Submit your personal details and upload your story or poem using the form below.

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User Sign Up Page

You will receive more information about how to actually access the workshop in the couple of days before the workshop begins.

In order to complete your registration, please submit your payment using the button below.  After that, the third and final step requires that you sign up for a user account at the academy interface where we host the course.  We will manually add you to the course after that- do not pay again!

$49.00

Enrollment deadline: Feb. 17th, 2012.

Cost for the intensive four week course: $49.95.

Participants will receive a FREE copy of the ACM 2011 Short Story Winner’s Anthology!

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Scroll down for details about our workshop. Submit this form to register for the workshop and then be sure to submit your payment on the page you are forwarded to. (Just need to pay? Click here)

Cost for the intensive four week course: $49.95.

Workshop is held online through the Athanatos Online Apologetics Academy.

To further ACM’s mission to encourage and support Christian authors in their quest to promote Christianity through the written word, contest judge Debbie Thompson leads quarterly online writing workshops with Christian authors in mind.

Debbie Thompson is a book reviewer for Northwestern Publishing House and Christian Book Club leader. A graduate with a BA from Concordia College, Ann Arbor she is the mother of two home school graduates. She is a judge for ACM’s writing contest and a volunteer staffer and a Writing and Homeschool Coach. Email her: debbie@athanatosministries.org

Other workshops Debbie has led in the past: Writing/Logic connection, The Reader’s Journal Approach to Writing and Thinking, Writing with Young Children

Topics to be covered in this workshop:

• Implicit and Explicit Christian themes
• Characteristics of the Short Story
• Good Beginnings
• Good Endings
• The plot
• Editing and review
• Discussion of this year’s winners
• Building your ability to write
• Analysis of ACM Christian Writing Contest’s winners.

ACM reserves the right to cancel an event if it deems necessary (ie, a minimum participation threshold is not reached) and will refund the workshop fee if this happens. To date, however, this has not happened.

To register for a workshop, please begin by using the form above. You will be forwarded to the payment page. Then, a few days before the course begins you will receive further instruction on how to attend the course.

Recommendations from past students:

I have only good things to say about this course. I have been inspired, energized and taught by all the exercises and interactions. It was a GREAT value for the money! I’m thrilled to pieces that I signed up. The fee made it accessible to me. I’m not sure I would have signed up if it had been more expensive, which is often a problem for many people. But I got so much more than my money’s worth! I’m not exaggerating in the least when I say that this course has changed my life for the better!

At first, when I read the outline for the class, I wasn’t sure why each of the lessons had been selected. But as I did the lessons, their importance became obvious to me. I also appreciated the book recommendations and the poetry and quotes that Debbie worked into the lessons. The course was fluid enough and the instructor kind and learned enough, that the course was tailored to the students’ needs as she got to know us.

I generally spent the better part of one day a week doing the lessons. I’m not sure if that’s because I relished them so much, I’m just particularly slow, or if there really was that much material involved. But I certainly didn’t object to the time commitment. I can see how someone working a fulltime job outside the home might have difficulty with that amount of material though.

I’m going to miss participating in this course very much. I hope that we can stay in touch. It will mean a great deal to me!

Lynn B., Escondido,CA

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect when I signed up for an online writing workshop, and wasn’t sure if I was going to get the back-and-forth that comes naturally in the classroom setting. This workshop by far surpassed every expectation I had! I enjoyed getting to know the instructor and participants while in the chat room, and the topics covered seemed to be just what I needed at any given time.

I was a little overwhelmed at first with all the assignments, but later realized this was the kind of experience that could be taken at whatever pace was chosen by the participant. Juggling a full-time job along with participating in the workshop proved to be entirely doable, and I never felt like I was failing to get things done, even when I didn’t finish an assignment before the due date.

It was great having someone look at something I had written, and give an honest opinion of both the writing style, as well as thee theology behind it. If I had the opportunity to take this class again, I would definitely take it!

