Catholic Writing and Publishing – Page 30

From the President’s Desk – February 28, 2014

February 28, 2014/0 Comments/in Catholic Fiction, Catholic Writers Conference Online, Catholic Writing and Publishing, CWG Seal of Approval/by Ellen Gable Hrkach

Image from iStock

You don’t have to live in Canada to have experienced a brutal winter this year with record breaking amounts of snow and bitterly cold temperatures across the North, Midwest, South and East. Some experts say that it’s the result of the Polar Vortex. Whatever it is, I am sure of one thing: I’m ready for spring.

I’m also ready for the Catholic Writers Conference Online which will take place from March 10th to 21st. If you’ve already registered, great! If not, registration is now closed (and hopefully you can join in the fun next year). Take a look at the schedule here.

In other news…are you a self-published author? If so, have you ever heard of The Independent Author Network? I belong to IAN. They are a great resource as well as a good marketing tool for the independently published author. Starting on March 1st, they will be offering a special yearly rate, 20% discounted from their normal rate. If you’re interested, email me at fullquiverpublishing(at)gmail.com and I will give you more details (as well as a coupon code for the discount).

Have you written or contributed to at least one book? If so, your book is probably on Goodreads. Goodreads is an excellent marketing tool for both self-published and traditionally published authors. To learn more about the Goodreads Author Program, click here.

Volunteers needed! We have two positions currently open that need volunteers.

First, Sarah Reinhard, SoA Chairperson, has asked for one additional volunteer for the Seal of Approval committee (Evaluation Coordinator) whose duties are as follows:

1.Recruit evaluators by sharing the link to the Google Form
2.Follow-up to make sure evaluators have received books, are reading
3.Log denial points from submitted evaluations on current quarter’s Decline Notes document
4.Bring concerns and needs to Chair’s attention as needed

Second, the CWG blog needs a Virtual Book Tour (VBT) Coordinator, duties as follows:
1.Communicate with CWG members regarding new books and hosting them for VBT
2.Copy and paste the information for the VBT into a blog post (making sure that the books are appropriate for the blog) Note: VBT Books do NOT have to have the Seal of Approval
3.Schedule posts

If you feel called to do either of these two positions, please email me: president(at)catholicwritersguild.com

Last, but not least, my fifth book, A Subtle Grace, will be coming out on Kindle March 22nd and in paperback on April 6th. I recently received a proof copy. After years of work, it’s always very satisfying for me to hold the finished product in my hands. Special thanks to my husband for taking this cool photo of all my books (this represents ten years worth of writing, polishing, editing and nearly 500,000 words!)

photo copyright James Hrkach

As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please contact me: president(at)catholicwritersguild.com

Ellen Gable Hrkach
President, Catholic Writers Guild

In the Beginning…

February 25, 2014/6 Comments/in Catholic Writing and Publishing, Editing, Encouragement for Writers, Fiction, Novel, The Writing Life, Writing Tips and Tricks/by Leslie Lynch

"The Beginning" Road Sign with dramatic blue sky and clouds. The most important part of your novel, short story, or even nonfiction piece is the beginning.

What compels the reader to keep reading? How do you craft a beginning that doesn’t bog down, one that keeps the reader engaged?

There are several schools of thought regarding beginnings. Depending on the genre, the beginning can create a normal world (think of the movies Star Wars or The Wizard of Oz), and let the reader get to know the characters in their natural habitat. Women’s fiction and literary fiction tend to follow this style. Caution: Choose the details of the everyday life carefully, to the point of foreshadowing what’s going to come next—namely conflict. What’s at stake for the main character? In Star Wars, Han Solo saw his family facing the loss of their way of life, and peace. Dorothy, in The Wizard of Oz, engaged in a life or death battle to keep Toto.

What we tend to remember in these stories is the outrageous intergalactic characters and battle scenes of Star Wars or the Technicolor adventures on the way to Oz. Yet when one analyzes the story structure, the “black and white” ordinary life is where the story begins—and presages the main conflict in a way that amplifies the conflict when it arrives.

