Romance in the Christmas Story?

As a romance writer I wondered what made Christmas such a romantic time of year? The cold gives us a reason to snuggle closer? The family time warms our hearts, and the mistletoe? Well….you know how much THAT inspires our romance J

All those things contribute to the warm-cuddly feelings associated with Christmas, but I think the biggest reason is because we celebrate love coming down to Earth.

As Christian authors, how do we express this love in our writing?

I think the basic love of Christmas is what should capture Christians for the rest of our lives. God gave himself as a gift to the world and that type of love permeates our lives and spills over into our writing.

Awe.
Wonder.
The overwhelming beauty of unconditional love.
It’s why romance writers LOVE heroes.
Through the Christmas story we are introduced to the ultimate love in the ultimate hero.


This time of year there is a verse in Isaiah that is quoted a lot. Isaiah 9:6:

For unto us a child is born, to us a son is given
And the government shall be upon his shoulders
And his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor,
Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace.

Okay, okay…so what does Isaiah have to do with writing romance? And in particular, writing heroes?

If this year has taught us anything, it’s that our world has a lot of darkness in it. Few people go out to destroy other lives, but there are plenty so caught up in themselves, they cannot see (as Mary Poppins put it) “past the end of (their) own noses”.

There are broken families, broken lives, dark hearts and minds, so we are looking for HEROES!

God knew it!



He sent One. The ONLY one who could get at the very ‘heart’ of our trouble and shine the light of His love.

I think that’s why Christmas inspires romance all the more. The greatest love and perfect hero.
And those verses?
As romance writers, we create heroes who will bring some element of this ‘perfection’ into our worlds. From a Christian standpoint, nobody can measure up to Jesus. He is perfect!

But His love inspires our creations J

So how do we try to write heroes with Heavenly characteristics?

Counselors? – Yep, we try to write smart guys.

Mighty? – Of course, actually, the Hebrew translation here resembles the idea of ‘heroic’. We want our guys to be heroic and strong!

‘Everlasting?” – Yes, we write Heroes who give an ‘everlasting’ love. Our heroines fall in love with them because they exhibit an ‘everlasting’- faithful love.

‘Peace’? – Despite the male-female banter than comes along in many fun books, there is an element of ‘peace’ that the hero brings into the life of the heroine. An idea of completion.

As created beings who are never fully complete until our hearts beat with the love of our Creator, we use our Calling as writers to create a human example of a divine love. Isn’t that cool?
Christmas inspires love? Sure it does, because the greatest gift of love was given.
And a little mistletoe and fireside snuggles make our writing jobs all the more exciting!
So…..

How does YOUR faith and your thoughts of Christmas inspire your writing?

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Pepper Basham is an award-winning author who writes romance peppered with grace and humor. She currently resides in the lovely mountains of Asheville, NC where she is the mom of 5 great kids, speech-pathologist to about fifty more, lover of chocolate, jazz, and Jesus, and proud AlleyCat. Her debut historical romance novel, The Thorn Bearer, released in May 2015, with the second arriving in February 2016. Her first contemporary romance debuts in April 2016. You can connect with Pepper on her website at www.pepperdbasham.com, Facebook-  https://www.facebook.com/pages/Pepper-D-Basham or Twitter at https://twitter.com/pepperbasham