ATLANTA — In the world of Christian fiction, Atlanta is emerging as a hub for some of genre's most popular authors, particularly African-American writers.
For better or worse, the publishing industry has dubbed this literary niche with that most loaded of terms, "urban" Christian fiction. Nonetheless, this month, three metro-Atlanta Christian fiction authors are on Essence magazine's top 10 best-sellers' list. Their work is nestled right in there among mainstream paperback fiction titles.
Here's a look at the these three local writers and how they've turned "urban" into what they call their own blessing.
Tia McCollors
Age: 34
Home: Decatur
Church: New Life Missionary Baptist Church
Latest title: "The Truth About Love"
Q: Wasn't it Mahalia Jackson who sang "I'm going to live the life I sing about in my song?" How hard is it for you to live the life you write about?
A: I don't think it's difficult because it's my natural walk. It would be different if I was writing about a faith I didn't have or a trust I didn't have.
Q: How do you make your work relevant without being too secular?
A: I use real circumstances. In "The Truth About Love," there's a woman who's dealing with the possibility that her husband's cheating on her. There's woman dealing with a blended family, with a stepson that was just kind of thrown into her lap. There's a woman who doesn't want to be a preacher's wife but her husband is thinking about becoming a minister. You don't have to put in all these scriptures and beat people over the head to show a change in the characters. But you do have to weave that string of faith throughout the characters and the plot.
Q: Do you feel left out when you read secular fiction?
A: I wouldn't say I feel left out because I've not been saved all my life.
Q: Is there ever a secular solution to a problem?
A: You can't be so super-spiritual that you can't see the practical things. Some things are just common sense.
Q: What's your favorite book of the Bible and why?
A: Proverbs. There's so much wisdom wrapped up in those scriptures it's ridiculous.
Sherri L. Lewis
Age: 39
Home: Ellenwood
Church: Bethel Atlanta
Latest title: "Dance into Destiny"
Q: How hard is it for you to live the life you write about?
A: My characters are not picture perfect; they have problems, they react the wrong ways, but in the end they find faith. And in the end that pretty much mirrors my life.
Q: How do you make your work relevant without being too secular?
A: I write edgy Christian fiction. I push the envelope. It doesn't feel like nice, neat little Christian fiction because it does deal with real issues.
Q: What's edgy Christian fiction?
A: One of the characters in my first book gets upset and gets drunk. She's a Christian, but that happens sometimes. One of the characters fornicates. She struggles with having sex outside of marriage. That's a reality that a lot of Christian women deal with. I wanted to show what it was like to keep falling off and not be able to keep it together in Christian terms.
Q: Do you ever feel as though you're preaching to the choir?
A: I feel like my stuff is edgy enough that a lot of people who aren't saved read it.
Q: Do you ever feel left out when you read secular fiction?
A: A lot. I am divorced and living celibate so I've had to put down a lot of my favorite authors because of sex scenes.
Q: Who's your favorite mainstream author?
A: Eric Jerome Dickey, he writes the best sex scenes in the world and I just had to leave Eric alone. Completely.
Q: Do you ever feel like you're writing a Christian version of a Harlequin Romance?
A: I would say I write Christian Terry McMillan.
Q: Is there ever a secular solution to a problem?
A: Not in my world.
Kendra Norman-Bellamy
Age: 41
Home: Stone Mountain
Church: Total Grace Christian Center
Latest Book: "Battle of Jericho"
Q: How hard is it for you to live the life you write about?
A: It's not hard. I'm a double P.K. (preacher's kid). Both of my parents are preachers, so I was brought up in the church, literally.
Q: How do you make your work relevant without being too secular?
A: It would be a huge mistake for any Christian writer to try to write books where all the characters are perfect and they're living on Sunny Brook Farm and every day is Sunday. The way to keep it real is to write it like it really happens.
Q: Do you ever feel left out when you read secular fiction?
A: A lot of times I'll read it and I find myself writing my own ending, because thinking on it from a Christian standpoint, I'll say to myself, "Oh well, that could have been resolved much better if this character had done this instead of than that."
Q: Do you ever feel that you're preaching to the choir?
A: That crossed my mind when I first started writing, but through the course of time I've learned that my books have fallen into the hands of people who never step a foot in church. They won't pick up a Bible, but they'll pick up a good book where they're not feeling condemned or being preached at in every page.
Q: Do you feel like you're writing a Christian version of a Harlequin Romance?
A: To an extent. I love to write love scenes or intimate scenes in my books. I keep my intimate scenes between married couples because I think it's very important to show that there are strong Christian marriages that still have that passion and that fire.
Q: What's your favorite book of the Bible and why?
A: The Book of Psalms. It gives such strong direction and lets you know how to handle particular situations.
Rosalind Bentley writes for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. E-mail: rbentley AT ajc.com