No Ambushes Here

The Angler Fish--one of nature's best ambushers.

"Quit trying to ambush your audience with the Gospel. Either proclaim your work's genre loud and proud or write something else."

I can't take credit for those words. They are a quote from a book review on Amazon by a writer friend, Katherine Coble. They are wise words, I believe. And words that have inspired this blog post--a post that will look at them from more than one angle.

Something I have proclaimed for a long time is that Christian fiction isn't just written by Christians, it's written for Christians. As Jeff Gerke has said time and again:

So, who is the market for Christian books? By and large, it is white, American, Evangelical women of child-bearing, child-raising, or empty nest years. This is the demographic that walks into Christian bookstores and the Christianity section in secular bookstores.

You see, that is where Christian books are sold. And generally, only Christians enter Christian bookstores or the Christian ghetto section of bookstores like B&N. Yes, I know, they are also sold online through Amazon and such, but they're still segmented. They're sold on exclusively Christian websites like Christianbooks.com. Or they're sold on Amazon under the label of "Christian fiction."

And they ought to be. That, I believe, is one thing Katherine meant by her remark up there. If you are writing Christian fiction, label it as such. For one, the demographic above is searching for that and often won't pick up your book if it's not labeled. And two, the ones who don't want those kinds of books, well, don't want them and if you don't label then you're not being honest.

Oh, yes...I forgot. There's the evangelism card. Putting Jesus out there in your book to reach the unsaved, which means putting Christian content into a book that slickly doesn't include any hint to that content in the description. Right. Sigh.

True evangelism through fiction may happen here and there, and if you are one of those lucky few authors who actually manages to reach an unsaved soul with a Christian novel, then I accede to your amazingness. I am not being sarcastic--I mean it. That is truly awesome! It's just that the numbers show that your REAL audience is vastly made up of people who don't need that message and who are only going to pick up your book if it's labeled "Christian fiction."

Go find some books that are overtly Christian but were picked up by non-Christian readers who didn't know. Even if it was the reader's own fault for not paying attention to the labels (which is another problem entirely), there is one commonality: anger. Why has this author tricked me? Why have I picked up a book I thought was a "suspense" only to get preached at? To be suckered into reading a cheesy altar call?

You see? That's why Katherine used words like "ambush" and "loud and proud." If you write sneaky-sneak Christianity, who are you fooling? Are the readers who find your book going to come to your site and see no sign of your Christianity because you have to hide it out of fear of scaring them off?

The other side of the coin: Christians who write stuff that's not so Christian.

That is actually what popped into my head when I read Katherine's words. Because that's me!

You see, I don't hide the fact that I'm a Christian. Any amount of searching on this site will yield proof of that. Search my Facebook feed, and you'll find evidence. Am I preachy? I don't think a single one of my friends would call me that. It's very much *who* I am, not what I spout.

Which is why I have to be careful not to ambush my readers, and why I need to be loud and proud on both the fact that I am, personally, a Christian. And my writing, generally, is not. There are themes, but all fiction has themes. And I do have exactly one overtly Christian short story--which was published in an online magazine that publishes--get this--Christian short stories. Yeah, I know. Imagine the logic.

I'm not ashamed of my faith. (I'm sometimes ashamed of the fact that there are those who supposedly share my faith and use it to hurt others, but again, a-whole-nother topic there.) And I'm not going to try and "sneak" it in. But I'm not going to bash you over the head with it either. I try to be Christian and write from my heart, period.

I'm also not ashamed of the non-Christian-ness of most of my writing. I write fantasy, which includes magic and mythical creatures. I write horror, which includes blood and spookiness and down-right meanness, and is often seen as something Christians just don't do.

Again, don't "ambush your audience." And, "Either proclaim your work's genre loud and proud or write something else."

So there you have it. I'm a Christian. ME! Yes, I'm a Christian! But I don't often write Christian-y stuff. You will find magic and mystery, death and vampires, and mean little bully-killing girls in my writing. No surprises, folks. No ambushes here.

What Have I Started?

Well, it's happened twice this week. Two comments I made online have spawned blog posts by other authors. Most cool :).

