I should start with a confession. I’ve developed a mini-reputation for being a person of faith – a Christian, Episcopalian to be more precise – who writes really, really hot romance. I should admit that when I began writing, I didn’t think much about God one way or another. I’d been raised Episcopalian and had simply wandered away from the church when Saturday night became more important in my life than Sunday morning.

A year ago – June 26, actually – I visited a friend’s church to see how I liked it. I’ve been back almost every Sunday, and I now serve on the altar guild, prepare food for fellowship, am a member of Oasis (our LGBT ministry) and run two blogs for the church.

“But, Alice,” you may say, “doesn’t your church frown on what you write?” Some parishioners might. Others support me, even if romance and erotica aren’t their cup of tea. My rector’s wife loves the Twilight series, and he based a sermon on vampires, werewolves, and shapeshifters one Sunday. He called what we write “chick flicks,” and he drew a parallel between a romance heroine’s redemptive influence on her hero and God’s love for all of us. “I love you. Calm down,” he said.

I can tell you, my jaw hit the back of the pew in front of me. So, I told him what I write. I don’t think he got the entire message, but when I told him I do the really steamy ones, he laughed. I don’t think he disapproves.

So, here’s the bottom line for me. God invented sex. He invented it not just for our species but for the huge majority of His creatures. As with everything, we can use this gift to love our fellows, or we can use it to hurt. In my books, my heroes and heroines express their love through the sex act. Sometimes before they have the words to say “I love you,” their bodies can say it for them.

God gave us the ability to communicate is many ways. Language, of course, but also art and ritual. We write poetry and drama that tell truths unmeasurable by scientific inquiry. We compose and perform music that goes beyond logic directly into our hearts and souls.

Not all of us are artists, writers, or composers, but we can all express ourselves though sexual union.

I hope that aspect is always present in my writing. The story might be about a naughty duchess and the younger man who wins her heart by warming her bed or about a woman who discovers that her priceless motorcycle can shift to human and become her ultimate lover. But, beneath each plot lies a truth, I hope – that God commands we love each other and we do.

***
Miss Foster’s Folly

Manhattan, 1886

Juliet Foster has just become the wealthiest spinster in town. Her domineering and thoroughly unpleasant father has died and left her millions. She’s free to be her own woman and seek a life of adventure.

David Winslow, Marquess of Derrington, is in search of a wife who can break the Winslow Curse. Every second-generation heir inherits a restless, defiant nature that can only be tamed by a mate as independent and rebellious as himself.

Miss Juliet Foster is perfect—and eager for seduction. But when he wants more than a few nights of passion, Juliet runs like the devil’s on her heels. Can the marquess convince her that marriage isn’t a trap, but the greatest freedom of all?

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Alice Gaines