A different way to begin a story, common especially in suspenses, is in media res, which throws the reader into the deep end of the swimming pool along with the main character. Picture a book beginning with a young woman being snatched from a sidewalk and shoved into a van. The van speeds off—and of course the reader is going to turn the page to find out who, why, where, and what happens next??? This technique can be very effective. The author gives concise clues to setting (city or suburb, day or night, good neighborhood vs bad, etc.), characterization (she fights back or is paralyzed with fear, the snatcher and snatchee know each other and have shared history, etc.), and motivation (kidnapping vs bodyguards collecting an errant charge vs fraternity joke, etc.) without much else in the way of detail to ground the reader. It’s not for every story, though; imagine Dorothy opening the door of the house after setting down in Oz, with the story beginning in Technicolor. The event would lose much of its impact, and the subsequent conflict would lose its sizzle.

One of the most common mistakes new writers make is starting the story in the wrong place. My advice is to write it the way that makes sense to you, then come back when you’ve finished the whole thing and re-read the beginning. Chances are you’ll hit a certain paragraph where everything springs to life. That’s where your story really begins. One common suggestion is to dump the first chapter and start with the second. Personal experience: I had to dump the first three chapters of my first novel—they were that boring, even to me! But I had to write them in order to discover where the story really began. You may have to cut words, but they are never wasted; you always learn something important about your characters, even if it doesn’t end up as words in the book.

Another common mistake is to explain the characters and back story (what happened before the book started). This is called an information dump. Resist. Draw your characters clearly through their internal and present thoughts; let the reader get to know them deeply, layer by layer. What brought them to this point will be revealed in good time. Another wise bit of advice I’ve come across is to get about thirty pages into a story before disclosing back story.

Dialogue is a great way to tell a story, and the beginning is no exception. If you can incorporate dialogue at that point, do so, and make it unforgettable.

For a fun exercise, go to the library or a bookstore, or even your own shelf of well-worn favorites. Open to the first page and read the first line. Is it compelling? Intriguing? Why did you want to read more? How much information about the character, setting, motivations and tone did the author convey in those few words?

When it comes down to it, the story begins when there is a change in the main character’s life. The change can be subtle or cataclysmic, but that is the point at which you, as author, commence weaving a tale that will hold readers in thrall until the words The End.

How do you know where your book begins? Do you have a strategy for determining what the opening scene is, or who inhabits it? Please share!

What if more TV characters were Catholic?

February 20, 2014/6 Comments/in Catholic Writing and Publishing, television/by Karina Fabian

My husband and I are catching up on Arrow. For those that don’t know, this is a TV show about the comic book hero, the Green Arrow, and it’s really pretty good, with multiple complex story lines and good writing. I’ve yet to determine what draws every villain from the League of Assassins to mad scientists to Arrow’s home of Starling City, but they certainly get more than their fair share, and by that I mean, more than an entire crime-rid nations’ fare share.

Still, it makes for some good episodes, but I had to wonder, what if more characters in this show were faithful Catholics?

Last night we saw the episode where a drug lord, the Count, mixes up his designer drug with the flu shot to addict half the city. Apparently, everyone gets super-sick and in extreme pain unless they get a fix. The assistant DA gets the shot, falls ill in court and the Count kidnaps him in the ambulance. He takes him to a secret location and interrupts all the TV stations to broadcast the DA in pain to advertise the “cure,” available at your nearest gang-ridden street corner. (It’s comic-book TV. Go with it.)

After the adverting and posturing, he makes the ADA beg to get shot up with Vertigo on live TV. But what if the ADA had been Catholic?

Count: “Say you want it. Say it…”

ADA: “No. I’m giving it to God.”

Count: “Eh…what?”

ADA: “I united this pain with the wounds of Christ on behalf of those you’ve made suffer.”

Count: “You don’t have to suffer.” (Turns to the camera.) “Nobody has to suffer. Just go buy the Vertigo. Believe me.”

ADA: “I believe in one God, the Father Almighty…”

Your turn! Rewrite a scene from a TV show with a character as a Catholic and post it in the comments.

