Kolby
Army Ranger Romance, #2
Kolby is up this week, and he was my first Christian main character. I tried my best to make him a Ranger who was a Christian, not a Christian Ranger. I didn’t want it to be preachy, and I tried hard. It’s also in my top five favorites. I love Kolby. His quiet strength, going through all he went through and still having a lion’s heart. That’s not easy. In a way, I wrote him with the heart I’d like to have one day.
It can be a very fine line. I got some who said he wasn’t Christian enough, and some who said he was too Christian. One review that stuck out was someone commenting that they saw it on Amazon and then put the word clean in quotation marks. Needless to say, that wasn’t my best review.
At the time, with it being my first Christian character, I was like, really? Out of all the books I've written, this person picks the one time I did? I got the impression, though, that it wouldn't have mattered which book they'd picked. They weren't going to like it because it was clean. Again, not bashing. Clearly, she's not my target reader, and that's okay.
There was a bit of a Job theme for Kolby. It’s easy to think things like forgiveness are done when things are going well and I’m not giving it real thought anymore. You know, bee-bopping along, all happy. It’s when stuff blows up that I take a hard look at my faith and my various relationships—both past and present. Then all the “whys” pop up, and I have to go through them and really think on them.
Overall, I loved Ivy and Kolby’s friendship and how it grew into something more. I love how her family welcomed him into their fold. I especially loved the ending. I don’t want to give spoilers, but I love the spontaneity of what happened. The plan just went poof because it was the right time, right then. Plans are a good map, but sometimes, it’s okay to take a side road, ya know?
Anyway, I hope that gave a bit of a little behind the scenes of my thought process.
It can be a very fine line. I got some who said he wasn’t Christian enough, and some who said he was too Christian. One review that stuck out was someone commenting that they saw it on Amazon and then put the word clean in quotation marks. Needless to say, that wasn’t my best review.
At the time, with it being my first Christian character, I was like, really? Out of all the books I've written, this person picks the one time I did? I got the impression, though, that it wouldn't have mattered which book they'd picked. They weren't going to like it because it was clean. Again, not bashing. Clearly, she's not my target reader, and that's okay.
There was a bit of a Job theme for Kolby. It’s easy to think things like forgiveness are done when things are going well and I’m not giving it real thought anymore. You know, bee-bopping along, all happy. It’s when stuff blows up that I take a hard look at my faith and my various relationships—both past and present. Then all the “whys” pop up, and I have to go through them and really think on them.
Overall, I loved Ivy and Kolby’s friendship and how it grew into something more. I love how her family welcomed him into their fold. I especially loved the ending. I don’t want to give spoilers, but I love the spontaneity of what happened. The plan just went poof because it was the right time, right then. Plans are a good map, but sometimes, it’s okay to take a side road, ya know?
Anyway, I hope that gave a bit of a little behind the scenes of my thought process.