First, I posed a question on Facebook about an author's obligation to sticking to stereotypes in order to meet readers' expectations about characters. Bryan Thomas Schmidt tackled the idea in his blog, The Importance of Reaching Beyond Female Stereotypes. Awesome post, I must say.

And then today I wake up to Mike Duran's post that expands on a previous discussion in the comments of an older blog post. Check out that one first if you'd like, then go read today's post, Should Christians be Obligated to Promote Christian Art? As usual, the discussion has sprung up like wildfire.

Thanks, guys, for making my blog post so easy today! :)

The Resurrection by Mike Duran

Mike Duran is known for hitting on the controversial topics related to Christian writing. His blog posts consistently make his readers think about their definition of Christian fiction. He also doesn't believe in playing softball when it comes to reviews. The standard among Christian fiction reviewers tends to be a sappy-happy pat on the back, a "great job, my fellow believer!" and shining five stars.

All authors want their readers to love their books. But Mike strikes me as the type who'd rather have a critical breakdown of his than a standard glowing review. So, I decided to do this review a little differently....

The Resurrection is a Peretti-style spiritual warfare novel. It takes place in a small town, with a preacher and certain members of his congregation smack in the center of the battleground.

First up--Ruby Case, church member. She's got rock-solid faith. Is she flawed? Well, she has a limp...but she's the kind of woman you would want babysitting your kids because she's loyal, trustworthy, and has a heart of gold. She really made me think about the whole "perfect Christian character" thing that is so prevalent in Christian fiction. It's actually not the "goodness" that makes those characters annoying. Ruby is "good." She doesn't have a seedy past or fatal flaw (unless you count a stubborn independent streak). Those are techniques used by some Christian authors to show that they have "flawed" Christian characters. But here's the truth--some Christians are just genuinely good people. The thing is, though, they are not pious. And the characters in Christian fiction who come across as annoyingly good are actually pious and self-righteous scripture-quoting cardboard cut-outs. Ruby is not. She 's got serious depth. So while I couldn't point my finger and say, "Look, see, he made her 'flawed' so this book is really edgy," I can say she was real.


Reverend Ian Clark...no rock solid faith here. More like rock slide. This guy is totally on the fence, full of doubts, feeling like a faker in front of his congregation. Talk about a flawed character. But it does come from somewhere. He's suffered some real loss that made him feel the way he does. My gripe? I would have liked to see more of that past. Some really emotional flashbacks that give me a clear picture of his love for and closeness to his sister whose death set him on the edge. It would have endeared him to me, and I would have connected to his pain. However, I couldn't help but wonder if Mike didn't include that stuff on purpose. Maybe he wanted us to see Clark as a big slug, so we spend the first half of the book thinking, "Man up, you big wuss."

Side characters: Jack is Ruby's loving and devoted husband, who has left the church because of its hypocrisy. Vin is Ruby's best friend. The tattooed ex-druggie has a strength Ruby wishes she could muster, and a faith that comes from true thankfulness for the grace God has shown her. Both characters added richness to the story. There are others, of course, but telling you much about them will just be giving spoilers....

The Conflict. Ruby's touch seemingly brings a dead boy back to life. The town is in an uproar. Half of them think she's a saint and people come to her with gifts and requests for miracles. The other half think she's a witch or worse. All she wants is to be left alone, and come to terms with the reason God used her. She ends up drawn into a search of the town's history, though, when echoes of her experience bring forth information about past events that are eerily familiar. Clark, of course, is turned to as the spiritual leader--but how can he fulfill this role when he holds so many doubts? Work in a section of town that seems steeped in new age religion and pagan idol worship, and a friend of Clark's who is tugging hard on his strings of doubt.

The Plot. Hm. In the end, I could say, "Well done." In the middle, I felt it was disjointed at times. Not that it was hard to follow. But there were times when I felt something was introduced, to then be dropped, and the focus shift was slightly jarring to me. But the ending brought all the threads together smoothly. Any bumps in the road were very much worth it because of the destination.

Lastly, the thing that warranted an author's "afterward" in the book. Mr. Cellophane. The spirit who haunts Rev. Clark. I will leave you with this statement, and I want you to think about the difference in its meaning depending on whether I stuck five stars or one star next to my review: "Thanks for the nightmares, Mike." ;)