A Man Born Again: A Novel Based on the Life of St. Thomas More

February 6, 2014/2 Comments/in Catholic Writing and Publishing/by Larry Peterson

A Man Born Again: A Novel Based on the Life of St. Thomas More

by John E. Beahn

Originally published in 1954 by Bruce Publishing Co.
Re-published in 2013 by TAN Books for the TAN Legends Series

TAN Books
Charlotte, North Carolina
www.TANBooks.com

This book is absolutely mesmerizing. The author, John E. Beahn (1910-1990), has managed to somehow crawl into the mind of the great Lord Chancellor of England and, writing in the first person, chaperones him right into your presence. You meet Sir Thomas in the Tower of London where the author of “Utopia” awaits an unannounced yet obvious fate at the hands of his King, Henry VIII. Thomas, looking down from behind his prison window, has you look with him and survey the city of London below.

Just like that you are walking with Sir Thomas down Milk Street and he shows you where he was born. You pass by St. Anthony’s on Threadneedle St. and he shows you where he first went to school. Suddenly you are walking across a bridge and John More, Sir Thomas’ father, is walking with you. Thomas explains that he is being taken by his dad to Lambert Place to meet the Lord Chancellor of England, Archbishop Morton. You watch as the Archbishop accepts 12-year old Thomas as a page. Why not? Thomas is already versed in Latin and English and rhetoric and mathematics. You do notice though, that the young Thomas More is quite taken with the things of the world, more so than those esteemed by God.

Filled with a false pride at his superb intelligence and against his father’s wishes, Thomas agrees with Archbishop Morton that he should go to Oxford. His father objects and wants him to study law at New Inn. The Lord Chancellor has his way, and Thomas begins preparations to leave for Oxford. His father becomes distanced from him but Thomas does not seem to care. He is being treated as a young man of “importance” by his acquaintances and other students and even people in the street. He relishes the popularity. His climb up the ladder of success has begun and it is moving quickly. He tells you at Charterhouse that he is “determined to be a saint just like all the Carthusians.” You, as the reader, already know better but are anxious to see how his sudden “call to sanctity” develops.

You now follow along with Sir Thomas and observe as he becomes a fine lawyer and a sought after lecturer. He rejects the idea of the priesthood and marries Jane Colt, has four children, becomes widowed when Jane dies from illness, marries Alice Middleton and pursues his dream of being a writer. He does gain notoriety with his book, Utopia, and is suddenly under the watchful eye of Cardinal Wolsey and King Henry VIII.

Suffice it to say that once again the primary of the seven deadly sins, Pride, reared its ugly head and consumed the King of England. Infatuated with Anne Boleyn he wanted to divorce Catherine and marry Anne. He also wanted Pope Leo to annul his marriage to Catherine. This the Pope refused to do. In the affair known as King Henry’s “Great Matter”, the King was not about to defer to the Pope. He took over the church in England and demanded oaths of fidelity to the realm. You now travel with a humble Thomas More who confides in you that “God permitted me to sink into that blackness of spirit and to the darkness about myself. And when I could endure no more, He returned to me.” Thomas More refused to reject his faith and his church and his God. He was canonized a martyred saint on May 19, 1935 by Pope Pius XI.

One final thing, treat yourself and read this book. You might find a new friend albeit someone a bit older than you. His name is Saint Thomas More.

The HOLOCAUST—The Final Proof of the Inseparable Bond between Jews and Catholic/Christians

February 4, 2014/2 Comments/in Catholic Writing and Publishing/by Larry Peterson

January 27th marked the 69th anniversary of the liberation of the most prolific and deadly of all the Nazi death camps, Auschwitz. The day is called International Holocaust Remembrance Day. The anniversary marks the beginning of the end of the reign of unspeakable terror that had engulfed Europe and the rest of the world under the demonic leadership of Adolf Hitler and his evil minions of Nazi followers. These pride-filled followers of Lucifer managed to kill over six million Jews and close to six million others during this dark time. It is hard to comprehend the scope of such depravity and how it could have happened. For some people, having their pride fueled by the dark light of Satan’s world can be a powerful and irresistible aphrodisiac. But that dark light is rejected by many. There are those who embrace the light of God. They are the ones who spit in the face of Satan even if it means sacrificing their very lives.

