How to Weave Your Faith Into Your Creative Work w/ Author Aaron Ryan

Can you weave your faith into your creator work without compromising authenticity or turning your audience off? 

Whether you're a Christian author, musician, podcaster, or creative entrepreneur, you've probably struggled to figure out how to stay true to your faith while building mainstream success. In other words - being authentic without being heavy-handed or "preachy" with your message.

Author, voiceover artist and musician Aaron Ryan has experienced this first hand as he has written dozens of books in the sci-fi and other genres. At every turn, he's allowed his faith to be the primary factor in his creative decisions - which has created both opportunities and obstacles he's had to navigate. 

If you've ever wondered what a Christian writing career looks like in the mainstream book publishing industry, how to tell stories that challenge the imagination without compromising your beliefs, or tried to reconcile yourself to being in a different creative lane as a Christian - this is the interview you want to hear. 

Learn more about our guest here: 

Author Aaron Ryan - Website

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Transcript

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Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (00:00)
Have you ever felt like your faith and your creative work are pulling you in two different directions? Like fully committing to one might mean compromising the other? Are you worried that making your Christian beliefs evident in your work might repel your audience or even limit your success?

Well, if that's you, you're going to love our talk with Aaron Ryan, a voiceover artist and musician turned prolific author. He's written dozens of books, including sci-fi stories that weave faith, imagination, and purpose together in a powerful way. His journey is anything but linear. And it's one that will challenge the way that you think about productivity, pivoting, and staying true to your calling.

If you're new to our show, my name is Allen C. Paul. I'm the host and founder of God and Gigs, and this is where we help you to become the creator that you were created to be. And by the end of this episode, you're going to understand that you don't need perfect clarity to move forward. You just need to stay faithful to the lane that God is revealing to you, one step at a time.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (01:04)
Aaron Ryan, welcome to the God and Gigs Show. So, how are you my friend?

Author Aaron Ryan (01:08)
I'm doing well my friend. Thank you so much for having me. Good to see you again.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (01:12)
It's great to be seen, great to have you here on the show. And as I just mentioned in our intro, you have one of our most interesting mixes of careers and talents and gifts. So I'm really excited to dive into this and kind of get your perspective on all of it. But as you know, in this game, you have to kind of do the summary, even if they've read the bio, telling people what you are all about in the first couple of seconds. So I try to ask it like this so it's a little bit more palatable.

If someone's meeting you for the first time, Maybe it's in the coffee shop, grocery store, and you just want them to know a couple of things about you, the person, what would you want them to know about you upon first meeting?

Author Aaron Ryan (01:50)
Yeah, okay. All right. So challenge accepted. ⁓ So I'm a Christian. I ⁓ love the Lord. I am active in church. I ⁓ love my wife of just celebrated 14 years. ⁓ I'm madly in love with my 10 year old and six year old sons, Brendan and Asher, and ⁓ madly in love with authoring. I love being an author. I used to be madly in love with being a voiceover artist, but the industry has really changed and it's a storytelling career of sorts.

but I'm a storyteller at heart and there's no more raw, natural, know, base form than of telling, of being a storyteller than telling stories. So I love being an author ⁓ and it's a pursuit that just keeps driving me day by day.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (02:34)
Yeah, man. So before you went to the author side and the creative side. You talked about faith and family.

So I kind of want to ask you a little bit about that just in terms of your upbringing. Was there any connection in creative work in your family? Were there any authors, any musicians, anybody that kind of started to lead you down the path toward being a creator later on in life?

Author Aaron Ryan (02:55)
Yeah, I mean, the funny thing is coming to my mind right now. That's my mom when I was a kid, asked her to, know, kids love to draw and I love to draw spaceships and robots and you know, things like that. And so I asked my mom to draw a spaceship and she drew a metal rhinoceros in space. ⁓ And that's what she drew. So we joke about that to this day. And so the arts, I don't know where they entered me.

because my dad is not, I mean he's right brain in terms of being a silly goof and I love him to death. My mom is more analytical left brain, so know, opposite to track. I suppose it probably came through dad more than mom, but gosh, I think all the creative influences really came to me from the outside. Reading Lord of the Rings, when I was a kid I was just, it blew my mind. Absolute, like the world building is so immense.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (03:35)
Mm-hmm.

Author Aaron Ryan (03:50)
And ⁓ just being challenged to write a story in second grade, my teacher gave us all an assignment and ⁓ I held it in my hands when I was done. It was like a watershed, light bulb epiphany moment where I went, I made this, you know, look. And of course I'm an author. You I look back at that origin story and go, of course I'm an author because that so impacted me.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (04:13)
That is so cool that you had those moments. I love also the fact that you had a epiphany at such an early age. Now there's a difference of course of, I know I love this Picasso quote where every child is an artist. The danger is trying to stay one as you grow up. And so I wonder where was that first moment of, a minute.

