Christian Fiction and the Awkward Bookstore Dance

A guest post by Beth Webb Hart.

As a novelist with the Thomas Nelson emblem branded on the spine of my books, I am often dealt a side-glance by perusers in bookstores who initially keep a safe distance from the author table where I’m sitting with a stack of unsold novels and a nervous smile that says, “I don’t bite.”

It is both humorous and painful to be a part of this dance.  The large, secular chain book stores usually put the author right at the front door and when shoppers walk in, they avert their eyes and race to their favorite section or better yet, the café, where they will undoubtedly come away with something good for their money.  But eventually, after the last slurps of their icy fraps and a few muffled announcements about the guest author over the crackling intercom, one or two of these folks slowly make their way back toward my table.  Then, when I am momentarily occupied by the manager who offers me a frap (which I accept, of course), they discreetly slide a book off the stack, step out of sight and into some location unknown to me where I assume they are scanning the back cover.  If their interest is peaked by that brilliant person who writes concise, drama-dangling back cover copy (not me, by the way), the customer comes back into view and then they ask me a few questions, usually along the lines of, “So, this a religious book?”  They look to me and then back to the book.   They shift their wait.   “It sounds like southern literature?”  They stare me down.  “Which is it?”

Mmmh.  I swallow hard.  I like to fit things in boxes too.  How to answer this?  Here is the dialogue that runs through my mind:  Yes, all my books are set in the South Carolina lowcountry with quirky characters that seem to be in keeping with southern fiction.  In fact, I am a native southerner and as my favorite fiction writer of all time, Flannery O’Connor, said “to know one’s self is to know one’s region” so I think the books and I both meet the requirements for that genre.

But more important than the regional stuff is the fact that I am Christian, and I can’t see any other way than to tell a story from that particular world view.  Like every author with that Nelson emblem on its spine, I believe in the Nicene Creed.   And, truth be told, I had an out and out conversion during college where I experienced the love of Christ at a time when there was a darkness growing in my soul.  This experience literally changed the trajectory of my life and no matter how difficult or bleak the circumstances for my characters (or me), I trust in God’s grace, and this buoys me (and the characters) and fills us with an undeniable hope.

Of course, I don’t come right out with that whole mouthful.  This tentative peruser will likely throw down the book and run, right?  So I answer as honestly as I can without frightening the poor person who by now is suffering from the after-effects of the frap’s sugar high and may be too weary for a quick and crafty escape.

Here is the sort of thing I say, “I don’t set out to write a “religious” book.  My publisher doesn’t require a conversion scene or the quoting of scripture every twenty pages so there’s no formula.  My first aim is always to write a good story – one with a gripping conflict and compelling characters.   That said, the themes that invariably surface in my stories are the same ones that I wrestle with in my own mind and heart, and they are as follows:  receiving and extending grace, loving the unlovable someone in my life and finding hope in the midst of a hopeless situation.”

Then the peruser might raise their eyebrows, sum me up and at least be appreciative of my honesty.  And if it’s a good day, and they still have a little cash in their pocket, they might set the book down on the table by my pen and say, “Will you sign this for me?”