Comments on: Because I Said So

By: terrio

terrio — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 01:08:00 +0000

Evangeline - I feel the exact same way about historicals. I feel totally comfortable writing people in modern day, but I can’t imagine trying to create them in one or two hundred years ago. I could never do medieval.

By: Evangeline

Evangeline — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 00:56:52 +0000

Anything contemporary. I have so many ideas swirling in my head, but I’m frozen by the thought of writing people in this day and age and all the work that goes into it.

By: Renee Lynn Scott

Renee Lynn Scott — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 00:39:10 +0000

OMGosh, Sin, I would so buy the top secret ninja monkey stuff.

Renee

By: Renee Lynn Scott

Renee Lynn Scott — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 00:36:59 +0000

Amen, Janga. That is kind of what I hope to accomplish. Wisdom doesn’t come without falling down every now and again. And if we were always on the mountain we’d never see the beauty of the valley. If I would have stayed hiding behind a mask of religious superiority I never would have discovered a beautiful world unknown to me. And I never would have discovered the treasure of God’s mercy and grace.

Ok, I’m stepping down from the podium. Someone please pass the rum. I’m a little dry.

I’m actually trying to read two inspirationals. I find them, dare I say, boring. And I don’t think it is the lack of sexual tension. I’m not sure what it is as of yet. But Santa, you are correct, they try to hard to fit into guidelines where if the Bible had to fit it would be rejected. For the most part I find them unrealistic and I love to write real characters.

Terri, I have a few contemporaries in the works, but I’m not sure I like my voice, at least not in romance.

Renee

By: Janga

Janga — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 21:58:52 +0000

I’d like to read more romances that are not labeled inspirationals but that focus on characters who have a spiritual dimension to their lives. One of the many reason that I am a huge Mary Jo Putney fan is that she does this so well in books like Thunder and Roses and The Spiral Path (the first historical, the other contemporary).

That’s the kind of book that I want to write–not a didactic novel but one that shows characters who believe in something larger than themselves and who struggle and sometimes fail to live lives in line with their ideals.

By: Santa

Santa — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 21:41:28 +0000

Oh. Um. Never mind, lol!

By: terrio

terrio — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 21:24:35 +0000

Didn’t LaVyrle Spencer write a book with a heroine that was a nun? I think it’s called Then Came Heaven. *glances over to keeper shelf* And I have two copies. How did that happen? Hmmmm

Santa - the retreat is not until this weekend. I just had to have the thing written before then so I finished it over the weekend. I’ll report back next week how it goes over.

By: Hellion

Hellion — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 20:42:22 +0000

I remember reading this category romance back in the 80s (this is rare, because I never read categories), but it was about a preacher who fell in love with a model (who, of course, had fallen off the straight and narrow)–and the last thing she wants is to fall in love with a preacher and become a preacher’s wife. But it was handled REALLY WELL. It had sexual tension, but still handled the fact he was a man of God in such a way that was believable without being preachy.

By: Santa

Santa — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 20:27:34 +0000

Many I need to read the tenants of how to write an inspirational but I’d have to say that I’ve read plenty of sexual tensions that does not include any ‘coveting’ of any kind but the fission that exists and the ‘hightened awareness’, if you will, can be written in such a way that the reader really does need a cigarette afterwards and nary a hair is mussed.

By: Sin

Sin — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 20:10:16 +0000

Great job with the description Ter. Great blog!

As a writer, I couldn’t write an inspirational. Or a self help/instructional unless it was an instructional into top secret ninja monkey stuff, and that’s the sort of thing that requires black noted Zen tips like “always sharpen your bananas before using them to slice” and “always look inward at your inner ninja in times of ninja doubt”.