As a Christian author is my primary job to tell a good story, or to spread the word of God to a non-believing audience? Or can you do both? And maybe encourage other Christians as well?

My first book, Shadows of the Past, released in February of 2014 and I was a presenter at our first MidSouth Christian Writers Conference in March. A lady bought a copy and a few weeks later emailed me, telling me how much she enjoyed it. Then she told me I’d made a mistake on such and such page. I’d called a respiratory therapist a respiratory nurse.

No way! I knew there was no such thing as a respiratory nurse. I flipped to the page and there it was. Respiratory nurse.  I thanked her and went on to learn she’d been a nurse for thirty years.

Lightbulb moment! My next book was about a doctor…and I asked if she’d mind reading through the manuscript and advise me on any terms I’d misused. She agreed and she really helped me—caught several errors I’d made. After I turned the book in, I wanted to get her something since she wouldn’t accept money for helping me. I asked if she’d like a writing craft book, figuring since I met her at a writers conference, she wanted to write.

Her response:

“No thank you. After what I saw you you go through to write a book, I don’t want to be a writer. But, I know I was supposed to meet you and read this second book because the problem your heroine had is one I’ve had all my life.”

My heroine didn’t believe her mother loved her because she’d overheard her tell the heroine’s father that she’d been right about not having that second child. My heroine was that second child.

My nurse went on to say, “Seeing the way your heroine resolved that problem gave me hope that I could do the same thing. And I did. Your book changed my life. It changed my children’s’ lives. I’m a different person and no longer bitter and angry.”

I sat at my computer reading her email with tears streaming down my face. Even now, as I think about her story, I tear up. And it’s why I write Christian fiction. To show the world as well as Christians that even though we have problems, we have a Problem Solver. A Way Maker. A Promise Keeper.

So, if you write inspirational fiction keep on spreading the Word.