The history of the Holocaust is filled with stories of those who are considered “Righteous Among Nations”. Yad Vashem is the organization authorized by the Israeli Knesset to document the history of the Jewish people of the Holocaust. This list includes non-Jews who helped their Jewish brothers and sisters to hide or escape, or to whom they just gave comfort to as their executioners approached. Many Catholics are included in the “Righteous Among Nations” including priests, brothers, nuns and lay persons.

There are so many stories of courage in the face of terrible torture and death. The “Blessed Martyrs of Nowogrodek’ were eleven nuns who volunteered to give their lives if the Nazis would spare 120 laypersons. The layperson’s names were removed from the death list and those people were sent to work camps. The Sisters were taken to an open pit on August 1, 1943, and shot dead one at a time. Pope John Paul II beatified them on on March 5, 2000. In Poland there were the “108 Martyrs of World War II”. This included three bishops, 52 priests, 26 religious men, eight women religious and nine lay people, all executed simply because they were Catholic. They were beatified by Pope John Paul II on June 13, 1999 and their feast day is on June 12.

There are so many more, people who were just like us. They had moms and dads and wives and husbands and brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles and nieces and nephews. They had hopes and dreams. They loved, they cried, were cold in winter and perspired in summer. They enjoyed picnics and Christmas and Easter. They took their children to church on Sunday morning and maybe to the park in the afternoon to feed the ducks and squirrels. They quietly embraced the dignity of their own selves, just as we all try to do.

Then “they” came. The “other” people. The ones in power. The ones who had the “law” on their side and were willing to carry it out no matter how heinous; willing to carry out their “orders” even if those orders meant committing torture and murder under the “rule of law”. There were thousands of recruits ready and willing to do this evil. How could this be? It can be because Satan is a powerful force and his Creator, our God, in His perfection cannot tamper with the free-will He has given to us. Consequently, some willingly embrace evil. Others embrace the God of Love and spit in the face of evil. The word used to describe this is “choices”.

There are so many people who were Holocaust victims and are now considered “Righteous Among Nations”. Most of us have heard of St. Maximillian Kolbe and St. Edith Stein, who converted to Catholicism and became a nun known as Sister Theresa Benedicta. She was canonized a Saint in in 1998. There were many more and my intention is to continue presenting different people who are 20th century Catholic heroes who joined forces with their Jewish brothers and sisters to fight the evil that brought so many of them to their horrible deaths. Their lives must be told to our young people because these (and the others like them that blanket the pages of history) are the people Jesus was talking about when He said, (John 15: 13) “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends”. History does repeat itself and the young people of today seem to have scant knowledge of it. They should know so they can see. They must know so they can stand up to evil as did their relatives of the past.

As history has shown time and again, the evil that was embraced and enforced by the Nazi regime was defeated as, ultimately, is all evil. It slithered into the depths of hell and then, as is its hateful yet tempting way, resurfaced somewhere else. The ongoing war between Good and Evil will continue until the end of time. But Love can never lose and God is Love.

Building Books: Story Structure

January 28, 2014/6 Comments/in Catholic Writing and Publishing, Fiction, Novel, Writing Tips and Tricks/by Leslie Lynch

So you’ve decided to write a book! You might attack the admittedly daunting task the way I did the first time around: I started with what I thought happened first, wrote it, then what I thought happened next, wrote it, and repeated until I got to about 300 pages.

I will say now that I wish I’d had at least a rudimentary understanding of story structure before I began that project! I’m in the final edits of that story now, but it’s been a very long road, in part because I didn’t understand how to put the pieces together in order to come up with a coherent finished product.

For those of you who would like to explore mythology or screenwriting as a template, check out Christopher Vogler’s The Writers Journey website. From this link, click on the fourth item down: The Hero’s Journey, which will bring you to Vogler’s explanation of the twelve steps of The Hero’s Journey as identified by scholar Joseph Campbell. Very interesting stuff – and effective at a primal level because we humans are hard-wired to respond to story-telling.

In a similar vein, Kim Hudson’s The Virgin Promise provides a thirteen step process from a feminine point of view. I used this in my most recent work, and it fit my purposes beautifully.

However, for me, those templates, as universal as they are, are sometimes confusing, so I tend to fall back on my favorite writing coach, James Scott Bell. He simplifies the process to a beginning, a middle, and an end. (I think we all could figure that one out!)

