What does “faith-friendly” mean? (and why I like it)

February 5, 2024 Jaycee Weaver24 Comments

Have you seen the term “faith-friendly” floating around the bookisphere recently? I’ve seen it a few times, and the more I consider it, the more I like it.

As a woman whose primary love language is words, who flourished in English and went on to become a writer, words hold a lot of meaning to me. I love to collect and savor them when I come across something particularly intriguing or unique. When words are inadequate or used ineffectively, it drives me crazy. I place a high value on choosing the right word to convey the fullest meaning, and when I find one that’s especially apt, I adopt it.

I’ve adopted faith-friendly recently, and I’d love to explain why. Now, since the English language is a wonderfully complex beast, my definition may not be the one you’d use. It doesn’t have an official meaning. If you google it, you won’t find much to help you, either. So we’ll consider this to be documentation of early use for posterity’s sake. 😆

Why use “faith-friendly” to describe books?

There are a lot of subgenres and book classifications out there for romance readers. Christian. Inspirational. Clean. Sweet. Closed door. Do we even need another term? In my opinion, not only yes, but a resounding yes!

Christian books are typically written from a Christian world view, but the term is super vague. How much faith will be included? Will it be more rigidly religious in tone or filled with grace? Will the characters be flawlessly perfect and turn to Jesus every time they have a wayward thought, or will they face struggles and need redemption, sometimes from really big sin mistakes? Will one of the MCs have a salvation moment or are they all already saved and living for the Lord? You’ll find a very broad spectrum under this massive umbrella, so clearly it’s inadequate. I’ve listened and read comments online, and the general consensus of feedback I’ve seen is those who predominantly prefer to read Christian books want to read solid, unabashedly Christian content. Many will go so far as to leave lower-starred reviews when a book isn’t “Christian” enough. Ouch. That’s not so helpful for readers and authors who tend to opt for subtlety.

So where do the books land that might be told from a believing worldview but aren’t overtly Christian? Let’s explore those other terms I mentioned.

Many of the same questions may arise when considering “inspirational” as when choosing a “Christian” book. Sometimes, inspirational is code for books from Jesus believing religious groups who don’t fully identify as Christian. Sometimes it simply means inspiring or uplifting with a generally positive tone. Sometimes it is fairly overtly Christian, and the publisher simply double dipped into both categories. Again, no clearly defined standard that can lead to confusion.

There are plenty of books out there in which the characters or romance are sweet. Many will be marked as “sweet and spicy,” just as others use “sweet and clean,” making this yet another ineffective term.

Closed-door can be a mixed bag. The expectations are loose, as some can fall on the spectrum closer to inspirational with characters who pray and even go to church while others will have lust-driven MCs who fixate on the physical but the sex happens off the page, aka fade-to-black or behind closed door. These can be off-putting to a person who wants a chemistry and banter filled romance without all the sexual undertones.

Recently, there’s been push back for using the term “clean” because it implies that sex is “dirty.” And honestly, as a Bible believing woman, I agree. God made sex to be a beautiful, enjoyable, lovely thing within the right context, and the viewpoint of sex being dirty is both antiquated and damaging. The Bible uses the term “unclean” in reference to sin, but unclean doesn’t mean dirty. He outlined steps for becoming clean again in the OT, and in Jesus we are made new. The characters in spicy books are living as lost sinners, and we believers should never hold unbelievers to our own moral standards. The lost will behave sinfully, but it’s not our job to condemn them just because we’re called to live differently. Our job is simply to love, serve, and be the hands and feet of Jesus (not the mouthpiece). So classifying books that don’t have sex scenes as “clean” is, at heart, rather judgmental. (I might be campaigning a bit here to stop using this term entirely…lol!)

Still, as believers, we ought not be immersed in the glorification of the flesh, so how do we find books sans the fixation on sex without becoming modern day Pharisees in our attitudes?

It’s a well-known, well-bemoaned fact for romance readers that the current terms are simply inadequate. Terms like “low spice” help, but even that’s subjective. We need to find a way to describe books where the focus is on character growth and true romance, in which faith may or may not be an obvious part of the story, but the characters don’t behave in ways that would make a believer bristle (except in cases where the behavior is addressed and repentance/redemption is part of their growth arc).

I propose the industry adopt “faith-friendly” as a more effective descriptor for such books. Friendly toward people of faith, though not necessarily overt in Christian themes. A faith leaning worldview, but few to no references to scripture or God himself, though believers will recognize the implied truths for what they are. Faith in action as characters live the Word without needing to quote it.

