Reviewing my earlier novels for newer editions, I revisit my struggles to explain what my stories are about.

I’m not even sure I can define their genre. They’re all over the place. History—yes, at least “near” history, post World War II. Romances? Sometimes. Mysteries? Partly. Relationships and spiritual struggles? Often.

I write because it’s there. Whatever “there” is. Even as a child, I imagined stories to make sense of experiences.

My religious faith occupied and occupies a defining part of my life. I do not, however, write books to “convert.” I’m neither evangelist nor apologist. More searcher, I suppose.

I don’t set out to write what has been defined as “inspirational” or “Christian” books, but neither do I hide a faith journey as a part of my characters’ stories. At least two editors have told me that I can’t go between like that, neither fish nor fowl. Well, I do, but it hasn’t been easy.

My earlier novels do bend more to the “Christian” kind of writing. However, my first book issued by a publisher (the then Broadman Press, in 1984) was the closest to “inspirational” writing. Yet, this book’s main character was a divorced woman, something unusual in those days for a “Christian” publisher.

My newer series is the story of an Appalachian young man traveling literally and figuratively between two worlds. his home, in the 1950 and 60’s, and the world as it evolves in later decades and into the twenty-first century.

I call it “near” history. Our rapid journey from what we were only a few decades ago to what we are now surely spans more changes than ever in human history. Why? How?

When the culture of a religiously influenced generation meets a different world, what happens?

Specifically, what happens to the beliefs and allegiances of an Appalachian young man and his family and friends in a world of terrorism and refugees and upheaval?

It’s an intriguing quest.