Does your creativity need a jump start? Give this a try.

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My family just returned from a short camping trip. Only 48 hours at a Pennsylvania state park campsite. Though I didn’t consider our destination to be too far off the beaten path, we did not have cell phone service. What a blessing!

If your creativity is waning, you feel stuck, overwhelmed, or discouraged, I recommend unplugging and soaking in the natural beauty of God’s creation. After two days without pinging notifications or time wasted staring at a screen, my gratitude, optimism, and creative well are replenished. (Mostly. It was, after all, only two days.)

Below is a photo one of the 19 waterfalls we hiked to in Ricketts Glen State Park. What a gift that the master Creator allow us to participate in a small way in His creativity through our writing.

I hope that you make time to unplug and refill your creative well this summer, and, if you’re able, I hope that includes next month’s live conference.

Carolyn Astfalk
President

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Catholic Writers Conference Live:
Have you registered yet?
There is still time to register for our 2022 live conference held in conjunction with Catholic Marketing Network’s Momentum ’22. All the details are available at our website, including a schedule and Conference FAQ.If you’re on the fence, I sadly can’t solve problems related to inflation or the cost of fuel. However, I can assure you that your attendance will be worthwhile. Our team of volunteers has scheduled a wide array of informative sessions and panels, opportunities for networking, and pitch sessions with Catholic publishers. We haven’t had the pleasure of meeting like this since 2019, and I can sense the excitement of our attendees!

Questions? We’ve tried to anticipate those.
Registration is being handled through the Catholic Marketing Network. When you register, remember to click on “Catholic Writers Guild Track.” This is the only way for CMN to properly credit the Guild for its registrations, which help to cover our expenses.

Already registered? Here’s what you need to know.

This conference doesn’t happen without volunteer power. We need your help. No experience necessary.

Our remaining needs:

  • Presenter’s aide to introduce Tony Kolenc’s ever-popular session “Legal Issues for Writers.”
  • Pitch session assistants (2) to help move people through the process.
  • Trade Show Booth staff. This is a golden opportunity to meet those strolling the trade show floor: bookstore owners, publishers, creators, and more.
Current members who serve at least six hours will receive reimbursement for the conference fee after August 1. If you can’t serve for a full six hours but still want to help, your assistance is most welcome. Sign up today to volunteer.
Meals with Mentors, Pitch Sessions
Registrants should receive an email from Amy Cattapan to sign up for Meals with Mentors programs and pitch sessions.

Please be patient as it may take up to a week for assignments to be made.

 

Member Seal of Approval Book Display

Has a book of yours received the Seal of Approval since last year’s mini-conference? If your book received the Seal of Approval (or an Impirimatur) in the second half of 2021 or the first half of 2022, it is eligible to be displayed at the Guild’s trade show booth.

If you’d like your book to be displayed, please send a single copy to Amy Cattapan at PO Box 447, Prospect Heights, IL 60070.

Please be sure to note that the book is for the Guild’s display table.

Want to share a room or a ride?

Check your copy of the member newsletter for links to our Room Share and Ride Share interest forms and lists of members looking to share! If you didn’t receive a copy of this month’s newsletter, check your spam and updates folders of your email before contacting president@catholicwritersguild.com

If you are unable to attend, please share news about the conference with your Catholic writer friends via email, social media, or word of mouth. This conference is very reasonably priced and not only does it benefit members, but it also helps raise the Guild’s profile and increase its membership.

A final note. I will not be attending this year’s conference. Do I think the president should be there? Yes, I do.

However, I’m still in that season of mom life where I have young children that need supervision, work schedules to juggle, and a tight budget. My limited ability to travel played heavily in my hesitancy to accept the presidency.

I will sincerely miss being at the conference as I’ve found the three conferences I’ve attended to be an absolute delight, both in helping me to grow as a writer and in meeting so many truly wonderful members of the Guild. Please do not take my absence as an indication of the value of this event.

Our officers will be represented capably by Vice President Barb Szyszkiewicz and Treasurer Cesar Chacon.

 

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Our Blog Has a Fresh Look
You may have noticed some changes to the Guild’s blog. For one, it’s a lot more active. If you’re subscribed, you’re seeing our members’ work in your inbox regularly. If you’re not subscribed, you can do that easily in the left margin of the page.
Second, the blog has a new look. It’s more contemporary, cleaner, comments are functioning properly, and it’s visually consistent with our website.

If you haven’t visited the blog, please do and share the articles that resonate with you.

Thank you to Katelin Cummins for all her work in revitalizing the blog and Barb Szyskiewicz for her expert assistance.

Volunteer Opportunity: Bigmarker Managers

Do you like tech and want to help the Guild? We need of a couple of volunteers to manage the Bigmarker system. (It’s as easy as Zoom.)

