The Christian Manifesto

We LOVE Robin Parrish. His work with Infuze Magazine is one of the reasons that The Christian Manifesto even exists! Add to that his stellar Dominion Trilogy, released by Bethany House Publishers. With the final book of the trilogy, Merciless, recently hitting bookshelves everywhere, we caught up with the author and were able to ask him a series of questions about his history as a writer, the untimely demise of Infuze, his thoughts on his characters, and what he’ll be working on in the near future.

 

A little about Robin.

 

For years Robin parrish has covered the world of Christian culture—music, books, film, comics, and more—as a journalist. He and his wife live in North Carolina with their firstborn child.

 

Enjoy!

 

TCM: First, we’d like to thank you for taking the time to sit down and answer some of our questions. Congratulations on the release of your third novel, Merciless.

 

Robin Parrish: Thank you! I appreciate you taking the time and interest in this.

 

TCM: Tell us a little about yourself. How did you get your start in writing in general, Christian fiction in particular?

 

RP: I’ve been writing for as long as I can remember. My parents bought me a plastic typewriter when I was about eight or nine, I think, and I was writing stories even then — or “books,” as I liked to think of them (I even drew my own covers!).

 

I remember in 8^th Grade, I wrote a story about a miraculous experience of my grandfather’s during World War II. I got a lot of very positive feedback from that story, and it encouraged me to keep writing. I won some local awards and whatnot, went on to college where I won some more stuff and got more recognition there. It just kind of snowballed.

 

8^th Grade was the first time I seriously considered writing as my future career. I think it was another year or two later that I knew it was what I was put here to do. And I don’t say that conceitedly — I firmly believe that God puts each of us here for a specific purpose. It’s all about passion. Whatever you’re most passionate about, and you’re best at, that’s almost certainly the thing God put you here to do with your life, to bring him glory.

 

My journey into being professionally published was a very atypical one. I worked in journalism for a number of years, wrote for and created several websites, mostly about Christian Music, which I’ve always had a strong interest in. The last one I did was called Infuze Magazine, and it was much broader in scope than just music. We talked about all forms of art and entertainment, and we also presented original short stories, artwork, and poems.

 

Along with all that, I had the idea of doing a serialized story as one of Infuze’s features. So I plotted out this sprawling, 18-chapter epic (and each chapter was anywhere from five thousand to ten thousand words), with a definitive ending and character arcs and lots of mystery and intrigue and action and suspense and drama and romance and all the best ingredients of my favorite kinds of stories. I published a new chapter every other Friday, and the idea was that it was sort of like “reading” an episode of 24 or the latest issue of your favorite comic book. Every chapter ended on a cliffhanger, and you’d come back in two weeks to find out what happened next.

 

The reception was beyond anything I could have hoped for, and it quickly became Infuze’s most popular and most talked-about feature. When it was done, several publishers somehow got wind of it and came to me to talk about book deals. Bethany House put the best deal on the table.

 

I didn’t specifically set out to write a “Christian” or “non-Christian” story, because I tend to think that the “Christian industry” mindset has a way of stifling creativity in favor of satisfying industry trends. (A topic for a whole other interview!) But I’m a devout Christian, and the values and virtues and ideals that I hold highest — stuff like perseverance, sacrifice, brotherhood — can’t help but come out in what I write.

 

TCM: If you had to define your writing, what genre would best fit your stories?

 

RP: This is the eternal question that trips me up, because my stuff is very hard to qualify. I can tell you what my writing is like, tonally: whenever anyone asks me what the Dominion Trilogy is about, I usually say, “It’s sort of like Lord of the Rings crossed with 24.”

 

The Dominion Trilogy is a Fantasy/Suspense/Thriller/Superhero Saga kind of thing. And I use that word “Fantasy” with great hesitation, because we tend to associate dwarves and elves with it. The Trilogy is nothing like that; it’s set in the real world, with gritty, realistic events. It’s just a step removed from our reality, kind of like television’s Lost or Heroes.

 

I can’t really define a single genre for myself. My intention is to keep jumping genres as I go along. I want to try my hand at lots of different things, but you can rest assured that wherever my stories take me, they’ll all maintain that fast-paced, exciting, epic quality.

 

TCM: Before we talk about your most recent release, let’s talk a little bit about your time with the e-zine, Infuze Magazine. We count Infuze as one of our main influences, TCM being our meager attempt to fill the vacuum left in Infuze’s absence. How did you come up with the idea for such an interesting site?

