Deeanne Gist - www.deeannegist.com - Inspirational Romance Author

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Thursday, September 01, 2005

Imagine That

Part III of "What Made You Switch From General Market to Inspirational?"

At the close of Part II, I had just disposed of my entire romance novel collection. Not because there was anything wrong with romance novels, but because there was something wrong with my insatiable thirst for them.

For weeks, months I felt as if I'd been picked up and dropped in the middle of a desert. I didn't know what to do. For a while, I didn't read at all. Then, I picked up a who-done-it or an adventure story or a legal thriller. I'd read a few pages, put it down and not pick it up again for over a week.

At one point, I decided I might try inspirational romance. Surely that would be okay. And this is where I always get myself into trouble. I cannot seem to share this part of my testimony without highly offending several folks in the inspirational industry. But to leave it out, would not be honest.

So, here we go and [insert prayer] Lord, please help me formulate these words and let them glorify You and lift up Your Body. Amen.

I honestly cannot tell you what three inspirational romances I tried. I truly have absolutely no idea. All I know is, they did not appeal to me. At all. I felt like I'd had a diet soda--they left out all the good parts. You know what I mean?

Not only that, but instead of feeling uplifted, I felt terribly depressed. The female leads of these particular books in their worst hour were better than me in my finest hour. Had I been in the situation that they were in, I would have reacted much, much differently. These women were way more godly than I was.

Am I proud of that? No. Am I trying to wave some kind of banner saying, "Look at me, look at me, I'm a naughty, naughty sinner!" Of course not. I'm terribly ashamed. And I'm so very sorry I was not inspired. I would have loved to have been. But I wasn't.

So, for the following year, I didn't so much as venture in the vicinity of the inspirational aisle of the bookstore. Because the books were flawed? NO!!! Because I was flawed.

Do you know what is interesting, though? The only book I truly enjoyed reading was ... the Bible. Imagine that.

Tomorrow ... how in the world, after all that, did I become an inspirational romance author?

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Blessings!

posted by Deeanne at 11:21 AM

1 Comments:

Barb said...: The whole Katrina thing is truly a disaster of "Biblical" proportions. I was trying to convey to my son the concept of our property--incl my husband's bizness and our farm animals--being wiped out, but also the homes of our local friends, and our grandparents, and everyone in our church, and everyone in our karate school, etc etc etc. Where would we go? What would it mean to our lives to lose everything? And really, "natural disasters" happen anywhere, albeit in different forms. We're reassessing our personal physical and spiritual preparedness in light of that whole mind-boggling tragedy.