Guest Post – Living Seperate Lives by Paulette Harper

Hi all! I hope everyone has been enjoying the holidays. It’s my favorite time of the year and, once it’s gone, I truly miss it. This is book time, though, so on to today’s post. I love books for many reasons and I have to admit that I love blogging about books. Sharing all of my favorites reads with all of you is a pleasure but today will be a Guest post by Miss Paulette Harper. Miss Paulette’s new book Living Separate Lives is newly released (November 10th) and I am glad to be a part of her blog tour. Take it away Miss Paulette!

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Guest Post: Christian Fiction v Clean Read: Are You Confused? by Vicki Hinze

Today I would like to welcome Author Vicki Hinze as my guest. I recently decided to branch out from strictly Christian Fiction to include Clean Reads as well or, as I call it, “Family Friendly” fiction. I came across a post written by Vicki on this very subject and I knew I wanted to post it on my blog. I asked Vicki if I could and she graciously agreed. If you have ever had difficulty distinguishing the difference between Christian Fiction and Clean Reads Vicki certainly clears it up in her post. Once again, thank you Vicki!

Christian Fiction v Clean Read: Are You Confused? In the past few months, I’ve often been asked what is the difference between books that are labeled Christian fiction and books labeled Clean Reads. I thought I’d address in case you’re confused by this labeling of books. Christian fiction is fiction that has a distinct and deliberate Christian element. It can be told from a Christian perspective, or told by a non-Christian perspective, but the Christian element is in the novel. Either the story is structured and unfolds based on Christian principles, or one (or more) of the characters are Christian and they face the obstacles and events in the stories from that perspective. Perhaps the main character is not a Christian at the beginning of the story, but as a result of events encountered during the story, becomes a Christians at the end of the story. The story can also be seated in a Christian theme. Regardless of how the Christian element is injected into the story, it is significant to the story and plays a key role. In other words, if that Christian element were removed, then the story would be a different story. A Clean Read is a story created for the general market and not specifically for the Christian reading community. It follows many of the dictates for Christian fiction, in that there is no premarital sex or foul language. Obstacles and challenges are met and faced through a variety of means, but in Clean Reads, you won’t find explicit sexual conduct or bad language. In either, because fiction emulates life, you will find bad situations, challenges that must be faced and overcome. But in Clean Reads you can include a religious or faith element but one isn’t required. In other words, a story might be seated on Biblical principles but the Bible not be mentioned. Some Christian authors write both Christian fiction and Clean Reads. I’m one of them. Now I wrote for a long time before writing Christian fiction and I began writing Clean Reads after then. So some of my older books (many of which are being republished by publishers) are general audience reads. But once I began writing Christian fiction, I eliminated those aspects mentioned earlier from my work. Still, I didn’t want to leave the readers without my books, so I began writing Clean Reads, too. I firmly believe this is what I’m supposed to do. Go to people where they are, as Christ did by example. So I continue to write many types of stories in many genres, and for many different types of people. Some are Christian fiction. Mystery and Romantic Thrillers, mostly. Some are Clean Reads. Romantic suspense and mystery, mostly. Over the past twenty-five years, I’ve written just about all kinds of novels with the exception of horror. (I write healing books, and healing and horror haven’t meshed well for me.) So all of my books have healing themes and I use suspense, mystery and romance in each of them. In some, there’s more suspense. In others, more romance. But those things remain in my books whether they are Christian Fiction or Clean Reads. Why is that? Because every author has an author theme and writing healing books—books where the characters face tough battles but heal—is mine. And because for me to love a book, it must have suspense, mystery and romance. I like many other books or books without those three elements, but I don’t love them. And I promised myself many years ago, I wouldn’t invest my time—that’s my life—in writing books I don’t love. So I’ve always written healing books with elements of suspense, mystery and romance. And for the past few years, those books are either Christian fiction or Clean Reads. It’s worth mentioning that writers construct books based on their own perspective. It comes through deliberately and unintentionally, in what we deem is important enough to get on the page. In the way we see things. Our perspective shapes the story. So you will see Clean Reads that are seated in Biblical principles because it’s how believers think and the prism through which they see things. Can an author write books outside that prism? Yes. But they rarely do because it isn’t natural to them. So Christian fiction contains an overt Christian message (not to be confused with soapbox or preaching to readers). The message is interwoven into the novel’s fabric. Clean Reads are those suitable for most readers and doesn’t carry an overt Christian message. Hope this clears any confusion. Blessings, Vicki VICKI HINZE

Author Bio: A USA Today best selling and award-winning author, Vicki Hinze, has written over thirty-five books (fiction and nonfiction) and hundreds of articles that have been published in as many as 63 countries. She is also a columnist for the Social-In Network (Global). Vicki writes most often in Romantic Suspense, Thrillers with a romantic element, and Military Romance or Military Thrillers either for the general market or for the Christian market. She has written series, political thrillers, suspense, paranormal romantic suspense, time-travel suspense, women’s action adventure, thrillers, psycho-thrillers and contemporary romance with a strong mystery element. All of her books contain elements of suspense, mystery and romance. She enjoys genre-blending and is known as a trailblazer for doing so. After her fourth published novel, she returned to college and earned an MA in creative writing then a Ph.D. in Philosophy (Theocentric Business and Ethics). She founded Writers’ Aids to mentor other authors, which evolved into Writers’ Zone, where she answers questions on craft, the business of writing and the writing life and maintains a free online writers’ library, ON WRITING, on her website, http://www.vickihinze.com. By request, some of those articles are on Kindle. Additional podcasts, workshops, lectures and feature articles are also in the writing library. Hinze is a sponsor of The Book Club Network, International Thriller Writers, and American Christian Fiction Writers. Between family and writing commitments, she has little time for hobbies and her other interests. Her favorite non-writing activity is home-improvement projects. Knocking down walls appeals to her. For fun, she designs book covers. Organizations in which she is active: ITW, MWA, RWA, ACFW, NINC, ACRA, AG, AWSA, Emerald Coast Writers, the Book Fun Organization. She is the founder of Christians Read. Hinze’s blog (vickihinze.com/blog) is divided into five categories: My Kitchen Table (chat), On Writing (Craft, business, life of writing), My Faith Zone (spiritual journey), Thinking Aloud (a thought to ponder for busy days), and Vicki Hinze Today, which contains all kinds of articles from multiple sources on things of interest relating to the book industry. Raised in New Orleans, Hinze then married a Hurricane Hunter/Special Ops officer. They and their children moved every few years. Mississippi, California, Illinois, Florida and Texas. They settled in Northwest Florida. You can find Vicki Here: Website  *  Facebook  *  Twitter  *  Goodreads  *  Pinterest

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