 

RP: First of all, I just want to say that it’s gratifying to me that people are actually feeling Infuze’s absence. That’s very nice to hear.

 

The idea for it came to me in the shower one day. For some reason, I get a lot of my best ideas there (where of course there’s no pad and pen to write stuff down!).

 

Anyway, I was getting burnt out on the whole Christian Music scene. Creative people are easily board, as I’m sure you know, so having done the same thing for ten years or so, I was in desperate need of a new challenge. But I hated to lose all the great contacts I’d spent so long building up in the Christian Music and Book industries. At the same time, I was dying to get back into storytelling, which has always been my first love. All this stuff was simmering around in my head at the time, along with Bob Briner’s Roaring Lambs ideas, which I’d recently become enamored with. And it occurred to me that the one thing that music and storytelling and all of my other passions had in common was that they were all artistic expressions. They were all forms of art.

 

As soon as I had that as the cornerstone, the site pretty much built itself in my head from there. Everything clicked into place, and I just kept getting ideas of things we could do about this and that, and the editorial angle of the site.

 

Incidentally, I hope to do a nonfiction book at some point that discusses all of the ideas and principles that Infuze was built upon. I still think those principles are crucially important to the human — and Christian — experience, and I still have a desire to spread the word about that and open peoples’ eyes to the possibilities of a creative existence. So stay tuned.

 

TCM: Now, in the last year, Infuze was forced to close its doors, maybe forever. We heard that was a somewhat hurtful situation for you. Could you share with us a little of what happened and some of the harder lessons you’ve learned from it?

 

RP: I don’t really see anything being served by going into detail about the parties involved… The simple answer is that it was a struggle from the beginning to keep Infuze going, keep it funded, because the various owners we had over the years either didn’t know how to monetize it effectively, or simply didn’t understand it well enough to know what to do with it. It was a unique creation that you were either passionate about or you weren’t, and most businessmen are only passionate about what they can make a profit from — rarely will you find a deep-pocketed businessman who rallies behind an unproven cause or movement.

 

In all honesty, as much as it was painful to me to let it go, there was also a bit of relief involved, because this huge burden of trying to keep it going for so long had finally been lifted from my shoulders.

 

But back to your question… Yes it ended badly for me personally, and no its ending was most definitely not my decision. I’ve moved on, but it’s still a bit of a sore spot for me that its legacy led to such an abrupt and unceremonious ending.

 

And it’s best I just leave it at that.

 

As for lessons learned… I’m not sure I have any to share quite yet. I’m sure I will, eventually. Some time has passed, but losing that steady income is frankly something my family and I are still struggling with the repercussions of, on a daily basis. I think it’s going to be a while yet before I’m fully on the other side of “the end of Infuze” enough to look back and see what there was to be learned from it. Ask me again a few years down the road.

 

TCM: There was also talk of working with xzoosia.com, but that didn’t end up working out. Can you shed a little light on that situation and what you’re doing instead for work (beyond your writing work).

 

RP: There’s really no story to share there. I was expecting a similar working situation to what I had at Infuze, and they were expecting something else altogether. I just wasn’t what they were looking for, and they weren’t what I was looking for. It was an amicable, mutual parting, and I wish those guys nothing but the best. They recently relaunched their site with a name change to BlueChowder.com.

 

TCM: Alright. Let’s talk about The Dominion Trilogy. This series has fascinated and awed me from the beginning. Where did the idea for Grant Borrows and company come from?

 

RP: It just kind of exploded into my brain. You know the famous story of C.S. Lewis and his striking mental image of a faun with an umbrella walking through the snow under a lamp post? And how that image just came to him out of the blue, but it captivated him so completely, he had to create a story around it?

 

I’m in no way comparing myself to Lewis, but it happened in a similar way with the Dominion Trilogy. I had this flash of a guy walking to work in the rain, amid the concrete canyons of a major metropolis (which became Los Angeles in the book), and across the street he sees… himself, walking to work in the rain. It was such a great hook, it just made me freeze whatever I was doing at the time, and I instantly had a thousand questions.

 

Who was this other man, why did he look like the main character, where did he come from, how was this possible, and what was it all about? I’m a big lover of superheroes, conspiracy thrillers, and really original characters who speak with snappy, witty dialogue. I threw all of this stuff into a melting pot, and set to work answering those questions that were posed by that original mental image.

