Here's my subtitle for this Monday: "Why I write Christian Fiction."
I was going to say: "Why I write Christian Romance," but if I can't call them "love stories," I don't want to lump them all into the typically perceived romance genre.
Many of you probably want to mutter under your breath, "Who cares?"
Fact: you either like the romance/love story genre or you don't. Men tend to ignore it and assume the genre is for women, but I know several women who never read romance novels - Christian or otherwise.
Bottom line, I was "in the world" for 30 years even though I believed in God. For several of those years, I acted accordingly to a degree. However, the last nine or ten between 20 and 30 (the year of my meeting Jesus) were spent in some serious rebellion without realizing that's what it was. Suffice it to say, it wasn't pretty.
So, you ask, what does that have to do with writing Christian romance/love stories? Long story. I've written things all my life. When it came time to write a book many years after knowing Jesus, it was He who told me as clear as if He stood in front of me to write a Christian novel about horse racing. Well, you can't write about horse racing without covering the love of Thoroughbreds and that which passes for love between people on the track but often is just lust, and that's how my novels turned into Christian love stories.
Race is my only mystery, and it has a romantic thread that runs through it.
Bottom line, I know what I want and like to read, and there are only a very few in Christian fiction that write it well according to my preferred tastes. I can do it and so I do.
"Raw Romantic Redemptive" and "Nicole writes love stories with a passion" are my tag lines. Read at your own risk.
Father, you designed me. Please help me to be all that you want me to be. I know I'm a real project, but I love you, Lord, and I'm always desperate for you. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.