Devastated by the droughts and plagues that have ravaged her family's homestead on the Nebraska Plains in the 1870s, settler Ingrid Svensson regards wealthy Jude Kingman as her sworn enemy. But Ingrid gradually sees that Jude shares her commitment to seeing justice served, and when personal tragedy strikes at everything she holds most dear, this strong, independent woman must reconsider her previous assumptions and open her heart to forgiveness…and love.
To provide a better life for her young daughter, Clarissa Graham joins a wagon train headed west. But as the trail turns increasingly dangerous, Clarissa fears her decision could cost them their lives. Help comes in the unlikely form of a jaded ex-soldier—Dawson Clements—who knows nothing of grace, forgiveness or even love. Now Clarissa is about to face an even greater challenge. Can she convince Dawson to remain by her side for a journey that will last a lifetime?
With rough miners for shipmates, Elizabeth Breckenridge sets sail to search for her brother in Alaska, wild with the 1890s gold rush. When she falls overboard midjourney, she is rescued by a man very unlike her minister brother—Clint Brady, a cynical bounty hunter who shoots to kill.
Together, this unlikely couple struggles to survive the rugged dangers of the beautiful Alaskan frontier. Unexpectedly, Clint comes to love her, and proposes. Elizabeth returns his love, but unless she can help Clint see that heaven is no abstraction in the sky, the grip of the past could cost them a future together….
There is, of course, a need and a huge market for inspirational novels, and I know many writers who write beautiful inspirational stories and are very successful at it. My congratulations and respect and admiration go out to them because I know the struggle writing can be in any genre and I am definitely all for spreading the Word of Christ in any avenue that works. It’s just that in writing the three inspirational stories above, I found it very difficult to stick with the rules I was given when writing these stories. I would have written more, but I am not one to follow specific rules or write “formula” books. Not long after I wrote those stories for Harlequin, the rules for writing them began to change to the point that my heroes couldn’t even say “gosh darn,” because it meant something else; and even a kiss was sinful. In the end of WHERE HEAVEN BEGINS the hero carries his wife to their bedroom and (of course) the door closes behind them. Yet even though they are MARRIED, that scene was NIXED when the book was reprinted because it hinted at sex!!! That did it for me. That’s just not reality, and it certainly isn’t very romantic. A man can’t even carry his WIFE to their bed?
If you have read my hard-hitting westerns, you know my heroes are pretty fierce, sometimes ruthless “take no crap” men who are far from angels. It’s difficult for me to write any other kind of hero, and I realized I’m not cut out for straight inspirational stories; HOWEVER, I decided I can keep sneaking inspirational messages into the books I do write. If an inspirational story means only writing about people ALREADY “saved” who only face challenges to the faith they ALREADY have – then to me it’s not inspirational. I believe that “inspirational” should mean saving someone who is lost and alone and who has taken the wrong path in life (like the bounty hunter in WHERE HEAVEN BEGINS) – someone who has lost whatever faith they might have had because of a tragedy in his or her life that destroyed their faith – or someone who has never had any religious training and knows nothing about God or the Bible – and bringing that person into God’s light – and teaching them about faith and Christ – whatever it takes to change their lives. If a life isn’t being changed, where is the inspiration? And if sinful ways aren’t used in the story, where is the reality? Love Inspired wanted me to write stories wherein the characters were totally devout, practically sinless people. Is there anyone reading this who hasn’t sinned?
I hope to bring new meaning to the “inspirational” story that doesn’t prohibit sex and rough living. With the kind of heroes I write, you can’t leave those things out. My hero in my Outlaw series, Jake Harkner, is just such a man. I have loved writing Jake because he is so tortured and so complicated but so loveable in spite of being an ex-outlaw who even as a lawman is still sometimes ruthless. I have really enjoyed the psychology of this man who inside is just a little boy wanting the love he never knew in his horribly abused childhood. He can be so mean and fast to take revenge and deal his own form of justice, but on the inside he’s such a kid. Jake really struggles with his faith because his mother was Catholic and he got a small taste of going to Mass and prayer before his father murdered his mother and little brother before his eyes and forced Jake (only 8 years old) to help bury them. His father was a brutal alcoholic and Jake never knew love after losing his mother, but he always kept her prayer beads and Crucifix and wore them his whole life. He secretly prayed but would not step foot into a church because he felt unworthy because of his VERY sinful past – and also because for the first fifteen years of his life his father beat it into him that he was no good.
Then comes Miranda, the woman Jake unwittingly falls in love with and who changes his life. She cures him of his outlaw ways, but dealing his own form of justice is in Jake’s blood and he can still be ruthless when it comes to going after the “bad guys,” especially where criminal acts against innocent people are involved, so that ruthless element about him keeps showing itself because he was raised by a ruthless man and things he experienced leave him unable to tolerate brutality toward innocent people, especially women. Jake can kill at the drop of a hat, yet he’s a very devoted, loving man toward his family. He’d rather shoot himself than raise a hand or even his voice to his wife and children. He loves Miranda with every fiber of his being and is true to her – and their lovemaking is hot but beautiful and so fulfilling. Jake takes strength from Miranda and being a part of this woman physically and emotionally helps keep him on the right track. He is fiercely defensive of everyone in his family because that’s where he finds the love he always yearned for as a child. That love is all-important to him, and it’s his family, especially his wife and daughter, who slowly teach Jake about faith and that it’s okay to forgive himself for his worst crime … killing his own brutal father.
