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 Hello. My name is Faith, and I am terrible at being honest.

That might be a weird way to intro a post. You folks might be confused by it. But I want to say it. I need to say it. I am terrible at honesty in my writing.

For so long, my goal has been honesty in storytelling. I want my books to tell the story of reality as it truly is. I want the books I write to be valuable because they are real and honest and speak to something very deep in the world. I want their themes to matter and touch people's souls.

But I can't even be honest with myself half the time in my books.

Who am I? Who is the person who wrote those books? I'm not sure I know. But what I do know is this: My books are valuable and they are full of truth. 

Just a few ways I have encountered truth in this art form, ways I've found to slip pieces of a higher Something into my words:

• Pentegreens: one of the main themes is the weak being made strong. Kindness and love can save all things--but GOODNESS they are hard to actually attain. There is a scene with a dream of peace, one that does not remove all of the pain already faced, but which washes over the MC.
• Watched: can you hold onto anything that does not matter? Can you hold onto what matters when everyone in the entire world is against you?
• Holding Up the Sky: love is important. Love is the thing that holds all things together, and the gifts we've been given as creatives help keep the world together.

Christian fiction is a difficult genre to find real gems in. I love, love, love me a good fantasy novel with lots of deep symbolism, though. If I find one I love? Oh, baby. We are golden.

Since I know there are lots of y'all out here who don't want to settle for sickly sweet "clean" romance or hammer-fisted sermons...I wanted to assemble a list. Some great fantasy books await, all of them chock-full of gorgeous imagery, allegory, themes and characters. They're not great because they are written by Christians, but rather because of what they say about the King.

Let's get right into it!

Because you can't do this without SOME classics...here it is! MacDonald himself was a bit of a questionable individual, and you'll notice some whackadoo symbolism in many of his books. This one, however, was designed for small children, and therefore is just beautiful. I read it for my C.S. Lewis seminar for a project, and the influences on Lewis' works, especially the Chronicles of Narnia, is blatant. If you're looking for a quick but joyful read, I strongly recommend this children's story.

The GOAT himself for Christian writing, Lewis went truly all out on this novel. It is easily the greatest of his works, and I've already read it twice. It sticks out to me every time I read it, and I've annotated the heck out of my copy. It's an absolutely gorgeous symbolism about how our feeble attempts to create gods for ourselves can never satisfy--but if we actually get even a glimpse at His back, the entire world begins to make a semblance of sense. I could write pages and pages and pages about this book, and I have in the past (haha) but I will save that for academia and just say: READ THIS BOOK.

This series, y'all. I'm only putting the first one here, but the whole series is incredible and I wish more people were talking about it at this point. I don't think any series has ever had THIS much of a chokehold on my imagination. I could never write a book this beautiful. The first book is very heavy-handed allegorically (but still immaculately beautiful). After that, it's a little more subtle, but still gorgeous and tear-inducing. I am begging you, if you love fantasy and you're a Christian, read these. (Read them even if you aren't a Christian or if you don't love fantasy. Artwork like this is like lightning--it only strikes occasionally).

While this book is less heavy on the Christian elements, it's still an absolutely beautiful picture of redemption and hope. The family in this story is truly incredible, and I haven't encountered many stories that are this gritty and real about the healing required from years of trauma. A good Christian book understands that healing is not overnight or instantaneous--it takes work, and this duology is a beautiful depiction of that in all its intricacy.

This is more of a contemporary and also an adult novel. It's actually a really hard book to describe--it hurts a lot to read, and it's incredibly dark at times, but it's a very good book with lots of beautiful symbolism and some very blatant light in darkness. There's a vaguely devil-ish character, a character who serves as something of a Christ figure, an unreliable narrator who's also ten years old... you name it. It's truly amazing. I've had the privilege of reading this one for a novel-writing class and I absolutely loved it.

This one is a very fun fantasy adventure with a lot of tropes and a beautiful group of characters with siblings and marriage of convenience and more. And assassins. DREAM assassins. If y'all haven't read this one, you should. It's so good and the trilogy is amazing--the books just get better as they go. And I need y'all to understand just how amazing the love interest is.

What are your favorite Christian books? Does anyone have a recommendation for me? Drop your favorites in the comments below!

 

Okay guys it is that time again! I keep losing my train of thought and ending up with something totally random on these stories, but this one is possibly the first in a series and I love it immensely. I wrote the whole thing in about 20 minutes so I apologize profusely for the quality, but HERE YA GO:

 

GUYYYYYS oops I. Did it again.

*channels Britney for about one second before puking*

Sorry, where was I? Oh yeah, MY NEW BOOK! Guys, I'm so so so stoked to reveal the working title and blurb for my WIP/the book I just finished! So without further ado: let's get RIGHT into this and talk about my book, which I wrote from May-June! (Not as impressive as it sounds--it is not very long, haha).

Traitor, Traitor

He's trying to find his brother. She wants to avenge hers. If they're going to succeed, they'll have to trust each other--but out here, trust can be deadly.

Miranda's brother went missing a year ago on the Mountain, a place where all kinds of crimes are completely legal. Outside the jurisdiction of the Courts, the Killing Mountain is a place rife with crime, where murderers get off scot-free...as long as they don't get caught by the vigilantes who seek their own form of justice. And then there are the blood traders to contend with, sworn to a non-lethal code, but willing to resort to violence to stop people from reaching the Mountain in the first place.

Miranda is not afraid of vigilantes or traders. She will have justice for her brother's death, come what may. But when she meets Joseph--a pacifist who just wants to reach the other side of the Mountain--her world is shaken. Throw in a blue-eyed stalker and a woman who loves shooting as much as she loves silks, and Miranda has far more than she signed up for. Trusting Joseph may be her only way out...unless Joseph is the killer himself.

About 60k-ish words

Fantasy thriller

Probably best described as The English (miniseries) meets The Scorpio Races meets real-world Yellowstone National Park with LOTS of Western tropes

I love this book so much, y'all. It's very different from anything else I've ever written--more Western than fantasy, not very character-driven, and no wars at all. This is a quest for vengeance--or is it justice? Hard to tell when the lines get this blurred.

Without further ado: My characters!