Characters Part 4: An Open Letter About My Character Christian

Hello Readers!

I am so thankful for your support, encouragement, and enthusiasm over the last two years. I can’t believe it’s been two years! I am blessed to have such a wide variety of people reading my little self-published fiction series about young men who served Germany during the Weimar Republic and the Third Reich.

Out of respect for the fact that my audience is predominantly Christian, I felt that it was important that I share with you a little bit about my character, Christian Richter. (Although I didn’t intend to make him a big part of the series, as I look back, there’s no coincidence that he received that name.)

You may remember him from The Prodigal Sons. He first appears in a few scenes where Jake Schmidt is at a Hitler Youth event. Jake is being bullied and Christian steps in to save the day. They become best friends. Then Christian’s role takes a darker turn. We find out that his influence over Jake is not as good as we wanted it to be. Then, we find out a little more about Christian. By the end of The Prodigal Sons, we’ve learned that he is attracted to other men, and that he’s very, very lonely.

I don’t mind giving you minor spoiler alerts about his role in The Prodigal Sons, because ultimately, TPS is a story about Jake and Emmy:

Still, Christian wouldn’t leave me alone. He begged me to tell his story. At the same time, I kept seeing all these WW2 movies with handsome blonde lieutenants of the Wehrmacht that end up being “good guys” and I decided that I had to have my own. (I’m serious, that was my thought process!)

I knew that it had to be Christian in that role, so I began to give him a larger part in the follow-up to TPS, which is set between 1935 and 1945 and is entitled The Rubicon. (Releasing Fall 2023).

At the end of TPS, he had already been set up to be a confidant to Emmy. As I worked on that relationship, The Christmas We Both Needed emerged as a little side story that takes place in 1935. And, Christian wanted to tell you that story in his own words.

It just started flowing, so very prayerfully, I went with it. I know that a lot of people won’t understand, and it may make them not want to read the book. It has gone through a number of edits and I’ve handled Christian’s interactions with men even more delicately than I would handle a woman’s interaction with a man, simply because I know that every reader has their sensitivity level.

There are two risks, both of which are calculated, and I’m totally willing to take them:

1. That Christian readers will be turned off and even angered by the inclusion of a LGBTQ character.
2. That people within the LGBTQ community will assume this is a book that is just trying to convert them, or that young people who are struggling with their identity will assume that this book is just going to give them the spiel they’ve heard in church all their lives.

To everyone, whether you find yourself in either of these camps or not, I encourage you to read the book. Because honestly, I don’t feel like the book gives answers to anything. For me, personally, writing it simply encouraged me to ask myself questions, to pray about how I’ve handled things in the past, and whether there was room for changes in my preconceived notions.

God was already hard at work on that train of thought. I’ve read two beautiful books, both written by people who were or are same sex attracted, who have discovered how truly loved they are by God:

As an author of fiction, I don’t believe it’s my job to convince anyone of anything. While it is true that my convictions do come out in my writing, there is a lot of room for me to have artistic license and for readers to process things and ask questions.

A great example of that is Frederick Smith (Sani: The German Medic).

As soon as he comes to faith, it’s clear that Freddie is a born preacher who fully believes that Jesus Christ is the only way to heaven. He’s not afraid to tell you that, but is that the point of the book? One could equally say that the book is about a German-American’s experience in Hitler’s war, or to express the vast differences of opinion and feelings amongst Germans during the war. Or perhaps, the thing the reader grasped most from reading Sani is that unexpected second story arc that emerged between Friedrich and Frederick. (I say “unexpected” because that was not in my original story outline!)

But, I digress. Dear readers, I had to share this with you before releasing The Christmas We Both Needed. As I said, releasing a book like this is a calculated risk. Christians who write fiction don’t often address this topic, and for that reason I understand why some might be hesitant to pick this little book up. I included Christmas as A Gott Mit Uns Story, rather than part of the Gott Mit Uns Series proper. Therefore, you can skip it and then read The Rubicon without feeling that you’ve missed any plot points.

Naturally, of course, I would encourage you to give this book a chance, otherwise I would not have published it! Join with me in being challenged. As I said, I am not trying to answer any questions, in fact I still have a few of my own. Does Emmy handle everything right in the book? I don’t know. What she does manage to do is summarized well in this quote by Billy Graham, the greatest evangelist of the 20th Century:

It’s the Holy Spirit’s job to convict, God’s job to judge, and my job to love.

Billy Graham

I hope you’ll love this book — and Christian — as much as I do.

By the way, if your biggest issue with it is that it’s a Christmas book, don’t wait to give it a read. As one of my proofreaders said, “It’s not really a book about Christmas.” I suppose he’s right, it’s a book about Christian and Emmy, which happens to include all of the trappings of Christmas.

My thanks to you again, friends, for taking time to read this letter. Please don’t hesitate to share it with those with whom you’ve shared these books.

Aubrey