There must be a transition from one step to another, no matter what template or format you choose. It is critical to make each transition irreversible for the character. In other words, s/he has no option to return to “normal.” S/he must move forward – and the stakes must be higher.

The first major transition will likely come about one-quarter of the way into the book, although this varies from genre to genre. Thrillers may reach the first (irrevocable) transition early in the book.

A gripping book will have a series of events to fill the middle that lead inexorably to the final transition, and each of these events will have increasing tension and higher stakes.

The final major transition will come at approximately the three-quarter mark, and will be followed by the black moment (when all appears to be lost), the climax, and the resolution (end).

A good exercise is to take a paperback book and analyze it. Identify the first transition, the ratcheting of higher tension, the final transition, black moment, climax and resolution. Mark up the pages, or use bookmarks. Do the same with a movie. (I will admit to difficulty with these sorts of exercises, because I get so caught up in the story, I forget to analyze!)

For instance, in The Wizard of Oz, the first turning point is the tornado. Up until then, life is getting more difficult for Dorothy and Toto, but she hasn’t been pushed through the door of no return. But once she’s caught up in the tornado, she can’t go back. “Normal” is no longer available to her. The middle of the book is filled with the (mis)adventures of the Cowardly Lion, Heartless Tin Man, and Brainless Scarecrow. The final turning point (in my mind; feel free to disagree!) is the audience with the Great and Wonderful Wizard of Oz – who dashes Dorothy’s hopes. The black moment comes when Toto reveals that the Wizard is just an ordinary man, and has no magic to return Dorothy to her home. The climax is Dorothy’s discovery that she’s had the power to return within her the whole time; the resolution is her joyful reunion with the people she loves. Dorothy’s character has grown, learning her own worth and appreciating that which she has taken for granted.

Identifying turning points and understanding the structure of your story provides immeasurable help in the writing of the story, whether you use a more elaborate outline or simply go with a listing of the crucial points. An added benefit is that you’ve got the bones of a synopsis; it makes writing one of those ever so much easier!

As with anything in writing, each person is different, and different methods work best for each individual. I’ve struggled with The Hero’s Journey, but found The Virgin’s Promise easier to execute. Bell’s simpler approach is perhaps a better fit for the writer who hates outlines.

How do you approach planning and structuring a manuscript? Is there a method that works for you, or one that I haven’t mentioned? Please share!

January 22, 1973: The U.S. Supreme Court Gave Birth to Twins; “Roe & Doe”

January 22, 2014/2 Comments/in Catholic Writing and Publishing/by Larry Peterson

Today the annual March for Life will take place in Washington, D.C. It is the 41st anniversary of Roe vs Wade. Thousands upon thousands of Pro-Life advocates will brave the freezing weather in defense of the unborn. Millions more across the country will gather at state capitols, cities and small towns lending their support to the most defenseless of the defenseless. The hopes and prayers of all these folks are for the High Court to overturn Roe vs. Wade. As for me, I am a”pro-life person who had an “up close and personal” experience with the miracle of life and the pain of death all on the same day. If I had harbored any doubt whatsoever about the “viability of a fetus” that doubt was vanquished forever 35 years ago.

At the beginning of the sixth month of pregnancy, our fourth child, a daughter, was stillborn. She was our child and was a gift from God. She was baptized and buried with my parents. We had prepared for the arrival, but it came earlier than expected. No matter, she was a real person who lived and died. Her name is on a tombstone. It is Theresa Mary. Her birthday and date of death were Sept 6, 1978. She was not simply a “fetus”. She was not “products of conception”. She was not an “annoyance”, an extra pair of shoes to worry about, or another “sleepless night”. She did not mean less money in the bank. No, Theresa Mary was worth far more than any of that multiplied a thousand times over. Nothing can change the fact that she did exist, albeit for the briefest of moments. In God’s world there is no “time” as we know it. HE lives in the “Eternal Now”. Theresa Mary now lives there with HIM.

