What do you crave?
I was just thinking the other day that book genres and subject matter, as well as movie content, are directly related to what we crave. If this is true, then people must crave
Romance
Violence
The Supernatural
Mystery
Comedy and
Action
Would you agree? If so, what do you crave?
I admit I crave romance. It’s my favorite genre to read, write and watch. And if you look at sales of romance novels and romantic movies, I think a lot of other people do too.
When I look at bestselling books I see Harry Potter and Twilight and Percy Jackson. This tells me that a lot of people crave the supernatural. But this makes sense. God is a supernatural being, and we have a supernatural part of ourselves called a soul. Our soul was made to live forever with God in heaven. That’s definitely supernatural. And God created us to love and be loved. So it’s no wonder we crave both love and the supernatural. But things like romance and the supernatural can get twisted and distorted if we let them.
I believe the ultimate truth about both romance and the supernatural comes from one source, and that’s God and His Word. The Bible is a supernatural book. If you don’t believe me then I recommend you read it some time. There are all kinds of supernatural occurrences going on in the book of Acts, for instance. Pick up a Bible, look up Acts in the table of contents, and start reading and you will find it on nearly every page. People were being healed supernaturally, they were speaking languages they had never learned to speak, and they were prophesying future events. There aren’t any vampires or werewolves or fallen angels in Acts, but there are a lot of supernatural events being experienced by regular people.
And what about romance? Is that in the Bible too? Actually, it is. Just read the Song of Songs. If that’s not romance, I don’t know what is! Love is mentioned over and over in the Bible. God commands husbands and wives to love each other and even gives them marriage tips. And God wants to have a relationship with us. If you read the Bible you will see that it’s obvious that God is all about relationships. He states emphatically, over and over, that he loves us. And he wants us to “know” him, and that word means to know in an intimate way.
It might be stretching it a bit to say that there’s also violence, mystery, action, and comedy in the Bible, but not much. Because it’s all there. But the two things that people seem to crave most, Love/Romance and the Supernatural, are what the Bible is all about.
Just thought I’d point that out today! So go find out what God says about what you crave. And leave a comment if you’d like to win a copy of The Healer’s Apprentice, my debut novel from Zondervan. I’ll draw the winner in a week.
Bio: Melanie Dickerson is an award-winning author who loves creating romantic stories. Her first novel, The Healer’s Apprentice, is a medieval romance loosely based on Sleeping Beauty and is available from Zondervan. Her second novel, a Beauty and the Beast story called The Merchant’s Daughter, releases in December. She is a member of ACFW and RWA and you can visit her on her website, www.MelanieDickerson.com .
Ooo! Another B&B. I don’t get tired of those. Are you familiar with the Belorussian version of Beauty and the Beast? I love how it explains things like the (traditional) boar’s head for the beast (his witchy step-mother who enchanted him did so b/c of his stubbornness: his being pig-headed), and the beast’s asking the merchant for his youngest daughter (the merchant just *happens* to be the father of the girl the prince wouldn’t budge on, resulting in his enchantment).
Anyway, it’s *totally* my favorite version, and not something I’ll miss the chance to mention 😉
Hey, Melanie! Great post. 🙂 I’m really looking forward to reading your next book.
Please put me in the drawing for The Healer’s Apprentice. I have my own copy already, but I’d love to give your book as a gift. It’s a fantastically beautiful read!
*Love* this post … and so true. The stories we crave? Totally present in the Bible. There’s some pretty crazy stuff in there! Whenever people try to convince me I’m following a dead, boring book – I point out the love stories, the mistakes, the victories, the mysterious – everything our human hearts long for? Right there. The whole time. Wow. Just, wow … He knew what our hearts would crave, and delivered.
I’d love to be entered in the drawing for the Healer’s Apprentice, and am giddy with delight about your upcoming Beauty & the Beast novel — tied with East o’ the Sun, West o’ the Moon for my favorite fairy tale of all time (and actually reeeeeally similar, hehe) 🙂
Very true. The Bible contains so many great supernatural events, violence, romance, and plenty of action. God-action.
Not only is the Bible filled with all these things we as humans were made to crave, but it also is filled with infallible truth. Certainly anything else we read should be examined in light of whether it agrees with this wonderful book.
Please enter me in the drawing for The Healer’s Apprentice. I have never read it, and it sounds like a good read to me. Thanks.
I would love to be entered for a copy of this book! It is always so nice to find a good christian teen novel, there are not very many that are also well written and with stories that I would enjoy. When I look for a book that I will have fun reading, I always look for romance, some adventure, humor, and maybe a bit of magic. I have never been to your site before, but now that I have found it I will be coming back. 🙂
Lieder,
You’ll find lots of great Christian teen novels on our site! I’m so glad you found us.
Good luck in the drawing!
🙂
Jill Williamson
Thanks, everybody, for your great comments! I’ll be drawing a winner this weekend!
My next book is a Beauty and the Beast story, The Merchant’s Daughter, which comes out in November. At the moment I’m working on a Snow White story and I’m really having fun with it! I feel like a kid in a candy store thinking about all the fairy tales I can twist into my own version, full of romance!
Thanks for coming by!
I crave novels/non-fiction that incorporates Christian values and reconciliation/redemption value.
Have heard great words about this book. Still don’t have it and would love a try at winning it.
What do I crave? A good Historical Fiction. And not just any historical fiction that is clean. I crave books that, when I read the last page, I’ve learned something from it or it has impacted me in some way.
Oh, I was able to borrow The Healer’s Apprentice from a friend, but I would dearly love to have my own copy! Please enter me! 🙂
~ Katy
Hello!
A friend of mine thought that I would like to read this post so she sent me the link. It is a very thought provoking post. I appreciate it. I definitely agree that the things we like to watch and read tell us something about ourselves. It’s important that we make sure that the things we crave are honoring to Jesus. Thanks for the post.
Please enter me in the drawing. =)
Thanks, Christa
Fantastic story. I did not realize this was a book with Christian values when I got it. I got this as an ebook for my Nook just because it looked interesting.
I crave science fiction and fantasy. I get lost in the stories and even live them. It was very refreshing to read a book that didn’t immediately have the “main couple” jump into bed and then describe it in too much detail.
I know this is a book that my wife would enjoy. I just need to get her a hard copy because she will not “e-read!” LOL
Thanks for the journey and I look forward to your next book.
Tim
Thanks, Tim!!! I so appreciate your encouraging words about my book. I hope your wife will read it and let me know what she thinks. She can write me from my website, http://www.melaniedickerson.com
Thanks again!