Laurie

I write the romantic suspense/Insp since that’s what I enjoy. I prefer the edgy battle of the journey to faith with horrible characters that eventually come to Christ, finding it difficult to choose right from wrong, needing guidance, finding love. I have difficulty reading the Christian having sinned in the past of the novel. Since when does our sin often overtake us? When I present my male love interest he is not great at communicating feelings and we aren’t caught up in how touchy feely an alpha even beta guy thinks. That’s not realistic lol. Fighting passion is difficult. But I don’t want to see them having sex before marriage, and the end usually ends in a kiss, knowing that he’s proposed. The reader knows what happens after that, and if they don’t … But the plot and subplot of the suspense mirror the physical/spiritual battle to hold off.

Hi Wendy

Many many PH/agents love any inspirational, I look at Scott Bell’s work – good always prevails. Many just have Christian-based. It’s a process I’ve gone through with several PH that accept IR but not Christian (I’ve found). Which is why I head directly for the Christian agents and or PH. It’s a frustrating process, and I now stay clear of the traditional because of the many rejections. I might add the agent looking at my manuscript and asked me for it personally, was a senior editor at Bethany House, and does have guidelines. Apparently, mine fits. This works – for me. I’d start rounding traditional agents.

See, now ^^this is what I’ve always believed defined an inspirational romance. The *inspiration*. So I was stunned when I was told about the CBA and the rules within the genre. I agree with you…there needs to be MORE!

This was a great blog to read.
Thank you. Keep up the good work.

Hi Wendy

Christian romance these days is Amish to Catholic. Inspirational romances are as varied now as are the films based on them. The bromance (ok technically not a romance but a friendship like a bro-mance) that develops between an Arab man and his Jewish neighbor in The Infidel. The movie Outsourced stretches continents and religions as does The Other End of the Line. Zach Levi in Shades of Ray, a man who wants NOT to embrace his Pakistani heritage as an actor (until he meets a Pakastani American girl he falls for), and who can forget Jewish rabbi Ben Stiller (Keeping the Faith), Ed Norton, Catholic priest, and Jenna Elfman ~ more or less an agnostic, all best friends until Ed and Ben fall in love with Jenna’s character. A lot of inspirational romances have nothing to do with religion, such as Pay it Forward, a child inspired through his social studies class to do something good to change the world. I think (ok in my mind?) that’s what inspirational romance is — it’s clean, and the characters have to overcome religious, non, or cultural differences to fall in love, and that in my small brain says, inspirational. However, when I write IR, I am writing Christian romances. I don’t like schmaltzy romances so someone in my work is almost always getting shot or things blow up. 🙂