June News from Omega Writers: Australia’s Christian Writers Network

Save the Date: Omega Writers online retreat program shapes up!

In the years between in-person conferences, Omega Writers hosts online retreats, featuring guest speakers, breakout rooms and closing with the CALEB Awards ceremony for our unpublished competition.

We are so excited with how our 2023 program is shaping up!

We are thrilled to reveal that this year’s program will feature Roseanna White as a keynote speaker. Roseanna is a best-selling, award-winning author of over thirty novels, as well as an editor, cover designer and publisher! She is also an authoritative and compelling teacher on writing craft and marketing principles. 

Roseanna will help kick off a reflective program that will include collaborative sessions about how we represent the marginalised in Christian writing, and how to handle discouragement and setbacks. Our online retreat is designed to allow you to meet with others in small chapter groups, watch the content together then fellowship over break-out sessions and meals.

Save the dates:

• Friday 6th October from 7pm
• Saturday 7th October from 9am to late.

Have you nominated someone yet for the Barnabas or Encouragement Award?

In May we let you know about the Barnabas Award and the Encouragement Award. 

Have you nominated someone yet? Time is running out. 

 The Barnabas Award is a cash prize award that recognises the input Christian writers make into the lives and work of other writers. It’s about celebrating and giving credit to Christian writers who support their colleagues by mentoring, encouraging, cheering on, supporting, praying for, and spurring on others in their writing journey. 

 The Encouragement Award is a sponsored award to encourage emerging writers. In line with Omega’s mission to encourage and equip Christian writers across the country, we look for writers who are working hard to hone their craft. 

Winners of this award may not have a full-length manuscript ready to enter in the CALEB award, but Omega Writers members want to encourage them to keep going!

If you know someone who fits this bill, please enter them by 31 July 2023.

Email iolagoultonauthor [at] gmail [dot] com up to 200 words explaining why you believe this writer should receive this prize. Be sure to include YOUR email and address details as well as the mail/website address of the author you’d like to nominate. 

 Recipients will be announced at the Omega Writers Zoom Retreat in October.

Masterclass Program

Our Masterclass series continues to deliver professional development to Christian writers across the country. Attendees have been raving about our latest classes on Author PR, taught by Katrina Roe and Writing Amazing Blurbs, taught by Laura Tharion.

“Book promotion and media has always felt daunting to me, but this class helped me feel more equipped to tackle it.” (Misha Del Favero on Author PR)

The next masterclass is coming up in August. Professional archivist Tamara Wenham will teach Hunting for History: Tracking down stories in original sources. 

 In October, Jen Richards will give a marketing and copywriting masterclass called “Do you know your USP?… and other marketing questions all writers should ask themselves”. Don’t know what a USP is? 

 Keep an eye on the Omega Writers Facebook Page for more details.

A new website is coming!

The Omega Committee has been working SO HARD on a brand-new website for several months now.

The old one was on its last legs and we are SO CLOSE to launching the new one we can almost smell it! Thank you for your patience during the last few months as we have experienced difficulties with the site. 

We can't wait to show you the new one! In the meantime, you can get updates from us on the Omega Writers Facebook Page or join the Omega Writers Facebook Group (don’t forget to answer the joining questions!).

Omega Barnabas and Encouragement Awards open for nominations!

Every second year the CALEB Award includes two extra-special categories of awards designed to encourage and lift up Christian writers - the Barnabas and Encouragement Awards.

These awards are a little different.

For these, there are no books to submit, no manuscripts to polish. These awards are about recognising writers for who they are, their commitment to their craft, and their often selfless input into other writers.

The Barnabas Award

The Barnabas Award is a cash prize award that recognises the input Christian writers make into the lives and work of other writers. It’s about celebrating and giving credit to writers living out the heart of CALEB* by mentoring, encouraging, cheering on, supporting and spurring on others in their writing journey.

(In case you've forgotten, CALEB is Christian Authors Lifting Each other's Books.)

Encouragement Award

The Encouragement Award is a sponsored award that seek to encourage emerging writers who may be struggling but are putting in the hard yards to hone their craft, writers who may not be winning other competitions but who Omega Writers members want to encourage to keep going!

Nominations

If you’re a paid member of Omega Writers, we’d love you to nominate a fellow Christian writer for an Encouragement or Barnabas Award! Writers eligible for nomination for the Barnabas and Encouragement Awards are:

• Christian writers currently living in Australia, New Zealand, or the South Pacific.
• Can be published or unpublished writers in any genre.

Here’s how:

• Think of an eligible writer or writers you’d like to nominate.
• Make sure you are a paid Omega Writers member (but the writer you nominate does not need to be a member).
• Email caleb @ omegawriters.org with the following by 30 June 2023:
  • • Your name and email address
    • The name and email/website address of the author you’d like to nominate (so we can contact them if they win).
    • The Award you are nominating that writer for: Encouragement Award or Barnabas Award
    • Up to 200 words explaining why you believe this writer should receive this prize.

The Barnabas Awards are awarded on the merit of nominations received by the CALEB Committee.

Happy New Year from Omega Writers!

Welcome to 2023!

Omega Writers has lots planned for 2023 ... with more ideas in the pipeline. Make sure you don't miss out on any important information by signing up as a member of Omega Writers. Click here to find out more.

The 2023 CALEB Award

The 2023 CALEB Awards will be for unpublished writers in the following categories:

• Unpublished Adult Fiction
• Unpublished Young Adult Fiction
• Unpublished Nonfiction

The contest is open to Australian and New Zealand Christian writers with a completed manuscript. Note that the 2023 contest is for unpublished writers. However, published fiction authors will be permitted to enter the nonfiction category, and published nonfiction authors may enter one of the fiction categories.

Entries will open on 1 April and close on 30 April, so now is the time to finish your manuscript to ensure you're ready to enter.

Conference

Omega Writers won't be running an in-person conference this year, but there will be an online conference in October. Dates, speakers, and cost will be available later in the year.

As always, members of Omega Writers will be able to register for a discounted rate.

Chapter Groups

Local Omega groups and special interest groups will continue. Omega currently has several groups who meet in person on a regular basis. These are based in:

• Sydney
• Wollongong
• Brisbane
• Toowoomba
• Melbourne
• Geelong
• Adelaide
• Tasmania

There are also two Zoom groups:

• Tasmania
• Fantasy/Science Fiction

Click here to check the Omega website for further details.

Omega Writers | Call for Judges for 2022 CALEB Award

 

 It Takes a Village to Publish a Novel

One of the many myths about writing and writers is that we work alone. We sit in our attic room, scratching away for weeks and months and years, and eventually produce a work of staggering genius that has the publishers beating a path to our door, each one waving a larger cheque (or check) than the one before.

If only.

