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- Jul 16, 2006
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Wow the market is huge for this type of romance right now!!! I have read some of Harlequin's Love Inspired line and enjoyed them all Do any of you write this type of romance?
L.Jones said:I write for Love Inspired as well as Women'd fic for Steeple Hill.
Have written romances for Multnomah and Waterbrook as well.
Love Inspired is expanding all the time, which is encouraging while the traditional CBA publishers are tending now to fold romances into general fiction.
annie jones (Sisterhood of the Queen Mamas - DEC 06, Steeple HIll)
That's a really good observation, and one I've never thought of. Seems to me, you could generalize this to most Christian fiction. The protagonist's relationship to God should undergo some change for the better or worse (most often for the better, I'd think). This would differentiate "Christian Fiction" from fiction with Christian characters, wouldn't it?Inspiewriter said:Most editors of inspy-roms agree that there are actually 3 people in the story, hero, heroine and God. The relationship with God has to grow as does the love relationship--sometimes making these stories much harder to write!
L.Jones said:Not to be contrary but I have NEVER thought of my insp romances as having 3 characters and one of them being God.
Inspiewriter said:Well I don't think of mine that way either--and I don't think the editors mean that literally. (that would be strange, to literally have God as a character in your romance ) And I agree with everything else you said--but there is another relationship besides the hero and heroine. It can be new or already established, but I've never read one without it.
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Character was a bad choice of words, but to someone coming along wondering what makes an Insp Romance different, that is, indeed, what this advice can sound like. To add interaction with God as an element to set it apart as an Insp Romance.
In much the same way being told having setting as a 'character' can lead to long descriptive passages or the like, saying that all Christian fiction has the third party of God in the story can make it seem as if one must set the spiritual relationship at the same level as the romance. This idea puts some people off as they conclude they are buying thinly veiled sermons not stories.
It may just be a matter of terms, but it seems a good idea to get more than one vantage point out there for new writers and readers to consider.
Just trying to be clear that for most (not all) Insp romances the romance is the story, the faith is part of characterization that shapes the choices the hero and heroine make.
This may be more or less so with single title or other kinds of Christian fiction.
annie jones (Sisterhood of the Queen Mamas, Dec 06, "Laugh Out Loud Funny" Publisher's Weekly)
Luanne Jones (Heathen Girls, out now)