What you need to know:
To increase our webinar offerings, volunteers are needed for beyond the annual online conference.
Assistance is needed with setting up the online conference. (The next will be February 24-26, 2023.)
Webinar masters are paid (usually a percentage of paid registrations).
Training videos are available as well as assistance from our resident Bigmarker expert, Karina Fabian.
Interested? More questions? Ready to commit? Let us know.

Seal of Approval

The Seal of Approval application opens for the 3rd quarter on Friday, July 1, 2022 at Noon EDT. When open, you can access the Seal of Approval Application Form. Reminder: If your book has received an Imprimatur, it is ineligible for the Seal of Approval but receives all benefits associated with the Seal. More information on the Seal of Approval process.

Copyright 2022 Carolyn Astfalk

Images: (top) copyright 2022 Carolyn Astfalk, all rights reserved. All others: Catholic Writers Guild

 

Member News: All the Details You Need for 2022’s Live Conference

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Our 2022 live conference will be held in conjunction with Catholic Marketing Network’s Momentum ’22.

The only place to register for the conference is on the CMN website. The MOST IMPORTANT part is that you click “Catholic Writers Guild Track” when you sign up. That is how the CMN will know who is to get credit for that registration. Credit = $$$ (READ: This is how we will cover our expenses, so it is very important that you click you are interested in the Catholic Writers Guild Track!)

Schedule

View the full conference schedule.

FAQs

View answers to our most frequently asked questions about the conference.

Do you have questions that you don’t see answered at the link above? Please send them to vicepresident@catholicwritersguild.com.

Conference chairperson Amy Cattapan will answer your questions in a live session on Facebook. It’s tentatively set for Wednesday, May 4 or Wednesday, May 11 at 8:00 p.m. CT, but either way, the session will be available for viewing afterwards.

Volunteer Opportunities

You can help the Guild by volunteering at the conference. Current members who serve at least 6 hours will receive reimbursement for the conference fee after August 1. If you can’t serve for a full six hours but still want to help, your assistance is most welcome.

Sign up to volunteer.

Sponsorship

Whether or not you attend the live conference, you can support the Guild by becoming a Catholic Writers Conference Live sponsor.

Sponsors will have the option of submitting an ad (16:9 aspect ratio – think Google or PowerPoint slide size) to be included in a slideshow of sponsors shown at the beginning of each of the CWG sessions.

You can select from three levels of sponsorship:

Gold Level Sponsor – $200 (full-screen ad)
Silver Level Sponsor – $100 (half-screen ad)
Bronze Level Sponsor – $50 (quarter-screen ad)If you choose to include a horizontal image (again, think PowerPoint slide), please email it to Amanda Lauer at sponsorships@catholicwritersguild.com.

Ride and Room Sharing

The Guild has forms for ride sharing and room sharing for those planning to attend the conference. If you’d like to share costs with fellow Guildies by carpooling or sharing a hotel room, complete the forms linked in the member newsletter dated May 1, 2022, and then contact other members by email to make final arrangements.

If you missed the newsletter, check your spam folder as well as your updates and promotions folders before emailing vicepresident@catholicwritersguild.com.

Copyright 2022 Barb Szyszkiewicz

CWG Member News March 2022: Opportunities Galore!

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We’ve been gearing up to revive some activities that have fallen by the wayside, asking you to prayerfully consider where you can pitch in. This month, we have some concrete opportunities. Please read on for details.

I pray that despite the many distractions and crises in our world, these grace-filled weeks of Lent bring you closer to our suffering Savior.

Carolyn Astfalk
President

[Editor’s note: email addresses and links to members-only forms are included in the newsletter sent to all CWG members. If you did not receive your newsletter, which was sent on March 10, first check your spam folder before emailing president@catholicwritersguild.com.]

By Popular Request

There was great interest at the online conference in a listing of members and their websites, podcasts, and social media. This will help our members connect, share ideas, and promote each other’s work. We’ll provide access to a spreadsheet with this information in our next newsletter. Please fill in the members-only Google form linked in the March newsletter if you’d like to participate.

Showcase Your Writing

Write for the CWG blog! We’d love to revive the blog as a showcase of member writing. We have a survey for members who would like to help with this project as a monthly writer and/or editor. We’re also seeking blog committee members. Please fill in the members-only form linked in the March newsletter, and our CWG blog project manager, Katelin Cummins, will be in touch.

Social Media Help Wanted

We could really use a volunteer or two to assist with social meda. Currently we have a presence on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and MeWe. We also have some software to help with certain social media scheduling. We’d like to post about twice per week, plus engage with our followers. Interested? Contact information is available in the March newsletter.

 

Testimonials Wanted!