 

Needless to say, finding the answers grew into a complex mythology far beyond my initial expectations!

 

TCM: What I love about these stories is how multi-layered they are. Sure we have the obvious superhero genre throughout, but there is plenty of sci-fi and even somewhat of an apocalyptic urban fantasy feel. Did you set out wanting to mix in these different genres? What genre do you feel best describes these novels?

 

RP: The short answer I always give when someone asks, “What kind of novels do you write?” is “Suspense/Thrillers.” But you’re right, there’s a huge melting pot of genres and ideas, and that’s something that will probably always be a part of my writing, to some degree. Stories that cross those boundaries and turn on a dime and keep you guessing and entertained and enthralled are my favorite kinds of stories, so it’s just natural that that’s what I’m drawn to when I write.

 

TCM: I’m sure you have fans asking you all the time about what Grant Borrows can or cannot do with his powers. What kind of rules or limitations did you set for Grant’s abilities when you created the character?

 

RP: It’s crucial when writing this sort of thing that you set specific rules and you never deviate from them, because if you start making things up as you go along, modern readers are savvy enough to realize you have no idea what you’re doing. So from the very beginning, I set three primary rules for Grant’s abilities:

 

1) Psychokinesis. Also known as “telekinesis,” this is the ability to manipulate objects with one’s mind. Grant’s powers of psychokinesis are virtually unlimited, and when he concentrates hard enough, he can manipulate more than one object at a time — many more. The size, mass, density, weight, etc. of the object is typically unimportant. As Yoda would say, “the only difference is in your mind.” Grant overcomes this limitation by the beginning of Fearless (Book 2).

a)       Grant can only manipulate solids and liquids. No gasses. Just like the hand that he often outstretches to help him focus on what he wants to manipulate, this rule is defined via basic physics: Grant can only move with his mind the same kinds of things you can manipulate with your hands. This is why he can’t manipulate air, wind, smoke, etc. But if there are enough dust particles or debris within a cloud — enough to constitute a tangible mass — Grant can, with great concentration, manipulate it.

b)       Grant can only manipulate objects outside of himself. Several people have postulated that if Grant can move objects with his mind, why can’t he just hop on top of something and float that, thereby “flying” himself? Again, apply it to basic physics: if you were to stand on top of a wooden plank, could you reach down and pick the plank (and yourself) up? Of course not. In order to lift an object, there must be leverage. There has to be something rooted to the ground, to pick up something else. The same is true of Grant’s powers: he must remain rooted in order to manipulate any object.

2) Energy Blast. Grant can release a blast of energy outward in all directions. The resulting blast is essentially a visible wave of energy that expands rapidly outward like a ripple in a pond, and it flattens everything in its path.

3) The Forging. As first depicted in Relentless, this is the subliminal connection between Grant and all the other Ringwearers. By Fearless, Grant learns to use it to offer wordless instructions to his friends. When you read Merciless you’ll learn that like all things, there is much more to it than that.

 

TCM: Which of your characters (besides Grant Borrows) has most surprised you?

 

RP: Daniel surprised me repeatedly. He wound up being a much more tragic character than I envisioned him in the beginning. He also became one of the most sympathetic, I think, in the end, because we all have big regrets that define us to a certain degree.

 

TCM: Merciless just hit shelves this past week. Without giving too much away, what can you tell us about the last book in the trilogy?

 

RP: It’s the grand finale — with an emphasis on the word “grand.” Part of my vision from the beginning was that the scope and scale and the stakes would magnify with each book. It also contains all of the answers to every mystery and question that’s been posed since the beginning of Book 1. There’s been a big question for a lot of readers who have wanted to know all along, “What is this really all about?” Merciless delivers that. All of my cards are on the table.

 

If you’re going to ask a reader to follow you on this three-year journey, if you’re going to ask them to buy three books for one story, then you’re making a promise to your reader: “Come along with me and I’ll make it worth your while. I’ll give you an ending that’s worth getting to.” I take that responsibility very seriously. So many times I’ve read book trilogies or watched movie trilogies where the final volume failed to deliver the big, epic, world-shattering conclusion that the previous entries required. They always seem to fall short. Peter Jackson’s Return of the King was the first time in recent memory where I experienced a conclusion that truly delivered.

