Is your ideal romantic lead the Marlboro Man? Do you like any story with spirited horses and men in ten-gallon hats and scuffed boots? Well, then, perhaps you should reach for one of the many Christian western fiction novels that are proving very popular. The wild west is a perfect setting for the strong heroines preferred today, since living close to the land requires fortitude. Of course, cowboys are alive and well and just as attractive as ever.
The west is as full of adventure today as it was in the days of the pioneers. The mountains are still rugged, the plains endless, and the sky huge and empty. This makes it easy to create believable settings and story lines that frame the characters and create complications. The Christian nature of these stories will be reassuring for those who hesitate to read conventional modern novels; both characters and action will stay within benign limits.
Women like men - a simple fact - and they like horses. This sets the scene. It's not hard to place a woman - young and inexperienced or older and available because of past mistakes or tragedy - in charge of a riding academy specializing in barrel racing and cutting, or trying to save the family ranch in the face of overwhelming odds, or rescuing a horse or two and needing the help of a handsome veterinarian, farrier, or horse breaker. And voila - you can probably think of a thousand complications to these and other scenarios.
The hero can be a guy with a mysterious past - prison, witness protection program, failed romance or marriage - or a man who simply never thought he'd settle down but blam! the heroine's blue eyes hit him between the eyes and stop him in his tracks. Perhaps he's the Christian and leads her to the Lord, or she's the believer who helps him see he doesn't have to fight everything alone. Children can complicate the mix, or aging parents, or old boy/girl friends. The possibilities are endless.
Furthermore, the Christian framework solves another traditional problem with loving a cowboy. In the standard stories, the strong and silent man might linger for a time, setting female hearts aflutter and arousing hopes in a young girl's heart, but he then rides away - because cowboys need the open range or the open road and can't settle down to a life of domesticity. With a tip of his hat and no backward look, he'll ride off into the Texas sunset, never to be seen again.
However, our heroines have God on their side to help these cowboys see the emptiness of the untrammeled life and the value of commitment and love. This is great for those of us who want a happy ending to the complicated interaction of our fictional favorites. Obstacles to love's fulfillment are fine as long as they are overcome in the end.
The fact is that romance is endlessly interesting. Most of us have one or more in our own past that we can relive a little when we read tales of love under the western skies. It's also fun to read about sincere conversions, when men and women accept the love of God and get healing for their past and hope for the future.
A man, a woman, the Lord, and the wide open spaces. It doesn't get much better than this.
The west is as full of adventure today as it was in the days of the pioneers. The mountains are still rugged, the plains endless, and the sky huge and empty. This makes it easy to create believable settings and story lines that frame the characters and create complications. The Christian nature of these stories will be reassuring for those who hesitate to read conventional modern novels; both characters and action will stay within benign limits.
Women like men - a simple fact - and they like horses. This sets the scene. It's not hard to place a woman - young and inexperienced or older and available because of past mistakes or tragedy - in charge of a riding academy specializing in barrel racing and cutting, or trying to save the family ranch in the face of overwhelming odds, or rescuing a horse or two and needing the help of a handsome veterinarian, farrier, or horse breaker. And voila - you can probably think of a thousand complications to these and other scenarios.
The hero can be a guy with a mysterious past - prison, witness protection program, failed romance or marriage - or a man who simply never thought he'd settle down but blam! the heroine's blue eyes hit him between the eyes and stop him in his tracks. Perhaps he's the Christian and leads her to the Lord, or she's the believer who helps him see he doesn't have to fight everything alone. Children can complicate the mix, or aging parents, or old boy/girl friends. The possibilities are endless.
Furthermore, the Christian framework solves another traditional problem with loving a cowboy. In the standard stories, the strong and silent man might linger for a time, setting female hearts aflutter and arousing hopes in a young girl's heart, but he then rides away - because cowboys need the open range or the open road and can't settle down to a life of domesticity. With a tip of his hat and no backward look, he'll ride off into the Texas sunset, never to be seen again.
However, our heroines have God on their side to help these cowboys see the emptiness of the untrammeled life and the value of commitment and love. This is great for those of us who want a happy ending to the complicated interaction of our fictional favorites. Obstacles to love's fulfillment are fine as long as they are overcome in the end.
The fact is that romance is endlessly interesting. Most of us have one or more in our own past that we can relive a little when we read tales of love under the western skies. It's also fun to read about sincere conversions, when men and women accept the love of God and get healing for their past and hope for the future.
A man, a woman, the Lord, and the wide open spaces. It doesn't get much better than this.
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