I don't just want to do this for fun. I want to do this for real. Like, what was that? Like, was it college? Was it a professional situation where you were challenged and you said, you know what, actually this is worth pursuing. And what were some of the challenges that you might've seen upon that first moment that you want to step into it?

Author Aaron Ryan (04:49)
It's a great question. And the reason why it's such a great question is because I want to answer honestly, but I was so pulled in so many different creative directions that writing faded from view. ⁓ It took the form of, I shouldn't say it faded from view, it blended into every other creative pursuit. So I pursued music and you have to be a storyteller to create music and create the lyrics. I pursued ⁓ creative writing and blogging.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (05:09)
Okay.

Author Aaron Ryan (05:18)
⁓ and writing satirical ⁓ columns and things like that for our college ⁓ Christian group at our church. had like a college group had a ⁓ periodical that we would disperse in every Thursday. So I wrote in that. And I remember writing a novel in the early nineties. It just didn't represent the direction of my life at the time. I think because it was not a Christian novel and I was really opening up in my faith. I was growing a lot closer to God being discipled and

there were some elements in the book where I was like, I don't know if I want to do this. It felt maybe a little bit close to Stephen King. ⁓ and I wasn't prepared to be a horror writer at that age. So it bled into a lot of different creative pursuits, but I'd say that the moment where I really felt like I could do this, ⁓ was when I was in a young author's club and I was about nine, 10 years old. My, my mom interestingly found these articles that she had clipped from the Snoqualmie Valley record where we used to live.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (05:53)
Hmm

Author Aaron Ryan (06:18)
I forgot all about that. She showed me the the clips and there I am You know at nine ten years old sitting at a table hunched over pen and paper and I was like, ⁓ my gosh just totally brought me back time travel and ⁓ And I look at that also and say, you know, of course, an author. I was in a young authors club So

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (06:25)
Yes.

I mean,

This goes back to the family where your family was setting you up the right way, supporting you and giving you these like clues of, hey, this isn't just a dream. This isn't just something that that kids do. This is something that you can do professionally because you clearly showed aptitude at an early age. And then I love also the side where you said you had other interests. I the faith.

Author Aaron Ryan (06:45)
Yeah.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (07:04)
that you have just mentioned, and again, we don't have to sugarcoat it because it's part of who you are, clearly had an influence in terms of how you pursued your creative calling and your gifting, even if it wasn't writing right away. So I'm curious in terms of now having probably, I don't know, years and years and years and decades of actually trying to build worlds, share what your imagination is giving you.

What does that creative process look like in terms of your faith? Do feel that God gives you inspirations for books to write? Is it something that, you know what I mean? Like, cause this is the thing that I think all of us musicians everywhere, we have this, okay, where do the ideas come from? What should I actually go through? Am I praying every day? Lord, give me a new book, give me a new idea. Or is it from outside sources? So what does that creative process look like for you?

Author Aaron Ryan (07:34)
my gosh, yes.

Yeah.

Well, I love this question because my creative pursuits for so long were dedicated to music, right? I love to sing. I love to create music. I created, you know, at least 10 albums over the course of my musical career. And I did a swan song album in 2023 because I was essentially kissing music goodbye. It was like 30 years in music. I didn't feel called to it anymore. And frankly, I felt so much more drawn to the creative process of

songwriting, lyrics, and the theory of it, the musical structure of it, but not the performing. You know, I always felt just not comfortable in my own skin on stage performing. I was way too inspired by Michael Jackson as a kid and that would come out, And I'm like, that's just not me. That's me being, it's paying homage to Michael Jackson. That's not true to who I am. And I'm also, I don't have the body of Michael Jackson either. So I can't do any of those dance moves like he does.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (08:47)
⁓ Who can?

Now at that point I think it's fair to say you shouldn't hold that against yourself.

Author Aaron Ryan (08:54)
Right, well nobody has the body that he has now, so anyway. ⁓

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (08:58)
Or the moves I went down talk about the moves, but yes

Author Aaron Ryan (09:00)
Or the most. Yeah,

I just, I think I've always, I was so much more drawn to the creative process of just simply creating, not so much performing, right? ⁓ But it really, for the longest time, the vehicle was music. Then when it became authoring, man, I wrote, ⁓ I've published my 42nd and 43rd book, ⁓ and then 44th today, which is a Cliff Notes version of the ⁓ Talisman Saga.

