I'm a bit worried

I have described my current WIP elsewhere on AW, so I won't go into too much detail, and risk repeating myself. Basically, a Fallen Angel has decided that he's done being bad, and has decided to try to get back into Heaven. Much trouble follows. http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?p=5350013#post5350013 gives a more detailed description of the story itself.

So why am I worried? Well, my story is strongly based on Judeo/Christian/Muslim beliefs about Heaven, Hell, and angels. His reasons for why he's doing this unprecedented about-face is also rooted strongly in those beliefs. It's the whole foundation for the idea: without the Christian beliefs about Angels and Fallen Angels, there is no story.

I have NO intention of writing Christian fiction. This is a murder mystery, with a lot of blood, gore, and magic. My hero was a bad bad dude for a long time, and liked being that bad dude. He is disrespectful, foul-mouthed, smart-assed, and does not work or play well with others. I have no intention of proselytizing in any fashion (laugh if you will at the contradiction, but pushing my beliefs on others is contrary to my own beliefs).

But this past week, in the story, Mal was talking to one of his former minions about WHY he was doing this, why he was trying to get back into Heaven, why he had turned his back on the Morning Star's agenda. And the conversation is pretty heavy: what is Hell like and why, what it meant to him to be rejected by God, why he'll do almost anything to go back to Paradise.

I feel like the conversation, and what Mal said in it was crucial to the story and to Mal's characterization. It crystallizes his entire character motivation, expressing his most profound pain, and his most cherished hopes. But I'm really concerned that no editor is going to touch it. The fantasy editors will run screaming, saying, "Christian fiction!!" and the Christian fiction editors will also run, saying, "You can't have a demon as a hero."

I can show you the conversation, either here on the forum or in private (first draft warning!) if I'm not making myself clear enough. Honestly, beyond this one conversation, any Christian themes are purely subtextual, and I never plan subtext; they just happen for me. The story itself is adventure, and nothing more.

Would somebody please reassure me that I haven't destroyed the story with this one conversation? Or, if I have, give me some advice on how to tone it down?

Amadan said:

I'd be worried, too, if you try to sell an angels & demons story under the misapprehension that Christianity, Judaism, and Islam are all the same religion and say the same things about heaven, hell, and angels.

As for your actual concern: this has been done, many times, in fantasy novels that were not labeled "Christian fiction."

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I'm crazy. I'm NOT stupid. I know they're not the same thing. But they share certain common aspects of ancestry and certain common aspects of belief.

Polenth said:

I might be wrong, and the worry might be that it'd come across as having Christian themes... in which case, writing about angels would be an odd choice. But if the worry is that it'll end up restricted to the Christian publishing scene, I stand the opinion that I don't think it will.

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Nope! You were right the first time. I'm not ashamed of my faith. I just don't want to be an official pitchman for it, at least not in my stories.

thanks for the opinions, guys. I'm not so afraid anymore.

I know where part of the fear was coming from. I talked to my pastor about the book. He went to presbytery, and could give me research information I couldn't find on my own. (I've also attended a Greek Orthodox function, visited a Catholic nunnery and am planning to attend the local Jewish synagogue with a friend; the murders are taking place in churches, so it really is research)

My pastor, who is the coolest guy, got REALLY excited about the book, talking about how wonderful it is, looking at the subtext and themes, and giving them a hard Christian spin. Honestly, I had not looked at it in that context before he spoke about it; at the time, I was more worried about the magic system and did I have a saggy spot in my plot at one point.

The very next day, I had to write the scene that I described in my original post. One conversation plus the coincidence of timing and 2+2=4. I started getting nervous.

But I trust your word. I'll keep pushing on, and quit worrying. It'll be what it will be.

Leanan-Sidhe said:

I wouldn't worry about it either. I've been seeing a lot of UF books about fallen angels lately, and not in Christian bookstores.

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BTW: dig the name! Go Dresden Go!

Can you point me in the direction of some of those books? I haven't been looking too hard for them, but I think I probably should check them out, see what's being done by others.

amyashley said:

Just to interject, and not to start a battle, because my research wasn't very deep, the Christian beliefs on angels and demons share many similarities with the Islamic ones. I am not familiar with Jewish mythology as I didn't look that up for my book-it didn't apply.

The theology is different, but a lot of the demonology has common roots and terminology. It's extremely interesting to study.

I skimmed over it mostly since my most recent work was focused more on creatures that weren't of the historically recorded nature. I was looking up djinn, demons, and angels. I just wanted to tie in a few truths to make "rumors" seem realistic in a satire.

I think as long as you are marketing a work of fiction and you feel solid that it's a good story I wouldn't worry. Having religious themes makes your characters more human. Avoiding them would make them shallow.

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My research showed much the same thing: the Islamic ideas about God's messengers are very similar to, even overlapping the Judeo-Christian ideas. The theology that comes after the messengers I'm not so worried about; it has no real bearing on the story. The names Jesus or Mohammad are never even mentioned (well, Malcolm says "Christ," but only as a swear word).

I do admit that my ideas on Hell and Fallen Angels are firmly rooted in Christian beliefs; write what you know. My first step of research was to re-read Dante and Milton. I threw most of that research out after I had done it -- it just wasn't relevant to the actual story -- but it got me into the right mindset, so I don't count the effort wasted.

Cathy C said:

I guess it depends on what shelf you WANT to be on. If the mystery shelf, then have no fear. There are plenty of mysteries with paranormal elements (Berkley Prime Crime, for an example). If you want to be on the SF/F shelf, that would work well also because most UFs have mysteries in them. That's sort of the point of the genre. Both are big markets, so never fear. If you want to be in General Fiction, this could also work because it's a BIG theme, which genre fiction can't really do. So no worries. You're set any way you look.

But you do need to decide where it would be the best fit, because the agents who do one genre, really don't do the others. Of course, you could start on one shelf and exhaust those possibilities and then move to another shelf with different agents, if you want.

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I wanna be in the UF/contemporary fantasy market. Contemporary fantasy (we called it "low fantasy" when I was younger) is what I most enjoy reading, that (and horror) is what I enjoy writing. I actually had to do a bunch of research on how to structure the mystery part of the story, because I don't normally read non-paranormal mysteries, and wasn't quite sure how to handle it.