2025 CAN Excellence in Marketing Awards: First Place in Nonfiction Online Presence First in a series of posts featuring the winners of the 2025 Christian Authors Network (CAN) Excellence in Marketing Awards. Janet McHenry won first place in the nonfiction Online Presence category and describes her activities here. The 2026 marketing awards will open in November 2025. CAN members, be thinking of how you can enter the awards! See the guidelines at: https://christianauthorsnetwork.com/marketing-award/ Author, title, and genre of your book? Janet Holm McHenry Praying Personalities: Finding Your Natural Prayer Style Nonfiction/Christian living Award category? Christian Author Network (CAN) Excellence in…
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read latest news from our blogFascinating Friday Feature – The Treasure God Placed Inside of You
by Rebecca Ondov Have you ever felt like your life consists of fragments that are totally unrelated? Have you everfelt discouraged when you look around at the Super Stars of Christian life and wondered, God, ifI could just focus on one thing…I could….” Years ago, I used to feel that way, until I set my heart on pursuing an intimate relationship withChrist. During that time, He revealed to me that inside each one of us, He tucked treasures sothat we can share those gifts with the world. The world needs them. Yes, you too contain a gift from God! Years…
Book Review: Sweet Double-Cross by Sally Jo Pitts
Genre: Romantic SuspenseBook #2 in the Sweet County Secrets series Description of Sweet Double-Cross: Dedicated biologist Trudy Fields is passionate about her invasive plant species research in northwest Florida. When real estate developer Kirt Mayfair arrives in Sweet County to learn how to eradicate a kudzu infestation on property he plans to purchase, Trudy is assigned to assist him. Their instant connection surprises them both—especially when Kirt impulsively proposes marriage. But research and romantic interest takes a deadly turn when a colleague of Trudy’s is shot and killed on the way to the isolated kudzu experimental island. On the run…
Fascinating Friday Feature – A Podcast, a Prayer Journal, and a Plan I Never Saw Coming
by Dawn Sanders I thought I was just writing a book. In 2020, the world shut down, and I found myself in Genesis 1, staring at a formless, empty,dark earth—and with tears in my eyes, I realized, that’s me. What began as a quiet Bible study revealed a deeper truth: God wasn’t just showing His creative power through Scripture—He was preparing to work creatively in me. What started as a private prayer journal transformed into a platform. And I never saw it coming. From Grief to a Calling After Reggie died, my world ended. I shut down, much like the…
2025 CAN Excellence in Marketing Award Winners Announced!
In the ever-evolving world of Christian publishing, great books are only part of the story. Behind every powerful message lies a strategic marketing effort that brings those messages to the hearts and homes of readers. That’s why the Christian Authors Network (CAN) is thrilled to announce the 2025 CAN Excellence in Marketing Award Winners—honoring the creativity, dedication, and innovation of Christian authors who’ve gone above and beyond to promote their books with excellence. Launched with the mission to recognize, educate, and encourage, the CAN Excellence in Marketing Awards shine a spotlight on the powerful promotional strategies that help Christian books…
Fascinating Friday Feature – Why I Became a Professional Writer
by Lena Nelson Dooley In January 1984, several publishers came out with inspirational romances–Silhouette, Thomas Nelson, Zondervan, Harvest House, Baker Books, Bethany House. At the time, I was an auxiliary rural mail carrier in Colleyville, Texas. While I was driving the mail route, I created a story in my head, like a motion picture. The first week of May 1984, I went to spend part of an afternoon with a good friend who thought romance novels were a waste of time. While we were talking that day, she asked me if I knew a particular woman who attended church with…
Fascinating Friday Feature – A Fascinating Writing Journey
by Diana Leagh Matthews My writing journey has definitely been just that … a journey. I never intended to become an author. One night in 2003, I argued with a family member and thought about just leaving everything behind. As I calmed down, a book idea popped into my head. I got up around 3:00 a.m. and typed up a four-page summary. The next day, I began writing and wondered if I could actually write a book. I heard a voice whisper in my soul, “You don’t know if you don’t try.” I didn’t tell anyone about writing a book…
Fascinating Friday Feature – The Funniest Review
by Linore Rose Burkard The Funniest Review: Thoughts on Reading and Readers All writers know that book reviews can be wonderful, maddening, or anything in between. One day, early in my writing career, I received an unexpectedly comical “review” for my first book, Before the Season Ends. A young lady came to me at church gushing about how she loved it and had lent it to a friend before school began earlier that week. She went on to relate how her friend had started it in homeroom, instantly loved it, and proceeded to read all day—all 310 pages—so that she’d…
Fascinating Friday – Catch the Vision
by Cheryl Schuermann Like many young writers, I once dreamed of writing novels set in exotic places with castles and golden-haired princesses with tiny waists. But more than a half century later, I found myself standing at the edge of a farm pond in the muck helping my grandchildren catch tadpoles. And thinking…wow, I see the makings of a devotion here. When this “I’ll never live in the country” city girl married a boy from rural Oklahoma more than fifty years ago, I didn’t realize how I would come to love the country experience. Soon after Stan and I married…
Fascinating Fridays: Christian Fiction – A Tool for Evangelism
by Patricia Bradley Then the LORD told me: “I will give you my message in the form of a vision. Write it clearly enough to be read at a glance” (Habakkuk 2:2 CEV). The Christian fiction genre accounts for nearly 51% of all faith-based book sales, and I believe it is an awesome tool for evangelizing. Not everyone agrees with me, but think about it. Jesus taught by story—parables—short fictional stories with heavenly meanings, but they were stories nonetheless. Stories that listeners were caught up in because Jesus used characters, items, and events from their everyday lives. His listeners could…