But I just, love writing. I just love being able to write. My love language is giving. I love being able to put books out there and share them with people. But out of all of those books, could safely successfully say I've probably only been called by the Lord to write, well, four of them. One is a trilogy. So one and then another one. ⁓

Literally is that when I finished the dissonant saga I was very convicted because there is mild profanity in there I will never do an f-bomb. I will never take the Lord's name in vain vain GD JC I don't don't feel comfortable with that at all ⁓ a protagonist or a character will never say my God I will have them start it, but I won't I can't in good conscience finish that word. my god, G o- right? I Can't I can't do that

⁓ I was really convicted about even just marginal ⁓ profanity in there and even marginal, know, aliens are going to come eat you and they're barbaric and whatnot. So I literally felt God calling me after the dissonant saga was over. I literally felt it wasn't a James Earl Jones voice, but I literally felt him saying, now I want you to write clean Christian fiction. And I felt that call. I'm getting tingles as I'm talking about right now. I literally felt that call.

And so I was very inspired by the Left Behind series of the 90s. I really enjoyed that series. Mine is similar, but completely different. ⁓ Yeah, but it was a tribute to ⁓ my being called by the Lord. It is so full of redemption. It is so full of scripture. It's replete with scripture. Not a single profane word is uttered. And I looked back afterwards and went, I really can do this. You really can write with no profanity in your stories.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (11:22)
gosh, okay, so you definitely opened up such a area of concern for many of believing Christians who are in the mainstream arts and entertainment space, which is exactly who we're talking to. In terms of the content, does it reflect our faith entirely? And you write in science fiction, which of course, again, I love the fact that we can talk about imagination and creating worlds and different things and still imply or look at how does it impact.

Author Aaron Ryan (11:34)
Yeah.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (11:52)
or express our faith in a very real way, right? Because the worlds you're writing about, these characters you're creating, they don't exist. You said it, fiction. And so there might be this place where you say, well, this is a fictional character. This is existing, a world that doesn't exist. I'm writing about the future that may, most likely, never happen, right? So you're not actually trying to create realistic spaces. You're trying to create imaginative spaces where you can tell stories that, you so you still feel at that time that it's important that they reflect

Author Aaron Ryan (12:09)
Yeah.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (12:20)
your characteristics and your morals. Is that important? You know, does that ever come back out where you struggle with that in terms of like, can't develop a character without, you know, delving into certain areas where you feel that hits against your faith and doesn't really reflect the character that you want to do as an author, as a person.

Author Aaron Ryan (12:38)
Well, I think that the dilemma will always be there. If you've got a moral center, if you're grounded in Christ and you believe that you're supposed to write certain things, ⁓ I think that you're always going to wrestle with that. But this is precisely why we're in the field of creative writing. There's always a way around. Here's the obstacle. You you go around it and there's always a way around. There always, always, always is a workaround to it. So, you know, you can even say something as simple as, then he cursed, you know.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (12:43)
Okay.

Author Aaron Ryan (13:07)
And then you don't actually have to incorporate the words that may offend some people. and what I'm talking about is I'm offending Christians who, if I identify as a Christian writer, I'm gonna offend Christians. I don't mind offending the world with my Christianity. I love the phrase, Jesus didn't come to comfort the disturbed, he came to disturb the comfortable. So.

When I wrote The Ring of Truth, it was a children's book for my then eight-year-old Brennan. It wasn't overtly Christian. Now, neither is Dissonance. It was not overtly Christian, but there is a lot of faith. In fact, Dissonance gets negative reviews for, quote, too much religion in there. ⁓ I will take that dagger in my heart that you just left in your review. I'll take that, because that's after a fashion suffering for Christ. But when I wrote The Ring of Truth, it wasn't overtly Christian.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (13:45)
Interesting.

Author Aaron Ryan (13:57)
I followed it up with the Sword of Joy, which is even less so. And then I made those children's picture books a trilogy with the Book of Power. And that's obviously the Bible and it was overtly Christian. And so this is, called it, I wrapped it up into one and called it the Christian Kids Values Affirmation and Identity Series. And that's gonna offend the world.

But yeah, it's it's all about just being true to who you are and who Christ called you to be calls you to be And writing in that same spirit or creating in that same spirit, whatever it is just being true and authentic to the Lord It's it's a fine line to walk, but it's definitely possible

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (14:39)
So this is going encourage so many of our fellow writers inside the community. I'm thinking them right now who have said the same thing that you just said, which is I know I'm called to write in a certain thing, a certain way, and they don't trust themselves with that message because they feel like they won't be able to walk that line.

I'm sure you must've had some situations maybe as a voiceover artist where your boss is not doing Christian content, where your boss is saying this has to be written a certain way or has to have a certain thing and you have that wrestling match with faith and do I produce this work that I know it isn't Christian labeled and.

