Exploring God and the Universe with Mark Wainwright

BookWorthy Chats with Mark Wainwright about his non-fiction book with Answers in Genesis called Amazing Facts about Space.

Join in the Middle Grade Madness over on YouTube as we get closer to choosing the number one middle grade novel. You can help decide and possibly win a whole host of prizes. Find out more on YouTube

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Valerie - Welcome to Bookworthy, where we talk about the heart behind the books the kids are reading. Today, we're talking with author and editor Mark Wainwright, who has over 18 years of experience in Christian publishing. Mark is known for weaving believable characters into epic adventures and is passionate about using his skills in writing and editing for the glory of God. His most recent book, Awesome Facts About Space, is a full-color nonfiction book for kids published with Answers in Genesis. This book explores the beautiful and bizarre objects of space, along with rockets, astronauts, and light speed. And you'll even learn a little bit about aliens. Are they real or are they a myth? And then also your place in this wide, wonderful universe. Let's blast off and welcome to Bookworthy Mark.

Mark - Thanks, Valerie, thanks for the chance to share some awesome facts with your book-worthy listeners. I know we're gonna have a lot of fun.

Valerie - I'm excited. It's one of those: you're taking two of my favorite subjects —God and science —and putting them together. And I know we're gonna have a great conversation. But to get us started, we gotta start with our random question of the week. When looking into your history, I found out that you have traveled to over 30 countries. So, I need to know what is your favorite travel snack?

Mark - My favorite travel snack. Well, when you head overseas, there is a lot of interesting food out there, but I would say probably a jar of peanut butter. I take a jar of peanut butter when I travel because you never know what's gonna be out there or what's available. So you can always find a piece of bread, put that peanut butter to get that protein, and you'll have the energy to have fun and excitement overseas. I love traveling because it allows us to meet people to experience new places, and it's so much fun.

Valerie - Peanut butter is kind of our go-to snack. My kids will always be like, Mom, I'm hungry. I'm like, get a peanut butter spoon and just get a little protein. We'll move on to our next thing. There's no time to always put it on bread, or sometimes I just try to get them to bed. Too fun. Well, Mark, why don't you tell us a little bit about your book, Awesome Facts About Space?

Mark - Yeah, well, Awesome Facts About Space. It is certainly awesome; it is a nonfiction book for kids, as you mentioned. Now the book is filled with lots of awe-inspiring facts and photos, and illustrations. I divided the book into five sections. So chapter one is The Splendorous Space. It's about general facts about Earth's atmosphere, meteors, telescopes, and animals in space. And then chapter two gets into the excitement of exploration. So space shuttles, we all like rockets and the space station, astronauts, and the Apollo mission. So there are a lot of fun things there. Chapter three is about a terrific tag team. So how the sun and the moon interact with each other, the distances, temperatures, and extreme temperatures. And so lots of things related to that. How much would you weigh on the moon? And then chapter four is our spectacular solar system. So starting at Earth, moving out further, our spectacular solar system discusses the eight planets, the speed of light distances again. And then chapter five wraps up with the weird, the wild, and the wacky. So stars and galaxies, other incredible things in outer space. By the time kids finish the book, I hope that they've learned a lot about space, but even more than that, I hope they've learned about our incredible creator god.

Valerie - I love this book because again, you're merging two of my favorite subjects, both science and God, and you've done an amazing job of keeping it very engaging where a child, no matter their age, just, they could read from front to back or they could just kind of let it fall open and be totally immersed in these amazing images and these amazing facts. What was one of the most interesting facts that you had to research for this book?

Mark - Wow, well, there were a lot of facts out there. Man, I think one of my favorite facts is about pulsars. So a pulsar is a city-sized star, a pretty small star, but these pulsars spin very, very fast. Now in the decades and decades ago, there were these astronomers, recognized these pulses of energy coming from outer space, and they thought maybe these were aliens trying to contact us. They weren't, of course. These pulsars were giving off this radiation, and these pulsars spin incredibly fast. In fact, let's see, I forget the number of times that they spin, but they spin, here we go, up to, how fast do they spin? Up to 700 times per second, per second. That is spinning super, super, super fast. So that is an amazing fact.

