Lynn H. Blackburn

Unknown Threat, Book 1 in the Defend and Protect series, is a 2021 Christy Award Finalist in the Mystery/Thriller/Suspense category. 

Y’all may need to give me a few years to adjust to this!

The Christy Awards are a big deal in the world of Christian publishing and under no circumstances was I expecting to receive this news today.

In fact, I had a very busy morning and when the announcement was made, I was fixing lunch for my kids while thinking through what we needed to accomplish this afternoon.

I didn’t know anything about it until I got a text from my friend, mentor, and fellow author Lynette Eason, congratulating me on the Christy nomination.

My eloquent reply was, “What?” 

(I know, I know. Y’all are thinking the Christy judges might want to rescind the nomination after that show of writing excellence).

Thankfully, the judges don’t see my texts. They saw a book that I cried and prayed over. That my amazing editors, Kelsey Bowen and Amy Ballor, took apart and put back together. That copyeditors and proofreaders poured over until we had a finished manuscript we could all be proud to share with my readers. 

I am humbled, thrilled, stunned, and delighted to be a Christy finalist, and I’m honored to be in the company of my fellow nominees, Carrie Stuart Parks, Lisa Harris, and Lynne Gentry as well as the stellar authors nominated in the other categories.

The Christy Award winners will be announced later this month, but I never even dared to imagine I would be in this position so this is definitely a case where it is truly an honor to be nominated! 

I want to say a huge THANK YOU to my readers who have loved Unknown Threat and have been so kind with reviews and social media posts. Y’all are the best!

And if you haven’t read Unknown Threat, now would be a great time! Seems like some folks liked it a lot. 😉 

Grace and peace,