The Best Couples are a Hot Mess

My Soul to Keep author, Melanie Wells stopped by Christian Fiction Blog to participate in our 1Question Author Interview Series-The Valentine Edition. 2 Questions/Couple. Cute. The questions:

Who are your favorite fictional couple?

I hate to be a cliche' but I'd have to say Rhett Butler and Scarlet O'Hara. They're a charming, cantankerous relational disaster. You just want to smack 'em both.


And what have you learned about them that helps you build the romance arc of your own stories?

Like Rhett and Scarlett (at this point, any southerner knows to add "bless their hearts" -which is required if you're insulting someone) my characters are extremely flawed. My books tend to be populated with broken - or at least bent - people. But they're so likeable, you're rooting for them anyway. Dylan Foster (bless her heart) just can't quite seem to get it right, which keeps the tension running all the way through the story. You WANT it to work out between her and David-who-owns-a-funeral-home-in-Hillsboro, but you're also sitting there thinking, Dylan, you need to go to time out, and David, for crying out loud, get a SPINE and stand up to this woman. They're a mess. That's what makes the story work. Happiness is sort of boring, if you think about it.

Subscribe to Christian Fiction.

Join our Christian Fiction Network

Reconciliation, Rumor and My Two Cents

February, 2008 - In response to an article on www.articlesofinfo.com, Juanita Bynum would like to make it very clear that she is not in counseling with Bishop Thomas Weeks III, nor are there any talks of reconciliation as stated in the false article written by Doug Campbell.

As Dr. Bynum has stated in the past, she feels that reconciliation with her estranged husband could be a tremendous testimony to the body of Christ; however that is not the case at this time.
- From Bynum's Publicist

Whatever...I am thankful that the reconciliation story is rumor, but from reading the entire press release Bynum is digging a whole for herself by agreeing to continue in a relationship with Week's family for business matters.

See. This is a problem many domestic violence survivors can smell from a mile away. You leave yor abuser. His family and him ask for the chance to support your other endeavors. You accept. What you're saying is. I was hurt, but my basic needs instead of allowing God to supply them I am going to accept your proposal, because it is a safe, comfortable and familiar place.

I am struggling with this same issue right now. My ex wants to reconcile. He knows my situation, because he help put me here. We have a child together and he knows my position on Christian parenting. So it's Valentine's Week, a week after my birthday. I'm feeling nostalgic. Just watched Perry's Why Did I Get MArried and Fool's GOld all in one week. I'm in a forgetful, romantic, pressed for money mood. But if I allow his family to babysit our daughter, what I am saying to my daughter is that I will risk putting her in harm's way, because I want to be the good girl. I want my fantasy romance with this man to be storybook real. Bologna.

You want to talk about ministering to women who have suffered abuse, then you dig in and experience the discomfort, the separation, the heartbreak and the longing until God moves it. I'm not talking to Bynum, I'm talking to sisters like me who are struggling with whether I should give this man another chance, because I miss the roses more than the look in his eyes when darkness disconnects from you.