CALEB Award Review | Camp Max by Penny Reeve

Review by Jenny Blake | @ausjenny

Omega Writers is a Christian writing group serving Australian, New Zealand, and South Pacific Christian Writers. They held their annual writing conference the last weekend on October, in Adelaide, South Australia.

One much-anticipated part of conference is the Saturday night award ceremony for the CALEB Award. CALEB stands for:

Christian Authors Lifting Each others' Books

About Camp Max

Attention, campers! Seeking maximum adventure? Looking for maximum fun? You need CAMP MAX!

Tania's all set to go on camp! She's planned which cabin she'll be in, what snacks to take, she's even arranged for her best friend Emily to come.

There's one small problem though: Emily's parents gave away the money that would have bought her ticket. Luckily the town talent show offers camp tickets as a prize - all they have to do is win.

During their rehearsals, no one's expecting Tania's own ticket to go missing. And when it does, Tania knows she's going to need more than just talent to avert maximum disaster.

A sweet new story about challenges, friendship and family with Tania Abbey.

My Review:

This was an enjoyable book by Penny. I am sure Primary aged children will enjoy the book and also relate to the story. The book is about Tania and her brother Daniel and Her friend Emily and her brother Sam. Tania is so excited about going to Camp Max. She has been a couple of times and can't wait to go again this time with her new friend Emily. The only problem is we learn Emily and Sam didn't apply to go to camp as they used the money for a different reason which you will find when reading the book. The reason leaves Tania questioning why and if she would do the same thing if she was in the same position.

Tania finds a flyer for a talent show with two tickets to Camp Max as prizes. The two girls and boys enter with their own acts to win. What they didn't count on was Tania's ticket going missing. The what ifs start to happen. What if only one wins a ticket etc. Reading the bible helps Tania with some hard questions and we see how it all plays out. I don't want to say to much as I hate giving away stories.

I read this book while in the city to watch cricket. I was able to read it during break time and loved every minute of it. This would be a great stocking filler for a young Girl for Christmas.

About Jenny Blake

AUSJENNY is a cricket fanatic who loves reading although not reading as much as she use to. She loves to be able to help promote good Christian books and support authors.

You can read the introduction to Camp Max below:

CALEB Award Review | SHE by Jen Gibbs

By Iola Goulton @iolagoulton

Omega Writers is a Christian writing group serving Australian, New Zealand, and South Pacific Christian Writers. They held their annual writing conference the last weekend on October, in Adelaide, South Australia.

One much-anticipated part of conference is the Saturday night award ceremony for the CALEB Award. CALEB stands for:

Christian Authors Lifting Each others' Books

Today I'm checking out the winner of the non-fiction award, SHE by Jen Gibbs (with a little help from Kara Isaac and Christine Dillon).

I bought SHE at the conference, and I have started reading it. The writing is excellent, and it's a great topic. However, it's not the light Christian romance I ususally read, and it's going to take a while to read.

The cover gives the impression of a memoir or self-help book based on personal experience. SHE is that, but it's so much more. It's also an in-depth Bible study, looking at women of the Bible, at how Jesus treated women, and examining the underlying Hebrew and Greek.

For example, Gibbs points out that they word for "noble" in that famous passage in Proverbs 31 is also used to describe Gideon (where it's translated as "mighty warrior") and King David (brave warrior). That places quite a different emphasis on our famous "woman of noble character", and I'm looking foward to digging deeper into SHE and finding similar nuggets.

Kara Isaac says:

Part biblical exploration, part personal narrative, Jen Gibbs has crafted a compelling look at women of the Bible, their context and what we can learn from them as we wrestle with living lives of faith, hop, and love in the 21st century. An exciting addition to an important conversation.

Christine Dillon says:

An easy, encouraging read for any women who might doubt that God really seems them as valuable and precious. A book full of delving into women of the Bible who showed faith, hope and love. Plenty of discussion questions for groups or individuals. Sprinkled throughout are stories from Jen’s experience and doubts she’s wrestled with. I loved it that she didn’t have to give answers but was willing to raise questions.

About SHE: A Journey of Faith, Hope & Love with Women of the Bible:

Faith, Hope and Love. We get it, right? They are important. But sometimes they feel so intangible. How are we supposed to relate? What do we do with our faith through suffering? Why is hope even included in the "top three"? What does extravagant love really look like?

In this book Jen dives deep into Faith, Hope and Love as revealed through the lives of some incredible women of the Bible. Their lives point us to the heart of God for women. Through them we see a God who cherishes, strengthens, commissions, commends, esteems and cannot help but love us!

