Intersection Column | Grief, Humor, and Romantic Comedy

by Pepper Basham

Grief isn’t usually something people associate with romantic comedy.

Because it isn’t funny.

It’s hard, long, bone-aching and heart-wearying.

Not light or humorous or romantic.

It can shatter us.

But, since the Fall, it’s been a part of life.

A part. Not a whole.

But still a part of life.

And life happens in all sorts of stories, even romantic comedies. Because the hard places are, many times, the spine of who we become in the brighter spots. Especially in the grand perspective of knowing who God is, how much He loves us, and how He’s working everything for our good and His glory.

Most of us live everyday lives while carrying our own cracked, battered, and bruised backstories. It’s the way life works. The strange comparison of two “opposites”: light/dark, happy/sad, joy/sorrow. They are mingled together.

That’s where my newest novel Some Like It Scot took an unexpected turn. With grief.

The idea of a fun travel writer and a grumpy Scot began in spring 2021 as I started researching a possible trip to Scotland. I hadn’t quite decided where I would place the book within Scotland, but I knew the country. I’d fallen in love with Scotland at first sight several years before. And I knew that the story was going to deal with two characters who handled sibling grief differently: one in a healthier environment than the other.

I’d only written a chapter or so of the story when the unbelievable happened. My only sibling, my little brother, died unexpectedly. The pain I’d been attempting to write about only a few days before became a real and aching reality, and this story got pushed to the back of my writing pile because I wasn’t ready to face it.

But God is good at not wasting anything.

Two years later when I needed a new idea for Thomas Nelson, I pulled this book out and you know what? I understood it in a way I hadn’t understood it before. I could describe things in a way I couldn’t before. I could minister to other grieving hearts in a way I never could have before. And through writing, not just about my grief, but about the hope God’s promises and grace provides, this story offered additional healing for my heart.

Grief isn’t funny. It’s hard.

But it’s also rich with depth of the soul where God cultivates in us a better view of who He is and who we are within His love. And even in grief, when we think about His love and the promise He’s given us for our futures, we can find joy. Together. Not as opposites, necessarily, but as people in a world where we are sojourning toward The Undying Lands with our beloved Savior. A true happily-ever-after.

1 Thessalonians 4:13, “But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope.”

About the Author

Pepper Basham is an award-winning author who writes romance “peppered” with grace and humor. Writing both historical and contemporary novels, she loves to incorporate her native Appalachian culture and/or her unabashed adoration of the UK into her stories. She currently resides in the lovely mountains of Asheville, NC, where she is the wife of a fantastic pastor, the mom of five great kids, a speech-language pathologist, and a lover of chocolate, jazz, hats, and Jesus.

About the Book

Popular travel writer and podcaster Katie Campbell is offered the chance to explore her ancestral roots through a three-week Edwardian experience in Scotland. In her period attire, with traditional foods and activities, the opportunities for misadventures are endless, especially with the presence of a maniacal macaw, a jealous co-worker, and an all-too-surly Scotsman.