Valerie - That is amazing to think something can go that fast. Even just thinking the space and the physics of it is like that just is beyond our imaginations in so many senses. Science has that.

Mark - It is mind-boggling, mind-boggling to think that God made all this. Think of, there's the verse in Genesis 1.16. That verse says it talks about creation, and then it says he made the stars also. Kind of as an afterthought, I made the stars as well. Just kind of know, and they're ginormous, huge, huge stars. The power of our creator God.

Valerie - Kids have so many different inputs coming in from school and the science that they're being exposed to. And I know that with my kids, they come with this, you know, does God really exist? How big is God? And I'm like, well, I mean, look at our universe. God is bigger than that. And, you know, but we're still valued and important to the Lord and Creator of millions and millions of stars and millions of miles of distances.

Mark - Absolutely. In fact, can I share a quick story with you? As I was reading the content for this book, I was at a local library, working hard, researching all these facts, and then I had to get home. So I was driving home. It was late at night, and I stopped at a stoplight, and I was just waiting there for the light to turn green. I looked up at the moon. There are the stars, and I know they're just a little dot in the sky, but they're really huge, huge. And I just became overwhelmed. God, who created these enormous stars, still loves little old me. He loves little old me. How amazing is that? That God, for God so loved the world, he loves people, and I'm so grateful for his salvation he offers us.

Valerie - And I love what you've done in this book. And even what Answers in Genesis is doing a lot with a lot of their books is bringing faith and science into the same space. You know, for years, they've been kind of like mortal enemies in one sense. It's like, no, science and faith go hand in hand, and one supports the other. And I love how you have brought elements of faith throughout this book and how astronauts read scripture on them, you in the space stations, and that kind of thing. What was it like to kind of explore the faith side of space?

Mark - Yeah, well, it's amazing. I have a spread in here of astronomers who believed in the Bible. And sometimes you don't hear about these, these great Christian astronomers, first of all, a Christian, but then also as an astronomer, and understanding that God created the universe, and in all things helps us to understand the physical world around us. And I love that they quoted scripture, and they had these great quotes about God and their faith and how it was important to them. And then, as I'm writing as a writer, I'm not an astronomer by training, but I can learn, and that's one thing that I love about writing: I can learn, and I can research, and I teach a college course about creative nonfiction. So how do we convey true-to-life information in a fun and creative way that kids or adults or maybe both will enjoy and be captivated by, so it doesn't have to be dry science? It can be fun and exciting. And that was my goal in this book.

Valerie - And you did a great job of that, to where you're giving enough information so that kids who do have that curiosity, like, okay, how fast was a pulsar really going? To dig a little deeper, to be able to go to other resources, and to be like, you know what, I want to know more about Buzz Aldrin. I want to know more about Isaac Newton. What did he have faith in? I've never heard that before. And you know, just kind of allows kids that open curiosity to where they can just explore more, not just about science and the world they live in, but also about God and how much he does to show us how much he loves us, in his word, as well as in science and space as well.

Mark - Yes, absolutely, absolutely. I love that science, creation draws us to our savior. That's what's so amazing.

Valerie - That was so much fun. Now, what were some of the facts that didn't make it into your book?

Mark - Well, there were a bunch of facts that didn't make it in. They were still interesting. For instance, here's one. The tallest volcano on Mars is nearly two and a half times the height of Mount Everest. Now, Mount Everest is a tall mountain, but a volcano on Mars is two and a half times that height. And here's another one. Venus, the planet Venus, rotates so slowly on its axis that a day on the planet, a day, is longer than a whole year. Now, a year is when that planet to rotate around the sun. But because the planet Venus rotates on its axis so slowly, a day is longer than a year. That's mind-boggling there.

Valerie - Wow, that's hard to put into my brain. And doesn't Venus spin opposite of everything else? I think maybe.

