When I first started writing a man asked me what genre were my novels and when I replied inspirational romance he replied, “Isn’t that an oxymoron?” This was the first of many such encounters where I found myself explaining what exactly inspirational romance is. The simplest definition I can give is that inspirational romance is the edgier side of Christian romance. I often push the envelope of Christian fiction and romance with the actions of my characters. However, it never ceases to amaze me that most people assume that romance ALWAYS includes sex and if I’m writing about romance/sex it must be immoral. It is times such as these that I take the opportunity to enlighten others.

1.God created sex. Sex itself is neither dirty nor immoral. It is a beautiful physical expression of love and/or desire two people have for one another and a necessary process for procreation that was intended between a man and his wife.  It is the context in which people choose to have sex which leads to immorality and chaos. All we have to do is look at all the calamity that has come into play from sex being used outside of God’s will to know this is true. There is tons of data about the astronomical number of children being born out of wedlock and the also astronomical number of STDs being passed around the globe. We can even go deeper and cite sources about the emotional and developmental challenges that children who do not have both parents in the home often face. This is not to say that we would not have illegitimate children being born or STDs if everyone having sex were married. People have been having sex outside of their marriages for eons but I’m willing to gamble that the numbers would be far less than they are now.

2. Romance is not synonymous with sex. Although I recognize that within the literary industry when you say romance novel it is a given that it will contain sex and probably lots of it. However, when you add the word Christian or inspirational it becomes more about faith and less about sex. This is actually getting back to the truer sense of the word romance. Just as you can have sex without romance you can have romance without sex.  When I looked up the definition of romance this is what I found:

ro·mance—(rōˈmans,ˈrōˌmans/) noun— a feeling of excitement and mystery associated with love.

By definition romance has to do with love not sex and God in His purest form is LOVE. Therefore, it makes perfect sense that I am able to write an inspirational or edgy Christian romance novel and explore all the facets of love and the emotions associated with it.

In each of my novels I display the love that God has for us and because of His infinite wisdom we are able to give this love to others in many ways–from acts of kindness to intimacy. I hope you’ll read my novels and allow me to spread a little love and God  in your lives.