*author in photo may not be an exact representation of reality…
About two years ago, Elizabeth, Narelle, and I talked about Easter romances with Lee Tobin McClain on a StoryChats podcast. I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, but there are whole lot of Christmas romances out there, but very few focused on Easter! We mused about why that might be while highlighting a few that did fit the bill.
Beth and I chatted about Easter romances a few more times before deciding that we did, in fact, need to write some. We shared our vision with a few other authors of CCR and began to sort out what a multi-author Easter-themed series might look like.
When the concept of world-famous, destination-type passion plays came to the forefront of our discussions, we knew we had a foundation that could support multiple stories.
We created the town of Gilead, Kansas, which you may have already visited in Elizabeth Maddrey’s The Billionaire’s Nanny, when THAT story’s heroine goes home to see her parents and sister. We created Gilead Bible College and determined the parameters of why this random little college town on the prairies would produce an annual passion play. And then we began to brainstorm characters and story ideas. Whose characters would be in the cast? Which would be support workers? Which would be residents of small-town Gilead? How would all their lives intersect?
I doodled ideas. This was going to be separate from any of my series, but I still wanted it to tie into those. Did I have a spare character floating around who might deserve his or her own story? Someone my existing readers might care about?
Hmm.
I was writing Kiss Me Like You Mean It, Cowboy at the time, a story about a young single mom with a then-six-year-old. Dafne Santoro had been a side character throughout the Urban Farm Fresh Romance series, and we’d met her son’s father a few times. Frankly, he was a deadbeat. A loser. Way back at the beginning, he’d encouraged teenaged Dafne to abort. She chose not to. Chose instead to keep the baby and raise him herself.
Connor Hamelin stayed far, far away. But why?
Well, it seemed obvious to me. They’d both been high-school kids. His family life put the dys in dysfunctional. Dafne’s parents stepped in to help her with her son. It was easier for Connor to remain on the sidelines, at least until Dafne’s new husband wanted to adopt Gavin.
But as I began to contemplate Connor’s story of redemption, I came face to face with reality in the light of actual laws making it difficult for parents to give up rights to their children. It became harder and harder to present Connor as a likeable character with this abandonment in his background. How could he just release Gavin to his new stepfather and still be sympathetic to readers?
I thought of this way to get around the problem, but no. How about that way? Also no. But after several brainstorming sessions with others more familiar than I with legal matters (including a family law intern — thanks, Natalie!), we found the tightrope Connor needed to walk.
Suddenly, the struggle of whether or not he should release his son for adoption became foundational to this Easter tale of redemption, which means the story didn’t turn out at all like I’d originally envisaged. However, I think it is way stronger!
The heroine’s story, then, found parallels to Dafne’s story, with Zoey as a single mom whose ex hadn’t wanted their child, either.
Those similarities provide a bond between Connor and Zoey, but also a lot of friction. Being cast as Jesus in the annual passion play throws unbelieving Connor for a loop. But, through his study of the character he’s portraying and the lives of those around him, including Zoey, Connor realizes that the Man he is pretending to be is who He claimed to be: the Savior of the world.
I hope you’ll come to Gilead, immerse in the passion play, and experience again the wonder of redemption through God’s infinite love for you.
Connor Hamelin’s Kansas farm boss offers wages through the winter if he’ll try out for the annual passion play. Connor’s been drifting, but sticking around sounds good. Figuring he can channel Judas, he auditions… and is cast as Jesus. Ugh, but maybe he’ll finally understand all the religious nuts in his life.
Single mom Zoey Matthews helps in the wardrobe department for the local passion play as well as participating in crowd scenes with her young daughter. Zoey might be intrigued by the unlikely guy cast as Jesus in this year’s production, but she’s not looking for romance, especially not with an unbeliever too similar to her bad-boy ex.
Connor doesn’t deserve a chance to make amends for his past nor another chance at love. He definitely doesn’t deserve the forgiveness of the Savior he’s portraying… but God is a God of redemption and second chances.
What Easter themed romances have you read? Why do YOU think there are fewer of them than Christmas romances?
Valerie Comer is a USA Today bestselling author and a two-time Word Award winner who writes where food meets faith and fiction. She injects experience laced with humor into her green clean romances. Her life on a small farm in western Canada provides the seed for stories of contemporary inspirational romance. Like many of her characters, Valerie and her family grow much of their own food and are active in the local foods movement as well as their church. She only hopes her creations enjoy their happily-ever-afters as much as she does hers, shared with her husband, adult kids, and adorable granddaughters.