Author Aaron Ryan (15:14)
Yeah.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (15:14)
maybe would offend some people. you've had to navigate that as a musician, as an author. I'm curious again, going back to the voiceover side, have you ever had that same kind of struggle because you've had to be in spaces, I'm sure where you've had to work with people who didn't share your faith.

Author Aaron Ryan (15:27)
Well, the scripts are the scripts are the scripts. you are beholden to the script that you're given.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (15:29)
Yes.

Author Aaron Ryan (15:33)
as a voiceover artist so when i see those scripts come along and and you can't you can decline a script for anyone of a number of reasons largely i decline them if they're not paying market rates or if they are doing ⁓ text to speech because not a fan of the a i aspect in using my voice and putting it out there and saying whatever you want it to have not a fan of that at all ⁓ but also there are invariably some scripts that come along where they want you to

swearing, you know, if it has something like, damn, I'm not going to cop a fit about something like that, but you get into the more colorful, salacious words. And especially if they're taking the Lord's name in vain, I just, I'll scan through it and I don't want to do that. I don't feel like I'm called to voice that script and it's, it's not possible, but probable that that script is, won't change. They're inflexible at this point.

That is the script, and if I can't say it, I'm gone. I love the movie Aliens, 1986, my favorite movie of all time. The character Vasquez, who is the short Chicano woman with the red bandana and the massive gun.

the actress who was originally cast to play Vasquez found out that there was profanity in the script and she declined the role. She's a bodybuilder and she ended up declining the role because of that. I applaud that woman. I don't know who she is, but in good conscience, she could not take on that role because of the profanity. I just, more power to her.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (16:59)
Wow.

See, and again, I think this is the key of discernment of knowing what you're called to, what God calls you to. I talk about all the time in my ⁓ discussions with creators on Daniel and Isaiah and several other prophets that served foreign kings and in situations where they had to support a system that did not support God. And we as creators oftentimes are called to be that light in a dark place.

Author Aaron Ryan (17:24)
Yeah.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (17:35)
where you do have to say, okay, is this a place where I'm supposed to shine a light or is this a place where I'm supposed to protect the light? And we go back and forth and we just have to be prayerful. So I love the fact that you have seen it in both sides where you have decided in your sci-fi work and your authorship to create worlds that support your message and actually push and not push the wrong word, promote the gospel, right? And at the same time, you also know there are places where you have to be not liberal, but be discerning.

Author Aaron Ryan (17:41)
Yeah.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (18:04)
about being allowed in these certain rooms. So in the creative space, I'm sure you've had to be challenged in the way that you present yourself, even to other creators and in the business and industry, right?

Author Aaron Ryan (18:07)
Yeah.

Yeah, absolutely. And I mean, to your previous point, if Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego can do it, then so can I. If Daniel can do it, you know, in the fiery furnace and then Daniel can do it in the lion's den, so can I. And it's just, it's that, it's that where the rubber meets the road moment where you are do or die. And it's Cassie Bernal at, what was this, the first school shooting.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (18:22)
Yeah.

Author Aaron Ryan (18:43)
in 1995 Columbine, you know, and she said, do you believe in God? Yes, and they killed her. It's that Cassie Bernal moment. always like, I am very proud of my books having a centrist human heart that's full of hope and hope often equates to faith. There is a woman that I've deliberately transposed between books and thus created a bit of an Aaron verse.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (18:46)
yeah, Columbine, yes.

Author Aaron Ryan (19:12)
⁓ Her name is Pastor Rosie. She's Rosalita Campion and that's Spanish for champion and she first appears in Dissonance Volume 1 Reality. She is a pastor and she is very, very wise, you know, wisdom that just transcends this world, ⁓ clearly given to her in the same measure that Solomon had received his. And I loved her so much. just, love her maternal ways. She's a septuagenarian.

And so I moved her then into volume two and then volume three and then volume four and ⁓ zero and up of Dissonance. And I love the fact that this woman keeps popping up and she is the tie that binds, you know, she's the strand of hope and faith.

that ground all these stories. And I need that. For me, I need that plum line of hope and faith that's gonna exist when everything else disintegrates. So if you have something like that, if you've got a character like that that is just kind of the ⁓ grounding that you need in your story, it just gives it so much more depth. And Pastor Rosie has definitely been that for me.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (20:24)
Wow. So I love that you're talking about this particular character, but now you've named so many books in which she has appeared. I got to ask you about your creative routine because you have an incredible output. You just mentioned that your musical career didn't end until as we're recording a few years ago. And yet you're mentioned all these books. How in the world are you keeping up with that amount of output to create and to write so often and so, so prolifically?

Author Aaron Ryan (20:51)
my writing career is really propelled by urgency. So as a voiceover artist, I've seen the industry continue to erode. I've seen it starting to buckle under the weight of AI since the spring of 2023 with chat GPT and open AI's foray into the public zeitgeist.