Mark - Yeah, I can't remember that one. There are a bunch of planets, and some actually do something, and they're just it's amazing. You look at these gas planets and all the different chemicals and things in there, and of course, we are Scientists who do our best to understand the planets, but there's so much that we have yet to understand

Valerie - I love that, you know, we keep looking at space and wanting to explore more and more and more. There's even stuff in our own ocean we have yet to explore. And so it's just amazing to think of just the expanse of both creation and creativity that God had in our world. And that's what you're showing so well in this book, is just creating this excitement and energy for kids to want to explore both their faith and science. Which is so fun. This isn't your one question. This might get a little dicey here. Is Pluto a planet?

Mark - Is Pluto a planet? I feel so bad for Pluto. He was a planet, but he's been demoted. He is what is now considered a dwarf planet. And there are other dwarf planets out there, but I grew up thinking and being taught that Pluto was a planet. So I felt when they made this announcement that it is actually a dwarf planet, and there are others as well, as I mentioned, but I felt so sad for Pluto.

Valerie - I did too. I grew up with nine planets instead of eight and was like, Pluto. I feel like that last cousin, they're like, where did he go? But it's neat how we can reclassify and as we gain more information, know, and see the differences between dwarf planets and planets. And, you know, there's so much more for our scientists to explore, too, that I'm sure they're going to change the wording on 20 other things we grew up with, too.

Mark - I know, and in fact, the moons of Jupiter, Jupiter has a large number of moons. And as I was gathering all these facts and finding qualified sources for my research, I found the number of moons of Jupiter. And then by the time I came back and I double-checked all my facts between that process before publication, which was a little while, they discovered a couple more moons on there. So I had to update my facts on there and check little things regarding NASA and their rovers and helicopters, updating all those facts to make them as current as possible.

Valerie - Science is always changing, Hard to stay fluent. But now, when did your writing journey begin, Mark?

Mark - My writing journey. Well, I would say that my writing journey in terms of my writing, it really took off when I was going into 10th grade, 10th grade. During 10th grade, my family decided, my mom and dad would be missionaries in Papua New Guinea. So here we were heading overseas, and a friend of mine, before we left, gave me a little present. He gave me a journal. So a journal is a book with just lines of blank pages. So, I thought, well, what am I supposed to do with this? I'm not a writer, but he gave it to me. So I thought, well, you know what? I'm heading out. Let me just start. Might as well start the day we leave for Papua New Guinea. So I wrote one page on that very first day. And then the next day, I wrote one more page, and I wrote for the entire three years I was in Papua New Guinea. And just that process of writing just one page every day gave me a love for writing, and I could express a bunch of ideas and the funny things that happen between me and my friends, and we're hiking out into the jungle. That process, I think, is what captured my imagination, made me want to learn more about the writing craft.

Valerie - Very neat. Now, in your writing journey, you've done a lot of editing and a lot of work. What made you, and you also have a middle-grade book. Now, what made you want to do more of a nonfiction story for kids?

Mark - Yeah, sometimes people ask me, Which do you like more? Do you like nonfiction? Do you like fiction? That's so, I can't answer that. That's like making me choose between my son, Tyler, and my daughter, Megan. Never, never. I love them both. And I always ask the Lord to guide my heart and mind as I write and to present also the opportunities. So this opportunity to write this nonfiction book for Answers in Genesis came up, and I prayed about it, and I really felt that this was something that I could pour my heart into. And so I certainly went ahead with that. But whether it's fiction or nonfiction, I asked the Lord the Holy Spirit to guide my heart and my mind in terms of the content I write, in terms of the vocabulary I use. And I always ask the Lord to bless my words, to guide my words as I write to children or adults or young adults, whatever that audience those readers may be.

Valerie - I love that God is such a big part of your process and that you're being obedient to his call, whether that's fiction or nonfiction, because yeah, they take two different sides of your brain, but they're both very engaging and fun and hard to choose a favorite for sure.

