CWD Highlights July-October 2017

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 July-October 2017

Awards

Congratulation the winners and runners up of the CALEB prize

On Saturday night at the Omega Writers Conference, the 2017 CALEB prize was announced.

Overall winners: 

Winner:
Charlie Frank is OK by Cecily Anne Paterson

Runner Up:
Small and Big - Karen Collum illustrated by Ben Wood

Category winners:

2017 CALEB ~ Published Non-Fiction

Winner:
Burn My Letters: Tyranny to Refuge - Ruth Bonetti

Finalists:

Heaven Tempers the Wind - Hazel Barker

Becoming Me - Jo-Anne Berthelsen

Burn My Letters: Tyranny to Refuge - Ruth Bonetti

2017 CALEB ~ Published Fiction

Winner:

Charlie Frank is OK - Cecily Anne Paterson

Finalists:

Daystar: The Days are Numbered - Anne Hamilton

Forgiving Sky - Jenny Glazebrook

Amazing Grace - Elaine Fraser

Charlie Frank is OK - Cecily Anne Paterson

2017 CALEB ~ Children’s Picture Books

Winner:

Small and Big - Karen Collum illustrated by Ben Wood

Finalists:

The Mighty, Mighty King Christmas Book - Penny Morrison illustrated by Lisa Flanagan

Small and Big - Karen Collum illustrated by Ben Wood

My Imagination - written and illustrated by Ellen Wildig

2017 CALEB ~ Unpublished Manuscript

Winner:
Siren’s Fight - Kristen Young

Finalists:

In the Middle of the Whirlwind - Hannah Currie

The Gryphon Key - Elizabeth Klein

Siren’s Fight - Kristen Young

Holy War - Anthony Peterson

Other Awards

In other news - Susan Preston received an a Finalist Award in the IAN Book of the Year Awards for Light of Truth, Book 3 in her Apostle John Series. Book 4 of the same series, Keep the Flame was a finalist in the Christian Historical Fiction section of the 2017 Readers Choice Awards. 

Amazon link https://www.amazon.com/Susan-Preston/e/B00BDY9BQ6/

New releases

Melissa Gijsbers - Lizzy's Dragon

Melissa released children's book, Lizzy's Dragon in September. The Launch was on September 7 at Reading's Children's Bookshop in Carlton.

When Lizzy finds an odd looking egg in the forest behind her house she decides to hide it in her bedroom in the hope that it will hatch into a lizard. What she gets is ‘Bubbles’, the oddest, fastest growing lizard she has ever seen. It doesn’t take long for her annoying little brother to discover her secret pet. It also doesn’t take long for Bubbles to grow out of her room. Lizzy begins to wonder whether Bubbles is a lizard at all, or something even more amazing. But how will Lizzy keep Bubbles a secret? And what will happen to Bubbles if anyone finds out about him?
Title: Lizzy's Dragon
Publisher: Stone Table Books
Buy link: http://stonetablebooks.com/product/lizzys-dragon/

D J Blackmore - Folly

D J Blackmore released book 2, Folly on October 2 2017

In 1822 the colony bells of Newcastle chime for a wedding but Emma Colchester's cousin is nowhere to be found. The family face their worst fears and fingers of blame are pointed too close to home. Emma's future with Tobias threatens to unravel. The walls of a homestead standing by The Hunter River hold the clue, and Emma risks everything in finding out the truth.

Folly is a sequel of Charter to Redemption. Although not strictly a 'stand alone sequel' it's not necessary to pick up book one to enjoy book two.


Publisher: D. J. Blackmore
Links: djblackmore.com.au
Biography: Often at a dirt track watching my husband race motorcycles, with a laptop in my arms and a head full of ideas.


Deidre is offering a Giveaway: The first reader to send an email to the author via her website will win an author signed copy of Folly.

TP Hogan - Extinct

T P Hogan released Extinct on 7th October. 

Everyone knows Thylacines are extinct. The truth is more complicated. Thylacines are real but the secret that hides their existence has trapped them in a half-life, and only one person can set them free.

Sent to live in Tasmania, Australia, with a father she’s never met, Ginny Martin’s mission is to lay low and get through the school year. That is until she sees that first ghostly creature. Refusing to believe she’s going crazy, Ginny will not stop until she’s unearthed the truth behind the silver apparitions.

Bio: TP Hogan writes speculative fiction. This allows her to escape...and explore hidden worlds, inhabited by the creatures of her imagination, and she invites you to join her in these realms.

Buy Link: Amazon.com - http://amzn.to/2y4lggn

Author: Catriona McKeown - The Boy in the Hoodie

Cate McKeown, Omega 2016 winner, is releasing The Boy in the Hoodie November 1st, 2017

Kathleen Morrow is a Pastor's kid struggling to find her place in the world. To protect a friend she lands herself in detention, where she meets a boy with a serious reputation. As an unlikely friendship develops between the two, Kat realises her own problems are insignificant compared to the ones this boy hides under his grey hoodie. And now he's asking for her help. How far is she prepared to go to help him? Kat must choose between the future she wants and a friendship unlike any she has ever known before.

Catriona McKeown is a teacher in country Queensland, where she lives with her husband and three daughters.

