Amish novels, vampire tales arise from the dread

DENVER | The Christian book business, optimistic that a little literary escapism might be an antidote for readers in hard times, is turning to bonnets, buggies and bloodsuckers.

Even as Christian publishing suffers during the recession — one study found net sales for Christian retailers were down almost 11 percent last year — several publishing houses are adding or expanding fiction lines with both the tame (Amish heroines) and boundary-pushing (Christian vampire literature).

The undisputed industry leader is so-called Amish fiction — typically, romances and family sagas set in contemporary Amish communities. They’re a surprise hit with evangelical women attracted by a simpler time, curiosity about cloistered communities and admiration for the strong, traditional faith of the Amish.

The success of the genre has spawned not just new Amish fiction authors but spinoff series about other cloistered communities. If you want to sell it, as one literary agent put it, put a bonnet on it.

Not all new Christian fiction is prairie-wholesome, however. There’s building buzz — and some trepidation — about upcoming titles that bring a Christian perspective to tales of vampires and the undead.

The consensus of publishers, authors and others gathered in Denver this week for the annual International Christian Retail Show, which closed Wednesday: There’s a growing audience for Christian fiction that both comforts and challenges more than a decade after the apocalyptic “Left Behind” series took Christian fiction out of obscurity and onto Wal-Mart shelves and the New York Times best-seller list.

“If you look at ‘Left Behind,’ the moon turns to blood and one-third of the people die,” says Karen Watson, associate publisher, fiction, for Tyndale House, which published the series. “Or you have people with bonnets on drawing water from the well. It just tells me there are a wide range of things you can talk about, and Christian books can be a lot of things.”

Christian fiction often has mimicked successful genres: Romance. Sci-fi. Legal thrillers. But in Amish fiction, Christian publishing has something it can genuinely claim as its own.

Much of the credit goes to Beverly Lewis, a Colorado author who gave birth to the genre in 1997 with “The Shunning,” based loosely on her grandmother’s experience of leaving her Old Order Mennonite upbringing to marry a Bible-college student. The book has sold more than 1 million copies.

Mrs. Lewis tapped into a fascination with the Amish, who base their morals on a literal interpretation of the Bible and are known for their plain clothes and rejection of modern technology.

“For every lineup of Amish women at a gathering of any kind, you’ll always see one of them that has her hand kind of on her hip,” says the author, who grew up a Pentecostal preacher’s daughter in Pennsylvania Amish country. “That’s my character. She’s the one that’s pushing boundaries.”

Bonnet fiction does play to the base of the market: Three in four Christian fiction readers are women, according to publishing research from the firm R.R. Bowker.

Mrs. Lewis also credits the genre’s growth to public fascination with Lancaster County, Pa., Amish who forgave a gunman who killed five girls at an Amish one-room schoolhouse before killing himself in 2006.

Wanda Brunstetter, who probably is No. 2 to Mrs. Lewis on the Amish-fiction roster, says she has heard from readers turning to her fiction not just for escape but for lessons during tough economic times.

“People are learning from the Amish novels how they can simplify and set their priorities straight,” said Mrs. Brunstetter, who writes Amish romance, between book signings at the retail show.

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