Piffle, Piffle, Piffle

Where Love Once Lived was written to conform to the definition of Christian Fiction and be eligible for sale by members of the Christian Booksellers Association (CBA). CBA novels contain no explicit sex, no premarital sex, no swearing, a Christian worldview of some sort, and normally a strong evangelical message. What was most difficult for me was the swearing rule. My characters sometimes felt like screaming a few four-letter words, especially when they were alone or in the presence of an understanding friend.

That's why you'll find my fictional character Karen saying piffle from time to time. I learned that word from Jinx. Before she died, Jinx was a school counselor and had to be careful about what she said in front of the students. However, I think everyone, including the students, knew what she meant by piffle. It was the way she said it, not the word itself. She had so-called clean words for just about any situation. My favorite was fluff, because it was a word you didn't often hear in mixed company.

The Vengeance Squad, my second book in the Bookmobile Series, was a contestant in a Clash of the Titles recently. Here is a disclaimer as posted on their website:

As of July 2011, each of COTT's participating authors are required to sign a disclaimer stating that there is no foul language, explicit sex, or defaming of the name of Christ in their novels. Because COTT staff cannot review every novel to verify this, please read at your own discretion.

I'm not sure what all is included in the term foul language, but The Vengeance Squad does contain two instances of the word "bastard." To be honest, I didn't mean to include the word and didn't know I had until a reviewer mentioned it. In my defense, my characters were dealing with pretty tough foes and got carried away.

There is a lot of discussion among writers of Christian fiction about what to include and what to exclude, but if we want our books in Christian bookstores we need to follow the rules.

I would love to hear how you feel about the use of foul language in books.