Author Karen Kingsbury has reached the top of the April 15 New York Times Trade Fiction list for the first time—and character Bailey Flanigan from her latest best-selling series helped put her there. Loving, the final installment of the “Bailey Flanigan” series debuted on the list at No. 1, tracking sales for the week ending March 31.

Kingsbury said she is “beyond grateful to my reader friends and my team at Zondervan, along with my agent Rick Christian for their belief in me and for their work on seeing Loving hit No. 1. But more than anything, I am grateful to God. This doesn't happen outside His moving mountains to make it possible.”

Tracy Danz, vice president and publisher of trade books at Zondervan, which published the series, said: “Having Karen reach the No. 1 spot on the New York Times best-seller list has been a significant goal at Zondervan. We are very blessed for this achievement and to share Karen’s strong message of faith and hope.”

In July, Zondervan is slated to release the stand-alone work Coming Home, in which Kingsbury concludes the saga of the Baxter family. Hailed as the “Queen of Christian Fiction” by TIME magazine, the author has more than 20 million books in print.

Another Christian fiction author received accolades at the RT (Romantic Times) Booklovers Convention, held April 11-15 in Chicago. RT Book Reviews magazine awarded Melody Carlson the distinction of the 2011 Career Achievement Award for Inspirational Fiction.

Among Carlson's next books are The Best Friend, a Young Adult title from Revell/Baker Publishing Group, and River's End, the conclusion of "The Inn at Shining Water" series from Abingdon Press.

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