“CALL ME OLSEN” by JASON WILLIAM KARPF

“CALL ME OLSEN” by JASON WILLIAM KARPF
Friday, December 20, 2024 by Patti Shene

FEATURED BOOK: Honor System

AUTHOR: Jason William Karpf

PUBLISHER: Elk Lake Publishing

GENRE: Christian Science Fiction

SERIES OR STAND ALONE: Stand Alone

TARGET AGE: Young adult to adult

IT IS MY PLEASURE TO WELCOME AUTHOR JASON KARPF TO THE OVER 50 WRITER. JASON SHARES ABOUT THE LATEST HONOR IN HIS WRITING CAREER.

“CALL ME OLSEN”

A 50-PLUS WRITER GETS TO BE A NEWBIE WHO’S BEEN AROUND THE BLOCK

Jason William Karpf

In the Superman canon of comics, TV shows, and films, Jimmy Olsen is the eager cub reporter at the Daily Planet, so deferential to Perry White that he calls him “chief” despite the editor’s gruff protests. At Elk Lake Publishing, Inc. (which has released four of my books and one novella), I call publisher Deb Haggerty “chief,” which would make me—

Wait a minute. My hair is off-white rather than Jimmy’s close-cropped red. I rarely say “jeepers,” and I don’t own any bow ties. Nevertheless, I’m still a newbie to Christian publishing (I’ll push back at “cub author.”) My first novel, Brimstone 1, came out in 2021. My relatively short tenure qualified me to be named an “Emerging Leader” at the 2024 PubU conference held by the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (ECPA), an honor made possible by a nomination from “Chief.”

I’ve learned you can emerge at any age. ECPA acknowledges recipients who have extensive experience in other industries, which for me means thirty years of marketing and PR, a decade-plus as an adjunct professor, and an early career as a screenwriter. My background has helped me enter the market as a Christian sci-fi author through promoting my books, staging events, and building my brand (activities that include this guest post.)

My experience has also expanded my publishing ministry in ways I didn’t anticipate when starting out. I serve as marketing director and acquisitions editor, speculative fiction, at Elk Lake. As is often the case when working for the Kingdom, I was asked to help and was happy to do so (just like playing bass on the church worship team.) I assist other authors who share the calling and have wonderful stories to tell. I shepherd new writers who combine their zeal for dragons, enchanted swords, rockets, and/or rayguns with love for Jesus. Recently, I was proud to sit on a book festival panel with two published authors who began their journey by submitting their manuscripts to me.

The point: you can be both highly seasoned and freshly minted as an over-50 writer. You have it all—the long road behind and the bright path ahead, the archive of hard knocks and collection of current accomplishments, the feeling of being the new kid on the block while having circled it many times before (a delightful paradox suitable for a sci-fi story.) As an ECPA Emerging Leader, I’ll be mentored by a senior executive from a major Christian publisher during 2025. I relish this season of growth and look forward to the lessons I can share with the tribe at Elk Lake.

So, if you run into Deb, my publisher, you can call her “chief.” You’ll get a laugh, not Perry White’s growl. As for yours truly, call me Olsen (but no bow ties for Christmas, please.)

BLURB FOR Honor System

In the late 2020s, HONOR System (Heuristic-Ontological-Neuromorphic-OpenMind-Reasoning) is the newest breakthrough in artificial intelligence software. But HONOR System can hallucinate like the mere humans it’s designed to replace, leading to miscalculation, destruction, and death. With their faith in Jesus greater than faith in tech, Christians battle this AI nightmare.

Presenting two stories of HONOR System amok in the American heartland:

Sinflowers—Dr. Macy Foster uses HONOR System to create sunflowers that absorb pollution, but the plants go out of control as they “extract the impurities of the land,” where sins lie buried, and lines between the miraculous and demonic blur.

Through a Glass, Darkly—Mackenzie Pruitt, a pastor’s wife, falls under the spell of a personal trainer conjured by HONOR System, the lifelike, obsessive avatar promising her a reshaped body and its worldly rewards. Can Mackenzie save her family from a virtual stalker who knows any secret, hacks any device, and breaks any commandment?

PATT’S REVIEW OF Honor System

These two stories are bound to thrill the sci-fi enthusiast while delving into the question of the implications of more and more artificial intelligence integration into our daily lives. It inspires the thought-provoking questions of how much influence AI can potentially have over the individual and the battle the Christian faces to remind the world that above all, God remains in control.

Jason William Karpf grew up with storytelling. The son of a screenwriter, he was a child actor guest starring on classic TV shows. Jason writes Christian sci-fi including the award-winning novel The Deliverer. He teaches for Christian universities and hosts the live study series “Christian Sci-Fi Night with Professor K.” A history and trivia aficionado, Jason was a four-time champion on the game show Jeopardy. He lives in Minnesota with his wife, Ann. They are parents of three grown children.