until their books sell a ton. After that, publishers and booksellers and everyone else give you more attention. Hey, it just goes with the territory. No one’s being mean-spirited about it.

The largest setback was probably my thinking that the level of my books’ sales defined my worth. What a handicap to place on yourself. Don’t do it! Simply believe that God continually delights over you the way a new daddy delights to first hold his newborn child.

Can you give us a view into a typical day of your writing life?

I could if I were writing! Now I’m working from home as a freelancer. You know, sleep in, wear fuzzy slippers until noon, take the day off if I want. LOL. Oh, and work.

I’ve been spoiled in that when I’ve been writing novels I’ve had the luxury of doing so full-time. I so admire those writers who hold down full-time jobs or keep small children at home and yet still manage to crank out pages every day. I don’t think I’m that strong.

Was there ever a time in your writing career you thought of quitting?

In the early years, all the time. I thought I was deluding myself in this dream to be a published novelist. I kept telling myself to go get a real job and forget about that nonsense. Praise God that He didn’t let me do that. I think I would’ve been soul-sick all my life.

Now, I can never quit. Even if I’m not writing, I’m still a writer. Understanding that about myself kind of set my soul permanently at ease. Blessed is the man who does not condemn himself in what he approves. I would add this to Paul’s thought: blessed is the man (or woman) who embraces the desires God Himself has placed inside him or her.

What is your favorite and least favorite part of being a writer?

The favorite is the research and idea phase. The least favorite is the grueling long haul that is the task of actually writing a book-length piece.

If you sign up for the newsletter at www.wherethemapends.com you’ll see my lighthearted article called “The Horrific (But True) Psychological Phases of Writing a Novel.” The best and worst are in there.

Can you offer any marketing advice for novelists?

I’m always impressed by those authors who are go-getters. I’m not. I’m a wallflower, a card-carrying introvert. I’d rather write my stories and let other people trumpet them to the world. I’m uncomfortable putting myself forward like some people do, though I admire them for doing it. However, it’s just not for me and I finally gave myself permission to not be like that.

Now, I can do other kinds of promotion. Like create a Web site devoted to the kind of fiction I adore, and hope that that causes folks to take an interest in my writing.

I want to also create a product or book called something like, “The Complete Coward’s Guide To Promoting Your Novel.”

As an editor, what are some of the mistakes you see over and over even from multi-published authors?

Not knowing their craft. Most of the Christian novelists I know (and I know a lot!) are deeply dedicated to improving their fiction skill-set every time they sit down to write. They’re reading books on writing, they’re thinking about how to improve their writing, and they’re sampling excellent fiction writing in other people’s novels.

With unpublished authors I occasionally see signs that perhaps the author simply hasn’t learned things like POV consistency, showing instead of telling, and the like. Once more, Self-Editing for Fiction Writers is the place to go.

Any editorial advice you can offer to novelists?

By now it should be clear what I’ll say: Learn your craft! LOL. The best first step is to master the teachings in Self-Editing for Fiction Writers.

Also, most writers are very strong either at creating plots or at creating characters. Whatever you’re weak at, work very hard to strengthen. I have more books on how to create good characters than on any other topic within the field of writing fiction. That’s because I know I’m not naturally strong at that and need to concentrate on.

As an aside, I never have found a book that really worked for me. So I developed my own system. It’s working so well I’m developing it into a product that I’ll sell on www.wherethemapends.com when it’s ready, hopefully by October 1. I’ll call it something like “Character Creation for the Plot-First Novelist.”

Parting words?

This month’s featured interview at WhereTheMapEnds.com is Frank Peretti. Don’t miss it! And next month we’ll hear from Jerry Jenkins. On deck for November is Ted Dekker.

Be sure to check out the great material for writers at WhereTheMapEnds.com, including the random story generator, which I think is a hoot.

Come to the House of Weird and prepare to have your God-given imagination sent soaring.