I recently returned home from a trip to California!

When I go on vacation, I continue to check email and social media daily. I don’t tend to post much, other than in my Instagram/Facebook stories, but I do stay stay abreast of things. During my time in California, I was taken by surprise by the increasingly amazing response to our 2026 Christian Fiction Reading Challenge. [If this is the first you’re hearing about the challenge, check out this post by Deb.]

So far, more than 1,500 readers have signed up to participate! My December 15th post about the challenge on Instagram seemed like a post that wasn’t going to be seen by many people at all. But then, after Christmas, its views escalated and now it’s become my most-viewed post ever. We increased the capacity of the monthly Zoom meetings we’ll be holding from 100 to 500. And because readers asked for it, we opened a Facebook group for challenge participants that immediately gained hundreds of members.

When Denise Hunter came up with the idea of a challenge and my author friends and I were discussing how best to go about it, we had no idea that a challenge of this format was exactly what a lot of people were wanting. The response has been so encouraging!

Writing Christian fiction can feel like swimming in a “small pond” compared to the size of the general book market. Not that I’d change my genre. I wouldn’t. I love writing God-honoring stories. But these last few weeks have proven that there are actually a lot of you out there who value our books. Thank you!

My book, Uneasy Street, is the January selection. We’ll be holding a Zoom on the evening of January 27th during which I’ll chat about the book and interact with readers. You’re invited!

Here are the most frequently asked questions I’ve received and my answers:

• “Is it free to take part in the challenge?” YES.
• “I see that Uneasy Street is book #3 in a series. Do I have to read books 1 &2 first?” Via my series, I enjoy writing connected books about family members or friends and returning to the same setting over and over. However, each of my novels (including Uneasy Street) stands alone. This particular series is about brothers. So book 1 and 2 tell the story and romances of the oldest and middle brother. Uneasy Street is about the youngest brother. He and his heroine have their own, independent plot line and love story. But the brothers and heroines and other characters from the earlier books do make an appearance.
• “Is it fine to skip the Zoom meetings?” Absolutely! Tailor the challenge to suit you. If you’re not a Zoom meeting type of person, simply read the book of the month. Or read + take part in the Facebook group. Many of the selected books are latter books in a series because we chose the authors’ most recent book for the challenge. But if you hesitate to jump into a series with a latter book, my suggestion is to read book 1 of that author’s series instead.
• “Where do I sign up?” Here! Signing up is important because then you’ll receive occasional emails with the information you’ll need (including info about how to attend the Zoom meetings) as we progress through the year.

Regardless of whether you’re taking part in this challenge or not, I’m wishing ALL of us a year of wonderful books in 2026! Did you set a goal for how many books you’d like to read this year?