Back in 2011, I was interested in joining the American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW), and was also interested in participating in the local chapter. So I met with the then Chapter President Rick Barry.
I had the honor of reading The Methuselah Project, which he has since written a sequel to. Also, he spoke at our church about a mission organization he was in, which I will speak about below.
JR: Welcome to the blog, Rick. Could you tell us about how you came to Christ and how you got interested in writing?
RB: The first time I realized I was not a true Christian was in 6th grade. In Sunday school, my Sunday school teacher, Mr. Olson, once asked each of us boys to tell when and how we repented and put our trust in Christ. Up until that moment, I had assumed I was a believer. After all, I did go to Sunday school and believed what I was taught. But on that day I realized I just had a head full of Bible facts without any real relationship with the Lord. Sad to say, I turned down Mr. Olson’s invitation to put my trust in Christ that day. Three years later, when I was in 9th grade, a friend from high school began inviting me to teen activities at his church. I went—but mainly because of a young lady there! Long story short, I began attending with him. A couple months later, his pastor gave an invitation to accept Christ. I felt convicted, but returned home still mulling over everything I’d heard. At home, I went into my bedroom, closed the door, fell on the bed, and poured out a sinner’s prayer to the Lord. I asked His forgiveness and for Him to cleanse me. At the end of that prayer time, I heard no angelic choir nor heavenly trumpets, but I knew in my heart that God had accepted my prayer.
Writing came later. In my sophomore year of university I entered a short essay in the writing contest of a Christian magazine. I didn’t win, but the editor bought my manuscript. That sparked my interest in writing for publication.
JR: Would you like to tell us about your latest project, which I'm assuming is The Next Fithian? What's it like writing different genres such as the historical Gunner's Run and speculative tales such as The Methuselah Project and its sequel? RB: Years ago, when Focus on the Family still published Breakaway magazine for teen guys, I often wrote stories for it. The editor didn’t care whether I wrote historical, contemporary, spiritual warfare, sci-fi, or whatever, just so I wrote an engaging tale. So, even though those were short stories, Breakaway provided a fun training ground for writing in a variety of genres. In fact, the original seeds for The Next Fithian came from Breakaway. One day the editor telephoned me with an assignment—a “big concept” story. He didn’t know whether it should be sci-fi, or fantasy, or both mixed together just so long as the concept was big. I ended up writing a 3-part Christian sci-fi series called “The Next Fithian.” Years later, those 5,000 words became the springboard for my novel with the same title. In it, a Christian teen is aboard an airliner when it gets blown up. The real action begins when he gets transported to an alternate dimension.
JR: When I met you, you were the President of the Indiana Chapter of the ACFW. Are you still with that organization? What was it like being a chapter President? Would you recommend that organization for aspiring authors?
RB: I’m still in ACFW. I highly recommend this organization as a great way to meet and network with other writers and publishing professionals. As a chapter president, I had the fun privilege of inviting authors, editors, and literary agents to our chapter meetings to speak and raise our general level of understanding and professionalism. Also, being president may have given my literary submissions a little more clout when my cover letters included the fact that I was the president of the Indiana chapter in this national organization.
JR: Also when I met you, you were part of a mission organization, Baptist International Evangelistic Missions (BIEM). How has that impacted your life? RB: Working with BIEM has had a huge impact on me. As part of my duties I have traveled to Ukraine, Russia, Belarus, Turkey, the country of Georgia, and Kyrgyzstan. It has greatly improved my Russian-language skills, widened my horizons, and given me friends in far-off places. I’ve also been privileged to lead over 25 souls to the Lord in the former USSR. It also gave me an opportunity to tour through the Chernobyl exclusion zone, which provided inspiration for my novel The Methuselah Project: SOS.
JR: I would be interested in your thoughts on the current situation between Russia and Ukraine. Any ideas on how to pray for that region?
RB: I pray for the shooting, fighting, and destruction to stop. I pray for an end of the killing and for justice to be served on anyone involved in committing atrocities. But I also know that God is saving souls in the midst of these troubled times, and I also pray that many more souls would turn to Him for salvation.
JR: Thank you for your time, Rick. What's on the horizon? Will there be a follow-up to The Next Fithian? How can we keep in contact with you and your writing and other endeavors?
RB: This year my life has gone through a number of rapid changes. For the past 3.5 years I was the caregiver for my mother. After she passed, my life was filled with funeral plans, estate sales, the sale of her home and land, and also a move from Alabama back to Indiana for me. House-hunting became another time-consuming pursuit. In the midst of the chaos, I’ve managed to write some short devotionals that are now published, but I do hope to get back to my novel manuscripts very soon!
