Its Not Your Grandmothers Christian Fiction Anymore

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Its Not Your Grandmothers Christian Fiction
Anymore

• Deborah Bryan
• Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library
• dbryan_at_mail.tscpl.org
• http//www.librarything.com/profile_reviews.php?vi
  ewdebs4jc

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Librarything
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Graph from American Piety in the 21st Century,
Baylor Institute for the Studies of Religion
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Inspirational Fiction
Gentle Reads
Religious or Spiritual Fiction
Christian Fiction
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Christian fiction makes you feel good about God
inspirational fiction just makes you feel good.
Denise Stinson
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You Call THAT Christian Fiction?
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A Genres Past 1978 Janette Okes Love Comes
Softly

• Appeals strongly to Women
• Historical Romance that shows traditional values
• Setting evokes a nostalgic feeling of a warm,
  safe, traditional, environment
• Happy Ending, good clearly wins.
• Adheres to the CBA Code

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CBA Code Example

• Tyndale Fiction Content Policy
• As a conservative Christian publisher, Tyndale
  House has policies that pertain to the use of
  sexual content, violence, and profanity.
• Suspense stories sometimes involve some type of
  violence. Tyndale fiction, however, should
  encourage a respect for the value of life.
  Readers should feel uncomfortable with the
  results of violence in a story, not by the
  violence itself. In other words, readers do not
  need to see the violence to understand and lament
  its impact. Moreover, violence and its effects
  should be answered by the hope of Christ and
  redemption. We will not accept gratuitous
  violence in our fiction. If used, violent content
  must be integral to the story and used
  infrequently. Here is a case where we encourage
  writers to break a rule of fiction writingtell,
  dont show. And remember, less is more.
• Tyndale does not allow the use of profanity or
  the taking of Gods name in vain. Tyndale
  considers the use of profanity inappropriate and
  believes that such language tends to offend and
  alienate the very readership that Tyndale seeks.
• While many Christian stories have characters that
  are romantically attracted to each other, they
  must at the same time uphold the principles of
  Biblical sexual purity. Along with physical
  attraction, healthy Christian dating
  relationships should also involve spiritual,
  intellectual and emotional attractions.

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A Genre Changes1986 Frank Perettis This
Present Darkness

• Opened up the genre to new subgenres, such as
  spiritual warfare, fantasy, science fiction,
  suspense, and apocalyptic
• -While the tone is anything but safe, warm and
  gentle, there is still a strong theme of good vs.
  eviland Good always wins
• -Depictions of sinful behavior is OK, but with
  the message that negative consequences follow
  these actions.

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A Genre Gets Noticed 1995 Jerry B.
Jenkins Tim LaHayes Left Behind

• Prophetic fiction comes to the forefront, and
  breaks out onto the bestseller lists.
• A well known Pastor/Teacher teams up with a
  Fiction writer to create a novel that illustrates
  his or her teachings.
• Branding Left Behind becomes its own brand name
  and spins off into many, many related products.
  Other examples Women of Faith, Thomas Kincaid,
  etc.

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A Genre goes Mainstream1996, Jan Karons At
Home In Mitford

• Karon starts with a Christian Publisher, but then
  gets signed by a Mainstream publishing house
• Mainstream publishers start to form their own
  Christian imprints (or buy Christian publishing
  houses).
• Christian fiction starts to appear on the shelves
  of Wal-Mart, Hastings, and other mainline
  bookstores.

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Current Trends Whats Hot
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Graphic Novels/Manga
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Current Trends

• Embracing new formats
• Boundary pushing
• Seeking a more literary voice
• Starting to see some multi-cultural viewpoints
• Growing male readership
• A growth of more subgenres

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Favorite Websites
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Contemporary/General
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Young Adult
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Literary
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Multicultural
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Historical
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Romance Humor
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Suspense and Thrillers
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Science Fiction/Fantasy
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Local Authors!
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Favorite Websites
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Christian Fiction Awareness Tools

• Publishing house catalogs and newsletters
• Baker and Taylors Spirit
• The standard review magazines Library Journal,
  Booklist, Publishers Weekly. They will sometimes
  have columns on Christian fiction, special
  issues, and cover it in their fiction reviews.
  Look at the publishers as well as carefully
  reading the review to which will clue you in on
  the Christian fiction.
• Christianity TodayOften has book reviews, they
  have a website www.christianitytoday.com that
  combines content from them and from their sister
  publications like Todays Christian Woman,
  several book reviews can be found on this site.
• Romantic Times has a section on Inspirational
  romance VOYA also occasionally reviews Christian
  fiction.
• Christian Radio Stations may do author interviews