Dear Christian Fiction:

I think you must believe I’m disappointed in you.

You’ve watched me add general market books to my shelf. And you read that open letter I wrote about general fiction last month.

Since I grew up with Christian media only, you must worry that I’ve gone off the deep end and walked away from Christian media completely. So I thought I’d explain myself.

My previous letter explained how I first read a general market novel. And not only did I engage with stories and topics I never thought I would, not only did I set my own boundaries about what I would read, but I recognized the benefits reading these stories could bring me. I lost my fear of general fiction.  

And yet, I never once considered leaving you behind. If anything, I returned more excited than before. What if I could find powerful stories, like these general novels I’d discovered, but with a Christian worldview? Where could I find them?

And then I realized that I hadn’t finished making peace with my reading habits. I just never expected you would pose a fight.

I’ll put this as nicely as possible—you skate by on many counts simply because you're Christian. Christian readers are so desperate for something comforting or truth-filled or even just something clean that we’ll overlook certain quality issues.

That doesn’t fly anymore. More and more, bookstores shelve Christian market books beside general market books and expect them to keep up.

This encourages me—it proves people take you seriously. But it also means that we need to up our game. Especially in two specific areas.

One: Diverse representations (including hard/sensitive topics).

It seems a bit counter-intuitive that if someone wants a character with their same struggles or physical characteristics, their only choice is a general market novel. Christian books largely don’t address these topics.

Or, if and when you do, you either resort to hurtful stereotypes and trite clichés, or you don’t know how to spread the word (i.e., a story with a plus-size lead with a skinny lead model on the cover). If we believe the truth, if we believe the Gospel, then why on earth don’t we write that truth for all people? Why don’t we show all people that they are loved and valued?

Two: Messages vs. telling a good story.

General market books tend to weave their messages into the story—because if they get too preachy, they will likely be held to a harsher standard.

Christian market books, on the other hand, sometimes smack me with a two-by-four in the form of a lengthy Scripture passage, prayer, or sermon that completely halts the plot. When you do that, I feel cheated. Instead of taking me on this incredible journey, making me think, and letting me feel rewarded when I interpret it for myself, I get left with a few blocky pages of text telling me what I should think.

I also think the clean fiction movement contributes to this. In scrubbing our books of all objectionable content, we’ve scrubbed it of authenticity. (I wrote a whole blog post on that, so I won’t get into it all now. You can read that post HERE.)

Three: Knowing and serving your audience. 

Christian books are largely going to Christian readers. So truthfully, when I do get a preachy monologue in a Christian story, I have to wonder who they're trying to benefit. If you're trying to benefit the Christian readers, aren't you preaching to the choir a little bit? 

Does that mean there isn't a place for Gospel presentations and come-to-Jesus moments in Christian fiction? Absolutely not. (If they're executed well, that is.) Every Christian needs reminded of the Gospel sometimes! 

But I do think we need to keep our audience in mind. Is this a book an unbelieving reader is likely to pick up? Maybe it's a good candidate for a come-to-Jesus subplot. However, if it's a book that is more likely to appeal to the already-saved, by all means, include the Gospel--but maybe focus more on its impact in a believer's life.

There are so many different ways to depict the Christian life. I wish I could find more stories that spoke to what that Christian life looks like. 

Am I saying the general market never publishes its less-than-stellar novels? Of course not.

So why do I pick on Christian fiction specifically? Because we should know better. Like I said, we believe the truth. We believe the Gospel. So why on earth don’t we bring it to everyone? And what better way to bring it to everyone than to tell a genuinely good story? 

And am I saying that every Christian novel needs all the gritty and edgy? No. There is a place for fluffier or cleaner novels.

The problem is when that’s all we offer. The problem is when authors with diverse backgrounds struggle to find space in the Christian market. The problem is when we don’t write any books about the harder topics, or when we do, we resort to hurtful stereotypes.

I hated that some of the stories I grew up with weren’t as wonderful as I once thought. And I hated that some of my own stories might not be welcome in Christian fiction because of the topics I addressed.

I could leave it there and let myself get discouraged. Why not give up Christian fiction all together and read general fiction for good?

Because Christian fiction matters. My relationship with Jesus matters. The Gospel matters. And being able to see that in fiction matters. While I can see aspects of my faith even in general market novels, it’s still important to have stories that come from that place of truth and love. I need both general fiction and Christian fiction.

That’s why I hold you to such a high standard.

So what do I do with Christian fiction? I keep trying and I keep searching. I’ve found so many authors, both general and Christian, who love Jesus and write excellent stories. And I want to lift them up, to celebrate the excellent stories, to push for progress and authenticity.