I think of the millions of little people like Theresa Mary who have been put to death in a heinous fashion because they are unwanted, because they might cost money, or might interfere with a career. How many have been eradicated simply because people take no responsibility for having sex, getting pregnant, and deciding that this “thing” has to go before it “ruins” their lives. You know, having sex is NOT the same thing as breathing, eating, and sleeping. Those bodily functions are instinctive and necessary for us to live. We do NOT have to have sex to live. We won’t die if we say NO. Many people actually choose to live a life of celibacy. It is OKAY to do so. And make no mistake, none of them die from NOT doing “it”.

.January 22nd will be the 41st anniversary of the Supreme Court’s ruling known as “Roe vs Wade”. Simply put, the court, by a 7 to 2 majority, said that abortion is a citizen’s fundamental right under the United States Constitution. You are all familiar with how that ruling has torn our nation apart. What many people do not seem to be aware of is the other ruling that took place on that very same day. It provided the proverbial “double whammy” to the abortion issue. That ruling is called “Doe Vs Bolton”. Once again, it was a 7 to 2 majority vote affirming the ruling. The US Supreme Court had given birth to the “Roe & Doe” twins. The ruling in the “Doe Vs Bolton” case is summed up here:

The Court’s opinion in Doe v. Bolton stated that a woman may obtain an abortion after viability, if necessary to protect her health. The Court defined “health” as follows:

“

Whether, in the words of the Georgia statute, “an abortion is necessary” is a professional judgment that the Georgia physician will be called upon to make routinely. We agree with the District Court, 319 F. Supp., at 1058, that the medical judgment may be exercised in the light of all factors – physical, emotional, psychological, familial, and the woman’s age – relevant to the well-being of the patient. All these factors may relate to health.

Amazing as it is, if Roe vs Wade was ever overturned, Doe vs Bolton would take its place. Doe vs Bolton allows for abortion “after viability” for almost any conceivable reason. Read the excerpt above closely. According to Doe vs Bolton, an abortion could be permitted at full term because a baby’s crying might cause too much stress for someone in the house who has a psychological problem. Far fetched? Not really. Who needs Roe vs Wade when you have its twin, Doe vs Bolton? Our fight for millions of little, unseen and helpless John and Jane Does will continue. God help us today and tomorrow.

The War by the “Worldly” is Secular Abuse Against the Very Heart of Christianity

January 7, 2014/9 Comments/in Catholic Writing and Publishing/by Larry Peterson

It was a brutally cold winter night in 1839 when Jeanne Jugan brought the sick, blind, homeless woman into her home. All she wanted to do was help the poor woman. She had no agenda. She wanted nothing. She simply wanted to do what God’s graces had asked her to do, “Love her neighbor”. Jeanne never planned to have people begin to follow her example. She never dreamed that she would become the founder of an organization called the Little Sisters of the Poor. Jeanne Jugan could not in her wildest dreams foresee the order she had founded serving the elderly poor in 31 countries around the world. She must have had tears of joy streaming down her saintly face when Pope Benedict XVI canonized her in 2009.

Today she, and many others with her in the heavenly realm, must be so ashamed and saddened by the members of the secular world who, disguised in a mask of counterfeit virtue, are determined to lay waste to Christianity. Make no mistake, we Catholic/Christians are at war; and the Worldly, including many who claim to be with us, are waging this war against us. Their primary weapon is the Affordable Care Act aka “Obamacare”. Where does this weapon of mass secularity have its sights trained? Where else but on St. Jeanne Jugan’s order, The Little Sisters of the Poor. Are you kidding me? The government of the United States of America, under the control of the Worldly, is after The Little Sisters. The order must be considered an easy target because, after granting exemptions to other groups, the Worldly refused to grant an exemption to The Little Sisters of the Poor. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, an appointee of the Worldly in power, granted the Little Sisters a temporary injunction against the mandate. Undeterred in their mission of spreading their all-knowing secularity, the Worldy immediately responded and asked the court to drop the appeal. Now we wait. We wait to see if the First Amendment of the Constitution is to be upheld.