Writing is a team effort. Just like it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a team to write a novel. If you don’t believe me, check the acknowledgements page in the novel you’re currently reading and count how many people the author has thanked. For example:

• God
• Family
• Friends
• Critique partners
• Beta readers
• Specialists who’ve offered advice
• Agent
• Editors
• Cover designer
• Marketing team
• Prayer warriors

And those are only the people the author can name.

There are also dozens of unsung helpers who contributed to that novel—maybe hundreds. These might be:

• Fiction authors who’ve written helpful craft books.
• Non-fiction authors who’ve written useful technical books.
• Marketing experts who’ve written marketing books.
• Writers who’ve shared their knowledge for free on various blogs and websites.
• Speakers who’ve presented at national or local conferences.
• Reviewers who help spread the word about the author’s book.
• Contest judges who’ve provided useful feedback.
• Organisations which bring writers together to network and learn.

The list goes on.

Sure, some authors making writing all about them. But the best writers recognise the village who contributed to their success, and ensure they give back to the community which has given them so much.

But how can we give back … especially as unpublished writers?

One easy way to give back is by judging a writing contest.

I will admit: this isn’t entirely altruistic. I usually judge several contests each year, and I’ve learned a lot about writing and editing from judging writing contests. I covered some of these lessons in a recent blog post at Australasian Christian Writers.

And this post isn’t entirely altruistic either: I have a motive.

I am looking for volunteers to judge the 2022 CALEB Award from Omega Writers.

Omega Writers is a Christian writing organisation serving writers from across Australia and New Zealand. CALEB stands for Christian Authors Lifting Each other’s Books, and the award considers published books and unpublished manuscripts.

You don’t need to be a writer!

We’d love to have more readers volunteer to judge our published books. You can choose how many entries you’d like to judge, and in what categories and genres. The categories for the 2022 CALEB Award are:

• Adult Fiction (Published and Unpublished
• Young Adult Fiction (Published and Unpublished)
• Adult Nonfiction (Published and Unpublished)

If you’d like to find out more about why judging is a great idea, then check out this blog post: Introducing the CALEB Award.

And click here to volunteer as a judge.

The CALEB Award will open for entries next month, so if you’re an unpublished Christian writer from Australia or New Zealand, it's time to polish your manuscript!

Click here to check out how to join Omega Writers.

Have you ever judged a writing contest? What did you learn from judging?

Omega Writer | Why Enter a Writing Contest?

Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas a restful New Year, and is now looking forward to the challenges 2022 will hold.

Challenges?

Writing challenges, of course!

Here’s a challenge for writers who have not yet published a book: enter a writing contest.

Why? I can think of several good reasons:

Honest Feedback

Writing contests are a great way to get honest feedback on your writing, and we all need honest feedback. Feedback is a gift which can show us what we’re doing well, and where we need to improve on.

Feedback from Writers

But it’s important to get feedback from the right people. We can ask family and friends for feedback. While they might give encouraging feedback (You’ve done a great job! Keep it up!), it might not be accurate. Family and friends will be proud of you for having written a book, and may be able to tell you what they enjoyed and why, but they probably can’t tell you what needs to be improved (unless they happen to be successful writers who know your genre).

In contrast, contest judges are fellow writers, usually people who write in the same genre. Some will be fellow unpublished authors, some will be published authors, some will have won awards. All are willing to give up their time to help other writers improve their craft.

Targeted Feedback

Because they are writers (or editors, or agents), they know what good writing looks like, and they will judge accordingly. Most contests use a score sheet which looks at different aspects of the writing, such as the opening, the characters, the plot, and use of point of view or showing vs telling. Entering a writing contest will show you if you have issues in some of these areas.

Finding out you’re not using point of view well may be painful, but it’s better to find out from an anonymous contest judge early in your writing career than to polish the manuscript for months (or years), submit to a publisher and be rejected because of your point of view. (And point of view isn’t your opinion on a subject. If you’re a fiction writer and don’t understand what I mean by point of view, you need to learn).

Anonymous Feedback

Judging in unpublished contests is blind, which means the judges don’t know whose entry they are reading and judging. Most contests for unpublished writing ask writers to say who has read the entry so the contest organiser can avoid assigning the entry to a judge who may be biased. In addition, judges are encouraged to notify the organiser if they have seen any entries before so they can be reassigned.

Blind judging means judges can give feedback without worrying about that feedback potentially affecting a relationship (as can happen if you ask family or friends to critique your writing).

Bragging Rights

Finalling in or winning a contest gives you bragging rights aka a line in your query or proposal to an agent or editor. Many well-known Christian writers credit contests with helping them land an agent and/or publishing deal.

Contests

But how do you find a contest to enter? Well, Omega Writers has the deal for you …

The 2022 CALEB Awards.

The CALEB Award is run by Omega Writers although books don’t have to be overtly Christian.

Some of our winners have been “defiantly Christian”. Others have been great books by Christian writers with underlying Christian themes like love, honesty, or the importance of family.

While we do accept entries that aren’t specifically aimed at the Christian market, we do ask that all entrants state their agreement with the Omega Writers Statement of Belief. We also remind entrants that we are judging books based on a Christian world view, so general market titles are unlikely to score well.

The 2022 CALEB Awards will include unpublished manuscripts in up to three categories (depending on the number of entries):

• Adult fiction (any genre)
• Young Adult and Middle Grade fiction (any genre)
• Nonfiction

Entries will open in March, so now is the time to start polishing your first fifty pages and writing a synopsis.

Click here to find out more about the CALEB Award.

ACFW Genesis Awards

If you write fiction and are seeking a traditional publisher, then I would also recommend entering the 2022 Genesis Awards run by American Christian Fiction Writers. this covers adult and young adult fiction across a range of genres, and many winners and finalist have gone on to be published by big-name Christian publishers such as Thomas Nelson and Bethany House.

To enter, you’ll need a one-page synopsis (single-spaced), and the first fifteen pages of your manuscript (double-spaced).

Click here to find out more.

Will you accept the challenge to enter a writing contest in 2022?

The End of Another Year: News from Omega Writers for December 2021

2021 has been a year.

Apart from the obvious, things have happened, especially here at Omega Writers.

• We celebrated the best of Christian writing from Australasian authors with the 2021 CALEB Awards. Click here to find out more.
• We hosted our first online writing retreat (after being forced to cancel the in-person retreat for the second year running). Click here for the highlights.
• We have an excellent monthly member newsletter sharing tall the news and newly released books from members. Join us to make sure you don't miss out!
• Our regional chapters have held a range of in-person and online meetings (and shout-out to Tasmania for inviting everyone).
• The 2021 Omega Writers Book Fair did go ahead as planned (the day a snap lockdown went into effect). This included announcing the winners of the Book Fair writing contest. Click here to find out more.

All things considered, it's been a great year.

So what's the plan for 2022?

