Inspired to create a fantasy variant of Star Wars with a biblical worldview, Joanna White started writing on the serialized fiction platform Wattpad. Now a series of books being published by Ambassador International, the Valiant series is for readers hoping to teleport into exciting worlds and newly created realms. In this interview, Joanna explains the origins of the series, the challenges of writing fantasy that’s grounded in a biblical worldview, and how the books are connected…
Joanna, please tell us about the world(s) you’ve created for the Valiant series.
At the time, I didn’t really know what world I was creating. I made each book stand-alone at first, that way I had the freedom to write what I felt inspired to. This allowed me to create so many diverse worlds. In the end, with the last few Valiant books, I put all the worlds together and made a galaxy. I created 40 extra worlds to make it seem like an actual galaxy, and then added 40 more.
What are the challenges of writing fantasy fiction that’s grounded in a biblical worldview?
For me, it was figuring out how much I could tweak the Bible stories I paralleled the books with. I wasn’t sure if it was okay to take a Bible story and tweak it with fantasy aspects.
How are the novels in the Valiant series connected?
Each book is a world that is being taken over by darkness. The Dark Master is Corrupting the galaxy. So these worlds may seem random but each world is inhabited by one of the Chosen, who are meant to help stop the spread of Corruption.
What inspired you to write these books?
At first, I would say Star Wars. I wanted to write an epic franchise like it, only fantasy not Sci-Fi. It wasn’t until I was working on the final two books in the series that my husband and I realized the entire series paralleled with the Bible and we didn’t do it that way. That was the moment I realized God had inspired me for it and had written the series through me.
How does your faith impact how you approach storytelling?
It means I write clean stories without cuss words, no explicit scenes, and basically write clean books. I want to be able to give people worlds to delve into, plotlines to experience, characters to love and all the while knowing nothing bad is going to be in the book. That is so hard to find these days. I want the books to inspire and encourage them.
In the case of the Valiant Series, one of the overall themes is twofold: that God brings good out of bad. No matter how bad it gets, there is always a purpose. And two, if you seek His forgiveness, it’s yours. No one is too far gone.
Visit Joanna White’s author page:
https://www.familyfiction.com/authors/joanna-white/
Hunter
Valiant #1
Joanna White
Ambassador International
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Shifter
Valiant #2
Joanna White
Ambassador International
Buy the book from our store!