#Christian Fiction

[marietheran]

Average "Christian fiction" book profile

(this is gonna be snarky, sorry)

Book name: To Find a Home of Faith and Grace (Southern Brides Clean Romance #3)

Average rating on Goodreads: 4.5

Actual average it would have if it was in any other genre: 2.5

Representative review:

5 stars⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

💕💕I adored this book and if you like L.M. Montgomery or Louisa May Alcott you will certainly love it too. It's just as good.💕💕

I appreciate that the romance is based on faith because the love interest tells the heroine that he reads the Bible once, so she knows it's God's plan for her to marry him even though they've only known eachother three days and he's new to town so no one can tell her anything about him.

My favourite quote: If you are a good person only good things will happen to you; this is totally in the Gospel.

Only negative review:

1 star ⭐

Why did this book set in the 19th century South mention racism? Christians shouldn't talk about such dark subjects. Also the antagonist gets drunk once.

[keepersofthegate]

The Salt and Light Anthology

Hello everyone! It's time to break the news with an exciting announcement! In 2024 Keepers of the Gate hopes to release a Salt and Light anthology.

This means a compilation of works by (PBS voice) Viewers Like You. Proceeds from the sale of this book will be donated to combat human trafficking.

The theme of the collection will be original fairy tales. The ideal tone of the fairy tales is a late 19th-century Art Noveau style such as that of Andersen, Wilde, Louisa May Alcott, or others that treat fairy tales in a slightly longer-form and more descriptive style than, say, Grimm's. (We are not interested in retellings, we want to hear your original stories! They can still have elements of inspiration from classic fairy tales, of course.) The tragic, beautiful, the strange... stories from the POV of a talking animal or an object... a fairy tale doesn't necessarily even have to have magic! Show us what you have come up with.

Submissions are due by March 1 2024. Please declare your intent to submit work by December 1 2023. (ask box is ok for this.) Stories previously published online or written prior to this time CAN be accepted. Ideal length is 5-12K. Not all submissions may be accepted. Please only submit if you are willing to work with us to edit your writing for the anthology.

Email submissions to lilliterra@outlook.com ! Please put "Fairy Tale" somewhere in the subject line.

[artist-issues]

How many times do we have to say:

Create characters with strength of virtue, not strength of skills.

I just finished A Tale of Two Cities with the character Lucie Manette, who "does" nothing but love the people around her and extend compassion toward everyone within her sphere of influence. She makes no "choices" that contemporary audiences would award the stupid badge of "giving her agency" to. She doesn't make a speech that saves Charles Darnay's life. She doesn't lead the victims of the French Revolution into a counter-revolt. She doesn't fight off the soldiers that come to take her husband, or beat up Madame Defarge when she threatens her child, or even come up with the escape plan to flee Paris.

She makes none of those kinds of choices. (You know who does? Madame Defarge. But the compare-contrast between those two can wait till another day.)

But she makes these kinds of choices:

She'll give her honest testimony in a trial for a potential traitor to the crown, and demonstrate her compassion and grief for a near-stranger, wearing that vulnerability on her sleeve in front of a huge court of people clamoring for blood.

She'll be compassionate toward Sydney Carton, even though he's rude, careless, and brings a bad attitude into her happy home.

She'll spend the energy of her life making that home happy.

She'll stand for two hours in any weather on the bloody streets of the French Revolution so her husband might have a chance of glimpsing her and getting some comfort from the prison window.

She'll trust the older men in her life when they ask her to.

She'll allow an old woman to care for her and go everywhere she goes, and treat her like a child, as long as it makes the old woman in question happy.

And what, WHAT is the consequence of these kinds of decisions, choices, that some ignorant people call "passive?"

That old woman is allowed to love Lucie Manette so much that she defeats the villainess in the climax of the story, holding Madame Defarge back from getting revenge with sheer strength that comes directly from that love.

Her father is allowed to draw strength from the fact that Lucie believes she can depend on him--because she chooses to let her father take the lead and do the work of saving her husband, Dr. Manette is fully "recalled to life;" he doesn't have to identify as a traumatized, mentally unstable victim anymore, because Lucie is treating him like he can be the hero.

Her husband does see her in the street, and does draw strength from that--just that--instead of losing his mind the way her father, starved for a glimpse of his loved ones, did during his own imprisonment.

Lucie's home is so full of the love and kindness that she fills it with that not only does her father return to remembering who he is after his long imprisonment--but Mr. Lorry, a bachelor with no family, can feel at home with a full life, there. Miss Pross, whose family abandoned and bankrupt her, has a home with a full life, there. Charles Darnay, whose life of riches and pleasure as a Marquis was empty, has a home with a full life, there. In Lucie's home, because she spends her life making it the kind of home others can find rest in.