You can read the introduction to SHE: A Journey of Faith, Hope & Love with Women of the Bible below:

CALEB Award Review | The Elusive Miss Ellison by Carolyn Miller

Review by Iola Goulton @iolagoulton

Omega Writers is a Christian writing group serving Australian, New Zealand, and South Pacific Christian Writers. They held their annual writing conference the last weekend on October, in Adelaide, South Australia (and you can read my recap post here).

One much-anticipated part of conference is the Saturday night award ceremony for the CALEB Award. CALEB stands for:

Christian Authors Lifting Each others' Books

This year, there were four categories for the CALEB Award:

• Published Fiction (romance or romantic elements)
• Published Non-Fiction
• Published Children's Fiction
• Unpublished Young Adult Fiction

The winners were:

• Grand Prize and Published Children's Fiction: Penny Reeve for Camp Max
• Runner-up and Published Fiction: Carolyn Miller for The Elusive Miss Ellison
• Published Non-Fiction: Jen Gibbs for SHE: A Journey of Faith, Hope & Love with Women of the Bible
• Unpublished Young Adult Fiction: Susan J Bruce

Over the next few weeks, we're going to be reviewing the three winning books as well as more recent releases from these three wonderful ladies.

Andrea Grigg has previously reviewed The Elusive Miss Ellison here at Australasian Christian Writers, and you can click here to read her review.

And here's my review (previously published at Iola's Christian Reads).

The Elusive Miss Ellison is everything a good Regency romance should be: it’s consistent with the writings of Jane Austen and Georgette Heyer, and features plenty of wit and sparkle in the dialogue, especially that of the titular Miss Lavinnia Ellison. She reminds me of a combination of Austen and Heyer heroines, and there is a definite nod to the BBCs Ehle/Firth version of Pride and Prejudice in terms of the characters.

The plot isn’t P&P (thankfully), but again has echoes of Austen. 

The big difference (improvement) is that The Elusive Miss Ellison is clearly Christian fiction: Livvie is a minister’s daughter with a real faith in God, and unwilling to be romantically involved with any man who doesn’t share her faith. Especially not the man she holds responsible for the death of her beloved mother, and who appears to hold too little regard for the wellbeing of his tenants.

Nicholas obviously has his own personal and faith journey, and I think his is the stronger story—he’s the one with the obvious character faults which need to be changed through the influence of a good woman. And perhaps her love as well ...

I’m a big Regency romance fan, so very much enjoyed the authentic Regency voice and attention to detail. Some of the writing was a little shaky, and the pacing was somewhat uneven. Parts of the novel sparkled with wit, but others felt as though the sparkle had been scrubbed out.

I’ll be keen to read the sequel, The Captivating Lady Charlotte (love the title!). Recommended for fans of Christian Regency romance.

Update: Carolyn now has six novels published, and I've read them all. She gets better with each one.

Thanks to Kregel and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review.

You can read the introduction to The Elusive Miss Ellison below:

2017 Omega Writers Conference Highlights #omega17 | Narelle Atkins

Left to Right: Elaine Fraser, Andrea Grigg, Iola Goulton, Margie Lawson, Jeanette O'Hagan, Narelle Atkins, Nola Passmore.

By Narelle Atkins

Wow. The 2017 Omega Writers Conference in Sydney last weekend was fabulous. Awesome. Brilliant. Inspiring. Around one hundred writers enjoyed the relaxed rural conference setting on the outskirts of Sydney. I feel blessed to belong to Omega Writers and the wider Christian writing community that encourages and supports writers in our part of the world.

Many thanks to Raewyn Elsegood and her conference team who worked hard behind the scenes. Jenny Glazebrook's new initiative to place attendees in host groups provided another avenue to build relationships and ensure first time conference attendees were welcomed into the Omega writing community.

The amazing Margie Lawson was our keynote speaker. We love Margie and love her teaching gift. Thank you Margie for blessing us by attending our conference. 

Margie is pictured above with the six Margie Immersion Grads who were at conference. Elaine Fraser is a 3-time Immersion Grad: Melbourne in August 2015, Sydney in August 2016 and a solo Immersion with Margie in Colorado in May 2017. Andrea Grigg and Iola Goulton attended an August 2015 Melbourne Immersion with Elaine (hosted by 4-time Immersion Grad Dorothy Adamek). Jeanette O'Hagan and Nola Passmore attended a Brisbane Immersion in August 2016. I attended a Canberra Immersion in March 2017.

Margie included quotes in her teaching points from Elaine Fraser's book Amazing Grace and Andrea Grigg's book All is Bright. It was exciting to see their excellent writing featured on the big screen.

Multi-published author Alex Marestaing from Southern California was our keynote speaker at the CALEB Awards. Yes, we really did have an international author who has worked with Disney attend our Aussie conference and teach our Young Adult and Middle Grade writers!