Andy B., Hutchinson, KS

The Athanatos short story writing workshop clarified my beliefs about Christian fiction. First, we Christians have something important to say to a confused and wandering culture. Second, fiction provides a medium that can get the message past the defenses of the resisting heart. Third, the body of Christ should give serious attention to the craft of fiction in order to do a more effective job. The workshop provided inspiring examples, good instruction and supportive discussion. The proof of the pudding: I’ve written two short stories since I participated earlier this year.

David S., Deep Gap, NC.

That said, certain parameters and boundaries are expected.  ‘Mere Christianity’ does not mean ‘Free for All.’

• We expect all entrants to this contest to believe and accept the following:
• God exists, and is Triune in nature.
• Jesus is God incarnate.
• Salvation is not something we can gain by our own works.
• The set of documents of the Christian Scriptures commonly known as the Old and New Testaments provide all that is definitive and necessary for the Christian faith.
• The Nicene and  The Apostle’s Creeds are true expressions of the Christian faith.  (The other ‘ecumenical’ creed, the Athanasian creed, explicitly details the doctrine of the Trinity, which was already mentioned above).

It is our expectation that every person entering the contest will believe the forgoing and will endeavor to further the Christian faith as understood and transmitted for nearly two thousand years.  When you enter the contest, you will be asked if you agree to this minimal statement of faith.

On this page we have posted both the second round entrants and the third round semi-finalists.   We began with about 50 entries and out of these chose those for further consideration.  Out of that second round, we chose our third round authors.  ACM will be spending the next few months working with our semi-finalists to put their story in its best possible form.

They will then submit their story to ACM’s Executive Director, Anthony Horvath, who will make the final decision on who will earn the first and second prizes… and possibly extend offers to publish.  (Last year’s grand prize winner was in fact extended such an offer!)

If you submitted a story this year and your name is NOT on the forthcoming lists, you can e-mail Debbie Thompson directly at debbie@athanatosministries.org to request your feedback. Note: we will NOT send you your feedback without your explicit request for it. Please be patient with her, as there may be many requests coming in within a very short time period.

In no particular order…

(Third Round) Semi-Finalists:

• Varney, Conviction
• Kelly, Servants of the King
• Heinze, A Season’s End
• Elkins, Life Unworthy of Life
• Morrow, The Devil’s Choir
• Noe, Out of Darkness
• Eller, The Chair

(Second Round)

• Davis, Pieces
• Eller, The Chair
• Elkins, Life Unworthy of Life
• Fergussen, Flies in a Window
• Froese, This side of Russia
• Heinze, A Season’s End
• Kelly, Servants of the King
• Morrow, The Devil’s Choir
• Noe, Out of Darkness
• Ursey, Book of Souls
• Varney, Conviction

“Those Chickens…”

on Kindle

On Amazon (print)

2010

“Swimming Blind”

on Kindle

On Amazon (print)

2011

“Reading Wine”

on Kindle

On Amazon (print)

1. Story Craft is a book about writing as a Christian and comes highly recommended.

2. Richard Dawkins, Antony Flew, and Mother Teresa Go to Heaven is a collection of short stories written by Anthony Horvath, the Executive Director of Athanatos Christian Ministries- the host of this contest. Apart from reading past winners of the contest, there aren’t many better ways to get an edge on what this contest is looking for! (this is a Kindle / Nook title only. See also this collection, too.)

3. A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O’Conner. This classic collection of short stories pushes the envelop in Christian fiction. You may not like her style, but every Christian author should be familiar with her writing.

4. The Great Divorce by C. S. Lewis. This novella is counted by many Lewis fans one of his best. It is an imaginative exploration of hell and a good example of using fiction to present and explain difficult concepts.

5. Reading Between the Lines by Dr. Gene Edward Veith. Another thorough look at the writing vocation through the perspective a Christian. Pretty meaty, but worth the time you put into it. [Kindle]

POETRY:

6.  The Art of Poetry by Christine Perrin.

7.  By Request Only

Suggested Readings for Succeeding in this Contest
Kindle	Or Nook	On Kindle
On Kindle	No Ebook	On Kindle

Where to go from here?

Check out ACM’s….

• Home page
• Literary Apologetics.Mag literary magazine
• Online Apologetics Conference
• Back to the Writing Contest Page