Sydney Carton, a man whose whole life has been characterized by a LACK of "care" for himself or anyone else, suddenly cares about Lucie. When he thought it was impossible to. And he doesn't care about her because she's pretty. Her beauty was just a source of bitterness for him--one more pleasure he could've had but can't. Until he "saw her with her father," and saw her strength of virtue, of pity, of compassion, of self-sacrificial love--then he felt that she "kindled me, a heap of ashes, into fire." He started caring about life again, where it was associated with her, because she brought to life every good thing. Just by being a woman of good virtue. And we know what that inspiration led him to.

Without Lucie's strength of virtue, and the decisions that naturally came from that, none of the "active" choices other characters made would have happened. Sydney would not have been redeemed. Darnay would not have been saved. Her father never would've been recalled to life. Miss Pross and Mr. Lorry would've had no light or love in their lives. Even Jerry would've had no occasion to learn from his mistakes and resolve to stop abusing his family.

A character like Dickens' Golden Thread, who does what a woman should do, inspires the choices other characters make. That makes her more powerful, in her own way, than the heroes and any decisions they make. Because she's the cause. She's the inspiration. She's the representation of everything good, right, precious, worth fighting for.

Lucie Manette's not the only character like this. Cinderella. The original Disney Jasmine. The original Disney Ariel. Lady Galadriel. Jane Eyre. Amy March.

"Behind every great man is a great woman," indeed! Absolutely! Bravo!

Hang on! Hang on to those kinds of characters. Those a real "strong female" characters. The muses, the inspirations, the reminders of The Greater Good. The people who make fighting the dragons worth it at all. Who cares about fighting the dragon? That's not so great, without her.

Don't forget those kinds of characters! Reading Dickens just makes me desperate for our generation to keep up the reminder: make characters that the next ten generations can learn from: strength of virtue is much more important than silly little strength of skill.

[friendrat]

Ok, I need some help. I lost this book like 10 years ago in a fire, and I cannot for the life of me remember *anything* about it. It was a Christian middle grade or YA book. I *think* it was a portal fantasy, but it could have just been an other world fantasy. I think there may have been like shadow people, and the MC had to travel into this dark land/fortress? I'm sorry, I know that isn't a lot to go on! The one thing I can say is that it had a green and black cover. The cover kinda has the same vibes as Shadow Chaser by Jerel Law:

Like to the point that I actually thought that might have been it, but Shadow Chaser was book 3 in a series, and the one I'm looking for was either book 1 or a stand-alone.

Help a girl out? Let me know if you have an idea of what book I'm looking for, or if you know someone who might know feel free to tag them, or share this post... whatever. Thanks!

[russianbluewitch]

There needs to be more Christian cosmic horror stories.

Not just as analogies (though it works for that) but for power scaling purposes.

Like… the devil is not nearly as powerful as a cosmic horror. He can’t destroy a planet by accident; he can’t wake up and destroy time itself. He’s more dangerous because he’s more present but he’s not more powerful; he’s stuck whispering evil thoughts to humans and has to beg God for permission to make one guy sick.

And God…. Well.

An eldritch abomination sees more things than any human can understand; their vision of the cosmos is more than we can comprehend. And because of that, they barely understand what we are or what we want, because we are as ants to them.

God comprehends everything an outer god can and also the inner workings of every bacteria living on every surface and also knows the heart of man.

We can’t understand the fullness of God’s wisdom but by trying to comprehend something smaller, we can begin to.

[veronicaleighauthor]

My beta's have gone through my current #wip and have given it their stamp of approval, along with their suggestions. Now it's my turn to go through it and get cracking on the second draft!

[paranormaljones]

one of my favorite parts about engaging with fiction as a Christian is coming across characters who seem to have an innate and visible good-ness and drive to be good and pure that sets them apart from everyone around them, even when that innate goodness leads them to indescribable suffering and pain. i.e., Obi-Wan Kenobi, Peeta Mellark, Chuck Bartowski, Clark Kent [specifically My Adventures With Superman because that's the only Clark Kent i'm familiar with], Matthew Crawley, Mike Wheeler in season 1. there are more examples of this but you get it. finding characters like this lights up a part of my heart that's definitely only there from viewing them through the lense and knowledge of my belief in Jesus and the Bible as a whole. and it's not necessarily that these characters are written to be Christ figures, because a lot of them very much aren't. they are all still visibly flawed and human. but they embody a familiar goodness. finding these characters heals and inspires my soul very noticably and i know i can't be the only one who feels that way. we need more of them.

