What Is Christian Fiction?

While analyzing Christian Fiction to get a handle on what it is, I remembered this review of Dee Henderson's The Witness I wrote for Amazon.com in July 2006. I thought it would be useful to include here because I want to talk more about this thing called Christian Fiction. I titled the review, The Middle Drags:

I must admit this is the first Dee Henderson book I've read so I didn't know what to expect. I bought it because it was said to be a Christian romance thriller. It begins with a bang and I couldn't put the book down for the first quarter or so. Then, it seems to go into slow motion for the next fifty percent or so. Then it kicks in again for the close. I was okay with the resolution of the story, unlike other reviewers. I didn't spot the lack of editing as some have reported, but I was distracted by the use of "couple" without "of" after it. I had never seen that before and it appeared a number of times.

I watched for the Christian view, and felt it was subtle. Not preachy at all. Just a few personal prayers, some discussion of one's belief in God. I noticed that there was no swearing or the use of alcohol or drugs. This I appreciated.

I plan to read more of her books.

I'm looking at other Christian Fiction to see how it is different from mainstream fiction because I want Where Love Once Lived to qualify for sale by members of the Christian Booksellers Association. However, I don't intend to make changes to it at this point in time, but I have made it fit the guidelines to the best of my understanding. I'll tell you more about this is a future article.

Have you read novels labeled Christian? If so, which ones? What did you think of them?

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.

More on Christian Fiction

I'm still analyzing so-called Christian Fiction and remembered this review of Dee Henderson's The Witness which I wrote for Amazon.com in July 2006. I thought it would be useful to include it here because I want to talk more about this thing called Christian Fiction. I titled the review, The Middle Drags:

I must admit this is the first Dee Henderson book I've read so I didn't know what to expect. I bought it because it was said to be a Christian romance thriller. It begins with a bang and I couldn't put the book down for the first quarter or so. Then, it seems to go into slow motion for the next fifty percent or so. Then it kicks in again for the close. I was okay with the resolution of the story, unlike other reviewers. I didn't spot the lack of editing as some have reported, but I was distracted by the use of "couple" without "of" after it. I had never seen that before and it appeared a number of times.

I watched for the Christian view, and felt it was subtle. Not preachy at all. Just a few personal prayers, some discussion of one's belief in God. I noticed that there was no swearing or the use of alcohol or drugs. This I appreciated.

I plan to read more of her books.

I'm looking at other Christian Fiction to see how it is different from mainstream fiction because I want Where Love Once Lived to qualify for sale by members of the Christian Booksellers Association. However, I don't intend to make changes to it at this point in time, but I have made it fit the guidelines to the best of my understanding. I'll tell you more about this is a future article.

Have you read novels labeled Christian? If so, which ones? What did you think of them?

BOOK REVIEW: The Last Time I Saw You

I just finished reading Elizabeth Berg's latest novel, The Last Time I Saw You. This book is not a Christian Bookseller Association pick. It violates all the rules for that. But it is good reading as are all her books. I liked this one in particular because, like Where Love Once Lived, it is about older people getting back together after not seeing each other for many years. It is about a fortieth high-school reunion as told through the eyes of several different people planning for the reunion, attending the reunion, and then what happens afterwards.


Dorothy Shauman, the high-school beauty, now divorced and having a difficult time being alone and with her grown daughter, sees the reunion as a chance to get back together with chief jock Pete Decker. But Pete is having problems of his own. He still has his good looks, but he finds he is with a woman he doesn't like or respect. He wants his wife back, but she has decided to move on.

Lester Hessenpfeffer, the school nerd and valedictorian, is now a successful veterinarian. However, since his wife died, he fears he will never find love again. His office manager talks him into attending the reunion even though he would rather stay home and take care of his patients. Mary Alice Mayhew was never part of the in crowd, and doesn't know why she should go to the reunion. But she's curious about how her classmates turned out. She's been helping care for an elderly neighbor who decides she should go to the reunion and he goes with her.

Candy Sullivan, a high-school beauty, has just learned she has ovarian cancer. Her husband has all but ignored her for years and now he is concerned about her and offers to go to the reunion with her even though he refused to before they knew how serious her illness was. She goes without him.

The author did an excellent job writing in the various points of view. In one place, she partially repeated a scene to show it from another characters viewpoint. The story is about what happens when these characters and their friends and classmates get together again. Elizabeth Berg was born in 1948 and that makes her eligible to have attended a fortieth high school reunion. Since I've been to my fiftieth reunion, I know she is talking from experience. It was a wonderful experience reading this book while thinking about my own reunion. I just wish there had been more follow up on the characters before the book ended. But it was just enough to let us know what happened. I guess I wasn't ready to say goodbye to my new friends.

Piffle, Hogwash and Other Four-Letter Words

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.

I thought about CBA's guideline about swearing last week when CreateSpace sent back the book mockup with a blank page before chapter two and told me it was the industry standard to begin each chapter on the right facing page. I checked at least twenty novels in my library and they all started chapters on the left or right page so that blank pages between chapters wasn't necessary. I did find several non-fiction books with a blank page before a chapter beginning. So, I wrote back that I didn't agree. I had to rewrite my response when I thought about how I was writing a Christian novel and my comments didn't sound very Christian.

I got the mockup back the second time Saturday, May 8, 2010, and they had removed all blank pages. I'm almost positive I said there should be no forced blank pages after chapter one. By the way, this is a problem with communicating with CreateSpace. There is no record of my messages. I can see their messages, but my responses are not saved and available to me.

Most books I have in my shelves start the dedication, the acknowledgement, and chapter one on the right facing page. The mockup I received had no blank pages in the front section at all and chapter one started on a left facing page. So, this time I was very nice and very specific about what I would like. We'll see how that works.

Before I got into the business of making a book, I would have thought a company like CreateSpace would know the standards for page layout. It shouldn't be left up to the writer. But, in a way, I'm the publisher here.

I'm not sure what's right or wrong. All I know is what looks best to me. What is the industry standard for beginning a page on the left or right? Is it different for fiction and non-fiction? Does anyone know? If so, please comment.