And when I come across those Christian novels that skate by, I let them make me think about the change I want to see. I let their mistakes inspire me to keep writing my own stories. Because general or Christian, the world needs all our stories.

So no, I haven’t given you up. I don’t think I ever could. If anything, I can’t wait to see where we go from here.

What’s your favorite Christian book or author? Share it in the comments, and I’ll share some of my faves! 

Hi, everyone! I'm so excited to be participating in the Novelists in Novembers anthology blog tour with Wild Blue Wonder Press! You might remember that I participated in one of their anthologies last year, and I was so excited to support this next round of authors. 

Today, I'm sharing a guest post from Kellyn Roth. I absolutely love reading Kellyn's thoughts, both on her newsletter and her Instagram, and I'm so excited to share her thoughts with you about anthologies and beauty in the differences. 

But first, very quickly, I wanted to share a few things with you about the anthology--namely, where you can purchase it. I got to be an advanced reader, and I noted they had even more diversity of stories in this anthology than the last. I definitely enjoyed the read and it's the perfect nostalgic fall read. So go ahead and click the button below to grab your copy, and then enjoy Kellyn's guest post!

​Also, this blog tour comes with a GIVEAWAY. Everyone who enters the blog tour for the release of Novelists in November will be entered to win a free paperback copy of the novel and a $25 Amazon gift card!

​Enter the giveaway using the button below. Entrants must be 18+ or have parental permission to enter. This giveaway is open to US and international winners. If you need to find any of the other blog tour stops, check out the graphic above or kellynrothauthor.com. 

Hey folks! I’m Kellyn Roth, and today I’m sharing a guest post on Rachel’s blog to celebrate the release of Novelists in November, the second anthology out with my indie publishing company, Wild Blue Wonder Press.

This is the second anthology I’ve published, but I’ve prepared three, planned dozens more, and participated in a few others over the years. An anthology is defined loosely as, “a collection of selected literary pieces.” When I first set out to publish anthologies with Wild Blue Wonder Press, I had a number of thoughts about how I’d do it, and at last I landed on what I really wanted to do:

I wanted to feature excellent Christian creators from differing backgrounds with different stories. I didn’t want to publish the same kind of stories over and over again, though I also wanted to appeal to the same core audience who had become accustomed to my historical family sagas and romances.

Basically, I wanted to be different but not too different.

The thing that is the same in my anthologies? They are all Christian fiction written by Christian writers, primarily for Christian readers, and they are all (just because I don’t have the knowledge and staff yet for speculative fiction) realistic fiction in some way—meaning they are contemporary or historical stories, not fantasy or sci fi.

Though I would consider myself a fairly conservative Christian who believes in all the typical things that would get one in trouble with the average person, I also believe that Christians have a major problem with judgmentalism about things that ultimately don’t matter. Not salvational issues—not even things that are condemned in the Bible—but the most niche little personal choice things that shouldn’t offend anyone.

But they do.

So when I am choosing stories to be featured, I’m trying not to choose ones that are all same. I am especially trying to choose authors who stand out to me as having something interesting and different to bring to an anthology and to the Christian fiction world that I can appreciate even if it’s not exactly what I bring.

I think we need people in the community who are far more conservative than me—but I also think we need people who have less “conservative” convictions in a world where “conservative” means picking fights with anyone who isn’t exactly like ourselves—even if the things they are interested in or talk about or care about are not in any way wrong, sinful, or so on. Some things I cannot endorse, of course. I want to run a press with a basics of ethics and morals, but … other things?

If you were waiting for Wild Blue Wonder Press to come out against celebrating Christmas and even things like moderate drinking or piercings, you’re in for a disappointment. I have convictions about, well, everything, but I have never felt that my convictions ought to be for everyone. And also, of course, my convictions are sometimes less conservative!

But I think there’s a beauty in that. We all come from different backgrounds and as such, what we are led to do and say is different. And I think rather than isolating ourselves and pretending our way is the only way, we should allow ourselves to embrace those slight differences when they are truly harmless and not prohibited by Scripture.

This is true of controversial things, yes, but it’s equally true of little insignificant but beautiful things. In both my collections, I’ve loved getting to feature a variety of different types of main characters and situations and even subgenres under the women’s fiction umbrella. Some of our stories have different tones, some feature more blatant Christian themes than others though all could be called Christian fiction, and some are more serious or more light-hearted.

I think there is value in things that are written for a specific person, but I do also enjoy putting together these anthologies that are so specific—I mean, Christian women’s fiction is already a pretty narrow genre!—but still have room to highlight people from different experiences.

What do you think about all this? Agree to disagree?