There’s a place and an audience for both overtly Christian and more subtle stories, just as some believers are called to the mission field or pastoral ministry while others are called to serve in less visible capacities. The books I write tend to fall along the Christian spectrum anywhere between overt salvation moments to barely a mention of God. I ask the Lord for guidance every time I sit to write, and I try to pay attention to his leading, but not every book comes out with a direct Christian message. I don’t want to disappoint readers who expect more or less overt content, but how can I avoid it unless I establish expectations from the onset? I can’t begin to tell you how many of my author friends have bemoaned getting dinged in their reviews for not meeting those expectations the way a reader preferred.

This is why I’m championing we adopt “faith-friendly” into our lexicon of classifiers. When it comes to reading tastes, it’s nice to be able to easily identify the kind of story we’re looking for without offending or hurting nonbelievers—or even fellow believers whose convictions might not be the same as another’s. Readers want expectations met. Authors and publishers want to meet them. For Christians who don’t only read “Christian” books, we need a way to identify and clarify so those expectations stand a chance. There needs to be an alternative to one broad umbrella that covers too much and yet too little.

So, hi! I’m Jaycee. I love Jesus and value authenticity. Books and words are my passion. I write faith-friendly forevers, swoons, & sass. Coincidentally, that’s what I like to read.

Which books have you read recently that you’d consider “faith-friendly” versus “Christian”? Do you tend to read one over the other, or do you like to mix it up?

I look forward to chatting with you in the comments!

Until next time,

Tragedy and Romance (+giveaway)

August 9, 2021 Jaycee Weaver44 Comments

I’ll be the first to admit I tend to lean toward uncomplicated, happy romances by default. Like bacon and cheese, such books make up the majority of my dietary preferences, literarily speaking. However, these aren’t the books I savor. They aren’t the ones to win awards and acclaim and get talked about nonstop.

I could be way off base, but it seems to me those spaces in our hearts tend to be reserved for the tragic tales. Now, since we here at Inspy Romance focus on CCR, we’ll stick to that genre, which means certain rules apply to our tragedies. They still require romantic love that ends happily and threads of faith (whether overt or subtle) that lead to characters overcoming whatever tragedy or trauma stands in the way of that happy romantic ending.

Now that the parameters are in place, let’s talk about why we love sad stories. We could get technical and talk about catharsis and endorphins and bio-chemical responses, but that might bore you to tears. Instead, let’s talk about it purely from a human experience standpoint.

As readers, we all know how books make us feel things, how reading makes us more empathetic. There’s no avoiding tragedy as part of the human experience. We all experience it on some level at some point in our lives. Considering we were created for connection, it makes sense that reading others’ experiences builds that connection as it allows us to see through someone else’s point of view.

Why am I thinking about all of this?

A few reasons. If you’re part of my email list, you’ll know we’ve faced several losses recently both in my family and in the reading community (including the heartbreaking loss of fellow author and former IR blogger Marion Ueckermann). I also read a few posts recently comparing people’s reading tastes pre-covid, height of covid, to now. It’s been interesting to see how many chose primarily comedies versus how many actually preferred tragic stories. I read one person’s comment that she walked away from tragic stories, specifically romances with an HEA, with a fresh outlook and appreciation for life.

What do you think? Do you ever go through phases where you just need to read something sad? Do you still want the tale to end happily?

I’m curious about your answers, truly!

Last week I reread one of my novellas from last year, This and Every Christmas, (which I’ll be releasing individually here in a couple of months) in preparation for writing its follow-on book for this year’s Christmas Lights Collection. I set out to write a story that was light and happy and Hallmark worthy, but as it progressed, I was hit with loss after loss for my poor hero. I never would’ve imagined readers would connect with a story in which three key people in his life die within the span of a few chapters, yet I’ve been hearing over and over again it’s one of their favorites. (You can’t see my shoulders shrugging, but trust me, they are.) It made me wonder.

And then there’s a major tragedy that sets the foundation for my entire novella Braver With You in the upcoming Save the Date collection. I had no idea when I started writing Ashlyn and Conrad’s childhood sweethearts story that such heartache would be the basis of not only her backstory, but his! I won’t spoil the details (though I do hope you’ll pre-order your copy of the collection for only 99¢ and then leave us a review with your thoughts) but writing the trauma she experienced as a little girl and understanding how it impacted every significant person in her life was eye-opening for me as a writer.