DO NOT FORSAKE ME is sometimes hard to read and has everything you’d never find in the “inspirational” section on the book shelves. Yet in reading it you will find the story is truly “inspirational.” Jake longs to be forgiven, longs to love and be loved, longs to know Christ and know how to pray. In one scene he sits outside of a church listening to the hymns, but he won’t go inside. It’s a scene that highlights the pitiful loneliness this man suffers in spite of having a loving family. He’s still that unloved, unwelcome little boy. As his own son once states in the story – “There is a war going on inside my father.” And it’s a war between good and evil, right and wrong. Jake is a man who walks on the thin edge of light and darkness. In another scene he even asks for help from a preacher. Jake’s sanity relies on the strength he gets from Miranda – and deep inside he knows her own strength comes from her faith. If Jake lived today, he would need counseling; but he lived in a time when such things were not available. His tortured childhood would have been enough to send anyone over the edge. His “counselor” is his wife, and the love of his family, who refuse to see anything but the good in their husband and father.
I very subtly weave Christianity into DO NOT FORSAKE ME, a very gritty, realistic western, showing how even the worst of mankind sometimes wants a relationship with Christ. In the end Jake loses a bet with his wife and has to keep a promise to her – to GO TO CHURCH! Of all the dangers Jake has faced in his life, stepping foot into a church is the most difficult, even frightening thing he’s ever done. A few amusing things happen leading up to this and – well – you just have to read that last chapter. It’s both funny and yet touchingly poignant and really tugs the heartstrings.
That’s my idea of an inspirational story. I find no satisfaction in writing about people already “saved” and supposedly “perfect” who might stray or face some challenge to the faith they already possess. I much prefer writing about someone who desperately needs to learn about love and forgiveness and redemption, and there is plenty of all of that in DO NOT FORSAKE ME and again in my third “Jake” book coming in September, 2016, LOVE’S SWEET REVENGE.
In my very popular SAVAGE DESTINY series, written 32 years ago, I again weave Christianity into a story about a wild half-breed who lives torn between two worlds, white and Indian – and how the love of his very Christian white wife, Abbie, keeps him strong and helps him make very serious choices in life. These books are filled with “real life” situations – and there are hot and fairly explicit sex scenes between these two, but they are beautiful and fulfilling and they remain that way even as the main characters age throughout the series. In the end of this very long family saga (7 books) Abbie dies in a rocking chair in the little cabin she shared with Zeke most of their lives … and she dies with a Bible in her lap.
I have had many comments from readers about how refreshing it is to read about an older couple, two people who still have good sex. Hey – older doesn’t mean out of commission. I beg to differ! Some people age very well and still are healthy and look good. Jake Harkner in my Outlaw series is one hell of a man in all ways, and he absolutely adores women and adores his wife and he knows exactly how to handle her sexually, which makes for some very provocative love scenes. He senses her every emotion and desire and respects her body as something owned only by Jake Harkner. He considers himself unworthy of this good, good woman, and so he practically worships her – but he’s a man in every sense of the word and he truly enjoys sex. Here again, I see nothing wrong with having sex in an inspirational story. Sex is natural between two people in love and why God made us with all the right body parts. I enjoy writing “between the lines” religion and faith into my stories, right along with “real life” sex and the rugged living and the gunfights and lawlessness and all kinds of “wild west” action. Such things only make a story more memorable and more real. And I can “inspire” my readers without them realizing I’m actually writing my own form of an inspirational story.
Don’t be afraid to “mix it up” in your writing. Just because you write a particular genre doesn’t mean you can’t sneak in something that is normally never used in that genre. That’s what makes for a more memorable story. So let your imagination … and your heart … guide you in your writing.
Miranda Hayes has lost everything-her family, her husband, her home. Orphaned and then widowed, desperate to find a safe haven, she sets out to cross a savage land alone...until chance brings her face-to-face with notorious gunslinger Jake Harkner.
Hunted by the law and haunted by a brutal past, Jake has spent a lifetime fighting for everything he has. He's never known a moment's kindness...until fate brings him to the one woman willing to reach past his harsh exterior to the man inside. He would die for her. He would kill for her. He will do whatever it takes to keep her his.
Spanning the dazzling West with its blazing deserts and booming gold towns, Jake and Miranda must struggle to endure every hardship that threatens to tear them apart. But the love of an outlaw comes with a price...and even their passion may not burn bright enough to conquer the coming darkness.
Miranda Hayes' life was changed the day she faced down infamous gunslinger Jake Harkner...and walked away with his heart. Their fates have been intertwined ever since. Hunted by the law, fleeing across a savage land, their desperate love flourished despite countless sorrows. Now, twenty-six years later, their family has finally found some measure of peace...balanced on the knife's edge of danger.
Jake has spent his years as a U.S. Marshal atoning for sins, bringing law to the land he once terrorized. But no matter how hard he fights the demons of his brutal past, the old darkness still threatens to consume him. Only Miranda keeps the shadows at bay. But when outlaws looking for revenge strike a fatal blow, Jake risks losing the one woman who saw past his hard exterior and to the man inside.
He always knew there'd be the devil to pay. He just never realized he might not be the one to bear the ultimate price.
So very well said and so true.
ReplyDeleteThat is one thing I have always loved about your books you write real life not some mushy so sweet it could never be true. I love your element of faith in your books that is subtle and not in a shove it down your throat way but in a way that makes you want to become a better person. Love u dear sweet friend!!
ReplyDeleteThank you for this, Rosanne. I have struggled with this myself and still do.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your story..
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