Nipawin author finds niche in Christian fiction
When it comes to Christian fiction, Nipawin author Lois Richer may be Saskatchewan’s best kept secret.
Richer has had anywhere from 50 to 55 books (she says she’s stopped counting) published by big-name publishing houses. She is best known for her inspirational romance and suspense novels published by Harlequin’s Love Inspired line.
Richer says she has always been a storyteller. “I started making up stories for my kids when they were little. Once they were in school, I began trying to figure out how to write the kind of books I liked to read. I even wrote some letters to a couple of authors I particularly enjoyed to ask how it was done. One actually wrote me back. She said instead of writing to people like her, I should get myself to a national writer’s conference where I could take writing workshops and hear from editors exactly what they were looking for.”
Richer registered for a conference in Dallas, Texas, and flew down there “with much fear and trepidation. I knew no one, but all things worked together. I met the author I’d been corresponding with, and while we were talking, someone came up and handed her a paper. It contained information on Love Inspired, a new Christian romance fiction line that was starting up. I took the guidelines home, followed the instructions, submitted a novel, and sold right away. That was in the mid-1990s.”
Richer has written for publishing houses other than Harlequin. She signed with one house to do a multi-novel family saga series about a Scottish miner who comes to Canada and becomes a robber baron. Unfortunately, after the first two books were released, the publishing house went bankrupt. She also did a series for Tyndale House based on Torch Trail Bible Camp. “I enjoyed doing those, but the books were longer than I care to write,” she says. “Love Inspired novels are about 60,000 words, don’t require much research, and have a far broader distribution.”
One of the most frequent questions Richer is asked concerns where she gets her plot ideas. “It can be the oddest thing that will spark in my mind,” she says. “For instance, I was in a quilting supply store and overheard a lady saying she couldn’t do a particular thing anymore because she had to pawn her long arm quilting machine. I immediately knew how I could weave that into a story.”
Another time she heard about a woman with twin daughters who ran a horse farm. When her husband died, she said if it hadn’t been for the good people of her community helping out, she would never have been able to keep the farm.
“That sparked an idea and I wrote a story. When the book came out, it had a picture of two young women on the cover. I got a call from a lady in Colorado. ‘The two girls on the cover of your book are my daughters,’ she said. ‘They were invited to model for the artist. I read the copy of your book the publisher sent me — and what you wrote is exactly my story.’ The hero in the book is a handyman who stops by the ranch. ‘That’s what happened to me,’ she said, ‘ and now he’s my husband.’ ”
Richer hasn’t always been a writer. Before she was married, she owned a restaurant which she gave up to become a full-time wife and mother. Later on, she worked in a government job, then managed a store — all while writing late at night. “Once I sold my first novel, I began writing full time during the hours the kids were in school. That’s roughly how I still do it.” Lois writes three to four novels a year, a comfortable pace for her.
She says Christian fiction has come a long way in recent years. “When I was young, there wasn’t a lot of Christian fiction, and what was out there was pretty preachy stuff. I prefer to focus on the story. It’s the characters that drive me. The story of faith I like to present is the one that plays out in the characters’ lives and in their spiritual growth.”
“I write Christian fiction so I can tell stories that contain the things I believe in. To be able to talk about God is freeing. I may not write the full salvation message, but I’ll show a character’s growth in faith. I’m not interested in writing fiction that’s edgy or erotic. I like to write what I live.”
Books two and three of Lois Richer’s current Northern Lights Series, North Country Family and North Country Mom, were released by Love Inspired in March and May. The fourth, North Country Dad, will appear in bookstores in October.