Our plan is for more of the same:

• A monthly member newsletter
• The CALEB Awards (the 2022 Awards will focus on unpublished authors, so get writing and polishing those manuscripts!)
• More meetings - hopefully in-person (online is better than nothing, but in person is better).

We may even get our planned writing retreat at the beautiful Peppers Salt Resort & Spa, Kingscliffe in northern New South Wales.

Those are our plans. They have been prayerfully considered, but they are still our plans.

God may well have different plans.

Our job is to be open to listening to Him and adjusting our plans accordingly. No matter what comes, we can have confidence that God is in control.

Meanwhile, on behalf of Omega Writers, I'd like to wish everyone a safe and healthy Christmas, and a restful summer with plenty of time to meditate on God's plans and our plans.

What plans do you have for 2022? How is God part of those plans?

Omega Writers | Announcing the 2021 CALEB Finalists

The books have been read, the scoresheets completed, the scores added ...

I am delighted to announce the finalists in the 2021 CALEB Awards from Omega Writers: Christian Authors Lifting Each other's Books.

I'd also like to add a big thank you to our sponsors for supporting Omega Writers, the CALEB Award, and Christian writers across Australia and New Zealand:

• Sheree Chambers & Emma Biddle at Impressum
• Marianne Musgrove at Marianne Musgrove
• Christina Booth at Christina Booth
• Nola Passmore at The Write Flourish
• Lisa Renee at  The Collaborative Press
• Iola Goulton at Christian Editing Services
• Tamika Spaulding at His Herd
• A New Page at A New Page
• Devonport Bookshop, Tasmania at Devonport Bookshop

Children's Picture Books

Sponsor: Christina Booth

The winners (author and illustrator) will each receive a one-hour manuscript or illustration assessment via Zoom. If the winner is both writer and illustrator, they can choose between the above or two manuscript assessments, one month apart.

The finalists are:

All Cats are on the Autism Spectrum Written and Illustrated by Kathy Hoopman

The Other Brother Written by Penny Jaye and Illustrated by Heidi Cooper Smith

Grandma's Treasured Shoes Written by Coral Vass and Illustrated by Christina Huynh

Children's Fiction (Early Reader and Middle Grade)

Sponsor: Marianne Musgrove

The winner will receive a manuscript assessment of the first 10,000 words (plus three-page synopsis), plus a one-hour Zoom chat.

The finalists are:

Where the Jungle Calls by Rosie Boom

The Adventures of Romy by Penelope Foote

How Not to be Popular by Cecily Paterson

Young Adult Fiction

Sponsor: Nola Passmore at the Write Flourish

The winner will receive their choice of editing services to the value of $400.

The finalists are:

Saving Beth by Jenny Glazebrook

Golden City (Realm Trilogy #3) by Sharon Manssen

Apprentice by Kristen Young

Adult Fiction

Sponsor: Iola Goulton of Christian Editing Services

The winner will receive their choice of editing services to the value of $400.

The finalists are:

Scattered by Nola Lorraine

Organized Backup by Meredith Resce

The Silk Merchant of Sychar by Cindy Williams

Adult Biography or Memoir

Sponsor: Lisa Renee at The Collaborative Press

The winner will receive a full wraparound cover for paperback and ebook, valued at $400.

The finalists are:

On the Way: An Australian Doctor in Yemen and Pakistan by Michael Babbage

Count Your Blessings: Colin's Story by Colin & Hazel Barker

One Rich Girl by Gwenda Smithies

Adult Nonfiction

Sponsor: Sheree Chambers & Emma Biddle at Impressum

The winner will receive their choice of website updates, a six-week social media calendar, or a cover for their next book to the value of $400.

The finalists are:

Echoes of Jesus: Does the New Testament Reflect What He Said? by Jonathan Clerke

Riding the Wind: Writing for Children and Young Adults by Rosanne Hawke

Sinned Against: Exploring the Scriptures by Valerie Wressell

Congratulations to all our finalists!

The books will now be sent to our final-round judges, and the winners announced at the Omega Writers Retreat on 9 October 2021.

Omega Writers Retreat

The 2021 Omega Writers Retreat will be held at Peppers Kingscliff, New South Wales, from 8 to 10 October 2021.  

Details and booking information for the retreat will open soon.

Encouragement Awards

The CALEB Awards are about lifting and promoting the best of Australian and New Zealand Christian writing. But there is more to writing than getting published, so we'd also like to encourage our fellow writers. 

Sponsors:

• Tamika Spaulding at His Herd (two stationery prize packs valued at $50 each)
• A New Page (stationery and trinkets to the value of $100)
• Devonport Bookshop (six Reading Friends soft animal bookmarks valued at $10 each)

If you're a current paid member of Omega Writers, we would like to invite you to nominate a fellow Christian writer for an Encouragement Award. This could be:

• A writer who has gone out of their way to support other writers (this will be a NEW CALEB award launched at this year's Retreat)
• A writer who you believe needs encouragement.

We have three simple guidelines for the writers you nominate for either type of award:

1. Nominees must be Christian writers currently living in Australia, New Zealand, or the South Pacific.
2. Nominees can be published or unpublished writers in any genre.
3. Nominees do not have to be members of Omega Writers.

Please email caleb @ omegawriters.org and tell us:

• • The type of Encouragement Award you would like to nominate a writer for
  • Your name and email address
  • Up to 200 words explaining why you believe this writer should receive this prize.
  • The name and email/website address of the author you'd like to nominate (so we can contact them if they win)

Who do you know who has encouraged you, or who you'd like to encourage? Let us know!

The CALEB Awards | Christian Authors Lifting Each other's Books

 

2010 CALEB finalists

Today's post is from Meredith Resce, Author and Publisher, and member of the Omega Writers Management Committee.

Back in 2010, I entered the CALEB awards for the first time. I even flew to Queensland for the gala dinner that, at that time, was a completely separate event to the Omega Conference. I was a finalist in the fiction category along with my good writing friends, Paula Vince, Amanda Deed and Mary Hawkins.

It was great to be with other writers celebrating writing achievements. That year, Amanda Deed won the award with her debut novel ‘The Game’.

From that time to this, CALEB has grown through some learning times, and some times when we didn’t know if the award would continue. But there has always been a handful of people who believe in the concept: Christian Authors Lifting up Each other’s Books.

 

2011 CALEB Finalists

The Omega Writers’ Management Committee strongly believe in the concept of encouragement and celebration. It is true you might win money with other competitions. It is also true that other competitions have a greater reach. But the central concept of CALEB awards is that we recognise other Australasian Christian authors, and celebrate achievements.

We have traditionally featured many Christian fiction works, which is a category that doesn’t receive much recognition in other Australian Christian writing awards. There are many fine Christian fiction authors in our networks.

There has also been a plethora of Children’s picture books published and celebrated in CALEB. These books have been a credit to the small publishing groups that work hard to produce and market these works.

