Guest Post: Julius Schenk, His New Novel, Ghosts of the Living: Fallen Angels (Crowdfunding campaign)

Today my guest is novelist, Julius Schenk. I first met Julius in a Facebook group promoting his new novel, Ghosts of the Living: Fallen Angels, and the Crowdfunding campaign to enable in its release. I liked what I saw about this novel, so offered him a post to promote it or write about being a Christian and speculative fiction. 

So without further ado, let me introduce you to Julius Schenk, discuss his novel and his attitude towards being a Christian writer and his crowdfunding campaign. 

Over to you, Julius!

Thanks, Peter. First, I’d like to thank you for this chance to spread the word. Before I talk about my project and what it involves, I think it’s a good idea to introduce myself. My name is Julius Schenk I am a young(ish), Christian fiction writer from Australia.

Unlike many in the faith, I wasn’t born into a family that went to church, I didn’t have a Christian upbringing, I found my own way to Jesus when I was older, through my new wife and our shared experiences as we travelled around the globe doing voluntary work. The reason I think this is important is that not always being a Christian, I feel I know the world and things a non-Christian is exposed to daily. I have always loved fantasy, sci-fi, gaming, and punk rock music. When I first became a Christian I struggled a lot because every tv show I’d ever watched, every book I’d read or movie I’d seen, had done some work to make me think to be a Christian, was being a fool, believing something that couldn’t be true.

I feel that we live in a world of media. We are exposed on all sides by images, messages, opinions, and most of them are against faith. Even the tv shows I love, often seem to subtly, or not so subtly undermine what we believe.

My reaction to this isn’t to try to ban these things or to shut myself off from them, but rather, see if we can’t use them, as Christians to help spread the message instead.

I’ve written a three-part Christian historical fiction series, about a young(ish) woman who struggles with her faith and must fight against demonic influence and crime during the Victorian era in London. I believe it’s exciting and fun, I know that based on previous books it will gain around 10k downloads. What this makes me think, is if I was a non-Christian still, and someone wanted to reach me to get me to think about faith, or even open my mind to it just a little bit. Then having the message in an exciting book, tv shows, great music or movie, would have a lot more chance than someone knocking on my door and asking me directly about Jesus.

When I think that 30% of the world follows some form of Christianity, I know that 30% of books certainly don’t have a Christian focus, or music or any other form of entertainment media. This project is to raise money so that I can promote my book well so I can get the word out further than I could on my own. As a writer, I’d love to be personally successful, but more than that, this is about trying something different. As such, as part of my campaign, I will be offering space in the back of my book. What I’d love is so when people finish reading it, they can find information, so they could go to an alpha course, find a church near them, or consider Christian volunteering. 

We all know the world has changed, and many are changing to share the good news in new ways, Social media, Facebook, now has a lot of Christian messages. But more than this, I feel we need to not only use new methods to get the word out but also have a new format for that message.

The ways you can help this is to embrace your creativity. It’s a God-given gift and can be used to help share the gospel with people. If you like writing, try writing a book, if you can sing or play an instrument, think of recording some songs, if you do film, think of using it to help with the message. I’d love to see that in a few years’ time, the bestselling book isn’t “50 Shades of Grey” or something we all know is making the world a worse place, but is a great Christian fiction book, that both believers and non-believers, can enjoy and learn from.

To whet your appetite about Ghosts of the Living, here is the description: 

Born cursed at birth, Genevieve can see the memories of others in all she touches and where she goes, now she must use her God-given power and faith to help fight the rise of demonic influence and wave of possession, sweeping London. Set in 1890. 

The first four chapters can be found, ready to read, right here: 

https://www.inkitt.com/stories/177792/chapters/1?preview=true

Julius describes the reason for his crowdfunding campaign: 

As a young(ish) Christian who loves fantasy, Netflix and playing computer games I know to reach a new generation with a message of faith, we need to embrace new techniques and ideas. I've been a writer for five years, and a Christian for only two, I want to use my combined passions to get good stories and ideas out there. I need your help so my book, which is awesome, gets the attention it deserves and the Christian voice can be heard in the world of publishing and entertainment.

Please check out my campaign: Ghosts of the Living: Christian Fantasy series. The video from the campaign explains it all: 

Follow me on Facebook and Twitter

I also run a site, Christian Bookfinder you can add your book, for some extra promo! Thanks again and I hope this can be the beginning of a new wave of great Christian writers, getting the support they badly need for their work.

Thanks Julius for encouraging us about how being a Christian can impact your writing from this perspective and reach readers with the Gospel. I am looking forward to reading and reviewing Ghost of the Living and the remainder of the series.

I encourage readers of this post to consider contributing to Julius' crowdfunding campaign to enable this novel to be released. I have contributed already. This is one way to support Christian authors and Christian fiction.