Just a quick note I want to share with everyone. Last week we found out The Pawn is one of the three finalists in the suspense category for the Christy awards, which is the top award given out to a novel published by a Christian publishing company.I share this because in our conversations over the last few posts, we’ve been exploring art, faith and writing. I’m encouraged that The Pawn is a finalist, not just because I wrote it, but because it shows me those evaluating the novels are moving away from agenda driven stories that are really sermons in disguise toward books that are written from a Christian worldview that are not necessarily moralistic or didactic.
Check out the list of all the Christy finalists by clicking here.
3 comments:
Congrats! Great book, and recognition well deserved.
Rich Dailey
Pawned!
Loved the book!
Never heard of a "Christy Award" (Nice pun by the way... at least I think it's a pun...) but the Pawn deserves it anyways.
Got the calendar marked for Rook, can't wait! Got any small spoilers?
I read The Pawn after hearing you speak @ BRMCWC in North Carolina last month, and thank you, thank you for writing this. You've upped the ante for Christian fiction and it's long overdue. Thanks to your publishers, too, for not requiring a 'dumbed down' version. What are we (Christians) telling the rest of the world with one-dimensional plotlines and 8th grade vocabulary? We are telling them that they are right; we are too simple-minded for a complex story and think ourselves much too holy for real conflict. What is it we are afraid of? If we think that a disturbing scene might weaken our faith, rather than give us something to think about that just might strengthen it, then we probably need to ask ourselves how committed to that faith we really are?
But The Pawn---it was around page 100, I think, when I flipped the book over to the back cover long enough to look at your picture and say outloud "you are a twisted man!", then went on reading. And--I meant it in the best possible way:). I was staying at a friends house when I said this. She called from the next room, "You ok?". I hadn't realized I'd said it outloud, and responded with frustration, "It's this book...this...MAN. I can't put it down, it's so good". She, not being much of a reader, didn't get the connection between 'twisted' and 'good'. I tried to explain the next day that if a story is written in a way that pulls you into it and actually causes you to speak out loud to the author....then it's good. She didn't get it. I didn't think Christian publisher's got it, either, until now. Thanks! And congratulations on the Christy nomination...
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