Round up a passel of publishers of Christian historical fiction these days and you’ll notice something interesting: A large number of westerns—novels set in the Wild West of the past complete with cattle ranchers, cowboys, criminals, strong women, and romance. While the Western has waned a bit in popularity in the fiction market at large, such stories remain a popular subgenre of Christian fiction. And according to authors and publishers, the allure of the Western remains strong, even if they aren't exactly Christian fiction.
“The romance of the Old West is sewn into American lore and history, and I think readers connect with a lot of elements of these stories,” said Jessica Sharpe, senior acquisitions editor at Bethany House, a division of Baker Publishing Group. “The good-vs-evil storylines, the American ideals of hard work and independence, the purity of wide-open spaces. Even a fascination with the everyday rhythms of pioneer life.”
Bethany House is publishing home to some of the most popular writers in the genre including Karen Witemeyer, Mary Connealy, Tracie Peterson, and Misty M. Beller, as well as Janette Oke, whose When Calls the Heart series has inspired a popular television series.
For Connealy, it’s all about the cowboys.
“I love that they are men of few words and swift action. They live in harmony with the land but are rough enough to endure when weather and mountains, rattlesnakes and stampedes make life hard,” she said. “My heroes are strong, and I make my heroines just as strong to be a match for them.”
Toward the Dawn, the second in her A Western Light series, released in June and book three, Into the Sunset, will release in October. The first in her new Golden State Treasures series, Whispers of Fortune, is set for February 2025 release.
Karen Witemeyer, who also publishes with Bethany House, has written 27 novels and novellas, all set in 1800’s Texas. Her third book in the Texas Ever After series, Cloaked in Beauty, releases in December. She agrees it’s the cowboys and the strong women drawing eager readers in.
“Who can resist a rugged hero in possession of a tender, humble heart?” Witemeyer said. “Yet, we also see ourselves in a feisty heroine, one who is strong and capable in her own right and ready to fight beside her man to overcome whatever obstacles fate might place in their path,” she added. “When we read about ordinary people overcoming extraordinary hardship, it makes the obstacles in our own lives feel less intimidating.”
Tyndale Fiction doesn’t have a purposeful focus on westerns, according to acquiring editor Stephanie Broene, but is always eager for good settings and good stories, and publishes New York Times bestselling author Francine Rivers, whose latest book, The Lady’s Mine (2023) is set in an 1875 mining town in the Sierra Nevada. “The Lady’s Mine has done very well. It launched right when the Redeeming Love movie came out, a western novel [by Rivers] that people have loved for years,” said Broene.
The American West almost becomes a character in itself for authors such as Amanda Cabot, who set her Secrets of Sweetwater Crossing and Cimarron Creek series, published by Revell, in the Texas Hill Country.
“I believe that the setting of a book is an essential element of the story,” said Cabot. “People fall in love with my towns as much as they do with the characters. Readers have told me they pulled out a map of Texas, looking for my towns because they wanted to visit. When a trilogy ends, it’s typical for readers to ask for more books set in that town. These emails make me smile because they tell me I’ve accomplished my goal of making my settings feel real.”
Tracie Peterson agrees. She has written over 140 novels and says that over a hundred of them are set in the American West between the 1830s and 1920s.
“I see the raw, unvarnished frontier as an amazing platform for characters and their creation,” said Peterson, who publishes with Bethany House. “I love to have my settings be like secondary characters,” she adds. “Setting in fiction so often has a bigger influence over the storylines than anything else. It can influence every aspect of a character’s life-and-death choices, especially in the American West. It’s provides an amazing palette for writers.”
While historical fiction westerns remain perennial favorites, Tyndale Fiction is an example of publishers moving into modern westerns via Ryan Steck’s Matthew Redd Thriller novels. Fields of Fire came out in May 2023, Lethal Range in August 2023, and Out for Blood in June. Set in Montana’s Big Sky country, Redd must fight any number of international villains and bad operators close to home.
“It’s funny to me that we’re even talking about modern westerns now. Not long ago it was an undesirable genre, with Fields of Fire sitting on my desk. Then [the miniseries] Yellowstone happened,” said Steck, whose books have been compared to C. J. Box’s Joe Pickett novels set in Wyoming.
While his books aren’t explicitly Christian, he adds undertones of faith to each book and depicts the process of maturing in the Christian faith.
“Redd has a modern-day cowboy-esque nature. He has his own moral code, believes in justice and the pursuit of it, and has the physical traits and experiences of a cowboy,” said Steck. “I plan to write Matthew Redd books for a long time.”
Meanwhile, publishers such as Tyndale, Revell, and Bethany House have no plans to slow down publishing Westerns. And it's clear that authors will continue to write them, and readers will buy them.
“The American West offers so many different opportunities for stories," said Peterson. "The possibilities are endless.”
