First of all, the winner of the 19 and up category will be invited to present at Athanatos Christian Ministry’s online apologetics conference on evangelizing through literature and the arts! What a great opportunity for exposure!

Additionally, every winner of the contest as well as all those receiving honorable mentions will receive complimentary access to the conference.

This represents a $35 value and offers contest participants an additional chance to win awards because the conference will allow people to submit stories for consideration for the cash prize and inclusion in a monthly ezine that will be generated from the conference.

Some restrictions apply:  if you want to submit a story, you will have to pay a small payment ($10) and you do not receive the complimentary book sent out to those who attend the conference.  There is no requirement to submit your story, however, and consequently you can attend the conference for free if you like.

If you do not win in the writing contest and wish that you would have been able to take advantage of the conference’s early bird special, it is suggested that you sign up and pay for the conference now.  Then, if you win in the contest your conference registration fee will simply be refunded.  And if you don’t win, you will have received the early bird discount.

Entrants of the 2010 Christian Writing Contest are being given FREE courses at the academy. It makes sense. The writing contest is about encouraging authors to express their Christian faith through literature. The academy is designed to deepen people’s knowledge and understanding of their faith in today’s challenging climate. The two programs clearly reinforce each other.

To receive your free course:

1. Submit an entry to the writing contest- and pay for it.  Mark in the entry application that you are interested in information about the course.  (If you wish to pre-pay do you can receive the course but submit your entry later, go here)
2. Register with the Academy’s Courses page.
3. Peruse the courses being offered this Fall, 2009.
   
4. Choose one you like.  (Or more, if you submit more than one entry.)
5. Contact Anthony Horvath, the executive director, at director@athanatosministries.org and tell him which course you would like to take. At that point he will manually add you to the course.

Note that since the contest ends on Feb 15th if you are interested in the Fall 2009 academy session you may want to submit your entry sooner rather than later in order to claim your free course.  Use this link here.