Young adult fiction has been an emerging group in Australasian Christian writing, and I personally have noted the quality of books that have come through in this category. I’m looking forward to reading more.

Non-fiction has also been a feature in our awards, some fine biographies, memoirs, devotionals and inspirational works.

If you have a work published in 2019 or 2020 I encourage you to enter it into our CALEB awards. Your entry not only encourages you, it encourages us. It is a testament to Australian and New Zealand authors at work. We see you. We appreciate you. We celebrate your work.

I look forward to seeing your work soon.

Oh, and by the way, we do have a prize to the value of $400 for each category.

Entries for this years’ CALEB awards have been extended, and now close on 30 April 30 2021.

Click here to find out more and enter.

Omega Writers Update | 2021 CALEB Awards Open for Entry

 

The 2021 CALEB Awards are open for entry in the following categories:

• Adult fiction
• Adult nonfiction
• Young Adult fiction
• Children's fiction (early reader and middle grade)
• Children's picture books

The contest is open to books by Australian or New Zealand Christian authors, or Christian authors living in Australia or New Zealand. Entrants must confirm they agree with the Omega Writers Statement of Belief.

Entries must be written from a Christian world view i.e. they must be consistent with the Omega Writers Statement of Belief and not contain objectionable content (e.g. profanity, sexual situations, or excessive violence.)

The 2021 CALEB Awards are for books published in 2018, 2019, and 2020 (as determined by their copyright date), and which were not entered in the 2019 award (as some 2018 books were eligible to be entered in 2018). Books which have previously been entered in the Unpublished section of the CALEB Awards may be entered.

Entry Fee

The entry fees are:

• AUD 40 per entry for members of Omega Writers.
• AUD 70 per entry for non-members (click here to join Omega Writers, then get the membership rate once your membership has been confirmed).

Members, you will receive an email advising you of the discount code.

Proceeds from the CALEB Award will support the Omega Writers Conference scholarship fund.

Entries are open from 15 March (today) to 20 April 2021.

• Click here to read the Published Award rules.
• Click here to enter and pay.
• Once you have entered and paid, click here to submit your manuscript.

Prizes

The winner in each category will receive an engraved trophy plus publishing services to the value of AUD 400 from one of our sponsors:

• Adult Fiction: Editing services from Iola Goulton at Christian Editing Services
• Adult Nonfiction: Cover design for paperback and ebook from Lisa Renee at The Collaborative Press
• Young Adult Fiction: Editing services from Nola Passmore at The Write Flourish
• Children's fiction (Early Reader and Middle Grade): TBC
• Children's Picture Books: TBC

Entries close on 30 April.

Interested in Judging?

Thank you to everyone who has volunteered to judge the 2021 CALEB Awards. We are still accepting volunteers.

If you're interested:

• Click here to find out more about judging.
• Click here to sign up.

2021 CALEB Awards Wants You ... to Volunteer as a Judge

 

It is almost time for the 2021 CALEB Awards from Omega Writers. CALEB stands for Christian Authors Lifting Each other's Books. The CALEB Award:

·         Supports excellence in Australasian Christian books by encouraging and educating writers, regardless of genre.

·         Encourages excellence in Australasian Christian books by recognising and rewarding our best writers across a range of genres.

The 2021 Awards will be for books published in 2019 or 2020 in the following genres:

·         Adult fiction

·         Young Adult fiction

·         Early Reader and Middle Grade (also open to books published in 2018)

·         Picture Books

·         Adult Biography or Memoir

·         Adult Nonfiction (also open to books published in 2018)

The 2021 Awards will open for entries in March (watch this space to find out more).

However, before we open for entries, we need judges.

Who can judge?

Anyone! Well, almost anyone.

• This is a contest for Christian writers, so we want judges who agree with the Omega Writers Statement of Faith.
• We’re looking for keen readers who can read and judge the first fifty pages of between four and ten entries between 1 May and 20 June.
• Books (other than picture books) are provided as PDF files, so you will need to read on your computer, tablet, smartphone, or Kindle device. Picture books are judged in hard copy.

All we ask is that you judge each entry fairly, according to the judging criteria.

Judging is a great opportunity to sample books from some new-to-you authors and perhaps discover a new favourite.

Each entry will be judged by three judges in the first round. Finalists will be judged by three new judges. That means we need a lot of volunteers to support the contest. If we don’t get enough judges, we may need to combine or cut some categories.

Each category is judged separately, so we encourage you to enter the awards in one category and volunteer to judge another.

Note that judges in the Published contest only have to provide scores for each category in the judging sheet. We’re not asking for feedback from judges, like we do for the Unpublished contest.

(But if you enjoy the book and would like to bless the author, may we suggest a review on Amazon, Goodreads, or Koorong? Just remember to mention you received a free copy of the book.)

To volunteer as a judge, fill out the form at https://bit.ly/JudgeCALEB2021

Thank you!

CWD Highlights - October to December 2020

Christian Writers Downunder is a diverse group of writers, editors, bloggers, illustrators. As a group we support each other through our Facebook page and blog.


Today's blog will highlight some of the achievements of our members from October to December 2020

Awards

CALEB Awards

Congratulations to the the winners of the 2020 CALEB Awards for unpublished authors.

The award ceremony was held in October

Adult Nonfiction

Susan Barnes for 10 Blessings of God

Young Adult Fiction

Jean Saxby for The Craving

Adult Fiction

Mindy Graham for To Dance in the Shadows

New Releases & Cover Reveals

Elizabeth Klein

Elizabeth Klein published another book in early November.


Self-published Symphony of Star Songs: eBook 4th Nov; paperback 11th Nov. through Amazon.

Evil hunts brothers Dougray and Robbie as they seek the invisible Citadel of Gallenbreigh for the next crystal. Traps await them and time is slipping away.

As the brothers separately embark on their quest to rid the world of evil, increasing perils are sent to stop them. Morgran is growing more powerful and is releasing deadlier demons from the Abyss to overrun Galfane.

Will Belle and the brothers find the Citadel in time and escape the poisonous hunter tracking them? Find out as the story escalates and races toward its riveting climax.

Buy link: https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B07ZBTVVX4

Besides having written many short stories, articles, plays and poems, Elizabeth Klein also authored 17 young adult and junior fiction books, as well as 4 educational books.

Reading Stones

Reading Stones released the 3rd part of the Homes of Healing series – The Writer’s Retreat by Olwyn Harris, back in August, It’s the story of how Tess, a romance writer, finds the story of Elizabeth and her family and God. 

 

Buy link: https://www.amazon.com.au/Writers-Retreat-3-Olwyn-Harris/dp/0648893820/

Helen Brown’s 2nd Edition of Reflections was released in September, this is a devotional, from the memories of her father.

