Congratulations to Dr. Kevin Dautrement of Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, winner of this year’s Best New Canadian Christian Author Award for his historical novel, The Golden Conquest.

Although my contemporary novel manuscript, Praying for the Enemy, didn’t win, it was encouraging to hear that all of us short-listed were considered to have publishable manuscripts. So the hunt goes on! [Edited: Want to know what happened with Praying for the Enemy? In 2013, it became Heaven’s Prey, published first by Choose NOW Publishing, and re-issued as a second edition in 2014 by Janet Sketchley after the publisher closed its fiction line.]

I want to say a special thank you to Larry Willard of Castle Quay Books and to The Word Guild for working together to offer this contest each year. In a time when it’s hard for first-time authors to break into book-length print, an opportunity like this is invaluable. This is especially true in Canada, particularly for Christian fiction, because there aren’t a lot of publishing options. (Government subsidies for a faith-based publisher? Not likely to happen.)

So thank you to Castle Quay books for investing in the future of Canadian authors who are Christian, and congratulations to Dr. Kevin Dautrement for a well-deserved award.