You've got that. You've got the usual suspects of the economy, low-balling clients, underbidding colleagues. You also had the SAG-AFTRA strike in 2023. And all of those, that contributed to an erosion of the industry pay scale. You've got Fiverr, for example, people going on Fiverr. And while it's a great way to get some low-cost services,

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (21:26)
Bye.

Author Aaron Ryan (21:40)
As a voiceover artist, it's really hard to compete when I'm charging a market rate of $3,200 for a national TV commercial for one spot for a year and someone on Fiverr says they'll do it for $300. And then you've got the bargain basement clearinghouse price of 11 Labs and Respeacher and Speechelo for a one-time fee of $49 and you type in your prompt and what you want it to say and it'll do it now for $49.

So it's really eroding. So because that's been happening and that's paying our mortgage, I'm going, Lord, what do I do? I need to create or I will implode. ⁓ I need to create and I'm a storyteller. So I pivoted back to authoring and I did not intend, for example, Dissonance to be longer than say a trilogy, but it doubled in size and became a hexalogy before I even knew it. And I've been getting all these stories and ideas and I've been

dredging ⁓ up previously written material and know, packaging it like a book of poetry, a business guide, know, recycling it and applying it to authors. They just keep coming and I just.

You follow the breadcrumbs, you know, that's all you do.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (22:59)
Wow. And it sounds like, because you said you keep getting ideas, you're going back to old ideas. It sounds like, let's say if you sit down, how often would you say do you sit down to write when you have an idea? this a every morning thing? Is this like your favorite time to write? Do you lock yourself up in a certain room? Like, what's that space where you can kind of, because it sounds like these ideas are coming out of nowhere, but I just can't imagine you doing this while you're like cooking breakfast. I feel like it had to be like a place, but I might be wrong.

Author Aaron Ryan (23:25)
Yeah, yeah, pouring the coffee over here and typing over here, you ⁓ No, it's usually afternoon when I'm in the office because I do have to balance two careers that are very reactive. So you get, when inspiration strikes for an idea, ⁓ you have to follow that right away. Cause I have Pixar brain. I have a 10 and six year old, I have Pixar brain. That's all I know. And so when something else comes up, ⁓ you know,

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (23:29)
Yeah, exactly. That's what I'm envisioning.

Author Aaron Ryan (23:50)
record that idea and shoot it off to myself in an email or do a voice memo. ⁓ But I usually write in the afternoon after I've gotten all my auditions and jobs out of the way that pay for our mortgage. It's probably wise to do those first. ⁓ So I do all that and then in the afternoon I'll write. But after the kids go to bed, if I'm in a real writing streak, I will just write until early in the morning. Laptop, blanket.

recliner by the fire, coffee even late at night. ⁓ It really depends, you just kind of follow that. That's reactive. As a voiceover artist, it's reactive as well because a mortgage paying audition comes in, I could be doing something but I've got to go run into the studio and record that and then come back and edit it and send it. I got a job, I've got to run into the studio and record it and come back and send it. It's like a doctor with a pager, so.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (24:46)
Okay, well you dated our both of us with the pager because we both I knew what you were talking about. However, the fact that you're describing the rhythms of a creative lifestyle, that's honestly where I was getting at with that question and you just described it where it may seem in terms of like you said, reactive.

Author Aaron Ryan (24:48)
Yeah!

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (25:01)
but also see proactive in terms of, you know what you're getting into. You know what your day will look like. You know how to flow, when to switch off, when to switch back on, when to get into writing mode, when to kind of put on these different hats. And that's the part that when our listeners and our viewers to know that it isn't haphazard in terms of how you've managed to get such an output out that you are still connected to God, obviously, because he's giving you the strength and the ability to kind of flow the way that he made you. He made you, some of us,

Author Aaron Ryan (25:26)
Yeah.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (25:28)
argue with God about ADD or whatever you want to call it, Neurodivergence, whatever you want to say, but as creators, we can figure that out and flow in a certain direction that gets all the work done the way that works best for you and your family. So I wanted to make sure you share that because I love the fact that it doesn't have to look the same for every single creator. And I also want to pivot back a little bit to what you mentioned about the struggle with the AI situation.

Author Aaron Ryan (25:47)
Yeah.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (25:53)
A lot of productive people say AI is the answer to all of our problems and they're willing, even I have bent a little bit in terms of using it just for research. What's your view in terms of whether God as a ultimate creator is okay with the way that AI is going for creators like us, like you and I? Should we be only listening to the Holy Spirit and totally erase it from our laptops? ⁓

Author Aaron Ryan (26:02)
Mm-hmm.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (26:20)
You've had to battle with it as a voiceover artist. What's your view in terms of like your in your faith in terms of the way AI has impacted the world of creative work?

