Guest Blogger - Ruth Logan Herne

Ruthy here, and I'm always thrilled to come over here and yammer a bit about life, love, romance, family, faith, writing....

Oh, I love all of the above!

But as we look around our country, our churches, and our communities, we see more and more families falling apart. We bear witness to the sadness and the sorrow in these broken homes, media-played statistics underscore the ill effects on kids, on education, on quality time, worship time but I'm not here to talk about that because....

I don't have any answers. I have prayer, prayer for our homes, our hearts, our world and our people. Prayer that we cling to God's directives and start taking one for the team, more often. Because sacrificial love and self-sacrifice??? They should never be casual directives....

BUT.... Christian fiction has come a long way, baby, with regards to divorce in Christian fiction. They're finally admitting that it's:

1. A problem.
2. As much of a problem in Christian communities as secular places
3. It has a ripple effect on multiple segments of society from town, neighborhood, church, school, friends, family, generations
4. It is as old as time itself, with multiple Biblical references.

What I LIKE????? Is that we're examining this issue in Christian fiction, seeing the characters as Christian yet flawed, just like the rest of us!!!! WHO KNEW?????

When I first got offered a chance to be part of this continuity, I saw my story line, Livvie's story line, and I knew I wanted to do it.... Thwarted in love, cast aside by her very own "Wesley" (The Princess Bride, oh how I love that movie!!!!) and left to make her own way, she ended up married to the wrong guy.... Her bad. His, too. And when he started wandering into other pastures so to speak, she was hurt, angry, insulted and did I mention HURT????

But writing the story gave me the opportunity to explore Livvie's actions... why did she marry Billy in the first place?

Because she cared for him, and she wanted to be married and her biological clock was going tick... tick... tick... and she knew that no matter how strongly she had felt about Jack... her first love, her former fiance, her ONE TRUE LOVE.... that relationship was cast aside like old smelly shoes so maybe that intensive L-O-V-E wasn't really love, maybe she should be okay with "okay" and Billy really cared for her.

Didn't he???

But what man wants to take second place to Mr. Right?  And while her ex-husband's actions were despicable, why would we marry someone we didn't truly love the way God built us to love? Heart and soul...

And that's why I love romance and happily-ever-afters because that's what I want for the world. God's love, streaming down, happy faces, children playing, romantic elders and joy-filled newlyweds.... and for that joy to weather those ups and downs that life hands out on a regular basis.

I love that this story gave me a chance to honor my blessed father-in-law, a kind, gentle man who dealt with the slow decline of Alzheimer's during the latter years of his life.  It gave me a chance to play cowgirl, and I LOVE COWBOY STORIES!!!! It gave me a chance to work with five delightful women, Val Hansen, Jenna Mindel, Brenda Minton, Carolyne Aarsen and Arlene James.... And to see how much fun it is to watch a small town develop a heart and soul worthy of its founders...

But most of all?

It gave me a chance to mend broken hearts, to show God's grace and timing, to thread the old thoughts with new plans and blend family issues into everyday life, like the very thing we do every single day...

Life. Celebrated, respected, enjoyed, blessed!

I love what I do... I love writing sweet stories, chatting with folks, the opportunity to touch hearts and souls.

And it's so much fun to travel over here, chat with the lot o' youse and talk about life, love, faith, romance and chocolate!

We've got three copies of "His Montana Sweetheart" to give away and I hope you love it... I hope, (like me!) that you're glad to see fiction examining the reality today's Christians face... and finding the blessings in everyday life!