Into the Fire

I don't have to write novels. Neither do you. As Christians we write for many reasons, but most of us claim to have a mandate from God. How we write our stories, both technically and aesthetically, depends on so many things it's impossible to blandly state them in list form. Some authors write profusely with stories darting through their minds like hummingbirds seeking sweet red nectar. Other authors nurse a story along for a year or years. Some do extensive research. Others write heart songs. Variety seems endless.

Except in Christian fiction romance.

In the secular world the big deal novel now following in the kind of hooplah created by the Harry Potter books and the Twilight Series is the erotic Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy which, I'm told, involves all the graphics erotica inspires and includes sado-masochism and other sexual fantasies. Already sporting a movie contract, this trilogy is setting the reading world on fire, and, yes, some Christian women are letting their guards down to play with these stories. Rumored to be poorly written, but who cares after all if there are heart palpatations and perspiration and lusty air pumping through, um, lungs, chests, bosoms? (Which of those words would be acceptable for Christian readers?)

Well now. I 'm not saying the same Christian women who are reading the bonnet books or the sweet little romances are the same females reading Fifty Shades of Grey. No way. And I can't give you any logical reason for Christian women investing their reading time in this trilogy classified as "mummy porn" in Great Britain.

Isn't there somewhere in between these two extremes for Christian romance readers to venture?

I decided to write realistic romance novels. Christian romance novels which are more accurately classified as love stories. With a little non-graphic grit in exposing the world and its definitions of romance, sex, and love contrasted to God's view, the possiblities are endless. Or not. Mostly not in CBA literature.

No fifty shades of grit. Mostly generic.

Father, thank you for it all. Thank you for the stories you've given me to write. May I always honor you. Apart from you I can do nothing. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.