Most Christian authors I know are
married. Ditto for their readers. So why not fictional characters?
A few weeks ago I moderated a webinar
that novelist DiAnn Mills taught about adding elements of romance to other
genres. While she provided good content, she concentrated on
attraction between characters who were single.
Why not married romance? It can happen.
During a break in the webinar as I gave a voiceover message about
services from the Christian Writers Guild, DiAnn stayed on camera and
her husband, Dean, brought her chocolates and a rose.
Perhaps in the eyes of the publishing
industry, married love isn’t worth writing about.
I know a few authors who’ve had
novels published about married couples. In the CBA market about
fifteen years ago, the late Stephen Bly and his wife, Janet, wrote
the Hidden West series about a tightly married couple. In the general
market, Clive Cussler and co-writer Grant Blackwood introduced in
2009 a series featuring a pair of globetrotting treasure hunters
along the lines of the 1930s Thin Man series with Nick and Nora
Charles.
Indie author Heather Day Gilbert
recently tried to interest CBA houses with a historical series and a
contemporary series featuring a married protagonist, but repeatedly
found her stories didn’t quite fit the industry boxes.
There have to be more examples out
there. If general market authors can make a killing with stories
about vampires, is it too much of a fantasy for CBA authors to find a
way to write believable stories about characters who are happily
married?
