It’s time for another getting-to-know-you question from members of the international members of American Christian Fiction Writers … but first, some contest wins!
2025 Christy Awards
The Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (ECPA) recently announced the winners of the 2025 Christy Awards in Christian fiction, and we’re delighted to see two members of Beyond the Borders winning their categories:
Speculative: Memoria by J J Fischer
Would you save a life if you knew it would destroy another?
In the deeply divided world of Caldera, nothing is as it seems. Taken captive by a faceless enemy, Sephone Winter fights to reclaim her soul as her gift spirals out of control and the deadly poison coursing through her veins begins to exact its terrible vengeance.
Meanwhile, Dorian and Cass are forced into an uneasy alliance in order to find the woman they both love . . . a woman who has all but vanished from the face of the earth, along with the Reliquary. Finding her becomes impossible as the identity of their greatest adversary continues to elude them.
When Caldera’s past catches up with the trio’s future, Sephone, Dorian, and Cass are forced to make decisions that threaten everything and everyone they care about. Each of them is offered a chance to sacrifice their own happiness for the sake of the other—but will they take it? And what will it cost them in the end?
First Novel: Darkfell by Amanda Wright
His is a life of books and peace…
Until a dying warrior’s touch ignites an ancient magic within his blood.
For years, Thom Darkfell has used his cartography skills to advise Lomair’s king of the country’s shifting borders. A valued academic, Thom is excluded from the military drafts until whispers of dark abominations and mass casualties reach the king’s ears. The resulting conscription thrusts Thom into Lomair’s losing army. A realist, Thom ignores the wild myths circling through the ranks—until a monster’s jaws snap through the folds of reality and crush a man before Thom’s eyes. With his dying breath, the Realm Walker passes an impossible task to Thom.
Hours later, the visions begin. The Creator, a deity Thom knows only from rituals spoken over meals and graves, appears to him while a girl with starlight in her blood calls from beyond the veil.
Armed with a cryptic map, a biscuit-loving tutor, and the brawn of his best friend, Thom sets out to find the star daughter and lock the barrier to bind the dark realm of Zakar.
If he fails, it will be the end of all.
(Darkfell was also a finalist in the Speculative category.)
Other Contest News
Sophie Neville has been rocking some recent contests:
Winner of the Page Turner Best True Story award and finalist for the Page Turner Culture award.
Finalist in the Eyelands Book Awards for unpublished historical novel.
Finalist in the 2025 ACFW Genesis Award for an unpublished historical novel.
Screenwriting award at the International Film Gala.
Question Time
This month’s question for our members:
What is your favourite national holiday or celebration, and why?
Amanda Wright from Canada says:
My favorite national holiday is Maple Syrup Day. It is a day where we have dog sled races, pin-the-tail on the moose, poutine eating contests and hockey games (of course). The moose get rather grumpy with the whole event, so we save them for last (one year they charged through the poutine-eating contest … and washing the gravy off their coats was a major pain).
Dienece Darling from Australia says:
My favourite national holiday may sound weird at first, but it’s Christmas. When I lived in America, Christmas dinner was basically a rehash of Thanksgiving, and by then, we were tired of the food. But I love Christmas in Melbourne. We have church in the morning before joining my husband’s side of the family for a full-on Christmas splash for lunch. It’s a British inspired menu of pudding, baked ham, turkey, Christmas cake, and various shortbreads. I even love the Christmas crackers with the paper crowns (often homemade ones with good jokes, although the corny jokes are fun too). I absolutely love every minute of it!
Darlene L Turner from Canada says:
My favorite holiday is Christmas! It brings back so many memories from my childhood. Such fun times of attending our candlelight Christmas Eve services to waiting for Santa to fill my stocking in the middle of the night. My sister and I liked to “peek” at what was sticking out of the top of our stockings using our flashlights. LOL
(And congratulations to Darlene for signing a new contract with Love Inspired Trade. Her next book, Coordinates of Death, releases in October 2026.)
Suzie Peace Pybus from Australia says:
My favourite national holiday in Australia is … Christmas Day! Not very original, I know, but I must be honest. I love the tree, the pressies, the big beautiful ham, the homemade gingerbread stars, the carols. Well, everything really.
Preorders and New Releases
Paint the Walls Red by Suzie Peace Pybus
Released 7 October 2025
One choice can haunt a lifetime.
1985: Meg dreams of becoming a nurse—and perhaps finding love along the way. But one fateful mistake forces her into an impossible decision, the consequences of which will shadow her for decades.
2025: Something in Meg’s hospital isn’t right: phantom figures in the vacant ward, a mysterious new patient, a gardener digging beneath the old oak tree. Meg senses it is all tied to her past, but no one will give her answers. With her memory slipping away, time is running out. She must race to uncover the truth before she forgets completely.
Christmas on the Goblin Express by JJ Fischer
Published 5 November 2025
For Claire Samson, the only way to survive Christmas this year is to escape it.
High-achieving Australian medical student Claire Samson has struggled to enjoy Christmas in recent years, but this is the first Christmas she will be all alone, with her parents overseas and her grandfather in a coma. Claire is desperate to quit med school, but medicine was Grandpa’s dream for her, and her rural hometown desperately needs more doctors—doctors which could have changed her grandfather’s prognosis.
Just when Claire thinks Christmas will be unbearable, a steam train straight out of Platform 9 ¾ appears . . . a train invisible to all but Claire. It’s the Goblin Express, run by Christmas-hating elves and full of washed-up souls from hundreds of worlds who come aboard to escape the holidays. As it turns out, humans aren’t the only species who can loathe their festive seasons.
Upon boarding, Claire befriends several of her fellow travelers, including a mysterious hooded figure who totally gives her Strider vibes and may or may not actually be a night elf. But when the Goblin Express comes under attack, Claire and her new group of mismatched friends must band together to save the train . . . and maybe even find a little bit of Christmas spirit in the process.
A Heart to Treasure by Dienece Darling
Released 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?
Logan’s Legacy by Susan Mason
Releases 2 December 2025
He ran from commitment for years – until he met the one woman who made him want to stay.
When Logan Belgrave becomes the sole guardian of a four-year-old son he never knew existed, he returns to his hometown of Jasper Ridge, Minnesota. Determined to give Ethan a stable childhood, Logan gives up his nomadic lifestyle and takes a job at his family’s lakeside resort. Dating is the last thing on his mind—especially when Logan’s mother enlists the resort’s pretty children’s coordinator to help with childcare.
Still healing from a devastating loss, Heather Cherrington isn’t sure she’ll ever return to her teaching career. Her summer job at the Bluewind Resort is supposed to help her test the waters. But caring for the boss’s grandson wasn’t part of the plan—nor was falling for the boy’s emotionally guarded father.
As Heather begins to connect with both Ethan and Logan, she’s torn between the possibility of a new beginning and the fear of having her heart shattered all over again. Logan, too, must decide whether he’s truly ready to put down roots—or if he’s still running from the scars of his past.
Will they be able to overcome their fears and create the family they both secretly crave?
Rains of Mercy by Rume Emma-Okerhe
Publishes 20 December 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?
So many wonderful blessings! Congratulations to everyone.
I loved Memoria. I’ve started Darkfell, wonderful writing. Just finished Paint the Walls Red, a moving and thought provoking story. Asked the library to order Goblin Express just yesterday! And how funny so many of us love Christmas best. Now I don’t feel so weird 😂
Thanks, Iola, for putting this together.