Christian author Susan May Warren writes to inspire and to reveal God’s truth, both to her readers and to herself.

Surrounded by the beauty and romance of Lake Superior’s rugged North Shore, it seems only natural that prolific Christian author Susan May Warren would choose Grand Marais, Minn., as a place to settle and write her stories.

Warren’s books are fraught with adventure, romance and spiritual themes that are influenced directly by her fellowship with the Lord. She said that her books are “all about grace, about God reaching into someone’s life through their journey, and offering spiritual redemption of some sort.”

While she will have 21 books on the market by the end of this year, she has traveled a long journey to get to this place.

Warren grew up in a Christian home and became a believer as a child.

As a teenager, she believed that God was urging her to become a missionary, but she rebelled at the possibilities of living overseas or being poor. She even walked away from God for a time, thinking she could do better on her own.

But, she eventually realized, “Without that daily relationship with God, my life felt empty and as if I were running, but I didn’t know where.”

Warren finally recommitted her life to the Lord as a junior in college and also surrendered to His calling on her life to be a missionary. That surrender led her to serve with her husband and children in Siberia for 10 years.

Warren said she has been writing all her life, but as a missionary and a Christian committed to serving Christ, she also committed her writing to the Lord’s use.

“I determined to write the best missionary newsletter I could,” she said.

Warren went on to write everything from fund-raising letters to articles and devotionals.                    

“However,” Warren said, “I loved novels, and when I offered up my passion again to the Lord, he directed me to hone my novel-writing skills.”

By the time she and her husband returned to the United States, God had given her plenty of experiences and stories to tell.

Believing that she is called to be “authentic and honest” in her storytelling, Warren said, “I’m not interested in cardboard characters with unrealistic struggles who receive pat answers. Real life is often overwhelming and sometimes messy and confusing. Relevant, faith-filled fiction deals with that and yet offers hope.”            

Because of this, she sees fiction writing as an opportunity to be another kind of missionary.

“I start a story with a character who believes a lie, and needs truth,” Warren said. “It might be something redemptive, or perhaps it’s simply a new perspective.”

But rather than “wedge” the truth in, Warren said, “I let the character free to journey forth, and let the truth work itself out onto the page.”

Still, even while Warren seeks to weave some sort of message into the fabric of a story, she doesn’t claim to have all of the answers.

Oftentimes, she begins her stories with questions to which she doesn’t know the answers, and the journey of her hero or heroine begins to parallel her own.

“God fills in the blanks through Bible study, sermons, songs, revelation from friends, even other books,” she said.

As an example of this, she referenced her character PJ Sugar, an undercover private investigator struggling with her double identity. As she progressed further into the book, Warren discovered that PJ struggled more with feelings of failure and getting in over her head.

“Oops!” Warren said. “I didn’t know that, and I certainly didn’t know how to help her ... until one day I was reading and I came across Hebrews 4:16: ‘Let us approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.’

“That was it,” she said, “the truth PJ needed, and a verse that I, too, need.”

While Warren’s goal is that the books she writes will continue to bless readers, it’s often the case that the Holy Spirit ministers specifically to her as she writes. Warren said that she was recovering from her own “horrible event” while writing “Tying the Knot,” a book about a woman struggling to see God’s hand during a horrible event in her life.

“I knew God used that book to heal me,” she said. “The words for Annie were first words for me, and without a doubt, it has the most of my spiritual journey on the pages than any other book.”

Rachel Hauck, award-winning author and friend of Warren, confirmed this.

“Susie is usually impacted by the spiritual thread of her stories because she really seeks to convey God’s truth in the life of her characters,” Hauck said. “She impresses me with how she applies Scripture so tactfully to her protagonist’s journey. With her recent ‘PJ Sugar series,’ she has been particularly impacted by the heroine’s understanding of God’s love for her, even in the midst of her weaknesses and mistakes.”

Warren and Hauck work as a team to offer a novel-critiquing service aptly called My Book Therapy. Together, they work “to train aspiring writers in the craft of writing,” Hauck said. “We also want to teach writers how to do it themselves — to be their own therapist.”

Warren loves finding new stories and meeting new people. As one who believes in God’s universal truths, she believes she can’t help but write stories about truth and hope and grace.

“I love knowing that I’m on a journey,” she said, “and that this step will lead me to the next, and that nothing is ever wasted with God.”