I’m posting today in my role of Zone Director of the Beyond the Borders zone of American Christian Fiction Writers, which includes many Australian and New Zealand members.
This post used to be called Monday Milestones … but it’s now posting on Friday. I guess that means we need a new name.
How does Fiction Feats sound? Any other suggestions?
About American Christian Fiction Writers and Beyond the Borders
American Christian Fiction Writers is a writing organisation devoted to improving the craft of Christian Fiction. Members can benefit from:
- Online critique groups, writing training, and webinars.
- Discounted entry to the First Impressions and Genesis Awards for unpublished writers.
- Discounted entry to the Carol Awards for novels published in the previous year.
- Free announcements of new releases.
- Member rates for the annual ACFW Conference.
ACFW also has regional zone groups and local chapters. The Beyond the Borders zone covers all members outside the USA—there are almost 100 of us, from over a dozen different countries.
Award News
Lost Down Deep by Sara Davison was a finalist for the 2021 Selah Awards, Holt Medallion, Daphne du Maurier Award, and Word Awards, and won the 2021 Carol Award in the Romantic Suspense category.
Sara Davison won a Word Award for her story, Ten Bottles of Sand.
Jennifer Mistmorgan is a long-list finalist in the 2022 Emerald Award from Romance Writers of Australia.
Jessica Wakefield is a finalist in the Romance Writers of Australia Publishing Basics Award.
Congratulations, everyone!
Writing Achievements
Darlene L Turner signed a contract to join two other authors in an upcoming Love Inspired Suspense K-9 Search and Rescue series releasing at the end of February 2023. 3 authors, 3 books.
Jennifer Mistmorgan signed with Canadian literary agent Rachel MacMillan.
We’re looking forward to seeing more from you!
New Releases
The Last Piece by Terrie Todd
Released 15 November 2021
When his father dies during the Great Depression, Ray Matthews is forced to drop out of art school to support his mother and sister as a jigsaw puzzle artist. Ray has only one painting he vows never to sell: the portrait of his beloved sweetheart. When pressured to break his oath, Ray sends the painting off with a promise and a prophecy.Through eight decades, the puzzle of the beautiful girl at the wishing well passes through four households, deeply affecting each without ever being fully completed.
When Leesha Pennington’s weekly treasure hunt at her local thrift shop produces an old jigsaw puzzle that might be worth something, she adds it to her shopping cart despite the old man’s mysterious warning: “Be careful with that one. Some puzzles don’t like to be solved.” Her decision sets in motion a chain of events that causes all five stories to converge.
With powerful themes of family relationships and self-sacrifice, this story is part allegory/part metaphor, rooted in real life.
Reclaiming Hope by Carolyn Miller
Released 7 December 2021
Can complete opposites have enough in common to make a relationship last?
Opposites attract—and repel. But which is more powerful?
Callie Steele might be a bit… focused on work, but despite what her employers say, she enjoys her well-ordered, productive life.
When she’s sent to meet the owners of an estate requiring post-hurricane landscaping, Callie meets their son, Kai Brody, a super-chilled pro surfer, who is as opposite from her as they come. Though initially smitten, Callie knows a relationship with Kai is a bad idea—a very bad idea.
Kai, however, can’t help but be intrigued by someone who challenges him to make something of his life again. He’s determined to pursue her, if she’ll give him half a chance.
The more time they spend together, negotiating the challenges of work, illness, and family, the more their opposing outlooks clash and connect. What do these unlikely friends really want from life? Is it best to focus on work or recreation?
As Kai and Callie answers from the Lord, they also must consider if such complete opposites have enough in common to make a relationship last.
Reclaiming Hope concludes the Hooper Island stories of the Independence Islands Series featuring five islands, six authors, and a boatload of happily-ever-afters.
The Independence Islands Series: beach reads aren’t just for summer anymore.
The Breakup Project by Carolyn Miller
Released 29 December 2021
New Year. New Resolution. New Romance? What happens when the best-laid plans break a friendship?
