Christian

Interview: Andi Young

/ Kris Wampler / 1 Comment

oneAndi Young is a Christian supernatural fiction writer who is currently working on the third book in her trilogy, The Devil of Blackthorne. Find out more about her writing style and her approach to marketing her book.

1. Tell me briefly about your latest book – what is it about and what motivated you to write it?

The book I’m currently working on is called Into the Light, book three of a trilogy called The Devil of Blackthorne. The first book is Called from the Darkness, and the second is Through the Abyss. The series is centered around Ray Weiss, a high school senior who would rather be anywhere but cooped up in a classroom. One day he followed his curiosity into an abandoned building with a haunted reputation, and its supernatural occupant followed him home, turning his already troubled life upside down.

I was motivated to write on the topic of spiritual warfare for two main reasons. One, society’s interest in the paranormal has been skyrocketing. Since I started the first book, we’ve gone from maybe two ghost hunting shows to dozens, and now there’s entire channels dedicated to the paranormal. People are hungry for answers. And that leads me to the second reason. For the most part, the church is not providing those answers. Well, the church isn’t providing answers to a lot of issues these days, but I won’t go into that. The average church in this day and age will almost never talk about demons. And they’re what we’re fighting against, right? We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, authorities, cosmic powers, and the spiritual forces of evil in the unseen realm. Yes, we also wrestle against our sinful nature, but so many Christians are going about their lives, oblivious to the spiritual war that’s not only raging around them, unseen, but also raging against them without them being aware of it. How can we fight a war we don’t even know we’re in?

My books are fiction, and I’ve taken a lot of creative liberty and put some fun stuff in there, but I hope they get people thinking about the fact that there’s dark forces working against them. Working to sabotage their faith, to steal their hope, to entice their curiosity to lead them away from God. We have to be vigilant, know our enemy, and get familiar with their strategies.

2. How have your sales been?

I’ve sold about a hundred books, mostly of the first book.

3. You’ve chosen self-publishing.  How have you liked it so far?  Talk about some of the positives and negatives you’ve encountered.

The process of self-publishing has been great. I love the total freedom it gives me to write what I want to write, to create the cover that I envisioned, and to have total control over it. It’s been difficult to be my own promoter, but I think that even if I went the traditional route, I’d still have to promote. So, I’m not really sure if there were any negatives to self-publishing in my case.

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Announcing my debut novel: A Penny Black

/ Kris Wampler

I’m pleased to announce that my debut novel, A Penny Black, is available for sale as an ebook and paperback on Amazon. It’s a Christian historical/mystery romance, written in the first person. Here is the plot synopsis:

Finding the love of your life may take longer than a lifetime

History professor Derek Foster is perfectly content with his career—and with being single. He’s willing to go to great lengths for his job, even if it means stealing a diary that’s been hidden in an old English cottage for centuries. Derek believes he’s found his ticket to tenure. But as he studies the diary, he instead finds himself inexplicably engrossed in the life of its author, a seventeenth-century woman named Abigail. The more Derek reads, the more he wishes a woman like Abigail were alive today.

Then Derek discovers a clue which suggests an incredible miracle: though she lived ages ago, Abigail never died. Is he delusional, simply reading his heart’s desires into the diary? Or can faith bring two people together who are continents, and even centuries, apart from each other?

Written through Derek’s perspective as a twenty-first century single Christian, A Penny Black explores the question: what if that special person lived not only in another place but in another time?

A Penny Black is available now on Amazon as an ebook and paperback:

Thank you all for your continued support and prayers!

Max B. Sternberg

/ Kris Wampler

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Max B. Sternberg is a Christian author who learned firsthand the risks a new author must take to get his or her work out there. Read about how he used social media groups to network and market his debut novel.

1. Tell me briefly about your latest book – what is it about and what motivated you to write it?

My latest book is my first book! Haha! It is called ‘The Rhise of Light’ and is the first book in the Darkness Overcome series. It is about a fantasy world that is on the brink of destruction from a plague of undead hordes. The main character, Leon, is called by a mysterious being to be a ‘Judge’ (or in non biblical terms, a hero). He, however, is going through his own personal troubles as well at the time. Along his journey he meets different people who join him, and they all learn about the being ‘Adonai’ and how that forgotten God can help each of them grow. There is action, humor, mystery and intrigue. It also deals with scriptural truth, and Old and New Testament themes that aren’t sugarcoated. It’s definitely not a hyper-grace message, more like punching evil in the face.

Which is one of the reasons I wanted to write the book series. There were lots of reasons, and first and foremost is because the more I started to write it the more I was convinced that this was the purpose God had called me to have. I wanted to challenge the secular fantasy landscape with a Christian series that was more thought provoking. You see a lot of ‘skin and sin’ series now in mainstream media and streaming which to me does nothing to add to a story. You can have great fantasy without those things! So this was my answer to combat that.

2. How have your sales been?

Being the first book I have no way to compare any prior works. However, I think it has gone exceptionally well since release on June 1, 2021. The book has 11 reviews on Amazon and 9 reviews on Goodreads. They average is 4.5 and higher. I am overwhelmed and humbled by the positive response! Hopefully the book sales spike and interest is gained as people review and talk about the book.

3. You’ve chosen self-publishing. How have you liked it so far?

It’s definitely been interesting. Starting to write a book from scratch I had to do a lot of research both on how to write a book and the topics that I wanted to tackle. It’s nice that I have retained the control without an editor who doesn’t see my vision. Or a publisher that wants to censor things that I want to talk about that may be controversial hanging over my head. I kept having thoughts of the librarian in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. A big stamp of ‘rejected’!

It does however mean that I am responsible for everything getting done. The writing of course but also proofing, the editing (which my amazing wife helped with), the formatting, perusing the story looking for plot holes, making it look pretty, and a partridge in a pear tree! You work on a budget too. I can’t tell you how many times that I had to go online and search for something book related. Then catch myself and search again only with the words ‘for free’ at the end. Continue reading →