Buy link:https://www.amazon.com.au/Reflections-Australian-Stories-Fathers-Past/dp/0648893847/

My Name was Called, An Autobiography, by Graham Redman will be released on the 30th December.

This autobiography by Graham Redman takes a long hard look at life in Australia from the 40s through to today. A man who was raised in the Christian faith, who fell and failed, and yet, God picked him up, time and again, and proved His faithfulness through all of life's ups and downs. Come on a journey with Graham as he shares his failures and his triumphs and throughout it all, the never-ending love of God.

Buy link:https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/0648893863/

David Malcolm Bennett

In October, David Malcolm Bennett released his first volume of a biography of Catherine Booth

Catherine Booth: From Timidity to Boldness tells the story of Catherine Booth's dramatic early life, and how a timid young woman rose from a home damaged by alcohol to become a dynamic and popular preacher, campaigner for the rights of women and, with her husband, founder of The Salvation Army. Author David Malcolm Bennett has spent much of his life studying Catherine and William Booth and the early days of The Salvation Army. He makes significant and revealing use of the letters that Catherine and William Booth wrote to each other, the letters she wrote to her parents, and Catherine's diary and reminiscences. It is the first biography of Catherine Booth to make use of the complete transcribed editions of each of these works. In Catherine Booth: From Timidity to Boldness, Catherine is allowed to speak for herself and what she says is frequently dynamic and, at different times, insightful, deeply spiritual, and, occasionally, controversial.

David Malcolm Bennett has written over 20 Christian books, mainly biographies and church history. His book “From Ashes to Glory” was a joint winner in the CALEB AWARDS, biography section, and his “William Booth and his Salvation Army” was a finalist in CALEB. That book about William Booth has sold over 25,000 copies in its three editions, English, American and Australian. His book “Hudson Taylor and China” is a finalist in this year’s CALEB. His latest book Catherine Booth: From Timidity to Boldness was published in 2020.

Nola Lorraine

Nola Lorraine released her debut novel, Scattered in October. 

To lose her family was unthinkable ...
To find them will take a miracle.

While working in Europe, nineteen-year-old Maggie never dreamed that her family would be ripped apart and scattered across the sea, with her young brother and sister sent to Canada as part of the Home Children Migrant Scheme. Desperation sends Maggie on a search from England to Canada, with a harrowing shipwreck leaving her stranded on Sable Island. Eventually arriving in Halifax, Maggie is devastated to discover the trail to find her sister and brother has gone cold. An offer of help from industrialist Thaddeus Tharaday seems like an answer to prayer, but is the wealthy Tharaday her benefactor or nemesis? Set in Victorian-era Nova Scotia, Scattered weaves together elements of mystery, adventure, faith, and romance to take readers on a journey of hope and courage that will resonate with their hearts today.

Nola Lorraine (aka Nola Passmore) has had more than 150 short pieces published, including poetry, devotions, inspirational articles, true stories, short fiction and academic articles. Her debut novel Scattered was published by Breath of Fresh Air Press (https://www.breathoffreshairpress.com/)  on 20 October 2020. She also co-edited the Glimpses of Light charity anthology with Jeanette O’Hagan. When she’s not engrossed in her own writing, she’s helping other writers through The Write Flourish, a freelance editing business she runs with her husband Tim. She is passionate about faith and social justice issues, and loves weaving words of courage and hope.

Other News

Jeanette Grant-Thomson

Jeanette Grant-Thomson's true short story, 'That Wonderful Peace', was published in Stories of Life's 2020 anthology, The Swimmer, in November, 2020. It was also chosen to be read aloud ( by Jeanette with a croaky allergy-afflicted voice) for radio and online. It was published by Immortalise.

Jeanette says, 'The story is set in the beautiful Rabaul that used to be before the volcano buried it in ash in about 1994. I 'happened' to be holidaying there when my sister was flown in from another island as a medical emergency. God's peace preceded the news for me, to my amazement.'

Jeanette Grant-Thomson has been writing in various genres all her life and have had many works, long and short, published.

Elizabeth Klein

Elizabeth Klein's  Firelight of Heaven was picked up by Rambunctious Publishers for their Storymancers (fantasy books chosen for their UK readers) on 7th Nov and her short story: Carrot's Misadventurous Day was published by Storm Cloud Publishers in their Christmas Tales 5 Anthology on 1st Dec.

Stories of Life

Stories of Life anthology (Tabor) The Swimmers and Other Stories of Life was launched in November, including stories from a number of CWD members Anusha Atukorala, Rhonda Pooley, Lisa Birch, Jeanette Grant-Thomson, Jo-Anne Berthelsen, Julia Archer and Esther Cremona

CALEB Awards 2021

The 2021 CALEB Award will cover books published during 2019 and 2020 in the following categories:

• Picture Books
• Early Reader and Middle Grade*
• Young Adult Fiction
• Adult Fiction
• Biography and Memoir
• Other Nonfiction*

Note that the categories marked *will also allow entries from books published in 2018, to ensure every book has the opportunity to enter once.  Entries will be opened in late March 2021

Omega Writers Book Fair (Brisbane) 2021

Despite to the disruptions of Covid-19 , the Book Fair will be held next year (God willing) most likely in early June (rather than March) 2021.

Congratulations to all our members for your milestones and achievements

Omega Writers | Looking Ahead to 2021

2020 is coming to an end, and I think we're all looking forward to 2021 and hopefully being allowed to leave the house whenever we want.

Despite the challenges, 2020 has given Omega Writers the opportunity to try new things:

• We introduced our revamped two-yearly schedule for the CALEB Awards, considering published books in conference years and unpublished books in non-conference years.
• We introduced a new category to the CALEB Awards, Unpublished Nonfiction.
• We had our first online CALEB Awards ceremony via Zoom, having broadcast the ceremony online through Facebook Live for the last two years.
• We celebrated our three winners, Susan Barnes, Mindy Graham, and Jean Saxby.

Click here to read the formal announcement.

• We had our first online Annual General Meeting, which elected Penny Reeve as our new President.

Click here to read last month's post from Penny.

• We had regular Omega meetings via Zoom, where members could discuss their writing and get feedback from other members.

We hope to keep these online sessions going in 2021. While Zoom doesn't give the same opportunity for connection that a face-to-face meeting gives, it does give members who couldn't make an in-person meeting because of time or place the opportunity to meet with other writers. 

 Of course, conference is our main opportunity to meet face to face. Our 2020 conference was postponed to 2021, and will now take place from 8 to 10 October 2021, at the Peppers Kingscliff Resort, near the Queensland/New South Wales border. 

Click here to find out more about the 2021 Omega Writers Conference. 

Click here to join the conference Facebook group.

One of the highlights of conference is always the CALEB Awards night.

