Changing the Face of Christian Fiction by Ericka Clay

Today, I welcome author Ericka Clay to the site. Ericka’s latest, A Violent Hope, will be published on October 6th by Believable Books. In her guest post, Ericka explains what it’s like to be called to write in a genre many people have a preconceived idea about—that it’s boring and/or preachy—and what she’s doing to inject a fresh approach.

Ericka Clay Changing the Face of Christian Fiction

Five years ago, if you would have told me I’d become a Christian who not only had written and published a Christian fiction novel but was intent on re-shaping the genre, I would have not so politely told you to get out of town. I was nothing if not a feisty atheist at the time.

Fast-forward to one life-changing event and the journey that followed, and here I am, a book freshly printed in my hands with an entire narrative to change. Wish me luck. Ha!

So what’s prompting me to forever change the face of the Christian fiction game? Well, it pretty much comes down to why I previously never considered following Jesus: I didn’t trust his followers. I’m sure you know exactly who I’m talking about. Not the people who live their faith, but the ones who don’t but say they do.

I’ll just put it frankly: the hypocrites.

People who truly didn’t have a heart for Jesus but claimed they were his number one fans irked me. Horribly so. To the point that I nixed Christ all together because his people were so badly behaved. Kind of like Gandhi did.

So when I had a deeply personal experience with Jesus and decided I would sacrifice everything for Him (especially my online reputation – the fans and fellow writer friends I lost! So many!), I found myself deeply in the middle of a crisis I never expected to be in.

Touché, God.

Here I was, the potty-mouth atheist who only cared about making people laugh on her raunchy humor blog now doing a spiritual one-eighty, only to come shoulder to shoulder to the people who use Jesus as a weapon. Funsies. But what was almost even worse was knowing I had landed in a literary world of Amish romances and overly-saccharine contemporary fiction.

I. Was. Devastated.

And just to note, I have come across some pretty well-written Biblical fiction with a historical edge. So I’m not throwing the baby out with the bath water. But for the most part? We’re talking a bleak landscape, friends.

I decided to nix it all. My writing. My lifelong passion. The major joy in my life that I felt like I was born to do. All down the toilet. I decided maybe God was testing me. Are you truly willing to give up EVERYTHING even if it means sacrificing the one thing that lights your heart on fire? I mean, He made it a little easier considering books written for His glory were a tad dull to say the least.

But still. It broke me.

So I swept it all under the rug and got me one of those “real” jobs. I lasted two years until, interestingly enough, God called me home to homeschool my daughter due to certain circumstances. And then I started hearing the whispering.

“It’s time.”

God was calling me to blow the dust off an old manuscript I had written pre-Jesus. And let’s just say I had more than a few F-words to delete. It wasn’t that I was all high and mighty and had suddenly turned into a Goody Two-shoes who couldn’t bear to hear that kind of talk. It just didn’t align with my heart anymore, and I wanted to challenge myself to deliver characters and their hard-pressed situations without having to rely on foul language to do so. I wanted their lives to speak on the page, not necessarily their poor choice of words.

And that’s where A Violent Hope came in. It became the book I know God wanted me to write because He wanted me to use the talent He had blessed me with to reveal the REAL Him. Not a God that will smack you with a ruler when you get it wrong, but one that opens His arms to you even during the darkest night. And I’m grateful He chose me to do it.

Ultimately, this was my issue: Christian fiction is predominantly written for those who claim to be Christian. They’re not written for the people who are dealing with hard issues and don’t know where to turn. If I’m truly to be Jesus to other people, shouldn’t I be more concerned with using my talent to connect with the poor, the lonely, the drug-addicted, the homeless, etc. than the Christian who just upgraded their Mercedes?

And I know, life isn’t that black and white, and I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with buying a luxury vehicle (but cash please, no loans. Thank you, Dave Ramsey!), but I get a little revved up when I realize how powerful the Gospel is and how many lost opportunities there are when we longingly stare at our own navels. It’s time to look up. It’s time to move forward. It’s time to change the game.

It’s time to write the truth.

Ericka Clay is a published novelist and the author of Unkept and Dear Hearts. She graduated from the University of Arkansas creative writing program and has published a book of short stories and poetry. Ericka has been awarded a number of times by Writers Digest for various short fiction pieces, she has written four novels (one of which placed as a quarter-finalist in the 2010 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest) and has had the privilege of sharing her craft, teaching writing classes and holding writers workshops in the South Texas area. She is releasing her next novel, A Violent Hope, through her literary imprint, Believable Books, October 2020. Ericka lives in Northwest Arkansas with her husband, daughter, two dogs and an insatiable need to push buttons, both figuratively and literally.