Preordered! I can’t wait to read it.
Janet Tronstad had a dry creek book set at Easter (I think it was Easter in Dry Creek)
I remember the Lilacs on the cover
I think the difference between Easter and Christmas is Christmas while one day the whole season seems to start After American Thanksgiving and there are so many lead up events before Christmas.
Where as easter in America is really only one day. There is Lent but it doesn’t lend itself to romance books. In Canada and Australia and many other places in the world Easter starts with Good Friday and for many of us its the most important day of the year and then Easter Sunday which is also important but you cant have Easter Sunday without Good Friday. In the northern hemesphere its the beginning of spring where as here its autumn.
I like the idea of the passion play. I have had some friends who went to Germany to see Oberammergau: The Passion Play which is done every 10 years.
Hi Valerie! I have read a few CR set in spring around Easter, which in my humble opinion is a more reflective Christian celebration from Good Friday to Easter Sunday. Most traditions are on a family level often due to weather conditions. Also it is a movable holiday. The date changes from year to year, while Christmas is constant- always on December 25. So if an author has an Easter setting will the time frame be early March or mid April???? Therefore it is easier to have understandable timeline.
Interesting motif a passion play. While some are done in churches at Easter, I don’t know of any community wide / well know Passion Plays done at Easter. In our SW Michigan community churches weather permitting churches may have a Sunrise service on a Lake Michigan beach. When hubby was pastor, we did some skits at the sunrise service. In the past churches did Easter cantatas or Easter plays. We also had a Good Friday service. Then an Easter sunrise breakfast with an Easter service.
Oberammergau in Germany is done every 10 years in the summer. Eureka Springs, Arkansas has a yearly Great Passion Play during the summer months. THE GREAT PASSION PLAY – An hour-and-forty-five minute reenactment of the last week of the life of Jesus Christ. Staged in a 4,000 seat outdoor amphitheater in the Ozark Mountains.
Happy Writing. Book preordered.
Puts the dys in dysfunction. Heh. Good one. Seriously though, I love redemption stories and appreciate when an author dares to use a character who isn’t hero-material, but through the saving grace of Jesus, becomes one.
I haven’t read too many books with Easter as the holiday. Your book sounds really good. I work for child support and I come across this a lot.
Thank you! I hope you will love this story.
Lots of good points, Jenny! We did discuss in that podcast that many (most?) of the titles we found were from Love Inspired, with several from Janet Tronstad.
Lent really doesn’t have the same visceral appeal as advent, does it! We don’t like to think of denying ourselves anything, and it certainly doesn’t seem romantic.
Good Friday is a holiday in Canada that most people just look at as an extra day off work, but in the US, it’s not even that.
Yes, most passion plays are on a small, local level in churches. We looked at the one in Germany as well as the annual (summer) one in Drumheller, Alberta, Canada. But since we write fiction, we decided to make it our way to fit the stories we wanted to tell!
We chose to use the 2023 calendar for Lent and Easter, since this is the year the books are releasing. You’re right, though. Easter is definitely a moving target!
Thank you! It does feel like a risk to write a story like that. At first, I was just scanning my published stories to find a secondary character who might like to move to Kansas and take part in a passion play. But when I began to think about Connor… things started coming together. I love redemption. It is so very amazing.
I hope you enjoy Connor and Zoey’s story!!! Sadly, there are so many broken families. So many broken people. I loved the process of offering hope and redemption through these characters.
I do think there aren’t many Easter stories, and I can’t wait to read these!!! Your story sounds great!!
Thank you! I hope you enjoy it, as well as the ones from the other authors. They’ll be revealing their own stories over the next while.
Your book sounds really good. I have it on my list of books to read. I don’t think I have read any romance books based on Easter. I think that there is just more subject matter around Christmas with shopping, decorating, baking, parties, etc. Easter is more low key. And, although both holidays are religious holidays, Easter seems to be more reverent and meditative. The secular world has made Christmas a more glamorous, commercial holiday. As Christians we have to keep reminding people the true meaning of Christmas. I love your story being played out around the passion play. I can’t wait to read how this young man reacts to his redemption. I’m getting goose bumps thinking about it.
Oooh, goosebumps are good in this scenario! I hope this story lives up to your expectations.
I agree on Lent. I was surprised about America not having Good Friday off. My pen pal worked in NZ for a year and had 6 weeks in Australia and I meet her and we stayed in Adelaide for about 3 nights the week before Easter. She was saying in America back then Good friday wasn’t a day off but some businesses would take the day off or part of the day in respect for Catholics. That was around 30 years ago.