I had the pleasure of introducing the delightful Patricia Weerakoon and her much anticipated workshop 'Sex without Sleaze'. An informative and challenging workshop for fiction writers on how to write about sexuality and related issues in both the Christian market and general market from a Christian perspective. 

Multi-published regency romance author Carolyn Miller presented a fun and engaging workshop for fiction writers. We celebrated with Carolyn as her third book, The Dishonorable Miss DeLancey, was released in the USA during the week prior to conference.  

Omega Writers President Meredith Resce and Margie Lawson presented the certificates to the CALEB Award finalists. We live streamed the CALEB Awards via my Facebook Profile to Australasian Christian Writers and Christian Writers Downunder Facebook Groups. The video footage is in two parts and can be viewed at the links below.

2017 CALEB Awards via Facebook Live - Part 1

2017 CALEB Awards via Facebook Live - Part 2

Facebook Live Part 2 video includes Alex Marestaing's inspiring keynote address.

Facebook Live Part 2 video also includes Rachel Sweasey and Rochelle Manners from Rhiza Press and author Catriona McKeown (2016 CALEB Unpublished winner) discussing the upcoming release of YA novel The Boy in the Hoodie.

CALEB Awards co-ordinator Judy Rogers presented the CALEB Prize to the overall winner, Cecily Paterson.

2017 CALEB ~ Published Fiction

Winner: 
Charlie Frank is A-OK - Cecily Anne Paterson (CALEB Prize Winner)

Finalists: 
Daystar: The Days are Numbered - Anne Hamilton 

Forgiving Sky - Jenny Glazebrook 

Amazing Grace - Elaine Fraser

2017 CALEB ~ Children’s Picture Books 

Winner: 

Small and Big - Karen Collum illustrated by Ben Wood (CALEB Prize Runner Up)

Finalists: 

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

My Imagination - written and illustrated by Ellen Wildig

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

2017 CALEB ~ Unpublished Manuscript 

Winner: 
Siren’s Fight - Kristen Young 
Finalists:
In the Middle of the Whirlwind - Hannah Currie 
The Gryphon Key - Elizabeth Klein 
Holy War - Anthony Peterson

Karen Collum & Cecily Paterson

Many thanks to Margaret Holahan who took hundreds of photos for Omega Writers during the weekend and allowed me to access the Dropbox and share photos in my post. The photos that are date stamped are from the Omega photo collection. Enjoy browsing the conference photos and plan to attend the 2018 Conference in Adelaide. 

Raewyn Elsegood & Margie Lawson

Jo-Anne Berthelsen

Rowena Beresford

Rose Dee at the Registration Desk

Katrina Roe

James Cooper

Penny Morrison

It's conference time!

Omega Writers Australasia will be meeting this coming weekend for their annual conference, and it is set to be a great weekend meeting our writing friends from around Australia and New Zealand, and engaging in some first class learning with our conference speakers.

We are thrilled to have had a number of businesses join us as partner sponsors, and as a result we have been able to bring in a couple of sought after speakers who I know will bring another level again to those of us who have been writing in Australia for many years.

Added to this, we will have the CALEB Prize awards evening, where we will recognise Australasian Christian writers in different genres. Our partner sponsors have generously contributed towards the prizes that will be awarded to our winners.

I would like to take a moment to mention some of our partner sponsors, and ask that you would consider them if you are in need of this sort of service:

Tabor College – Education in creative writing

Ingram Spark – Self-publishing and Print on Demand specialists

Book Whispers – Writing and self-publishing assist specialists

Finesse Writing Services – Writing and self-publishing specialists

Breath of Fresh Air Publishing

Cam Print – Screen print and embroidery for t-shirts, corporate wear and caps

Simon Malcolm Productions – Video production specialist

Rosanna White – Graphic designer specialising in book covers

Christian Super – Superannuation specialists

Christian Editing Services – Professional and respected editor

Details for all these partner sponsors can be found on OmegaWriters website 

I hope to see many of you at the conference, and that you will enjoy the workshop streams that are being offered. If you have been unable to make it this year, the good news is that it has already been booked in again for next year. This time we will be headed to beautiful Adelaide, South Australia, and now would be a good time to make a plan to join us in twelve months time.

I have only just finished up a skype session with our Omega Screen Writers group this evening, and we have talked about trying to introduce a new stream to next year’s conference especially for writers of screenplay.

Don’t forget that there are writing chapters functioning around the country, so if you’d like to get together with other writers and can’t wait until October next year, look up the groups that may be functioning in a place near you.

http://www.omegawriters.org/meet-other-writers/

As always, I like to remind members of Australasian Christian Writers and Christian Writers Downunder that Omega Writers continues to function because we have financial members. If you believe in the work that we do, and the services we provide, I would encourage you to consider becoming a financial member. There are benefits to be had. More information on this is on our website.