As a Catholic writer I have unexpectedly found myself blogging more and more about subjects that pertain to things “Catholic”. I never began writing with that in mind. My novel, “The Priest and the Peaches”, deals with a Catholic family and a priest but it is not considered religious. Rather, it is classified as ‘historical fiction’. My children’s book is not religious either. I had been working on the sequel to TP & TP but I have had that on hold for almost six months as I blog about things and people that pertain to my faith. I do this because our faith is under attack. When did any of us ever think we would live to see the day when out revered government would turn around and demand we violate our religious principles? Our faith does not just take place INSIDE a church. It takes place within our very hearts and minds. We are supposed to LIVE our faith and, though many of us often fail, it is our CHOICE to fail. It is no one’s business. The government of the United States of America does not belong in our “hearts and minds” the same as it does not belong inside our churches.

We, as a church, a faith community, and as individuals who are part of it and believe in it are being abused and are under attack. So, I will keep on defending the faith the best I can with the written word. We have not only the right but the obligation to defend this faith with which we have been gifted. The Little Sisters of the Poor need our written voices to ring out. So do the almost 10 million folks who are able to turn to almost 1400 charitable organizations run by the Catholic church every year. So do the people, mostly volunteers, who staff the 600,000 plus soup kitchens feeding folks everyday and distribute food from the two million food banks and pantries. There is a veritable population of “goodness and kindness and giving” spread across this entire nation who ask nothing in return for sharing their time, their hearts and their love with those less fortunate. The Worldly need to start minding their own damn business.

From the President’s Desk – Merry Christmas

December 27, 2013/1 Comment/in Catholic Writing and Publishing/by Ellen Gable Hrkach

On behalf of the Catholic Writers Guild Board, I’d like to wish every Guild member a Blessed Christmas and a Happy New Year!

It’s been an exciting and busy year for the Guild. Our membership tipped 500. We held a successful live conference in New Jersey with nearly 100 attendees. Our Seal of Approval committee evaluated 78 books, the most we’ve ever evaluated in any year since 2009. Our new Facebook group page has become quite popular. Our blog continues to receive regular posts from members.

Congratulations to all members who won awards, published a book or accomplished other writing achievements in 2013!

We have also had our share of challenges: our website was hacked and out of commission for several long days; luckily, we were able to get a temporary site going (thanks, Dave and Ann!) and we hope to have our new site up and running in the new year. We were also inundated with books for the Seal of Approval which made it necessary to shut the program down for one quarter. Our online conference had to be cancelled because of unforeseen events.

Our greatest challenge recently has been the need for more volunteers. I’ll be writing to Guild members in the coming weeks asking volunteers to step forward to help on various committees. A non-profit organization such as ours (especially one that is growing) needs many volunteers to ensure success. It is also one of the ways that we can keep our membership fee minimal.

As you celebrate this holy season with your family and friends, I ask you to keep me in prayer and I will do the same for you.

As always, please feel free to contact me if you have any concerns or questions: president(at)catholicwritersguild.com.

In Jesus and Mary,

Ellen Gable Hrkach
President, Catholic Writers Guild

A blessed Christmas Eve to all

December 24, 2013/3 Comments/in Catholic Theme, Catholic Writing and Publishing, History, Inspirational/by Leslie Lynch

Luke 2: 1-20 The Infancy Narrative

In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that the whole world should be enrolled. This was the first enrollment, when Quirinius was governor of Syria. So all went to be enrolled, each to his own town. And Joseph too went up from Galilee from the town of Nazareth to Judea, to the city of David that is called Bethlehem , because he was of the house and family of David, to be enrolled with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. While they were there, the time came for her to have her child, and she gave birth to her firstborn son. She wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

Now there were shepherds in that region living in the fields and keeping the night watch over their flock. The angel of the Lord appeared to them and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were struck with great fear. The angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For today in the city of David a savior has been born for you who is Messiah and Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was a multitude of the heavenly host with the angel, praising God and saying:

“Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”

When the angels went away from them to heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go, then, to Bethlehem to see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.” So they went in haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the infant lying in the manger. When they saw this, they made known the message that had been told them about this child. All who heard it were amazed by what had been told them by the shepherds. And Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart. Then the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, just as it had been told to them.

We, too, keep all these things, reflecting on them in our hearts, and give glory and praise to God for all we have seen and heard, just as it has been told to us.

Merry Christmas ♥