 

So I knew from the first page of Book 1 that I had to produce an ending that delivered on that scale, tonally. And that’s what I set out to do with Merciless. Whether or not I succeeded is for readers to decide. All I can tell you for certain is that it’s everything I wanted and hoped for it to be, and more.

 

TCM: What are you working on now? Are you still with Bethany House?

 

RP: Yes, at the beginning of this year, I signed a new contract with Bethany House for three more novels. Don’t get your hopes up for another trilogy or series, though. I’m done with that for a very long while. This trilogy was incredibly complex, and I don’t fancy doing an intricate story that stretches across multiple books again anytime soon.

 

So these next three will all be standalone titles, and as it stands right now, each one will touch upon a different genre, while still maintaining that “breakneck thrill ride” quality that’s a big part of my writing. Like the trilogy, each book will release in the summer of a consecutive year. So it looks like this:

 

First up, for Summer 2009, is a science fiction story called Offworld. I’m deep into writing this one as we speak, and I’m having a lot of fun playing in a completely new sandbox. It’s set in the near future, and it’s about what happens when the four-member crew of the first manned mission to Mars returns home after 2 years in space… only to find that Earth is completely abandoned. Empty. Everyone is gone, everywhere. So now the Mars crew must find out what’s happened while they were away — and you can expect plenty of twists and lots of action and suspense along the way.

 

For Summer 2010 I’m doing a very edgy supernatural thriller in a modern setting. It has a title but I’m not ready to reveal it just yet. But I’ll go on record right here, right now, and say that the story hook on this one is probably the best plot idea I’ve ever had. It’s just crazy cool. It’s one of those ideas that when you hear it, you immediately wonder why no one has ever thought of this before. (Hence the secrecy.)

 

Nothing’s been decided yet for Summer 2011, though I have an idea I think I’m starting to zero in on that’s really provocative and exciting, the more I think about it. Decisions on that one don’t have to be made for another year to a year and a half, so we’ll see where that goes.

 

TCM: Do you think you’ll ever revisit the characters created in ‘The Dominion Trilogy?’

 

RP: Well (SPOILER ALERT)… Readers of Merciless know that the Trilogy ends in such a way that some of those characters live on. So the potential is there. I’m not opposed to the idea at all, I’d just need to come up with a very compelling story reason to revisit that universe again. I like writing those characters a lot, and there are a few in there that could easily carry their own storyline. I’m just waiting for an appropriate story to come along.

 

But there will be no more adventures of Grant Borrows. His story ends with Merciless. He’s done. And I can’t imagine any need to reprise the story of the Secretum of Six and all of their plans and schemes and history. They’re finished, too.

 

So if I ever returned to this world, it would be a completely new story starring a secondary character or two from the trilogy, that probably delves deeper into them than the trilogy allowed. And the story would need to grow organically out of their past and where they find themselves now.

 

TCM: How much does your faith in Jesus affect what you do?

 

RP: He saturates everything I do. Every step I take, every breath I breathe, every meal I eat, every word I say, every word I write. All of this — everything in this life — is about him. There’s nothing, absolutely nothing, we do that isn’t about our relationship with him. Whether I’m writing a book or blowing my nose, my perpetual aim is to keep my thoughts centered on him. I don’t always succeed, but every day I get up in the morning and I continue trying.

 

TCM: Let’s reverse that question. How has writing, and now producing, helped grow your faith in Christ?

 

RP: In some very cool ways I didn’t anticipate. For example, I often find that when I’m writing and I’m in the groove and the words are flowing and I’m really feeling it… Those are the times when I feel closest to God. Even if what I’m writing makes no mention of him. It doesn’t matter. It’s like I’m in my “sweet spot,” I’m doing the thing I was created to do, and there’s this sense of deep communion and fulfillment to it that I don’t get from anything else I do.

 

TCM: Thanks again for taking the time to answer our questions. Any final thoughts?

 

RP: My wife and I covet your prayers. Like everyone else these days, the financial downturn of our nation is effecting us harshly. We’re continuing to follow God’s leading, doing what we believe he calls us to do, but it can be a scary place to be sometimes. It’s filled with uncertainty on all sides, but we are determined and stubborn in our intention to hold on and keep following him, wherever he leads us. Prayers for strength and stamina are desperately needed.

 

And hey, please keep reading! As long as you keep buying and reading my books, I promise to keep writing them.