Author Aaron Ryan (26:29)
Yeah, it's such a polarizing and incendiary topic. I ⁓ and I often ⁓ am called upon in interviews to talk about this because it does factor. It's impacting both of my careers and I see them and I speak from experience. ⁓ So as a creator, first of all, the very word is right in there. It's a dead giveaway. It's artificial. It'll never be the genuine article. It never will. It cannot. ⁓ By definition, it is

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (26:42)
Yes.

Author Aaron Ryan (26:59)
synthetic and I appreciate the true and authentic and natural, you know, God given as a creator. There's nothing more honoring and beautiful and what a great rich privilege it is to mirror the creator he created. I get to do the very same thing. I mean, I, my wife and I made our sons, you know, we that's the huge like epitome of mirroring the huge gift that is creation, but

⁓ in storytelling, in artwork, in music, photographs and paintings and pottery and whatever your art is you're creating, you get to mirror the Creator What a rich privilege and a responsibility that is. So when it comes to AI, first of all, it's artificial. ⁓ Second of all, I love what you said and I think what's really important

to understand in this day and age is that artificial intelligence is an unregulated wild west. There's no ⁓ legislation right now that governs it. You're seeing the cheapening and the dumbing down of society. You're seeing the socio-economical effects. You're seeing the relationship effects. You're seeing the environmental cost. And you're seeing now things like Seedance generate a video in maybe an hour of Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (28:16)
Yep.

Author Aaron Ryan (28:23)
having a rooftop fight that looks 100 % believable, neither actor participated in it. And so now Seedance is getting sued because of using their likeness. You see Avengers ⁓ promos that are being created for the Doomsday movie that have nothing to do with the studio. No actor participated in those previews. They're convincing people and the duplicitous nature of AI is deceiving people. You're seeing reels pop up.

everywhere, TikTok, Instagram, everywhere. Like the one that I always cite is a tsunami bearing down on a coastal town. You see people, it's an overhead view, you see people walking along with their Gucci bag shopping, la la la la la, completely oblivious to simply looking to their left and this 300 foot tsunami inundates the town, destroys it, kills all those people. And you know it's AI, yet you still have people in the comments going, those poor people, you know.

And it's just like, my gosh, you really think that's real? As a creator, I will, I have also used, I think it was Grok to ⁓ do some idea generation. I don't have a problem with that. I don't have a problem with AI equipping someone who had their leg blown off in Desert Storm to have a new leg artificially and it enables them to walk again. That's so cool. But when it comes to creation and supplanting the natural God given gift that you've been given,

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (29:36)
Hmm.

Author Aaron Ryan (29:49)
and erasing or substituting true relationships and true creativity, big problem with that. You're renouncing something that you were given and outsourcing it to a chip. And I think that's really despicable.

This and this can never be replaced.

I heard an editor say this, if you're using AI, please stop. I cannot bring out your voice if it's not even there to begin with.

that's all I gotta say. I don't feel strongly about this issue at all.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (30:16)
I want to first say that for those listening, he pointed to his heart and his head when he said this and this and that is so you couldn't have said it better. And I gladly will let you step step on the soapbox because I and many other creators have faced this and I want to make sure that we stay on the positive side of this, where I believe there are things that AI can never replace. It cannot replace a soul. It cannot replace a spirit. Cannot be redeemed.

you literally are writing about a future and you're including faith, eternal things, faith, and love. These greatest things will love that will never pass away. So I love that you are writing from a sci-fi area and still including things that are eternal. I wanted to ask you a little about the sci-fi. I can't leave that out because I have always been a little bit of a sci-fi geek, not entirely a Trekkie, not entirely a Star Wars guy.

I love the idea of looking at the future as it could be and actually look again, taking our human-ness into it. This has to be a love that just, that this is, this genre speaks to you best, I guess, in expressing the way that you think about the way the world can be expressed.

Author Aaron Ryan (31:20)
Yeah, it's definitely at odds. Science has always been at odds with religion and creation and stuff. just always will be. ⁓ It's one of those things where people will take one and pit it against the other for purposes of argumentation.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (31:32)
Yeah.

Author Aaron Ryan (31:34)
⁓ Science fiction is, I've been a sci-fi enthusiast since I was a kid. love UFOs and aliens and creatures and monsters and the far-fetched scenarios and even something like my 9-11 historical fiction thriller, Forecast, there's no monsters or aliens in there. It's just simply a man who lives in 2001, struck by lightning, imbued with powers he doesn't know what to do with. He's able to completely avert 9-11 because he can see the future. He can see who's involved.

and he puts the pieces together and 9-11 never happens. And that for me was very cathartic to do that, to save all those lives. You cannot do that, you can't go back in time. But it was such a therapeutic process for me to do that and to be able to save all those lives. ⁓ There are such grounded themes of ⁓ existentialism in science fiction, like are we alone in the universe?