Life is hard, loss even harder. Perhaps that’s why we connect so well to characters who’ve faced things we have or worse. Maybe it’s finding hope for ourselves in the hard times, even when our only example of coming out the other side is a fictional character. I’m not exactly sure, but it’s definitely worth spending some time contemplating.

So I’ll let you contemplate, then you can leave a comment below to share about whether or not you connect best to characters who’ve faced tragedy or trauma and why you think that might be. I’d love to read your responses to my above questions. And then just to lighten things up, I’ll choose one random commenter to receive an advance review e-copy of Braver With You OR This and Every Christmas, winner’s choice. Also, if you have any great book suggestions for CCR titles in which characters face and overcome tragedy, I’ll give you an extra entry into the giveaway!

Until next time, happy reading (or not)!

Author Thoughts · Roundup

Unkissable (and other unconventional titles)

May 7, 2021 Jaycee Weaver33 Comments

The cover is unarguably the single biggest draw to a reader in deciding whether or not to choose a book. A close second, though, is often the title. Just the other day, I read a comment online from a woman who couldn’t bring herself to read a friend’s book simply because the single-word title was off-putting. (Of course, my brain immediately pondered the likelihood of a novel titled Moist.)

It got me wondering, though, like poor lovesick Juliet—what’s in a name? Would a book by any other title be just as sweet?

From an author standpoint, titling is hard, especially if you’re an indie without the benefit of a marketing team of experts who understand both genre expectations and what sells. Sometimes a title will simply come naturally as we’re writing. Sometimes it takes as much brainstorming as the book itself. And realistically, without that panel of professionals, how do we know what single word or short string of words is going to lure in the reader while conveying everything it must?

After all, not every romance can follow that old formula of The _____’s _______ or Her/His ________ ________, right? They’d all start to feel a little Mad-Libs-like after awhile. I thought it would be fun for today if a few of our Inspy Romance authors shared one of their titles that at first glance might not make sense for contemporary Christian romance!

To kick things off, I’d like to share the title of my upcoming fairy tale twist on The Frog Prince, which will be releasing May 25th as part of the Once Upon a Summer collection. Writing this tale was a bit of a challenge for several reasons. To start, the original Grimm’s fairy tale is only about a page and a half long. There’s a spoiled princess, an enchanted frog who’s really a prince, a pond and a golden ball, a broken promise, a ridiculous hissy fit, and a loyal servant whose heart had been banded with iron so it wouldn’t break. Disney’s recent Princess and the Frog was no help since it isn’t based on that fairy tale at all, but is instead their loose twist of a different tale, The Frog Princess (E.D. Baker).

What struck me while writing was how very unlikable the princess was in the Grimm’s story. Why did the prince fall in love with her? Why would my frog prince want a kiss from such a snotty diva?

And why would I name my fairy tale—the very tale we get our pop-culture fascination with kissing frogs from—Unkissable?

Weird choice, I know, but the title came when I set out to give Charlotte a redemption story. I made her a Hollywood reality star with a reputation for throwing fits. Her prince is Jaime Reyes, the younger brother of Derek, the hero of A Splash of Love, my Little Mermaid retelling in 2019’s Once Upon a Christmas. I wanted to focus on retelling the story with as many elements of the original tale (sparse as they were) as possible, but as Christian fiction, bring her redemption and grace and restoration. The reader deserves to know why the frog prince wants to help her, befriend her, and ultimately be kissed by her.

Enough about my tale, let’s look at a few of my awesome Inspy Romance friends’ titles (don’t worry, I have their permission and it’s all in the spirit of camaraderie and fun). While they may not make sense for a romance at first, when we step back at examine the series they’re part of or read the story itself, the titles work.

First up, Laurie Larsen’s Pawleys Island Paradise book 5, Path to Discovery. At first glance, we might assume it’s a self help book. But in the scope of the series, we notice the other titles follow the same format of ___ to ____ (the way to a state of being). Clever, right?

Or how about Valerie Comer’s Dandelions for Dinner? The fourth installment in her Farm Fresh Romance series seems a little odd, but every book has a title with an edible (who knew dandelions were edible?!) fresh food. BTW, this series is really cute.

Janet W. Ferguson’s Going Up South doesn’t exactly scream romance either. However, when you realize the bad-boy hero has no where to go but up (while having to go South!), it totally makes sense.

