R A C H E L H A U C K . C O M

September 21, 2004
The New Bodice-Rippers Have More God and Less Sex
By JOSHUA KURLANTZICK

ENVER, Sept. 19 - Kristin Billerbeck is smitten with romance. The author of "What a Girl Wants," a new novel about a 31-year-old patent attorney searching for true love, Ms. Billerbeck sought to make the heroine's quest as authentic as possible.

"It has to capture all the reality of being single, thinking all the time that you don't necessarily want to be single, and how do you balance that need with your true feelings about each man," she said.

But for Ms. Billerbeck, authenticity also means a heroine who connects not only with a man but with the Lord as well. "The character always has to slow down and hear what God is saying to them," she said last weekend while attending the third annual convention of Christian romance and fiction writers. "I try to present Jesus in a way that shows he's relevant to modern life."

This year's convention, a blend of traditional writing conference and prayer meeting, was packed with aspiring Kristin Billerbecks. The group, called Write From the Heart, was founded by six women five years ago, and today it claims to have more than 600 members. Each day fans, aspiring novelists and published writers - mostly middle-aged women, along with a few men and younger women - gathered in conference rooms to discuss manuscripts, discuss plot arcs, gossip about agents who blew them off and chat up their favorite authors. In private rooms, agents met with promising rookie authors, while editors thumbed through thick files of story proposals.

At workshops, after authors presented their works, conference organizers led group prayers, including one for "Kristin and her writing endeavors," Rachel Hauck, the group's president, said at a mentoring session led by Ms. Billerbeck.

In the mornings the group prayed together, asking God to help guide their pens and thoughts. At the conference bookstore, romantic novels shared table space with guides to home schooling. Nearby was a private prayer room for short breaks, and a few writers sang hymns around the hotel piano. "So many people come here to learn to write, and they meet God along the way," said the conference organizer, Brandlyn Collins.

The publishing industry is beginning to pay attention. The Christian Booksellers Association estimates that total sales of Christian fiction have topped $2 billion a year, and the market share of Christian romance has grown 25 percent a year since 2001, the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association reports. As a result editors have begun targeting younger people who enjoy both Christian and romantic fiction.

"Twentysomething and 30-something women were a grossly underserved market in Christian books," said Kelly Gallagher, vice president of the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association. "There was nothing out there that dealt with the significant, contemporary life issues they face."

Joan Marlow Golan, senior editor at Harlequin, the largest publisher of romantic fiction, foresees an expanding market that will attract more and more young unmarried Christian women. In a recent study of reading habits by the National Endowment for the Arts, observant Christians were the only group of Americans reading more than in the past.

To satisfy that demand, several leading publishers, both Christian and secular romance houses, are rolling out what they call "Christian chick lit" lines. These novels typically feature Bridget Jones types looking for the right man, the right chocolate, the right friends - and the right relationship with God.

Last year the Christian publisher Thomas Nelson jumped in with Ms. Billerbeck's novel. Integrity Publishing, another Christian house, released "The Yada Yada Prayer Group,'' a novel by Nada Jackson about the lives and loves of hip Chicago women in a prayer group. The book sold over 75,000 copies in six months and inspired a sequel, "The Yada Yada Prayer Group Gets Down.'' In March the inspirational publisher Zondervan entered the genre with a series featuring a young Christian woman and her wacky circle of friends and family.

In October Harlequin will kick off its new Christian chick-lit line, Steeple Hill Café, with "The Whitney Chronicles,'' the tale of an endearingly neurotic Christian woman trying to deal with her stressed-out coworkers, comfort a friend who has breast cancer, handle her pushy mother's efforts to set her up and keep off pounds through a church diet group. Meanwhile, Whitney must decide among an array of suitors. She turns to God to help divine each man's intentions, and even keeps a daily Bridgetesque diary filled with Biblical passages that reflect her moods. The author, Judy Baer, said she wrote the book four years ago but her agent couldn't sell it. Two-and-half years later, with secular chick lit titles beginning to fly off racks, "The Whitney Chronicles" sold easily.

Ms. Baer, a veteran Christian romance author who says Christianity "is the center of my life," believes the new books differ sharply from more traditional Christian romance. "It's first person - it's about single, younger women making their way in the world, coming of age and dealing with men and the lack of men. It's very real."

Ms. Baer is convinced her readers want everything devotees of secular chick lit want. They seek a focus on the heroine and her development, as well as strong female friendships and a voice, she said, "that's witty and sarcastic and warm all at the same time."

Laura Morris, senior product manager in Harlequin's new business development division, said Harlequin planned to publish six Christian chick-lit titles a year under the Steeple Hill imprint. Other publishers are considering what the trade calls widow lit and hen lit, Christian romance novels about widows and older women.

Christian publishers say the books will attract both traditional Christian readers and younger ones who usually shop at nonreligious stores. "My audience is not only going into a Christian book store," Ms. Billerbeck said. "I sell better at Barnes & Noble than at Christian Booksellers Association stores."

This may be because the genre is still a bit racy for Christian bookstores - many titles feature hot-pink covers, and Ms. Billerbeck describes her heroine's thong underwear, which apparently shocked some Christian Book Association book buyers.

Still, there's no bed-hopping or other sexual shenanigans. Fans of these books "are looking for something a little more wholesome - they're not looking for just the smutty stuff," Mr. Gallagher said.

There is also less emphasis on the kind of over-the-top materialism that delights readers of, say "The Devil Wears Prada." "Chick lit can be all about me, me, me," said Eileen Key, an aspiring author. "The Prada bag, the Lexus, that has to be more balanced with a less materialistic Christ-conscious life."

So what's left without the sex and coveting of clothes? "There's a kind of deliciousness that comes with unfolding a relationship at a leisurely pace," Ms. Baer said. "You extend all the exuberance, the nervousness of folks falling in love."

Those at Write From the Heart certainly agree. When talk at one workshop turned to the kind of man young Christian readers want, one female writer called out "I like Mark Darcys," the shy, courtly, ravishing hero of "Bridget Jones's Diary," a man who takes hundreds of pages to put a move on.