And get asked this question so often because I wrote an alien invasion saga and oh you're a Christian so you wrote an alien invasion saga but you're a Christian but you wrote an alien invasion saga but you're a Christian and it's like yes and yes you know they can go together so the next question invariably is do you believe aliens exist and I would like to believe that they do because the reason I say that is because I believe in a god who is

far more powerful than I could even begin to imagine. if God wanted to just create life on a single planet, in a single solar system, in a single universe, God bless God. I hey, that's his prerogative. He could do that. But I believe that he's also powerful enough to multitask and to be able to manage multi-worlds and multi-universes in the multiverse and the omniverse. And if he wanted to do that,

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (32:59)
Hmm.

Author Aaron Ryan (33:25)
He certainly can. Do I hope that the aliens out there are more like ET rather than the Gorgons in my story? Yes, I do. ⁓ But I also believe that we're in a fallen world and a fallen universe and ⁓ the devil isn't limited to this world. We're fighting against ⁓ the spiritual forces in the heavenly realms, which is not just Earth. So they're out there in other places. It is possible. I just, ⁓ I don't, I have a

P-sized man brain that can only handle so much it needs to be defragmented really there's another dating term defragmented ⁓ Regularly so it's just it's something I speculate on a lot and I just I love though when faith makes a foray in there and sneaks its way in because the science the science nerds and the science fiction nerds are like ⁓ wait a minute wait a minute ruffles their feathers, but it's supposed to facts

versus belief, hard data versus heart conviction. They're going to clash and they're supposed to and I love a story that has both.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (34:36)
Gosh, this is such a eye-opening area for those of us who have struggled with even let's go the opposite way, not the future. Those of us who struggle with the dinosaurs, old earth, new earth, right? The whole evolution, creation debate.

I love the idea that we look at books like Revelation and we cannot tell what these images and pictures that God is trying to show us even look like And it leaves it to the imagination.

And the idea that we somehow feel we're limited in that imagination because God wouldn't do it that way. Like, who are we to say how he would do it? So I don't know if there's redemption for aliens or not only if they exist in life on the planets, but the fact that he is capable of whatever it is and making it fit into the story.

Author Aaron Ryan (35:10)
Right.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (35:21)
gives us room to write stories like you've written. And the C.S. Lewis's and the J.R.R. tokens and all the people that imagine things that were fanciful but taught us more about ourselves because just like in Revelation, this is like the half has not been told. We cannot even imagine what we will see. So why not imagine it now and just let Lord deal with it the way he wants to deal with it, but tell a good story in the meantime.

Author Aaron Ryan (35:43)
Yeah, so I love the Hunger Games. I think the Hunger Games is one of the greatest series ever written and produced as movies. ⁓ One of the best quotes I've ever heard ⁓ in any story anywhere is President Snow saying to Seneca Crane, the original game maker, hope, it is the only thing stronger than fear. And I love weaving strong threads of hope throughout my stories because

In the context of science fiction versus faith or you know, but and or and or or whatever in the dissident saga. These are aliens that are have a telepathic paralytic They annihilate 85 % of mankind. They're called Gorgons Because like Medusa the Gorgon they can freeze you eat you at their leisure and you feel every bite You're sentient during that entire process.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (36:19)
Mm-hmm.

Author Aaron Ryan (36:37)
still a Christian, I promise. ⁓ But they kill off 85 % of humanity. Well, if that happens and you've had an apocalypse of that nature, you need some kind of panacea that's gonna pull you out of that. And what is the genesis of a panacea after a cataclysm like that? Hope. It's always hope. So you've been purged of hope for emerging through this crisis.

But we'll cling to whatever we can find that gives us hope and that little flicker of a candle in the middle of a hurricane, you know? ⁓ We'll zero in on that because that's how we were made, is to draw near to hope. So ⁓ Pastor Rosie epitomizes and gives strong messages of hope. ⁓ Little tiny victories give messages of hope. ⁓ We just watched A Quiet Place.

and a quiet place is has you know some similarities to to Dissonance but man i get crucified ⁓ in reviews for having too much religion in Dissonance but the very crux of religion is hope and faith which are very often interchangeable so it's like obviously i can't it's kind like the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing so here i am

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (37:56)
Yeah.

