User:Stephanie A Kriel/Cristina Engela

Christina Engela, a South African novelist, short story writer, human rights activist and blogger.

Early Life
Christina Engela was born on 1 February 1973. She grew up in Port Elizabeth, South Africa.

Books
Christina Engela's novels first appeared in 2005 on Lulu.com, a self-publishing website. She is the author of the Galaxii Series of science fiction/fantasy novels, which consisted of the titles Blachart, Demonspawn, Dead Beckoning, Space Sux, Black Sunrise, The Time Saving Agency, Dead Man's Hammer and Loderunner. [citation needed] In August 2014 she signed a contract for all eight titles in the series with J.Ellington Ashton Press (JEA) a publisher in the United States of America, whereupon she removed all 8 titles in the series from Lulu. The first title in the series, Blachart,

[4] was re-released on 29 October 2014 under JEA's Hardwired label.

Blachart was followed by the second title, Demonspawn [5], released by JEA on 20 April 2015. The subsequent titles

are due to be re-released via JEA in the near future, being in various states of edit and design with the publisher.

[citation needed]

Her first novel was Blachart, a sci-fi novel set in a future where Earth is at the center of an interstellar empire,

where the fledgling power faces the threat of incursions from space pirates. Demonspawn is a sci-fi horror story,

which tells the tale of a space ship crew stranded in deep space and having to compete for survival with an alien

device which stalks them on a derelict ship they encounter.

Short Fiction
Homecoming, her first attempt at vampire fiction, won the E-book Diva contest in 2010. The story was subsequently

published in Autumn Burning in 2014.

She has published short stories in the genre of science fiction in two anthologies, including "Autumn Burning"

(J.Ellington Ashton Press 2014) and "Inanna Rising" (J.Ellington Ashton Press 2015), with others pending in several yet to be released anthologies by the same publisher for 2015.

Articles
Christina wrote numerous activism articles during 2008-2013 on the topic of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and

intersex human rights. Over 400 of these are visible on her blog "Sour Grapes: The Fruit of Ignorance" [4]. Many of

these have been referenced and circulated on the internet [SGB, TWO]. She wrote columns for Litnet [3] and Penton

Alternative Magazine [4].

Despite having repeatedly asserted that she is not hateful towards Christianity [1][2], she has been heavily

criticized in the past by detractors using the religion as a vehicle to undermine human rights on topics such as LGBT

rights and freedom of religion.

Poetry
A poem written by Christina Engela appears in the 2014 poetry anthology Words of Wisdom commissioned by the South

African Department of Education.[citation needed] This book does not appear to have an ISBN number.

Academic
During 2013 Christina Engela worked on Satanism: The Acid Test [1], a document addressing religious freedom and the

phenomenon of Satanic Ritual Abuse (SRA) hysteria. She did so as the chief researcher for the Alternative Religions

Forum (ARF)[2], an alternative culture rights group based in South Africa. The document when completed was over 500

pages long, and contained detailed informational sections on subcultures and occult religious groups who experience

prejudice and persecution from the internal perspectives of these groups themselves. Groups covered in this document

include Paganism, Satanism and the Vampire subculture. [3]

Additional to the large volume of material which was compiled by Christina Engela into this document, she obtained the certification and support of numerous human rights and community based organizations and academics on the project as a whole [4] as well as for whichever individual section covered their particular community.

Satanism: The Acid Test was completed in June 2013, uploaded to the ARF website as a free download [3], on

Academia.edu[4] and also distributed globally via email.

An expanded version over 700 pages long and including new sections covering the Goth and Emo subcultures is

reportedly being considered for publication by an American occult publisher for 2016. [citation needed]

Activism
She became involved in human rights advocacy in 2008, co-founding the South African LGBTI activist group SA GLAAD

(South African Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation [1]. The catalyst for this sudden involvement was the

article "Call me names, but gay is NOT okay..." by controversial columnist for the Sunday Sun, Jon Qwelane [2]. SA

GLAAD went on to advocate for Qwelane's conviction at the South African Equality Court [3] on charges of hatespeech

between 2008 and 2010. Qwelane was convicted in absentia while he was the South African High Commissioner in Uganda

[4], but the court's finding was overturned soon after.

In March 2009 she became a member of the Port Elizabeth LGBT support group Eastern Cape Gay & Lesbian Association [5]

very quickly rising to lead the group, becoming its Director in October 2009 [6]. In September 2011 ECGLA

successfully hosted the very first Pride event for Port Elizabeth [5], after which she resigned from the group.

In 2013 Christina Engela became a member of the Executive Committee for the South African Pagan Rights Alliance

(SAPRA) and also Chief Researcher for the affiliated group, the Alternative Religions Forum.

Personal Life
Christina Engela currently lives in Port Elizabeth.[1]