FaithfulReader.com - CHRISTIAN CHICK LIT ROUNDTABLE

7. FaithfulReader.com: Do you have a personal mission in writing Christian Chick Lit? If so, can you share more about that with us?

Lori Copeland: I want to share women's problems, their faith and their struggles, and through God's grace allow Him to touch the reader with His truth: we are loved --- deeply loved, and there isn't a problem or concern that He cannot address. I want women to know that they are never alone, and there is always a choice.

Sharon Dunn: My mission exists on two levels. First, for why I write Christian fiction in general, and why I write Chick Lit.

I listened to some Christian writers describe their books once. One said that her character was a successful career woman, another described her male character was handsome and athletic. I have no problem with them writing books with characters like that, but it's not the kind of book I want to write. It bothers me that we often think that in order to "sell" a character as spiritually bankable, they have to be worldly successful. Why it that we as Christians only want to hear how much the homeless man loves Jesus when he's cleaned up and a prosperous business man. When he is unclean and ugly, is his love for the Lord any less real? I don't want to write about beautiful people. I want to write about invisible people, people whose lives haven't turned out the way they had hoped. My main character has a master's degree in literature, but she works at a feed store. My characters go garage saling and drive clunker cars.

Chick Lit lends itself to writing about invisible people because it's about sharing insecurities. Bridget Jones wasn't the most important woman in the office. She was just a girl who wanted to find true love. I think as Christian women we do a lot of pretending, putting on masks and playing roles. I am attracted to Chick Lit because it is so honest. It's about taking the mask off. Christian fiction vacillates between presenting the ideal (who we desire to be as Christians) and the real (how we really are as Christians). I like Chick Lit because it falls more on the side of the real rather than the ideal. Chick Lit as a genre allows us to show how Christians mess up and are less than perfect. Really, the only person who has to be perfect in this picture is Jesus.

Robin Jones Gunn: My personal mission statement in everything I've been writing for the past 18 years has been "come." I love telling stories that show how the characters "come" to Christ and how they "come" closer to other characters. Switching from teen novels to romance novels and now Chick Lit novels has not involved a big change in my voice as a writer. The style has changed, perhaps, but I'm still inviting readers to "come." With the "Sisterchicks" novels I'm inviting readers to "come" into a closer friendship with another woman and deepen their friendship.

Neta Jackson: I never intended to write Chick Lit, much less "Christian" Chick Lit. What I wanted to do was share some incredible things God has been teaching me, and fiction seemed the best way to do that --- the power of "story." I belong to a real life "women's prayer group" that is very diverse racially, culturally, age-wise, etc. And these sisters have turned my life upside down (or right side up). And thus "The Yada Yada Prayer Group" novels were born, a way to share all the things God has been teaching me in recent years through these relationships.

Judy Baer: It's interesting that you should ask because I've been thinking a great deal about "mission" lately and have been tinkering with my own personal mission statement. Here's what I've come up with so far: My mission is to use women's fiction to answer the question, "I'm a Christian --- now what?" in a humorous and entertaining way that can be enjoyed by Christians and non-Christians alike.

I have an interest in Christian ethics --- once you are a believer and embrace Christian values, how does that play out in your everyday life? What do you do when no one (except God) is watching? Christians are Christians every moment of every day. That means returning the money if a clerk gives you too much in change, striving for patience when you have only one nerve left and somebody has jumped on it, and speaking softly when yelling would be so much more fun. Chick Lit lends itself to that exploration.

Tracey Bateman: I have a personal mission, period. Write the best book I can write, get my message across without being preachy, and let women know it's okay to be who they are, but that at the same time, there's nothing wrong with trying to better one's life. And for goodness sake, don't take everything so seriously. What I love about writing Christian Mom Lit, and specifically for my present publisher, is that I can be real and I can be funny --- at least my brand of funny. Speak to women where they live. Let them know that no matter what's in the past --- and I do mean NO MATTER WHAT --- they can get over it, and that God sees each person as fantastic, the best. He's still infatuated with me when I blow it with my kids or husband (or ex, in the case of "Claire"). He thinks I'm great even when other people don't, and despite my goof-ups, He's there to help me smooth it out and take me into the next phase of my walk with Him.

Annie Jones: My mission with all my writing is the same mission I felt called to as a social worker and now as a mom --- to be a voice for the voiceless. Christian women (especially over a certain age) are invisible in popular culture, or they are the butt of jokes or the villains. I want to portray Christian women like the ones I know --- funny, smart, kind, confused, inept and talented --- everything that any woman is and with a heart seeking God. Christian women have so few places to see themselves, to have someone say, "Hey, you're doing great, your work is worthwhile, your choices can change lives."

Kristin Billerbeck: Absolutely! I want young women to know that their life is not in a holding pattern until Mr. Right comes along. I want them to know that they are wonderful creatures, called to the Great Commission, regardless of where they are with a boyfriend. There has been so much emphasis on marriage in the church, that I think we've done a disservice to women as though their problems will magically go away when married. I want them to work on being who God wants them to be right here. Right now.

Penny Culliford: My central character, Theodora, is searching for her mission and she's going to find it just as soon as God clears up all these other irritations in her life --- like her job, her family, her church. It's a bit like that for me. I'd like to help people laugh. I don't really see my writing as "evangelical" in the preaching sense, but I hope I've given God the space to speak to people through what I write.

Laura Jensen Walker: For one thing, to show that Christians can be fun! And that we have a sense of humor. (Well, most of us...) Yet we're just as real and flawed as the next person. But also to offer something for twentysomething and thirtysomething women that speaks to them and the contemporary issues they face today, through a backdrop of faith.

Allie Pleiter: It's to show real life, as I just said. Real life, real faith, is bumpy. The bumps are where the growth happens, where the lasting connections of life take place. I truly believe God does His best work when we are at our wit's end. I want my work to hold up that "wit's end" moment so that we can come to trust those times as the powerhouses of God's molding. To say "God's in this, all of it" to women in the thick of living and loving. And diapering. And carpooling. And finding aquatic snails for this week's science project. And�well, you get the picture.

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