The 2021 CALEB Award will cover books published during 2019 and 2020 in the following categories:

• Picture Books
• Early Reader and Middle Grade*
• Young Adult Fiction
• Adult Fiction
• Biography and Memoir
• Other Nonfiction*

Note that the categories marked *will also allow entries from books published in 2018, to ensure every book has the opportunity to enter once.

We will open the CALEB Awards for entry in late March 2021 - watch this space for more information.

Finally, we can't run a contest without judges, so please prayerfully consider whether you could contribute to the Australasian Christian writing scene by judging first-round entries in May/June 2021, or finalists in July/August 2021.

Until then, best wishes for a restful Christmas as we remember the reason for the season.

CWD Member Interview - Susan Barnes

Most Thursdays this year we will be interviewing one of the members of Christian Writers Downunder – to find out a little bit more about them and their writing/editing goals. 

Today’s interview: Susan Barnes 

Question 1: Tell us three things about who you are and where you come from.

 

1. I was born in England and migrated to Australia with my parents in 1964 as Ten Pound Poms

2. I’m a writer and short-term interim pastor. I’m working towards getting my first book published

3. I’ve always been an avid reader, but I didn’t grow up dreaming of being an author

Question 2: Tell us about your writing (or editing/illustrating etc).  What do you write and why?

I write to teach, disciple and encourage Christians. Mostly I write devotional thoughts based on Bible verses but I’ve also written book-length manuscripts. My manuscript, 10 Blessings of God You Won’t Want to Miss, recently won the CALEB unpublished non-fiction award. Currently, I’m working on a manuscript where each chapter is a Bible character. I particularly like to write about obscure characters or difficult stories. For example, Priscilla, Lydia, Jephthah, Jonathan, Nebuchadnezzar, Abraham sacrificing Isaac etc. 

Question 3: Who has read your work? Who would you like to read it? 

A lot of my devotions are online and I don’t get a lot of feedback. I know from the statistics that my website has always attracted more Americans than Australians, but I have no idea why. Perhaps because there are simply more of them. In the last 12 months, I’ve had a surprising increase in the number of hits from the Philippines. 

Of course, I’d like everyone to read my blog/website! But realistically, I hope my work is found by those who need a word of encouragement, challenge or hope. Link to my website.

Question 4: Tell us something about your process. What challenges do you face? What helps you the most?

Initially, my process for writing devotions was random but these days it’s highly structured. As part of my devotional times, I write about a verse that stands out to me. This means I have exercise books full of thoughts on Bible verses. When I want to write a series of devotions from a particular Bible book, I find the exercise book where I’ve written about that book of the Bible. At the moment, I’m writing devotions on Luke from notes I made in 2017.

When I’m writing a book-length manuscript, I look for a theme that I can break into ten chapters and as I approach each chapter, I look for one overall idea with three points.

My biggest challenge is not to rush. I’ve come to accept that it takes as long as it takes. If I rush the process the standard of my writing suffers. I loosely aim to write or edit 4,000 words a week for three weeks of the month. (The fourth week I write articles for my blog.) I hold this goal lightly and if it doesn’t happen, that’s okay. 

It helps me to have a routine. Most mornings I write or prepare sermons (which is quite similar). In the afternoons, I shop, exercise, read, socialise, do housework etc. It’s been difficult to explain to my hairdresser why I don’t like appointments in the morning!

Question 5: What is your favourite Writing Craft Book and why? 

My favourite writing craft book is Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott, not because it was brilliantly insightful but because it was so funny, despite the bad language. However, she did also share some useful thoughts, particularly about not taking yourself too seriously as a writer. I have trouble finding craft books that address the genre I write which is Christian living, but not creative non-fiction. I enjoy reading about other authors’ processes. The first one I ever read was Stephen King’s On Writing which was helpful, again, despite the bad language.

Question 6: If you were to give a shout-out to a CWD author, writer, editor or illustrator – who would they be?

I like to give a shout-out to some writers I met at the beginning of my connection with Christian Writers who are still part of CWD particularly, Jenny Glazebrook, Jo-Anne Berthelsen, Nola Passmore and Penny Reeve. These writers have inspired and encouraged me by their faithfulness and persistence over many years. In the early days of Omega Conferences, I remember their willingness to run workshops for a pittance, yet they always came fully prepared. They shared not only their talents but their love of words and their heart for God. They have been good role models for me.

Question 7: What are your writing goals for 2021? How will you achieve them?

I have been given a place in the 2021 Graduate Certificate in Creative Writing and Communication course run by Tabor College. So my goal for next year is to complete the course! I also want to keep writing three articles a week for my blog. Every other writing project is going to be put on hold.

I’m looking forward to doing this course and curiously, I only felt confident to undertake it because of receiving the CALEB Award this year. In about June I received feedback on my CALEB entry from the first-round judges, which was mostly positive and the few negatives were things I could easily fix. When I received the feedback from the second-round judges, there were again lots of positives and a few negatives. However, this time I wasn’t sure how to fix the negatives yet I also knew they were things that needed to be fixed. Still, there were enough positives to give me the confidence to pursue further study. 

Question 8: How does your faith impact and shape your writing?

Without my faith, I would have nothing to write about! 

I started writing regularly when my husband became a pastor and he asked me to write a devotional article once a fortnight for the church newsletter. At the time, I thought it was a huge commitment and how would I ever find enough to write about? Three years later, we moved to a church that had a newsletter every week, but at least by then, I could recycle a few thoughts from the previous church. 

Over the years, I’ve felt a growing sense of my writing becoming a ministry rather than just a hobby.

Susan Barnes likes to write devotional thoughts on Bible passages, book reviews and inspirational articles. She loves to challenge people's thinking and regularly posts on her blog/website. You can receive her free ebook, 10 Things My Children Taught Me About God when you sign up for her newsletter.

2020 CALEB Award Finalists Announced

By Iola Goulton, 2020 CALEB Coordinator

Like so much of what has happened this year, the 2020 CALEB Award hasn’t gone according to plan. Our past practice has been to have a combination of published and unpublished categories in the Award each year, and to announce the winners at the annual Omega Writers Conference.

Well, between fires, disease, and murder hornets, the 2020 Omega Writers Conference has now morphed into the 2021 Omega Writers Conference. The place is the same: Peppers Kingscliff, in northern New South Wales, from 8 to 10 October 2021.

This change led to us switching up the 2020 CALEB Awards. As such, the 2020 Awards are for manuscripts from unpublished authors in three categories:

• Adult Fiction
• Young Adult Fiction
• Nonfiction

The first-round judges have completed their tasks and returned their scoresheets. I’ve done my Excel magic, and I am thrilled to be able to announce the finalists in the 2020 CALEB Award.

Finalists: Adult Fiction

Helen Carr
Emily Maurits
Mindy Shaw

 

Young Adult Fiction

Kirsten Hart
Judy Rogers
Jean Saxby

 

Nonfiction

Susan Barnes
Jeffrey McKee

Congratulations, everyone!