Author Aaron Ryan (37:57)
incorporating messages of faith and hope, they're not going to meet with everyone's approval. especially if it's overt Christianity in indissidence, people didn't go into Dissonance wanting that. So suppose I set myself up for a fall, but whatever.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (38:13)
No, but the fact is that the quality of the work eventually speaks for the message of the work. And so, so many people don't like the message, but they can't argue with the quality of it, right? And so, ⁓ they will get it whether they like it or not. And I love the fact that as you have continued to double down on this, I wanted to quickly ask you to give some encouragement to fellow writers, fellow authors, fellow creators who are facing that same kind of question, both the battle of.

How do I stay true to my faith while creating something that I feel God called me to create and the way that I want to do it, staying true and authentic to that. And of course the other battles that we all face in terms of marketing and AI and all the other things. So what would you say to an author right now who is facing those same kinds of battles and struggles to be authentic, to share and to stay relevant?

Author Aaron Ryan (39:01)
Yeah, well the easy answer, the bumper sticker answer that I would give ⁓ to people is pray your way through it. mean, ⁓ pray for discernment ⁓ is such an important thing to do and you used that word earlier, discernment is so important ⁓ and relying on the Lord and what you feel convicted to include or not include. ⁓ It's a really fine line. You have to toe that line very carefully if you want to say I'm a Christian author. And I don't overtly say I'm a Christian author. I do have Christian works for sure.

And it does, my Christianity is going to rear its head in so many of my works because that's core to who I am. So that leads to the next answer is be true to who you are. Be absolutely true to who you are. ⁓ You're going to fail and that's okay. ⁓ Be willing to fail your way to success is such a great message that I was once given. ⁓ It's really important to when you write a story,

or craft a work in whatever way. I love music that you're getting a message of Christianity and heart and hope and it's not a Christian band. Okay. Or it's ⁓ like, you know, think Creed back in the nineties was excoriated for this because it was like, no, is this a Christian band? Cause their lyrics smack of it. And

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (40:11)
Mm.

Yep.

Author Aaron Ryan (40:25)
There's creative ways, God made us creative. There's creative ways to say things without saying things. Not that we're shying away from the gospel, but you can put a new spin on it and take people for a journey and an adventure of discovery and at the end of it, they find Jesus. But through that whole journey of creative prowess and the artistry that you've weaved, through the end of that, they're going, God, this is so rich. This is so beautiful and how...

how awesome this is, and then they get to the end and go, my gosh, that's Jesus? Now I get it, you know, and it's just, that's our gift at work and at play out there in the world. So skillfully weave your story, do it with discernment and prayer. Don't shy away from the gospel, but find a way to do it in a way that hasn't been done before and that takes them on a journey.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (41:17)
Such great advice.

this was such a rich discussion between sci-fi and AI and music and being able to pivot when the industry kind of comes after you or pushes you in a certain direction. So this has been full of takeaways that I want to make sure people listen to over and over again, but they got to follow you in order to find more about your books, about your services, about everything you do. So we'll do the old school way. know they probably already clicked on the link.

Author Aaron Ryan (41:32)
Good.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (41:40)
but tell them how they can stay in touch with you if they'd like to learn more about what you're putting out.

Author Aaron Ryan (41:44)
you can send them to authorarronryan.com. ⁓ I want to be clear. It's not awfularronryan.com. It's author Aaron Ryan. Yeah, I actually on a whim at one point I did book, I did, I did buy the domain awfularronryan.com and made it forward just out of fluke. Yeah, why not? So authorarronryan.com has all the links to the other sites and the socials at the bottom.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (41:45)
Yes.

Very important, very important. Yes, we will make sure it's spelled exactly like that.

And by the way, yes, that is a little bit marketing in that too is kind of like the anti marketing.

Author Aaron Ryan (42:11)
And then I also refer people to authorarronryangroup.com, which is a private and exclusive Facebook group where you can find out news about my screenplays, my books that have been adapted for the screen and are being pitched or winning awards, ⁓ upcoming appearances, news, new releases, discount codes, giveaways. And then if you're an author, there's also, ⁓ I do regular YouTube videos on how to be a better author and avoid the scammers and creative marketing, blah, blah.

I posted those in there as well so you'll get those too.

Allen C. Paul - God And Gigs (42:44)
Well, we're gonna make sure our community and our listeners are all pointed in the right direction I'm gonna make sure to post this inside our app because we have fellow Christian writers who I know are gonna gravitate to you right away because they have voiced the exact same struggles being able to Balance all the things keep all the things of the balls juggling in their life and the faith and still keep writing So you are absolutely a mentor that they would love to be connected with but this has been a great talk Aaron I hope this is not the last time that we'll discuss

art, creativity. But for now, this has been the great first step. So thank you for being a part of the God in the Gig show and joining us today.

Author Aaron Ryan (43:16)
⁓

my pleasure, man. Thank you so much for having me on, brother. I appreciate it.