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By Rosemary Pollock
Card's 'Sarah' Comes From Love of Subject, Not Money
SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH -- LDS Author, Orson Scott Card will hold
several book signings for his new book, Sarah: Women of Genesis.
"Women of Genesis is the first of three planned novels historically
depicting biblical women. Sarah, who was married to Abraham, is a
caring, complex,faithful and sometimes confused character that Card
said he created for himself and not just commercial success. She will
be the first in the biblical series followed by Rebekah (wife of
Isaac) and Rachel and Leah (wives of Jacob).
"My science-fiction audience isn't going to go 'Cool! A novel about
an old woman from the Bible!' Card spoke during an interview from
his North Carolina home. "I can't live on these out-of-genere books;
I do them out of love....I have to maintain my other writing [to pay
the bills]."
Card's writing career began while he was a student at BYU. "I think
of this as not something radical, but as going back to the roots of
my career," Card said. "I wrote plays ..I adapted scripture into
drama. Later I wrote for Living Scriptures in Ogden, and did hundreds
of audio plays adapting history and the New Testament. The only
difference is, with science fiction I have to make up the culture
that comes before the story."
"With Sarah, I could deal with deep ethical and moral dilemmas
without taking a position on things like, say transubstantiation. The
theology is very simple...The events take place before the divisions
that separate many world religions," Card said.
Card saw the Old Testament extraordinarily rich with fascinating
stories of women, while the voices of the characters may have come
easily the research for the book did not. "That was harder than with
many of the things I have done," he said. "I was trying to play it
absolutely straight, but we have only one source about these people,
the Bible."
In order to flesh out his characters Card turned to science.
Archaeology provided how people lived in the centuries before Jesus,
what they ate, wore and how they worked. "I'm a fiction writer, and
if I knew them, I would be bound by my obligation to them then," Card
said. "I'd really much rather go into the future and see how my
great-grandchildren turned out."
More information about Card's books is available at his website at
http://www.hatrack.com to find
out more about his upcoming books and movie projects. Some can be
downloaded free.
Source:
Genre-Hopping Card Creates 'Sarah' Out of Love, Not Money
Salt Lake Tribune 12Nov00 A2
By Melinda Miller: Salt Lake Tribune
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