I would like to take this opportunity to bless you in your writing journey, and pray that you will continue to grow in God and as a writer.

Best regards

Meredith Resce

President

Omega Writers Australasia

www.omegawriters.org

CALEB Award Finalists

Congratulations to all 2017 CALEB Award Finalists.

Winners will be announced at the Omega Conference in October.

Children’s Picture Books:

The Mighty, Mighty King Christmas Book – by Penny Morrison Illustrated by Lisa Flanagan
Small and Big – by Karen Collum. Illustrated by Ben Wood.
My Imagination – written and illustrated by Ellen Wildig

Published Fiction
Daystar: The Days are Numbered – by Anne Hamilton
Forgiving Sky – by Jenny Glazebrook
Amazing Grace – by Elaine Fraser
Charlie Frank is A-OK – by Cecily Anne Paterson

Published Non-Fiction
Heaven Tempers the Wind – by Hazel Barker
Becoming Me – by Jo-Anne Berthelsen
Burn My Letters : Tyranny to Refuge – by Ruth Bonetti

Unpublished Manuscript
In the Middle of the Whirlwind – by Hannah Currie
The Gryphon Key – by Elizabeth Klein
Siren’s Flight – by Kristen Young
Holy War – by Anthony Peterson

Hurrah for Omega Writers

Hurrah for Omega Writers!

Does that sound a bit like Enid Blyton’s Famous Five? Perhaps, but ‘hurrah’ sounds like the best word to use on this occasion. 

Omega Writers as an organisation of Australasian Christian writers is steadily gaining momentum every year, and this year is no different. I need to catch you up on how things are progressing, and encourage you once again: if you are not yet a member, jump on board and invest in this venture whose purpose is to benefit you in as many ways as we can think of. Please click here to re-watch the You Tube video that will tell you why. (NB there has been a small increase in membership since this video was made).

OMEGA WRITERS CONFERENCE 2017

It’s happening! Our conference committee have been pulling together a brilliant program for writers, editors and publishers to be a part of, and it is my job to get you to go to the website and take a look. Don’t miss out on this opportunity. You will get great professional input, collegial encouragement, opportunity to connect with publishers and editors and fellowship that is on a level that relates to YOU – the writer. We can go to church all year and mix with other Christians, and this is lovely, but how often do you get to really connect with Christian writers – you know, those crazy people who think like you do, in terms of plot, character, narrative and story idea. It is something that will fuel you, and I can’t encourage you enough to hop online now and at least see if it is possible for you to attend.

EARLY BIRD RATE ENDS NEXT WEEK!! Now is not the time to procrastinate people!

Oh, and we have not one, but two international speakers lined up alongside some outstanding Australasian speakers and workshop facilitators. 

Click Here for more details about how to register

Click Here for more details about the speakers

Now, lastly, but most importantly, I need to tell you about this year’s new initiative. Some of our volunteer team have been contacting businesses and organisations to see if they would be willing to partner with us in the promotion of Christian writing in our region. I am pleased to say that we have eight partner sponsors so far, with the possibility of more. (If you have a small business and you’d like to sponsor, send me an email and I’ll send you the sponsorship proposal package to consider).

What I would love you to do is to click onto our website and check out our official sponsors.

We have a screen print and embroidery business – Cam Print – who has sponsored, so if you’re looking for t-shirts, ball caps, aprons or letter jackets with your logo, Cam Print will help you Australia wide.

We have video producer – Simon Malcolm Productions – on board as a partner sponsor, so if you’re looking for a video promotion, corporate training video or any audio video need, go to their website and check them out.

We have editorial, design and publishing-assist businesses who have sponsored, including Christian Editing Services, Book Whispers, Finesse Writing and Editing, Breath of Fresh Air Publishing and an American design company, Roseanna White Designs. Please, please, please check out their websites and see if they offer something that will suit your needs.

There are a couple of other minor sponsors as well who have decided to support Australasian Christian writing – Eastern College and Focus on the Family.

Please support us by supporting our partner sponsors.

Click here to check out all the web links.

There is much more happening with Omega Writers: The Caleb Prize awards evening looks like it is going to be a great night of celebration and entertainment.

I have also been liaising with one of our major booksellers to see if they would visit our conference and meet some of our more prominent published authors and publishers.

There have been some great chapter events held around the country, and it is great to see this groundswell of Christian writers who are forming friendships and networks. 

So in summary:

1. If you’re not yet a member, help us support you by supporting us with financial membership
2. If you haven’t registered for this year’s exciting international conference, now is the time!
3. Please support us by supporting our partner sponsors – check them out here.

Blessings to you all and can’t wait to catch up with you late October.

Meredith Resce

Omega Writers Australasia President

Author - www.meredithresce.com