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I can’t list the enormous amount of websites I travel and I see the same thing: Christian e-books are now third in sales, people love bonnet fiction, or its changing trends.
Truthfully, my heart bleeds for those who follow God as I do but feel the need to compromise story to deliver an awesome Gospel message. I feel that some will disagree with me here, but as I have said on others’ blogs: “Just tell the story on your heart…the message will be there.”
Now, the really dicey matter is when it concerns sensual/sexual scenes.
I will admit wholeheartedly that the first kinds of books I read since I was eleven years old were Harlequin romances. No lie. I devoured those books and learned about the weaknesses of men(and women) while reading the tasty little pages. Now, don’t get me wrong, the steamy scenes were what I looked forward to. Not because of the scene itself, but afterwards it formed something between both the protagonist and their lover- a bond.
Bonds are what we look for in books if we are honest with ourselves. We want the girl to finally stand up for herself. We wish that the guy can get the girl and rescue her not just from danger, but to be the second heart and mind she yearns for.
For those of you like me, you don’t want o see a weakling female. You see her as strong, independent and intelligent enough to know when she needs a partner instead of a savior.
Hmmmm.
I like those kinds of books too.
So what can the Christian writer do to make a sensual book into something non sexual but speaks to the contemporary man or woman as well?
I might try focusing on scenes that lights up the page to where I learn something more about him/her- like in Tamara Leigh’s ‘Restless in Carolina‘ there is a sweet, but hot scene between J.C. Dirk and Bridget Pickwick-Buchanan where she leans against the ground and he is looking into her eyes….a swoon worthy moment without the sex. Then you have the teen book Halflings by Heather Burch where there are very close, intimate scenes between Nikki Youngblood and the half angel boys-whew! Yet again, there is no erotica or sex in these works and it still pulls off as great romantic reads.
So is that the key then? Good romance? The connection?
I don’t know, just had this one on my mind a bit.
What do you think? Is this something to think about or something for publishers to worry about?
All opinions are welcome!