Note that the Unpublished Award is a blind contest. Judges don’t know whose manuscripts they are judging, and we don’t reveal the manuscript titles to keep that anonymity.

The final-round judges now have until 30 September to read the full manuscript and pick the winner for each category. I don’t envy them!

The winners will be announced via a Zoom celebration in lieu of a conference.

This is provisionally scheduled for 16 October 2020, and the time is to be confirmed. We’d love it if you could join us!

Members of Omega Writers will receive an email invitation. If you’re not a member of Omega Writers but would like to join us, then consider joining us!

Alternatively, email me at caleb @ omegawriters [dot] org, and we’ll add you to the invitation list (note: finalists and members will be given first priority if we have any limit on numbers).

Stories of Life: Narrative Form with Poetic Commentary

It's contest time!

On Monday, Katy introduced the 2020 Australian Christian Teen Writer Award and Young Australian Christian Writer Award. Click here to find out more.

Entries to the 2020 CALEB Award close this week. Click here to enter (you'll have to click the yellow Book Now button).

We're also looking for more judges for the CALEB. Click here to volunteer.

And today I'm delighted to welcome May-Kuan Lim to the blog, to introduce the 2020 Stories of Life contest.

Baxter with his family at the 2019 book launch. Baxter won second prize in the Youth category.

In the Tanakh, or the Hebrew Bible, various biblical books of the Old Testament are arranged as two narrative sections separated by poetic commentary. From Genesis to 2 Kings, the first narrative section covers creation to the exile of the Jews. The second narrative section, Daniel to Chronicles, covers the exile to the rebuilding of the Jewish temple. In between these two narrative sections are psalms, prophetic books and wisdom literature. This section has been called poetic commentary. Here, God often speaks in the first person, and we get to feel his heart, his emotions. In many ways, I think that narrative form with poetic commentary is a good description of the kinds of stories that we seek at Stories of Life.

Stories of Life is a short story writing competition that seeks out true stories of faith and testimony.

Stories of faith are primarily stories: something happens to someone. In our 2019 anthology, Papa’s Shoes and other stories of life, we read various short stories: a child losing his mother, a woman pushing away food, a man forced to use the women’s toilet because a church hadn’t made provisions for his disability.

What makes it a story of faith is that God shows up, working sometimes in small and quiet ways, at other times through dramatic intervention. But these stories go beyond the testimonies I used to tell – those factual straightforward stories where I had a problem and Jesus solved it. Instead, these stories draw readers into the heart of the writers to experience terror, relief, grieve, joy, or any of the complex feelings that make us human.

And somewhere in the 500 to 1500 words, God shows up. It is through his response that we understand something of his heart – a faithful grandmother crying with the child, an assurance to the young woman that her body is a vessel designed by God, a man who reads of Jesus intentionally engaging with people with disabilities; this is what divine love and faithfulness look like.

There may be many writers here who do not consider non-fiction their primary genre.

Nonetheless, if God has done something in your life, would you consider writing up and submitting it, so that your story might be published in our annual anthology? While we encourage all people of faith to write in, there is no doubt that the contribution of serious writers, who are followers of Jesus, lifts the overall quality of writing and it’s always good to see Christian Writers Downunder and Australasian Christian Writers have their stories published in our anthology.

We are starting a new initiative this year: Feedback Month in June.

Throughout the month of June, you will be able to submit your draft online via our website storiesoflife.net, and one of our editors will give you personalised feedback. What you do with that feedback is entirely up to you. Adherence to the feedback does not guarantee publication, but we hope that it will be helpful to some. But if you’ve written your story and you’re happy with it, you can submit it straightaway, and we are accepting submissions from now until 31 July 2020.

We have three categories and a different judge for each category. In each category, there will be a first prize (AUD500), a second prize (AUD300), and a third prize (AUD 200). The categories are:

Eternity Matters Short Stories of Life (500 words and under)

AUD 10 entry fee
2020 judge David Rawlings

Immortalise Young Stories of Life (500 – 1000 words)

For writers aged 17 and under, no entry fee
2020 judge Corrine Townsend

Tabor Open Stories of Life (1000 – 1500 words)

AUD 10 entry fee
2020 judge Nola Passmore

All submissions will be appraised as anonymous entries, and prize winners will be announced at the launch of the anthology in November. Some stories will also recorded and broadcast on 1079 Life. Stories of Life has been running since 2016, and we have published four books to date. These have been very well received, and we have become a family of sorts, whereby we try to help with the promotion of books of any of our past contributors through social media.

True stories of faith are a way of acknowledging God.

They help us remember how God has been good to us in the past, and this gives us confidence to trust him in for the future. In these uncertain times, we believe that stories of faith that bear witness to God’s active grace in this world are powerful.

Will you write us a story?

May-Kuan Lim is part of the Stories of Life team. She is also a freelance writer, studies part-time at the Bible College of South Australia and co-edits Word of Mouth, the Oral History Australia (SA/NT) newsletter. When she is not burrowing through text, crafting sentences or untangling them, she finds great delight in her eclectic (read: rather messy) garden.

Omega Writers Update | Introducing the 2020 CALEB Award

Last year, I announced the proposed schedule for the CALEB Awards—a plan for how the awards would run in the future. Well, we all know what they say about the best-laid plans ...

The current COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns and international travel restrictions have changed many plans, including the following Omega events:

• The South Australia Omega Writers Day on 2 May has been cancelled.
• The 2020 Omega Writers Conference has been postponed until 2021.

Omega Writers Conference

The 2021 Omega Writers Conference details are:

8-10 October 2021, at Peppers Kingscliff, New South Wales

All the speakers have confirmed their availability for 2021, and the venue has kindly agreed to hold our agreed prices for next year.

The conference traditionally hosts two events: the Annual General Meeting, and the CALEB Awards presentation night. The 2020 AGM will be held in October via Zoom, and members will receive an email with the details closer to the time.

2020 CALEB Award

One of the decisions from the 2019 AGM was to move from an annual conference to holding a conference every second year. The Omega Committee discussed how this would affect the CALEB Awards, and decided to rearrange the awards to cover Published books in conference years, and Unpublished manuscripts in the non-conference years.

But postponing the 2020 conference for a year has forced a rethink, which is why the 2020 CALEB Awards did not open for entries as originally promised on 1 April. The Omega Committee discussed this at their last meeting, and have decided to move to the rearranged scheduled from this year.

On that note, I am delighted to announce the 2020 CALEB Awards are open for entries for unpublished manuscripts in the following categories:

• Adult Fiction (any genre)
• Young Adult Fiction (any genre)
• Adult Nonfiction (any genre)

Who Can Enter?

The CALEB Award is open to Australian and New Zealand Christian writers. It costs AUD 40 per entry for members of Omega Writers, and AUD 70 for nonmembers. Members, you will receive an email advising you of the discount code.