I asked Tabitha Bouldin about her upcoming island romance, Stealing the First Mate. We laughed over it sounding like a historical pirate romance. In reality, it’s about unrequited love and a boat tour! It sounds super fun and I look forward to checking it out when it releases the end of the month.

My good friend Toni Shiloh’s short A Proxy Wedding made me scratch my head at first. What in the world did it mean? Turns out, two people agree to stand in as proxy so their two friends serving in the military could get married, and they discover feelings of their own along the way.

As you can see, in the end, these titles do make sense (and they’re some pretty fun stories, too). I’m sure we could talk unconventional titles for romances a good long while, so why don’t you share a few you’ve come across in the comments. What made you decide to read the book? Do you think Unkissable is an odd choice for a fairy tale retelling?

Author Thoughts · Writing Process

How Being an Empath Impacts My Writing (and everything else)

June 9, 2020 Jaycee Weaver26 Comments

It’s always been hard to explain the difference between sympathy and empathy. It’s even harder to describe being an empath versus feeling empathy, but the best I’ve been able to come up with is this: empaths are highly absorbent emotional sponges in human form.

Unlike sympathy, which is essentially identifying someone’s emotional state and reacting compassionately, empathy is the ability to put yourself in another’s shoes. Actually being an empath takes it one step further—we actually feel the emotions others around us are experiencing within our own bodies as if it were happening to us.

I won’t describe my journey to realizing I possessed these traits— that would take up far too much time, though if you’re curious you can click the links like this one here or here. I will say they traits have amplified as I’ve matured and become less self-involved (which in a way, makes sense, right? I pray, “more of You, Lord, less of me,” and He actually answered that prayer in a very literal way, allowing me to hurt for what hurts Him).

Anyway. So how has being an empath impacted my writing? I’ll do a list of the positives and a few drawbacks.

Empaths are able to conceptualize the world from a multitude of perspectives. In my writing, this translates to infinite storylines with a wide range of characters! My career never has to end! (Hear the maniacal laugh there?)
We can read emotional cues and tend to be highly emotional ourselves, so it’s easier to imagine both the physical and internal experiences of others. In writing, that means I can craft authentic characters and vividly describe their experiences.
Because empaths perceive a lot of nonverbal cues and experience emotional responses internally, I can write realistic character interactions, even if I haven’t lived it myself.
Working out sticky plot points is actually fun for me because I can run through multiple scenarios and see how different actions might spark different reactions from different characters, and how the plot would naturally move depending on each scenario. Like a crazy road map in my head.
Heightened awareness extends beyond emotion. I’m also highly attuned to colors, sounds, smells, sights, flavors, and touch. Incorporating heightened senses enriches the reader experience of a story.
I can get stuck inside my head and feel too much at once, though, which means sometimes it takes forever to write a scene (or blog post, ha ha) and I end up revising it 436 times while rethinking, “will a reader understand this is my character’s opinion and not mine?” or “will this hurt a reader?” or “how else might this be interpreted?”
Empaths want to help everyone, all the time, whether that’s listening to a loved one or aching to bring understanding to a polarized society or observing injustice or someone hurting in the grocery store. So sometimes priorities get skewed as I drop my writer jobs to help someone else with theirs. Usually that’s not a big deal. I enjoy helping others, I just have to work extra hard to say no because I love saying yes so much. It’s also imperative to create a bubble I can retreat into to restore my spirit.
Emotional trials get in the way of my creativity, which means sometimes I can’t write at all. Last week we lost a very dear friend. We had both good and not-so-good news from other loved ones. Added to the existing COVID stress, racial tension, and political negativity from every direction, I could hardly function.
Back to the good stuff. There’s a lot of humor to be found in hyperbole. What’s a fun way to deal with all those extreme feelings? Turn them into dramatic reactions and over-the-top situations. Case in point, Jenna Davis from Whatever Happens Next.
And last but not least, because the Christian and Inspy writing community is so very uplifting and supportive, all that love and grace restores my spirit and stirs me to bring balance to the world by writing stories that inspire empathy in others, too.

So there you have it. Many of these traits are common to other writers and readers, of course, to a degree. When we read, we’re naturally building empathy skills because we’re reading through the eyes of the characters. While only about 15-20% of the population are true empaths, we can all increase our ability to exhibit the traits that make us better and can be an asset to us in everyday life. I hope I’ve shared a little bit of something new and interesting with you! Be sure to comment below—whatever you’d like to share. I’d love to hear from and connect with you!