As the twin sister of hockey’s hottest forward, romance-loving Bree Karlsson is used to being ignored, leading to a New Year’s resolution to not date any athlete in her attempt to find Mr. Right. But what happens when the man who might prove to be her personal Mr. Darcy is her brother’s hockey-playing best friend?
Mike Vaughan might be happy playing in Boston, but he’d be even happier if Bree could one day see him as more than a good friend. He agrees to help Bree with a special project in the hope she’ll finally see him as something more. But when a misunderstanding ends in a Valentine’s Day disaster, Bree realizes that her breakup project may have broken her friendship with Mike in two. Can she ever redeem her mistake?
This friends-to-more romance has plenty of heart, humor, and swoon-worthy kisses in this first book of the Original Six, a sweet, slightly sporty Christian contemporary romance series.
Love on Ice by Carolyn Miller
Released 27 January 2022
Aussie short track skater Holly Travers has one goal – make the Vancouver Games, no matter what it takes. She has no time for distractions, even if they come in the handsome form of her Canadian best friend’s twin brother. This hockey player may say he’s not a player, but can she trust him?
Brent Karlsson has one goal – make his sister’s best friend realize he’s a changed man and she should give him a chance. When a set-up in Hawaii helps these two opposites realize they have more in common than they thought, what happens when he wants to turn their fake relationship into something real? And how can a relationship work when these two elite athletes never see each other and live on opposite sides of the world?
Love on Ice is the second book in the Original Six hockey romance series, a sweet, slightly sporty, contemporary romance series.
Upcoming Releases
Safe House by Darlene L Turner
Releases 22 February 2022
Instead, it left them completely exposed…
Canadian border patrol officer Emma James has only one concern after putting a crime boss behind bars: keeping her daughter safe. But witness protection has a leak, and Emma’s enemies know exactly where to find her. Now on the run with no safe haven, trusting her estranged former brother-in-law, police constable Mason James, to shield them is her only hope…
Checked Impressions by Carolyn Miller
Releases 24 February 2022
Sparks fly when a hometown hockey hero meets a classy art-loving museum guide hiding a secret…
Jai Mullins is used to being the fastest man on ice. Trouble is, his ability to find a genuine woman is tracking at glacial melt levels. He’s trusting God she’s out there, but he’s wary of getting trapped by a superfan, when all he wants is someone with whom he can be real.
Allie Davis has two great loves: impressionist art and hockey. More specifically, a certain hockey player. But between her shyness and her family, she’s convinced she’ll never meet him, let alone connect with him in a non-embarrassing way.
Until she does. And they connect. And romance sparks.
But she is hiding a big secret, and he’s about to find that first impressions sometimes need a reality check. Will they learn to trust and find a way forward, or will half-truths lead to further hurt on opposite sides of the country and lonely lives?
This Windy City romance has plenty of heart, humor, and swoon-worthy kisses in the third book of the Original Six, a sweet, slightly sporty Christian contemporary romance series.
Amazon
Every Star in the Sky (two sparrows for a penny #1) by Sara Davison
Releases 2 March 2022.
She is willing to testify against her trafficker.
If she can stay alive that long.
“You’re safe here, Starr.”
How many times has Detective Cole Blacksky said that to her since helping her escape the life she’d been forced into eight years earlier?
Starr desperately wants to believe him, but she knows Brady Erickson, her former captor, too well. Although Cole has promised her protective custody on his family’s remote ranch, no place on earth is safe enough. Brady will stop at nothing to permanently silence her before she ever reaches the witness stand.
And he is powerful enough to do it.
If Starr wants to help the other women, she has no choice but to put herself in God’s hands. And Cole’s. But the longer she and Cole stay hidden, the more her life is at risk.
And her heart.
Congrats all. I read Jennifer’s novelette this week and cant wait to read more.
Congratulations. I just wish I had nothing else to do but read! There are some very interesting novels listed here.
How about Friday Fictions?
Hi Iola, Thanks for sharing the milestones from the Beyond the Borders zone members of ACFW. It was sad to close the International Christian Fiction Writers blog, and I’m glad we can accommodate the sharing of writing news from the ACFW international (non-USA) members in a quarterly post here at ACW.