Being a book reviewer, I’ve had my share of reviewing books in the Christian romance genre. And while it is fair to say that Catholic romance novels are just within that category, I can’t remember seeing such novels as often as I saw Christian novels from Protestants.
My personal experience, as a Catholic and newly-minted romance author, and as a Catholic author in general, is that Catholics draw the lines differently than both Protestants and the secular, leaving them in an odd gap when it comes to publishing. If a character prays to Mary, that will offend the Protestant would-be reader, but it also is a little weird for the secular reader. In fact, there is a brand of reader that will not tolerate the slightest reference to religion in his book, and I've dealt with them whenever my more secular fiction touches on those subjects.
In my personal case, I added swearing (some of it blasphemous) and significant violence to my romance, because the story needed it, but in doing so I knew it would never win a Christie. But at the same time, I actually intended the book for secular readers specifically--if a Catholic or Christian reader likes it, fine, but they're not the intended audience. So I'm not sure if I could call it a "Catholic" romance, though it has Catholic themes.
(My book is called "My Girlfriend, the Witch-Queen", if you're curious.)
Thank you for sharing your insight as applied to your book, Matthew! It's not easy to draw the line both as a reader and an author. May God grant us the wisdom to discern what's best when it comes to writing. It is a gift He Himself as bestowed upon us. In the end, it is the truth that will resonate with our readers deeply.
I will venture a somewhat tentative opinion that Christian (Protestant) romance thrives because it is a cognate of the prosperity gospel. God will grant you a happy marriage as a reward for a robust faith. While there are Catholics who seem to think that way too, Catholicism has traditionally been more about bearing your burdens come what may. Whoever you choose for your husband or wife, you are then expected to bear whatever trials come in the course of that marriage, which may just as well be poverty as riches, sickness as health, worse as better. This shifts the focus from courtship (which is the subject of romance novels) to marriage (which is often the subject of mainstream novels). The literature of courtship, in other words, is not a particularly good fit for the Catholic view of marriage.
Thank you for your thoughts. I haven't considered that stories about marriage would not be a part of romance novels. My understanding was that they belong to the same genre. As to courtship, I have always had this perspective of seeing it in the light of Christ pursuing the Church in love, and in that pursuit, not everything is about pleasure, comfort or prosperity, but the beginning of showing self-sacrificial love.
My personal experience, as a Catholic and newly-minted romance author, and as a Catholic author in general, is that Catholics draw the lines differently than both Protestants and the secular, leaving them in an odd gap when it comes to publishing. If a character prays to Mary, that will offend the Protestant would-be reader, but it also is a little weird for the secular reader. In fact, there is a brand of reader that will not tolerate the slightest reference to religion in his book, and I've dealt with them whenever my more secular fiction touches on those subjects.
In my personal case, I added swearing (some of it blasphemous) and significant violence to my romance, because the story needed it, but in doing so I knew it would never win a Christie. But at the same time, I actually intended the book for secular readers specifically--if a Catholic or Christian reader likes it, fine, but they're not the intended audience. So I'm not sure if I could call it a "Catholic" romance, though it has Catholic themes.
(My book is called "My Girlfriend, the Witch-Queen", if you're curious.)
Thank you for sharing your insight as applied to your book, Matthew! It's not easy to draw the line both as a reader and an author. May God grant us the wisdom to discern what's best when it comes to writing. It is a gift He Himself as bestowed upon us. In the end, it is the truth that will resonate with our readers deeply.
Seconding Katy, Rhonda Ortiz's Molly Chase series at Chrism Press is wonderful.
I will venture a somewhat tentative opinion that Christian (Protestant) romance thrives because it is a cognate of the prosperity gospel. God will grant you a happy marriage as a reward for a robust faith. While there are Catholics who seem to think that way too, Catholicism has traditionally been more about bearing your burdens come what may. Whoever you choose for your husband or wife, you are then expected to bear whatever trials come in the course of that marriage, which may just as well be poverty as riches, sickness as health, worse as better. This shifts the focus from courtship (which is the subject of romance novels) to marriage (which is often the subject of mainstream novels). The literature of courtship, in other words, is not a particularly good fit for the Catholic view of marriage.
Thank you for your thoughts. I haven't considered that stories about marriage would not be a part of romance novels. My understanding was that they belong to the same genre. As to courtship, I have always had this perspective of seeing it in the light of Christ pursuing the Church in love, and in that pursuit, not everything is about pleasure, comfort or prosperity, but the beginning of showing self-sacrificial love.
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Thanks! I will check it out.