Did you know that the human brain is designed to respond to story? To crave it?
I’m saddened when people don’t value fiction or think it’s a waste of time. They might says something like, “Oh, I don’t read fiction,” or “I only read nonfiction.” Their tone and/or look tells me they think fiction is only for fun, and they are a serious person, having chosen not to have fun. It makes me sad because I know they are missing out. Though fiction is generally fun—at least the happy kind of fiction I like to read and write—it also is serious business.
Jesus taught in parables, and the Bible is full of stories; the flood, Jonah inside the whale, Esther, Ruth, the Exodus, Jesus’ life, and so many others. If stories weren’t important, why would God have included them in the Bible and Jesus taught using them?
Remember as a child sitting around telling ghost stories? When we played with dolls, cars, various building blocks, dress-up, or used a hairbrush as a microphone, those were all forms of story. Stories we were acting out. Our brains needed those stories to figure out life and, believe it or not, for survival. Our little brains were working out problems without knowing it and having fun at the same time. Yes, fiction is problem solving.
I am happy to say that science has finally caught up to the Bible in this area. There are machines that can take pictures of your brain which can show the parts of it processing the five senses. This neuroscience imaging reveals that the same areas of the brain that process the senses in real life are active when absorbed in a captivating story. The same areas! Powerful narratives that draw readers deep into the story world to evoke emotions can have a hand in rewiring the reader’s brain for emotions such as empathy.
People have had the same emotions, both ups and downs, across the ages and across cultures. So, the emotional roller coaster people go through today are the same or similar to the ones reflected in my historical novel. And though my readers might not have experienced the identical events that my characters have, they have likely felt fear and pain as well as hope for life to get better.
Someone who hasn’t gone through what my characters have or even something similar can still get something from reading fiction. When we read a story, our brain files that as experiencing those events to some degree. So, if a similar situation arises in real life to them or someone they know, their subconscious can draw on that fictional “experience” for help. Even when we read “just for fun”, our brains are getting so much more out of it. Our human brains are wired for story.
I think that is so cool.
So grab a novel and “experience” life.
Read with reckless abandon.
Happy Reading!
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NEW!
Love Is One of Life’s Greatest Adventures
Seven daring damsels don’t let the norms of their eras hold them back. Along the way these women attract the attention of men who admire their bravery and determination, but will they let love grow out of the adventures?
Zola’s Cross-Country Adventure, a 1904 road-trip
Zola Calkin sets out on an adventure to be the first woman to drive across the country. Will the journalist tasked to report her presumed failure sabotage her efforts? Or will he steal her heart?
Seven daring damsels don’t let the norms of their eras hold them back. Along the way these women attract the attention of men who admire their bravery and determination, but will they let love grow out of the adventures?
Zola’s Cross-Country Adventure, a 1904 road-trip
Zola Calkin sets out on an adventure to be the first woman to drive across the country. Will the journalist tasked to report her presumed failure sabotage her efforts? Or will he steal her heart?
RECENT!
THE WIDOW'S PLIGHT ~ A sweet historical romance that will tug at your heart. This is book 1 in the Quilting Circle series.Washington State, 1893
When Lily Lexington Bremmer arrives in Kamola with her young son, she’s reluctant to join the social center of her new community, the quilting circle, but the friendly ladies pull her in. She begins piecing a sunshine and shadows quilt because it mirrors her life. She has a secret that lurks in the shadows and hopes it doesn’t come out into the light. Dark places in her past are best forgotten, but her new life is full of sunshine. Will her secrets cast shadows on her bright future?
Widower Edric Hammond and his father are doing their best to raise his two young daughters. He meets Lily and her son when they arrive in town and helps her find a job and a place to live. Lily resists Edric’s charms at first but finds herself falling in love with this kind, gentle man and his two darling daughters. Lily has stolen his heart with her first warm smile, but he’s cautious about bringing another woman into his girls’ lives due to the harshness of their own mother.
Can Edric forgive Lily her past to take hold of a promising chance at love?
COMING SOON!
THE DAUGHTER'S PREDICAMENT (The Quilting Circle series Book 2) May 2019
#ChristianRomance #HistoricalRomance #Romance
MARY DAVIS s a bestselling, award-winning novelist of over two dozen titles in both historical and contemporary themes. Her 2018 titles include; "Holly and Ivy" in A Bouquet of Brides Collection (January), Courting Her Amish Heart (March), The Widow’s Plight (July), Courting Her Secret Heart (September), “Zola’s Cross-Country Adventure” in The MISSAdventure Brides Collection (December), and Courting Her Prodigal Heart (January 2019). Coming in 2019, The Daughter's Predicament (May) and "Bygones" in Thimbles and Threads (July). She is a member of ACFW and active in critique groups.
Mary lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband of over thirty-four years and two cats. She has three adult children and two incredibly adorable grandchildren. Find her online at:
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