This is an Unpublished contest, so is only open to those who have not previously been published in any form, whether hardcover, paperback, or ebook.

Entries in the fiction categories are limited to those who are not published in book-length fiction (i.e. fiction over 10,000 words).

Nonfiction entries are limited to those who are not published in book-length nonfiction (i.e. nonfiction over 10,000 words).

Entries are open from 20 April to 20 May.

Click here to read the Unpublished Award rules and formatting guidelines.

Click here to enter.

This change in dates will shift the judging dates, but we anticipate still announcing the winners in mid to late October, and we are planning a virtual awards ceremony via Zoom. That (unfortunately) means no chocolate, but we still want to celebrate and encourage Christian writers in Australia and New Zealand.

The winner in each category will receive editing services to the value of AUD 400 from one of our sponsors:

• Adult Fiction: Nola and Tim Passmore, The Write Flourish
• Young Adult Fiction: Iola Goulton, Christian Editing Services
• Adult Nonfiction: Cecily Patterson, The Red Lounge for Writers

Judging Opportunities

However, in order to run the CALEB Awards, we need judges. You don't need any particular qualifications to judge, and you can judge any category you haven't entered (so if you enter Adult Fiction, we'd love to have you as a judge for Young Adult Fiction or Adult Nonfiction).

Click here to sign up as a judge.

If you have questions, please ask in the comments.

News from Omega Writers: 2020 Conference, CALEB Award, and SA Writer's Day

It's Iola Goulton here, and I'm sharing the latest news from Omega Writers:

South Australian Omega Writer's Day

The South Australian members of Omega Writers are planning their first meetup on 2 May. Christy Award-winning author David Rawlings will be speaking, along with James Cooper, who coordinates the Tabor College creative writing programme.

Time: 9am - 4pm, 2 May 2020

Location: Edwardstown Baptist Church, Dorene St & Rothesay Ave, St Marys SA 5042.

The cost for the day will be $25, which will include lunch, and bookings are essential.

Click here for more information, and to book.

2020 Omega Writers Conference

Plans are still going ahead for conference amid the ever-changing news around the COVID-19 pandemic. Omega Writers President Meredith Resce says:

We hope that we will not have to cancel. We hope that the swift action taken by our health authorities will see a containment of this virus, and that we may continue along as planned.

Our committee are mindful of the situation, but we are not making any calls one way or the other, at present, but will most certainly make a call in good time to reduce the liability as much as possible. Please stand by. Be sensible according to all health advice being issued, and keep in faith.

The original plan was to open conference registrations on 1 April, but this is now likely to be delayed given that both Australia and New Zealand now require visitors to self-isolate for fourteen days after arrival. As Meredith says, the committee are discussing the issue, and we pray they will have wisdom as they think through the issues.

We will profile the nonfiction and other speakers next month.

2020 CALEB Award

The 2020 CALEB Award open for entries on Wednesday 1 April, and entries will close on Thursday 30 April.

As the coordinator of the Awards, I’d like to encourage all members of the Australasian Christian Writers community to get involved. Today I’m going to share three ways you can be involved:

• Entry opportunities
• Judging opportunities
• Sponsorship opportunities

Entry Opportunities

Entry to the CALEB Award is open to all Australian and New Zealand Christian writers (wherever they live), or writers living in Australia or New Zealand.

The 2020 Published Award will have the following categories:

• Fiction (romance and women’s fiction)
• Children’s fiction (early reader to middle grade i.e. 5-12 years, and no picture books)
• Non-fiction excluding memoir/biography

The 2020 Published Awards are open to books with a 2019 or 2018 copyright date, subject to the book not having previously been entered. We will accept entries with a 2017 copyright date only if the title could not have been entered in the last two years because that category was not offered.

The 2020 Unpublished Award is for young adult fiction across all genres.

We will ask entrants to state their genre so we’re able to match them with judges who enjoy and feel capable judging that genre. We don’t want to give a romance title to a judge who loathes romance, or a fantasy title to a judge who hates fantasy.

About the CALEB Award

The CALEB Award is run by Omega Writers although books don’t have to be overtly Christian.

Some of our winners have been “defiantly Christian”. Others have been great books by Christian writers with underlying Christian themes like love, honesty, or the importance of family.

While we do accept entries that aren’t specifically aimed at the Christian market, we do ask that all entrants state their agreement with the Omega Writers Statement of Belief. We also remind entrants that we are judging books based on a Christian world view, so general market titles are unlikely to score well.

Judging Opportunities

Writing contests need entrants, but they also need judges. Some contests require entrants to judge in another category. We don’t, but judging is a great way of giving back to the Australasian Christian writing community.

• If you’re entering the Unpublished award, then we’d love to have you judge the Published award.
• If you write fiction and you’re entering one of the Published awards, then we’d love to have you judge the Unpublished award.

If you’re not entering the CALEB, then we’d love to have you judge whatever category you like!

What qualifications do I need to be a judge?

You need to be a keen reader of the genre you’re offering to judge. That’s pretty much it.

If you’re applying to judge the Unpublished contest, then it would be great if you’re also a writer, editor, or publisher, as we want to give our Unpublished entrants quality feedback.

Also, the CALEB Award is a Christian contest, so we do ask that judges agree with the Omega Writers Statement of Belief. But you don't have to be a member of Omega writers to judge the CALEB, or to enter.

What do judges have to do?

First-round judges will have approximately two months to judge between three and ten entries in the category and genre of their choice (so if you hate reading young adult romance, we’ll do our best to ensure you don’t get any romance entries). If you can only judge three entries, we’ll send you three. If you can judge more, we’ll send you more.

The Unpublished contest is the first 10,000 words of the manuscript, plus a 1,000-word synopsis.

Depending on how fast you read and how much feedback you give, judging should take between 30 and 60 minutes per entry.

Those judging the Unpublished contest will be asked to provide written feedback to support their scores, and this feedback will be given to the entrants. Feedback is one of the main reasons to enter an Unpublished contest, so we do ask that judges give fair, considered, and prayerful feedback. Click here to download a draft score sheet.

The first round of the Published contest is based on the 50 pages (or 25%) of the book for other categories (although you’re welcome to read the entire book). Judges will be asked to complete a score sheet for each entry, but will not have to provide written feedback, and score sheets will not be returned to the entrants.

Second-round judges will have approximately two months to pick a winner from between three and five finalists. They will be asked to read and judge the full book or manuscript (entries are capped at 120,000 words).

If you'd like to judge, click here and complete the form.

Sponsorship Opportunities

If you or your business would like to sponsor a category of the CALEB Award by offering a category prize (of either cash or a service), then please contact the Omega Writers Sponsorship team.

How will you get involved in the 2020 CALEB Award?

Do you have any questions I haven’t answered? If so, please leave a comment.