BREAKNECK: We'd ask you Print-On-Demand questions, but the book answers anything we could come up with.

ROBINSON: Thank you!

BREAKNECK: De nada. Later this year, Breakneck will be releasing your second novel, Raising The Past. How is this book different from The Didymus Contingency?

ROBINSON: Raising the Past was the second novel I wrote, after The Didymus Contingency. Some authors really enjoy writing the same characters over and over--Dirk Pitt, Shane Schofield, Jack Ryan. I'm not one of them. The result is that Raising the Past is as different from Didymus as any novel could be. It's set in the modern Arctic. It involves a historical conspiracy featuring strange creatures, futuristic technology and more run for your life scenarios than you can shake a stick at. Where Didymus had a moral lesson involving Jesus, this is pure adrenaline.

BREAKNECK: You mentioned Jesus. Didymus was a Christian novel, correct? Why is Raising The Past not?

ROBINSON: Didymus is in fact a Christian novel, but by no means an ordinary CBA approved Christian novel. I wanted to write a mainstream novel featuring Jesus in a positive light. It's so hip now to knock down Christianity in an action novel. I wanted to do something different. RTP is not Christian simply because I enjoy writing, and reading, both kinds of stories. Not writing strictly Christian novels doesn't make me any less Christian, it simply means I enjoy a good action novel as much as anyone else.

BREAKNECK: But in your non-Christian novel you use curses and the violence is...well, kind of gory.

ROBINSON: Trying to get me in trouble, eh? Didymus was by no means a censored story. The was some light cursing in that book as well. My take on that is simply that real people curse, among all sorts of other nasty habits. To write a character like Tom, an atheist with no moral laws governing his actions and not have his curse would have been totally unrealistic. Real people, even Christians, are often offensive, rude, obscene, perverted, etc. To write otherwise is unrealistic and as a reader, often takes me out of the story. For RTP, we're following a group of people with very little religious beliefs in the most stressful situation imaginable. The are few Christians I know who could refrain from letting a few expletives fly. I have refrained from dropping the F-bomb though. As for the violence...it's an action/thriller...what do you expect...tickle fights?

BREAKNECK: Maybe pillow fights? Do you think Raising The Past will appeal to your Christian audience?

ROBINSON: If they like mainstream thrillers there is no reason they shouldn't like Raising The Past. The fact that I'm a Christian doesn't bind me to some contract saying I can only produce Christian fiction. Of course, there are a few morally redeeming elements to the story. If there wasn't, I probably couldn't get excited about the story.

BREAKNECK: Do you plan to write more Christian fiction?

ROBINSON: I write about 50/50. Out of my four completed novels, two are technically Christian and two are not. I plan to continue doing this indefinitely.

BREAKNECK: What do you mean, "technically Christian"?

ROBINSON: Well, Didymus was clearly Christian as it involved Christ, but my other Christian stories, one completed and the other on the way, are more Biblical speculation. I take elements from the Bible, mostly old testament topics, and bring them to the forefront in the modern world. It's a lot like what Cussler does with bringing history to modern days through the NUMA novels, except that the history in this case, is Biblical. These stories are told as traditional thrillers, language, violence, etc hasn't been watered down...you know, like the old testament. Few action novels today get close to the scope, violence level and strange twists the OT presents. I also don't try to discredit the Bible's authenticity or the Christian belief system in my stories, which has become a fad in fiction today. It's a kind of Thriller people have never read before and if Didymus is any indication, the public is ready for something different.

BREAKNECK: Thanks for chatting. Any parting words for fans?

ROBINSON: Thanks for buying the books! I'll keep pumping them out as long as you keep reading them. Live long and prosper. Nanu nanu.