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Engaging the Emotions

On the whole I’m not a huge fan of Christian fiction. But last year I picked up a book by Karen Kingsbury and found myself searching for the rest of the Firstborn series. Over the next week or so, I read the rest, even when it meant ordering the middle book of the series in and paying $2 which I thought steep for a reservation fee. Our old library in Orange used to charge 55 cents. When trying to read a series where the middle books never seem to be on the shelves, or work through the novels of a specific author, it was easier to reserve than keep checking back in the hope books would be in. I might have to rethink that plan now.

Despite my negative view of Christian fiction, on Thursday I scanned the library shelves and brought home another Karen Kingsbury book, ‘A Thousand Tomorrows. I started it roughly an hour before dinner, after having spent much of the day writing a manuscript of my own.

That’s the thing I’ve found when I read a book which engages me as ‘The Choice’ did, it not only gives pleasure while reading it but re-ignites my own urge for writing fiction. Yesterday morning even before I got out of bed, I could feel words and ideas starting to bubble around in my brain.

After breakfast and a time with the Lord, it was straight to the keyboard. I spent most of yesterday working on a piece of fiction I’d started and discarded some time back but hadn’t lost faith in. About the only thing it has in common with what Nicholas Sparks writes, is that it is fiction. Mine is geared towards young people approximately 11-13 years old.

By the time I’d finished writing for the day, first the manuscript and then yesterday’s blog, I was ready to get lost again in someone else’s work. ‘A Thousand Tomorrows’ was the one I chose from the pile. Once again, I found that even after stopping to prepare and eat dinner and do our nightly bible study I wanted to get back and find out what happened to Cody and Ali. A couple of hours and more tears later I had my answer.

‘I really must stop reading tearjerkers,’ I told my husband as we prepared for bed. But why should I? The fact, that my emotions are involved, means I will keep reading till I reach the end. It’s the books where there is no engagement of emotions that I find myself, putting down and casting aside.

If I could be sure what I write has the same effect on someone of engaging emotions and keeping them turning the pages I’d be happy. I won’t say any more about what I’m writing, as I don’t like to talk about a work in progress, at least, not till it’s past the editing stage. But one day hopefully the story I’m currently writing will be published and touch the emotions of young readers, and maybe their parents, the way others of my books have if letters from readers are anything to go by.

Why don’t you share with others here, which books have captured your interest and touched your emotions?

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