Mark - And I would also say that writing fiction strengthens my nonfiction, and the process of writing nonfiction, understanding facts, and how to make it engaging, actually helps my fiction as well. And so I love that I can write both and improve. I continually work on improving my writing skills. And of course, like you mentioned, Valerie, editing, revision, it's one thing to write. But as I tell my students, you've got to revise and edit, and then after that edit and edit and edit again. That's so important in the writing process.

Valerie - I think I've heard it said that writing is just 10 % and editing is 90 % of the other work that you'll do. And my son likes to create stories also. And he just comes at me with all these ideas. Like, hey, 10 % is writing it down, buddy. He just got to write it down. He struggles to take the time to sit down and write it down. But we'll see what God wants to do with him there. Now, Mark, what is your favorite book other than the Bible?

Mark - My favorite book, wow. That's like making me choose between my kids as well. There are so many, well, let me tell you this. When I was in high school, I read. I was overseas, as I mentioned, and there weren't a lot of books over there, but they had some. There was a set,

The Winds of War and War and Remembrance. These were some big books. They were like 900-page books, and I read them through, but I was amazed at how these were fictional, how they grabbed my interest, my emotions. There were these characters that I cared about enormously. And how, how through just the printed word, these letters and these sentences and these paragraphs were able to grab my emotions. And don't tell anyone, Valerie, but I cried in certain parts of it because it was so moving, this huge drama of all these characters. Isn't that amazing how writing can do that? And I thought, Wow, that is amazing. I would love to be able to communicate like that. And there are, of course, many, many fantastic writers and books out there, but I love that books can draw us to the Lord Jesus. There are many, unfortunately, many books that do not do that,

but I want to provide books that will point people to the Savior.

Valerie - I love that. It's one of those if, you know, as a writer, I'm sometimes getting choked up when I'm writing, and like, well, if I'm feeling the emotion, I sure hope the reader is feeling that. And it's one of those, like there with my boys, any book that has a dog in it is not allowed because usually something does not go well with the dog, and we're big dog lovers in our house. So I'm like, there are so many good books. They're like, Nope, it's got a dog in it. We're not reading it. I'm like, fine. Cause we know that emotion is going to be there. And they're going to take you to the good emotions as well as the hard emotions. And that's the beauty of storytelling and why God uses storytelling to speak to our own hearts as well.

Mark - Absolutely, yeah, yeah, I write for and trying to convey these truths, of course, in a non-preachy way, a way that's engaging and fun and interactive where where kids or adults will understand themes intuitively, naturally. That's certainly important. But yeah, I just love the way that words are given to us, and we can present truth through those words.

Valerie- It is a beautiful responsibility, for certain. Now, Mark, what can we expect next from you?

Mark - Well, I'm always writing. I'm writing a lot. Working on a young adult novel, and it's done, but I'm always tweaking it, editing this, changing this, reviewing it. Part of a critique group, so getting that feedback from other qualified writers and adding in things, a revision of course, working on a children's middle-grade mystery series. And so that's fun as well. But also, those are fiction. Love the nonfiction as well. A devotional type of writing is fun. Again, bringing in fictional, fun, interesting, fascinating techniques within that nonfiction.

Valerie - That sounds like a lot of fun, and I look forward to seeing more of those books when they come out. Now, where can people find out more about you and your book, Mark?

Mark - Yeah, the best place to find out about me, my books, and my other resources is my website. That is www.mark-wainwright.com.

Valerie - We'll make sure to have that link in our show notes so people can find you easily. Thank you so much for joining me today, Mark.

Mark - Thank you, Valerie. This was a lot of fun.

Valerie - It was so much fun. I enjoyed it. And thank you for joining Mark and me on this episode of the Bookworthy Podcast. Let us know in the comments what your must-have travel snack is.

And be sure to join in the Middle Grade Madness over on YouTube as we get closer to choosing the number one middle grade novel. You can help decide and possibly win a whole host of prizes. Find out more on the show notes or on Instagram at Bookworthy underscore podcast.

Happy reading.