Announcing the Christy Awards Challenge!

Chances are when you hear the words Christian Fiction, you have a definite impression. Clean. Hopeful. Preachy. Boring. The only thing you read. Wouldn't touch it with a ten foot pole.

Well, we love Christian fiction. We've read it our whole lives and we know that it's just a category. And like any category of fiction, it can be absolutely incredible or positively snoozeworthy. But one of the things we hear a lot is that people want to give it a try, but they need recommendations.

You may not know but there is actually an award for Christian fiction! It's called the Christy Award and it's been around for quite some time. These are books that have been judged to be among the best Christian fiction has to offer and while we may not always agree with those choices, we're willing to read them and give our own opinion. But we don't like to do anything alone--we're hoping you will join us too! Read more about the history and criteria of the Christy Awards.

We've been working hard to make this a great challenge....for both newbies to Christian fiction and old veterans. We'll be featuring author interviews with Christy winning authors and nominees, hosting giveaways of Christy books, and some guest posts as well. And we'll be spotlighting your reviews!

DISCLAIMER: We realize that this challenge recognizes only those works that have been nominated for the award. This challenge is not a reflection of Christian fiction as a genre. We understand that there are many other excellent books by Christian authors out there, but this is just one way to focus our reading and see whether or not we agree with the experts!

There are several ways you can join in and many different levels to choose from:

Total Christian Fiction Newbie:

This is only for those who have read no Christian fiction before...the challenge is to read one book from any of the Christy Awards Winners!

Baby Steps

1st Tier - 2009 Favorite Category Read All Nominated Books 3-4 books
2nd Tier - Any ONE Years Favorite Category - 3-4 Books or mix 3-4 winners from any category

It's All in the Winners
3rd Tier- 2009 Winners - 9
4th Tier- Any ONE Year's Winners 7-9 or mix'n'match 7-9 winners

Dedicated

5th Tier - Read 2009/or ANY Year All Books 36-40 Books

Hardcore

6rd Tier - Read all the nominees in your favorite category
7th Tier - Read all of the winners in every category

The Christy Challenge--Perpetual Challenge
Read all of the books nominated and awarded the Christy challenge throughout the course of your lifetime.

You can check out the book lists and decide at which level you'd like to join in! Don't hesitate though! If you sign up by November 15th, you'll be eligible for a drawing for one package of the following books!

Beyond the Night by Marlo Schalesky
You Had Me at Good-bye by Tracey Bateman
Dogwood by Chris Fabry
Until We Reach Home by Lynn Austin
From a Distance by Tamera Alexander
The Rook by Steven James
Vanish by Tom Pawlik
I Have Seen Him in the Watchfires by Cathy Gohlke

As you can see this is almost a complete set of this year's winners! Many thanks to the publishers for donating these giveaways.

Now...how do you join?

Just write a post on your blog announcing your intentions to join. State which tier you'll be joining and the books you'll be reading. You can see all the nominated and awarded books here. Then drop a permalink to your post in the Mister Linky below. If you do all of this by November 15th, 2009, you'll be eligible to win the aforementioned bundle of books. But don't worry! You can join in at any time.

The challenge officially begins today and ends December 1st of 2010. Unless of course you're doing the perpetual challenge in that case, it lasts just as long as you do. :)

We will be active!

We have several author interviews lined up, giveaways, and some guest posts as well as a twitter account! So be sure to subscribe and also to follow us on Twitter!