[evelynmlewis]

Official announcement post forthcoming, but I just wanted to advance out the word that The Kingdom of Heaven will be entered in the first week of January in to the Realm Makers' awards (or the Realmy's) for the best Christian fiction of 2023, in the Science Fiction category.

There are 2 awards per category, the Judges' Pick, and the Reader's Choice award. For the Judge's Pick, I can enter the book myself for a small fee.

For the Reader's Choice award, the book would have to be nominated by a reader/readers between April 1st and 15th, and then win in voting between May 1 and 15th.

[bookwormchocaholic]

I can't send emojis right now, but pretend I'm sending you a crown one for that ask meme you just reblogged!

Hello! Thank you for sending an ask in! You got it!

👑 - A Place Called Home

The girls spent the morning having egg shampoos and then Minnie rubbed lemons on her tresses to lighten her hair, making the whole house smell fragrant. Afterwards, she and Clara went up in the latter’s apartment, the former sat at the latter’s vanity. Her cousin attempted to show a becoming way she could wear her hair once she was sixteen, and whether or not it was wrong to powder her nose to take the shine off of it. They had recently found a photograph in a magazine of Mary Pickford wearing her hair up and Minnie was determined to learn the trick of it, or die trying. Her fingers were not as nimble as her cousin’s.

[gracieelinn]

Meet Libra!

STATS

Name: Libra Gage

Aliases: “Libby” (her sister Virana’s nickname for her) “Li” (pronounced “LEE”; given to her by friend and fellow Resistant Raiden Kumamoto)

Age: 13 (when first introduced); 16-18 (by last appearance)

Gender: Female

Height: 5’5.3”

Species: human

Hair: Auburn

Eyes: Gray

Skin: Light

Preferred clothing: a lightweight shirt, hoodie sweatshirt, and pair of loose-fitting cargo jeans when relaxing or working; dark, close-fitting clothing to increase stealth when in battle or when hiding. A dark coat or jacket is also a favorite personal touch.

[marietheran]

See, everyone is saying that the problem with most Christian art is that it's afraid to talk about difficult things, but I'm not actually sure that this is the crux of the issue? Certainly, there are many people who seem to expect "Christian art" to 100% positive, but at the same time, art doesn't have to be dark to be good, and many Christian books do showcase some quite grim stuff -- and still suck.

Either it's that maybe they're only setting the book in a dark place, and that isn't enough (perhaps it's internal conflict that is needed here, not just difficult external circumstances), or it's that the writing is simply poor. And I'm beginning to think it might be the latter, but I don't know what causes it.

Does the problem lie with too-lax editors or lack thereof? Surely there have to be Christians capable of writing well in the right circumstances?

[keepersofthegate]

The Summons paperback and ebook now open for pre-orders!

(Ebook cover subject to change. Paperback cover shown is also a little out of date as of 9/12 but should load the new version soon)

You've been summoned. But where? Perhaps it is to the presence of the King. Perhaps an otherworldly banquet. Perhaps it is the inescapable pull of the soul to the unapproachable light. Or perhaps you've just been invited to a bible study by a neighbor? Judge wisely, dear reader, for perhaps the darkness has summoned you as well.

From opulent fantastical worlds to the magic hidden behind the veneer of the mundane, these 7 original fairy tales will astound and delight. 5 new Christian writers make their print debut on the literary scene, and Evelyn M. Lewis and Maria Fedina return, in the first Salt and Light Collection. Make haste, and do not delay.

[greater-than-the-sword]

Hey everyone, the ebook for The Kingdom of Heaven is now available from my Ko-fi for $3.50 (before whatever fees Ko-fi imposes, I believe) which is a 30% discount from Amazon. If you've been waiting for the ebook to come down in price, now is your time. You will need the Kindle app.

[christian-oc-tag-games]

Do you know if there's a Salt and Light discord server btw? I was recently thinking about making one, but idk if there is one already o3o (I only just found this blog but you seem like the person to ask lol)

hi there! I personally am not the admin of any such group but i joined some

https://discord.gg/rkvprt6a

for example, this is called Creative Christians

it`s for Christians who want to share their writing

I am in another one but I think it's more private so I won't overstep boundaries. but it, too, is for Christians who want to share their writing.

if by your question you meant a server for Christians but not necessarily writing, I'm not sure if there is one. the inklings challenge may also have one? or maybe i'm misremebering. of course, you can always make your own server with your own theme

[worldofstoriesanddreams]

Liam's Dark Secrets just launched!

Here's where you can read it.