I just returned from Dallas, jetting into Ontario CA, after a significant delay at DWA, at 12:00 AM-ish. After bag pick-up and shuttle pick-up, I was in my car and on the way for the thirty-minute drive. When I got home, I collapsed into sleep about 1:30 AM West Coast time.

Nevertheless, I wanted to give a brief report of some positives.

First, congratulations to our own Mirtika Schultz for winning the Genesis Contest. I’d love to tell you more about her piece, but I don’t even remember the title, though it was flashed up on the big screens in the Meriott ballroom along with Mir’s picture. I do know that she’s a talented writer, as evidenced by a number of her short stories published online. Mayhap we can twist her arm into posting a sample of her story here at Spec Faith. You can leave notes for her here or visit her blog (link in the sidebar) and congratulate her there.

The second piece of news is that in the general fiction category of the Book of the Year contest, our own Bryan Davis won second place with Circles of Seven. Interestingly enough, he was beat out by another fantasy writer, Miles Owens, with Daughter of Prophecy. (For a review of DoP, see what I had to say about the book at A Christian Worldview of Fiction). Not a bad accomplishment, having fantasy books win the top two spots.

I encourage you to flood Miles and Bryan with congratulations. Bryan’s contact information is located here and Miles’s is here.

More good news. We had a wonderful Sci-Fi Fantasy authors get-together Thursday night (special thanks to Shannon McNear—see her link in the sidebar—for setting that up) with over 20 writers showing up strictly on word of mouth, since we didn’t have an official “chat” scheduled. Among those in attendance were John Olson (co-author of Oxygen, Bethany), who later taught a seminar on Sci Fi and Fantasy (with as many as fifty writers in attendance), Bryan Davis (Dragons in Our Midst), and T. L. (Tracy) Higley (Marduk’s Tablet, Barbour).

Last add, since this is turning into a longer post than I intended: Zondervan has hired a new editor, Andy Meisenheimer, who does not hide his own love of fantasy. He and some of the other younger members of the editorial community who also personally like fantasy serve as examples of one of the things I believe and have mentioned in my “Fantasy and a Christian Worldview” series: the twenty-something readers (and to a lesser extent the thirty-something readers) are hungry for SFF, and Christians are hungry for CSFF. In my opinion, this trend will only increase since a good many of these readers cut their reading teeth on Harry Potter.

Are editors actively seeking CSFF? Not yet. But I can’t help but think the trend is about to reverse.