A science-fiction book with a religious slant would never fly.

At least that's what a host of publishers told Bermudian writer Kirk Outerbridge.

But Mr. Outerbridge's religious faith kept him knocking on doors, and finally his prayers were answered.

And this month his first novel, 'Eternity Falls' was released by niche publisher Marcher Lord Press, a small American publishing house that releases books in an emerging genre called Christian speculative fiction.

"It is a very small niche, but there is some interest in it," said Mr. Outerbridge. "Christian speculative fiction is considered any kind of story that is told from a Christian world view.

"It can be very overt, or sometimes it can be an allegory."

He said some well-known Christian speculative fiction writers would be C.S. Lewis, author of the Narnia Chronicles, or J.R.R. Tolkien, author of 'The Hobbit' and the 'Lord of the Rings', although they probably would not have referred to their work that way.

"'Eternity Falls' is a futuristic story," said Mr. Outerbridge. "Mankind has developed a miracle treatment to stop people dying. One of the earliest users of the treatment dies.

"There is a huge outcry from society. Government hires a special investigator to find out what has happened. One clue they find is a Christian Bible at the scene. They are hoping to pin it to some kind of religious sabotage. Failing that, it means the treatment doesn't work and could cost them millions of dollars.

"People who enjoy sci-fiction and action adventure will probably enjoy this also," he said.

Mr. Outerbridge is the plant manager at the Tynes Bay facility and has worked for Government for ten years.

"I first started writing seriously 13 years ago," he said. "I took it up as a hobby in college. I wrote a trilogy. That never got published, but it gave me a lot of groundwork in how to write.

"In 2002, I came back to Christ, and it redirected my life." He decided to try to use his writing in 'God's service'.

"I started writing this book in 2002," he said. "Then it took two years of writing. But then trying to get it published took some time."

Because of the religious slant, he met with a lot of rejection from publishers. "I feel blessed that I finally found Marcher Lord Press and they thought my work was good enough to publish," he said. "If anyone is looking to write a book, you really have to do it because you love it, not to get rich. Getting rich might happen to some people, but not to everyone. To me it is still very much a hobby."

Marcher Lord Press uses print-on-demand technology, to keep costs down. Mr. Outerbridge said it allows them to take more risks.

"It gives people like me a chance to fulfill a dream to publish a novel," he said.

Mr. Outerbridge will be doing a booksigning at Brown & Co, on Reid Street, on November 17 from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m.

"Right now it is mainly available on-line, but if it catches on it might make it into large bookstores in the United States," he said. "It has only just been out so we will see how sales do."

For more information, go to www.kirkouterbridge.com