Publisher: Rhiza Press
Purchase link: https://www.koorong.com/search/product/the-boy-in-the-hoodie-catriona-mckeown/9781925563207.jhtml

Jeanette O'Hagan - Akrad's Children

Jeanette O'Hagan released Akrad's Children, the first novel in her Akrad's Legacy series. 

Four young lives, a realm ravaged by war, a haunting legacy

Four young lives are bound together in friendship, love, rivalry and tragedy. A realm ravaged by civil war, a ruler scarred by betrayal, a legacy that haunts them all.

Caught between two cultures, a pawn in a deadly power struggle, Dinnis longs for the day his father will rescue him and his sister from the sorcerer Akrad’s clutches. But things don’t turn out how Dinnis imagines and his father betrays him.

Does Dinnis have a future among the Tamrin? Will he seek revenge for wrongs like his sister or forge a different destiny? 

Publisher: By the Light Books

Buy link: https://www.amazon.com/Akrads-Children-Legacy-Book-ebook/dp/B075BK8436/

Other News:

Adam David Collings also released Earth's Remnant the first in his Jewel of the Stars series 

Christine Dillon will release her debut novel Grace in Disguise and released a non-fiction book Stories aren't just for kids: Busting 10 myths about Bible storytelling in October 2017.

CWD members have also had stories and poems accepted in a number of anthologies:

Nola Passmore, Raelene Purtill and Jeanette O'Hagan in Futurevision (1231 Publishing, Sept 2017)

Raelene Purtill, Jeanette O'Hagan and Jenny Woolsey in Redemption (BentBanana Books, Oct 2017)

Jeanette O'Hagan has stories in Tales From the Underground (Inklings Press: Oct 2017) and Quantum Soul (Oct 2017)

Lynne Stringer, Adele Jones and Jeanette O'Hagan had a stall at Oz Comic Con Brisbane in September.

The Honey Bee

by D J Blackmore

What is the only insect that produces food eaten by man? You guessed it, Apis Mellifera. Or as we often know it, the honey bee.

But did you know that the worker bee makes only a twelfth of a teaspoon of honey in its entire short six week lifetime?

Or that honey is the only food that contains everything necessary to sustain life, including minerals, vitamins and enzymes?

It is the one food that contains ‘Pinocembrin,’ an antioxidant that is associated with accelerated function of the brain.

The hive’s only queen lives for up to five years. Without her, the hive loses all sense of meaning. The hive needs her to continue existence. Their selfless work is for her — mother of all — and for their community. They work tirelessly. So much so that a hive of bees will actually orbit the earth three times, or 144,840 kilometres, just for the production of one kilogram of honey.

The world’s most expensive honey is produced in Turkey and costs 5000 euros a kilogram. That’s as much as it costs for a small car.

The work of honey bees pollinates a third of all world food. That’s about one in every three mouthfuls that sit on your plate.

In ancient Egypt bees were seen as a symbol of royalty and power. Druids looked at bees with a sense of celebration and community. Christian monastic communities associated bees with selflessness, cleanliness, courage, sociability, wisdom and spirituality.

Pharaohs took it with them to the afterlife. Honey never spoils, and just as it was esteemed in ancient times, the worth of honey is rising once more.

The book of Judges teaches us about Deborah, prophet and judge. Deborah has been called the mother of Israel. Her name also happens to mean ‘bee’.

When Samson killed a lion with his bare hands, he went back the following year to discover that a colony of bees had made their hive inside the lion’s empty carcase. The pleasure at finding combs full of honey — and not so pleasant stinging worker bees — would have been considered an incredible bounty in those times.

In Judges 14:14, Samson tells a riddle:

“Out of the eater, something to eat;

Out of the strong, something sweet.”

The great power of a single lion had been defeated. In its decay there was nothing lovely, nothing clean and yet bees had made from it something sweet, an abundance of something good.

When we create loveliness out of the everyday, begging the beautiful out of the mundane, it is the sweetness of our efforts that is like gold. Our tireless work from continued routine is what makes us strong.

Yet as writers, it can often be a struggle to continue to push past indolence, flagging sales, rejections, not to mention writer’s block. For all that writing is by its very nature a lone undertaking, it is togetherness and community which can build and strengthen the individual and the team.

In encouraging, listening, being willing to share, we are a hive of many working in togetherness to make something sweet in His name, and that’s powerful.

My newest work is ‘Folly’, the conclusion to ‘Charter to Redemption’. It has been an endeavour which was only made possible through the help of others, and I’m indebted to all those who’ve been part of the process. I’m thankful to the team at Rhiza Press regarding the release of ‘Central to Nowhere’ in 2018. I’m currently writing my second contemporary novel, ‘Rising Son’, as well as looking forward to starting a guest author blog in the near future. Thank you for the encouragement I’ve found with Christian Writers Downunder; it is gold.

Author Biography:

I have milked cows and made cheese. I have reared babies, border collies, and kept bees. I bartered my Gouda for wine at a boutique vineyard near our home in the Hunter Valley, New South Wales. A short stint with horses saw me falling off and breaking my best arm. Now I steer clear of animals of the equine persuasion. Being mother to five is my highest achievement, but writing comes a close second. After all, it has been my friend for so many years, we two are inseparable.