Welcome to the second “episode” of The Creative Life, where I speak to creative entrepreneurs about their work, business and dreams. This week, I speak to indie author Zena Wynn who is bravely forging her own path and living her faith, art and business true to herself.

Zena Wynn loves Jesus with all her heart. She also writes erotic romance novels. And she believes that this is not an oxymoron.

“I write about marriage the way God intended it to be – between one man and one woman. While the language used in my sex scenes are graphic, I don’t write about anal sex. I love writing paranormal romances but you’ll never see angels, demons, or witches as heroes/heroines in my stories, and I don’t write about any gods or goddesses. The bottom line is: my faith plays a large portion in the stories I write,” she said via e-mail.

The mother of three and grandmother of two first began writing in December 2006. Her first erotic paranormal romance, True Mates, was published by Loose Id, a California-based electronic books (ebook) publisher that specialises in publishing erotic romance. Since then, Wynn has published several novellas, short stories and novels – mostly in ebook formats.

She’d like to emphasise, however, that she writes erotic romance, not erotica.

“Erotica is defined as literature or art designed to sexually excite, and may or may not be romantic. Erotic Romance is first and foremost a romance novel, following all the rules of that genre, that also has a high quantity of graphic sexual detail,” she said.

One of the challenges she faced when she first began writing were the expectations people had of her fiction just because of her faith.

“As a Christian, it was expected that if I were going to write romance, the plots of my stories would be centered around the Christian faith with the romance between the main characters being secondary to my message of faith,” she said.

After months of wrestling with this issue, she chose not to go down that route, preferring to write stories that are based on the “hot, passionate, devoted love between a man and a woman”. But even after she was published, she still “questioned, wondered, and sought reassurance from God.”

When fellow Christians disapprove

A few years ago, when she was a member of an online Christian weight loss support group, Wynn received her first book contract. She excitedly shared the good news with the women she had come to know.

“Instead of sharing my joy, they heaped judgment upon my head. A few quoted scripture at me in an effort to show me the error of my ways. There was no support, no appreciation or shared joy, but lots of recrimination,” she said.

She once wrote in her blog (now offline): “I think women who criticise and condemn other women about their reading choices don’t understand the need it fulfills. I say it’s better for me to read (or write) about a married couple having a loving, passionate, sexual relationship than out there searching the clubs, or hitting the hookup sites on-line to fill the emptiness.”

Wynn said that she tries hard not to be affected by other people’s words or actions, telling herself that everyone is entitled to their own opinion.

“In the end, we’re all answerable to God and as long as I have the inner assurance that He’s pleased with my work, I try not to let what others think or say affect me. Of course I’m human and like everyone else, disapproval bothers me but I don’t waste time justifying my actions to anyone but God,” she said.

Fortunately, her friends and family are mostly supportive of her work.

So, can Christians write erotic stories?

“I think a better question to ask to an individual is: ‘Is your faith and relationship with God strong enough to handle your reading and writing erotica?’ For me, the answer to that question is yes. For someone else, that answer might be no. I have a Christian friend who loves reading horror but can no longer allow herself to do so because when she does, she becomes aggressive and displays violent anger tendencies. Definitely not Christian-like attributes,” she said.

“Is your faith and relationship with God strong enough to handle your reading and writing erotica?”

— ZENA WYNN

Being an indie self-publisher

Wynn now self-publish and has no intentions of going through a publisher again.

“I love the creative freedom of writing stories the way God gives them to me without having some editor stifle my creativity because it doesn’t fit their marketing plan. God has allowed me to push boundaries in ways I’d never imagined, but always with an underlying message,” she said.

“For instance, in my book The Contract, my heroine finds herself married to two brothers. The three do not live in perfect harmony as jealousy between the two men almost destroy the marriage. It takes a tragedy for the two brothers to come to terms with the situation. My message in this book is that God designed marriage to be between one man and one woman. Anything that goes against His preordained order is bound to have problems.

“In my two book series, Beyond the Breaking Point and Broken, my heroine is married and just walked in on her husband in a compromising situation. My hero, the husband’s best friend is the other injured party. The two engage in a night of drunken revenge sex that forms the basis of relationship the develops between the hero and heroine. However, because of the way their relationship began, I couldn’t let the road to happily ever after be smooth.

“The last surprise in my book library is Played. In Played, Mike gets his best friend Jake and their administrative aide together by pretending to need Jackie on a case. What’s surprising is that the story is a borderline menage. There is sexual contact between Mike and Jackie–part of their cover story–but it never crossed the line into sexual intercourse. I just completed book two, Gamed, which has even more contact than book one, but again never crosses the line.”

Whynn now shares her faith on social media a lot more.

“I proudly proclaim my relationship with Jesus Christ and don’t let the opinions of others bother me. It could be my age, but I believe it’s because I’m growing daily into the woman God created me to be.”

Liz’s thoughts: As a Christian myself, I often struggle with the issue of “purity” in my writing. In my early days as a Christian, I often feel guilty for reading romance novels and the thought of writing them makes me freeze up. Christian writer friends often speak about how, if you have a Christian “brand” or image, you’d be expected to toe the line in terms of sex scenes in books. “Clean” is where it’s at, and if you want to show more, you’re often looked at with a suspicious glare. I’m so glad that Zena has found peace and balance in this often divisive subject. Like her, I too believe that sex is a wonderful creation of God that should be celebrated, and that through our writing of it, we can enlighten readers of its beauty.

What do you think> Let us know in the comments below!

Find out more about Zena Wynn’s books at https://www.zenawynn.com.