Then when I was first going online at home I joined a christian Ladies group and use to talk with one of them. They would always talk about Easter Sunday as the most important day in the Christian calendar but Good Friday was just glossed over. We got talking about this and I said how here it was a day off and most churches had a service in the morning for Good Friday. She said some where she was had a service on Good Friday at night but it wasn’t an important day. Back then and still today (in my town and many others) most shops, supermarkets etc are closed for Good Friday. We only have 2 days in the year most businesses are closed. and then was saying how without Good Friday when we remember Jesus dying on the cross there would be no Resurrection Sunday. She said she had never thought about that before.. I think its shows how different places and people think differently and are brought up differently. I know to many Easter like Christmas are just holidays which is sad.
In Canada do you also have Easter Monday off? We have a 4 day weekend. Back growing up that meant 4 days of nothing opened.
can’t think of any
There aren’t many!
I’m honestly surprised Canada still has a holiday for Good Friday, since we pride ourselves on being a secular nation. But just try to take away people’s statutory holidays, and you’ll get an uproar, so I’m sure that’s why we still have it! Easter Monday is also a holiday for government offices and teachers, maybe a few others. So schools have a four-day weekend, unless they manage to link spring break up with it, then it’s just absorbed. Some stores will be closed Good Friday, but the supermarkets are only closed Christmas Day and open every other day.
Actually, I have not read any Easter books. I have seen a few out there under Harleiquin. I believe that it is because a lot of people only look at Easter as the bunny, candy and children. For Christians, they do not think about Easter the same way as Christmas. It is a day of rejoicing for the Savior’s resurrection, but all the suffering the Lord experienced is hard to forget. Thank you for sharing. God bless you.
Good point! I promise you will find WAAAY more about Jesus’ death and resurrection in the Easter in Gilead books than bunnies and candy! I hope you’ll give them a try.
I’m late to the discussion but could it be a market issue? Christmas is about the birth of Jesus but for many people it is seen as something cultural or a celebration of love and friendship for the whole family, so even the aspects of Christmas works are accepted by non-believers or readers who are somewhat removed from the Church but still want to read something clean and don’t care about a Christian book.
Easter is without a doubt Christian, either you celebrate it as it is or you don’t celebrate it and it’s just something festive it doesn’t have a familiar or decentered cultural meaning of Christ like Christmas then an Easter romance with a theme to celebrate that week or a party on Sunday of Resurrection is unlikely to resonate beyond the Christian romance reader and I think some authors still hold out hope that a non-believer or clean or secular romance reader will buy their books.
I remember that when I was about 8 years old I was in a Catholic school for Nuns, my religion teacher at Easter promoted fantasy and also wanted us to think about Jesus, she told us a nice story about the Easter Bunny where originally he was a bunny who used to observe Jesus from afar and mourned his death and since then he gave little eggs to the children at Easter so that they would remember the resurrection of Jesus since as an animal the closest thing he knew to rebirth were the eggs that his bird friends laid.
It was a creative way to keep the true meaning without making a few children cry and telling them “don’t believe this!”.
Oh, what an interesting tale! Thanks for sharing it.
Yes, definitely. I think you nailed it. While some Christian authors do try to write “cross over” fiction, many of us also don’t do that. I feel my market is primarily to Christian women who want a love story with all the feels that also draws them closer to the Lord. So my characters tend to be believers (or, in some cases, become Christians in the story) who are facing issues in their personal life and growth. My goal is to encourage Christian women! Anyone else is also welcome to read, of course, but that’s my primary focus.
I love the idea of having more stories set around Easter. The possibilities for deep spiritual arcs are endless. I wonder if there are so many more CCR books set at Christmas because, even though both holidays have both a sacred and a secular aspect, Western culture has constructed Christmas to be a romantic holiday. Do we see ad campaigns aimed at guys to buy an engagement ring to pop the question on Easter? Would ANYONE watch two months’ worth of Hallmark or Lifetime Easter romance movies 24/7? I can’t wait to come to Gilead–book pre-ordered!
LOL, I’m laughing at the image of a guy popping the question in an Easter extravaganza!
I have read a couple books set at Easter from the Love Inspired books. I wonder if a couple reasons there aren’t more books set at Easter are because of the more contemplative tone of Lent and Holy Week and that the rest of the world doesn’t make as much of Easter as Christmas.
This series sounds so good. I am looking forward to it.
Contemplative is a great word to describe the difference! I hope you enjoy the series.