Thursday, April 2, 2015

Hurrah For Christian Western Fiction Novels

By Iva Cannon


Like horses? Like handsome young men in denim and boots? Well, Christian western fiction novels might just be your cup of tea. The world of horses, mountains and plains, living close to the land, and adventure calls for strong women - the preferred heroines of today - and strong men.

The west is as full of adventure today as it was in the days of the pioneers. The mountains are still rugged, the plains endless, and the sky huge and empty. This makes it easy to create believable settings and story lines that frame the characters and create complications. The Christian nature of these stories will be reassuring for those who hesitate to read conventional modern novels; both characters and action will stay within benign limits.

Some things never change, like the fact that women like men and horses. Whether the heroine is young and inexperienced or older and sadly wiser, there are many challenges in the horse world and many ways to ease a broken heart. Running a riding school, saving the family ranch, reclaiming an old homestead, or rescuing a horse with immense, hidden potential all make for good, believable stories, and all can easily require the help of a handsome man.

The hero can be a guy with a mysterious past - prison, witness protection program, failed romance or marriage - or a man who simply never thought he'd settle down but blam! the heroine's blue eyes hit him between the eyes and stop him in his tracks. Perhaps he's the Christian and leads her to the Lord, or she's the believer who helps him see he doesn't have to fight everything alone. Children can complicate the mix, or aging parents, or old boy/girl friends. The possibilities are endless.

Furthermore, the Christian framework solves another traditional problem with loving a cowboy. In the standard stories, the strong and silent man might linger for a time, setting female hearts aflutter and arousing hopes in a young girl's heart, but he then rides away - because cowboys need the open range or the open road and can't settle down to a life of domesticity. With a tip of his hat and no backward look, he'll ride off into the Texas sunset, never to be seen again.

However, our heroines have God on their side to help these cowboys see the emptiness of the untrammeled life and the value of commitment and love. This is great for those of us who want a happy ending to the complicated interaction of our fictional favorites. Obstacles to love's fulfillment are fine as long as they are overcome in the end.

The ways of the human heart are endlessly interesting, and the story of how someone comes to the Lord and learns to handle life's problems with God's help is always fascinating. This extra dimension adds to the story, especially when a skilled writer creates vital and believable characters and develops a clever, twisted plot. Who cares if the end is predictable, if the journey to get there is engrossing?

A man, a woman, the Lord, and the wide open spaces. It doesn't get much better than this.




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