It’s time for another getting-to-know-you question from members of the international members of American Christian Fiction Writers … but first, some conference news!
2025 ACFW Virtual Conference
One thing it’s often hard to do as international members of American Christian Fiction Writers is attend the annual conference. This year, the conference is also being offered as a virtual option.
The conference starts with an opening address at 4pm US Central time on Thursday 4th September, with sessions running 9am to 5pm Central time on Friday 5th to Sunday 8th September 2025.
The price is USD 399 for current ACFW members, and USD 480 for non-members (plus a USD 40 processing fee).
Click here to find out more and sign up.
Question Time
This month’s question for our members:
What season is it where you live (summer or winter), and what do you love or loathe most about the current season?
Lynn Halliday says:
It is summer in Northern Ontario and I wish it were winter! We are having the hottest summer on record, very humid for us. I love the North with its clean fresh air, cool in the evening and early mornings and pleasant in the day. But alas- not this year.
Dienece Darling says:
It’s currently winter in Australia, but the sun has started to come out and warm things up, including the ants. So, I am simultaneously enjoying and regretting the warmth. 🙂
Pearl Ada Pridham says:
Here in Canada it’s summer now. I love the gently warm weather and long days.
Catherine Genton says:
Where I live, a suburb near Vancouver, Canada, it’s late summer. The nights are slightly cooler and a lot damper, and I hope my tomatoes and grapes will ripen soon. This summer has been milder than usual, so I feel less desperation for the cool autumn. I love harvesting my beans and blueberries. I loathe mosquitoes and wasps.
Debb Hackett says:
It’s summer here in England and we don’t have AC so I dislike the heat. I’m a full on winter girl.
Darlene L Turner says:
It’s summer here in Ontario, Canada, and it’s HOT! I don’t mind the heat, but the humidity is unbearable this summer.
Rume Emma-Okerhe says:
It’s summer here in England and I am enjoying the warmth.
Writing News
Debb Hackett is a double finalist in the Inspirational Romance category of the 2025 Maggie Awards from Georgia Romance Writers.
Preorders and New Releases
Echoes of Darkness by Darlene L Turner
Published 24 June 2025
A serial killer stalks a small town, and a police officer must face her family’s dark past to catch him.
The sleepy community of Kenorapeake Falls in northern Ontario seems like somewhere Constable Oaklynn Brock can finally outrun her violent past. That is, until she’s assigned to investigate a series of suspicious deaths. She can’t reveal that she knows how serial killers think because she grew up with one. Yet the eerie similarities between these murders and those committed by her father, known as the Suicide Slayer, hint at a copycat in their midst. But why here and why now?
Caleb Greene of the Canadian Watchers Squad, a special task force, has his own reasons to be wary of working alongside Oaklynn. But with rumors of a local cult known as the Light Paragons gaining power, the stakes are too high to refuse.
As they explore connections between the killings and cult, Oaklynn and Caleb are forced to confront old secrets…and a terrifying new threat. Someone is watching Oaklynn’s every move. They know exactly who she is and what she might be capable of. And soon her biggest fear isn’t just having her past exposed, but that a killer will turn whatever days she has left into a living nightmare…
Disaster! Around the Bend by Lynn Halliday
Published 9 May 2025
Disaster, disaster, disaster! Oh, what was Jan to do?
She couldn’t get away from the fears that assailed her—new home, new school, canoe trip catastrophe. All this on top of losing her best friend.
How can Jan (or Jantastic as she liked to be called) live without her best friend—Gaston. Moving for Mom’s new job meant her friends were left behind. Jan was devastated. Only Gaston, her donkey, understood her—she spent hours, deep in conversation with him. Yes—she could talk to animals, but no one else could. What were they to do when she left? The Quackers were losing ducklings daily, but she wouldn’t be there to quack the case. A Duck Disaster for sure.
Moving to the new farm has new challenges to face. Life-stretching tests that cause Jan to grow as she seeks out a new source of power. Faith in God. Would it prove to be better than donkey-love? Would this new faith be strong enough to face the Disaster that lay just around the bend?
Sons of Adamah by CM Genton
Published 25 June 2025
Compelling characters. Intricate world-building. Moral complexities.
Sons of Adamah by CM Genton is a gripping blend of sci-fi and apocalyptic adventure set in a future where survival hangs by a thread.
Is sacrifice the key to redemption?
Year 2131, the galactic colony on Andropida struggles under social conservatism and scientific experimentation designed to prevent humanity’s extinction.
Young John Macabee longs to follow in his father’s footsteps as a martial arts expert, and he embraces the values that prioritize survival. However, his life takes a dramatic turn when he is banished for his genetic anomaly and goes into exile on Earth.
On a perilous journey to find his brother, John navigates a socially liberal society starkly contrasting everything he’s ever known, uncovering a conspiracy threatening not only Earth but also his beloved Andropida.
A Heart to Treasure by Dienece Darling
Publishes 10 October 2025
The vicar’s son and the draper’s daughter fought against all odds to be together, and with just days until their wedding, both are ignoring the cracks in their relationship. But a storm is coming. One that will shatter everything.
Life hasn’t been easy for Obadiah Howard, especially not after that misstep at Oxford which nearly obliterated his chances of ever joining the church. Added to that, he fell in love with the draper’s daughter, Eliza Hill. But a miracle revived his dreams of having a curacy and his strict father allowed his betrothal to Eliza. Only, what if there was no miracle? What if all of Obadiah’s bright future is built on a lie?
Eliza Hill never expected a gentleman to pay her court, let alone ask for her hand in marriage. With their wedding day less than a fortnight away, life is an impossible dream come true. Although, it would be nice if Obadiah called her Eliza instead of the more genteel Elisabeth, and she finds the rigors of acting like a perfect lady stifling. But, surely, being married to the man she loves will be worth wearing a mask for the rest of her life.
When the fierce storms of life break over their world, the cracks don’t just show in their relationship. They shatter. Can two hearts torn apart by pride find their way back to each other?
Rains of Mercy by Rume Emma-Okerhe
Publishes 29 November 2025
Tehillah loses everything in a bomb explosion.
She gets adopted by strangers.
She relocates a thousand seas away from the country of her birth and heart.
And… then ends up with a malicious adoptive sister.
She struggles with culture shocks, low self-esteem, ends up in a dodgy relationship and becomes a single mum.
Will Tehillah find a way to rebuild her life, rediscover her worth, and experience the mercies of a God who loves her more than she can imagine?
Will she ever accept Mrs Ezegwu as her mother? And will she stop seeing Jordan as the shorter, younger boy she could never like?
Lots of fun books coming out, and I really enjoyed getting to read about where people live and what they are doing!