Would you like to share a brief (max 25 words) testimonial like the one above about the Catholic Writers Guild for our social media promotion? This could be a general testimonial or something about our conferences, awards, Seal of Approval, critique groups, or other activities. Contact information is available in the March newsletter.

CWCO Wrap-up

Our pitch sessions were a great success! To clarify last month’s update: Twenty-seven pitches resulted in manuscript requests. An additional eleven pitches sparked some interest that may result in a later request. Thanks to all of those who coordinated and participated! If you attended the conference, you should have received email links to the recorded sessions. If you did not, please let Carolyn know.

Ohio Writers: Let’s Start a New Chapter

We’re looking for writers interested in starting a Catholic Writers Guild Chapter in the Cincinnati/Dayton Area. Contact information is available in the March newsletter.

Catholic Writers Conference Live 2022

Mark your calendar and make your reservations! Our live conference returns this year, held in conjunction with Catholic Marketing Network’s Momentum 2022 July 25-28, 2022 in Schaumburg, Illinois (same location as last year). Would you take a couple of minutes to fill our this interest survey? It will help immensely with the planning for the event. Thank you!

From the President’s Desk – January 23, 2015

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photo copyright 2014 Ellen Gable Hrkach

photo copyright 2014 Ellen Gable Hrkach

Happy New Year to all new and long-time members of the Catholic Writers Guild!

For the past month, I’ve been busy sending out invoices to members who are not on auto-renew through PayPal. Many of these emails are coming back as undeliverable. To ensure that we have your most up-to-date email address, could you please send it to me: president(at)catholicwritersguild(dot)com.

If you haven’t paid in a while, you should have already received an invoice by now. The dues have increased to $40 a year for those of you who are not paying automatically through PayPal. If you haven’t received an invoice, we may not have your most recent email address.

Are you on Facebook? Please ask to be added to our members-only Facebook group! Lots going on there!

As always, we have a few volunteer positions opening up. The Catholic Arts and Letters Award committee and the Catholic Book News committee are in need of volunteers. We may also have an opening on the Seal of Approval committee within the next month or so. If you are interested in any of these positions, please contact me at the email above.

In personal news, today is my fourth son’s 19th birthday. A child’s birthday is always something to celebrate. When it comes to my two youngest sons’ birthdays, however, I always feel a special joy in my heart because we were told (ordered!) not to get pregnant after I nearly died from complications of an ectopic (tubal) pregnancy when my third son was 10 months old. In fact, one of the doctors strongly urged me to have my remaining tube “tied.” I refused. As faithful Catholics, my husband and I have only ever used natural family planning to avoid pregnancy. The decision to be open to having more children was not one that my husband and I made lightly, but it is a decision that we have never regretted. Read more about it here in a blog post from 2011. (And this post might be especially pertinent given Pope Francis’ recent statements on Responsible Parenthood…)

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

Ad Jesum per Mariam,

Ellen Gable Hrkach
President

From the President’s Desk – Election News

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iStock image

iStock image

As an American living in Canada, I have always enjoyed celebrating both Canadian Thanksgiving (Columbus Day weekend) and American Thanksgiving in November. It’s a chance to spend time with family and indulge in turkey, stuffing, pumpkin pie, and all that comes with a big dinner. It’s an opportunity to give thanks twice for all the blessings in our lives.

Speaking of blessings, I feel especially grateful to be part of the Catholic Writers Guild. As I was telling someone recently, I believe that the Guild is responsible for any success I have had as a writer and author. The overwhelming benefits of Guild membership convinced me to want to give back, so I joined the CWG Board in 2010 and currently serve as the President. However, as a democratic organization, we still need to hold elections.

Most of the members of our current board are willing to remain in our current positions. Don Mulcare will be running for Committee Coordinator (replacing Karina Fabian).

Here is Don’s short biography: Donald J. Mulcare, PhD, Biology Professor Emeritus retired from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth in 2003. During his university career he participated in the American Society of Zoologists and the Society for Developmental Biology. He served as the founding president of the UMD Club/Chapter of Sigma Xi and twice represented the university as a delegate to the national meeting. He directed the Gerontology programs and represented the university as a delegate to the Association for Gerontology in Higher Education. He moderated the Newman Lecture Series and co-chaired the Premedical Advisory Committee. Upon retirement, he taught in two Catholic high schools for a total of six years. Don currently contributes to the CWG Blog. His website is: https://dmulcare.wordpress.com/

The other candidates are all current board members:

Ellen Gable Hrkach – President
Jennifer Fitz – Vice-President
Ann Lewis – Treasurer
Dave Law – Secretary

If you are a member of the CWG, we will soon be sending you a link to the polls.  Please vote anytime before November 30, 2013.

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

In Jesus and Mary,

Ellen Gable Hrkach
President, CWG

CWG Interim Website Up and Running

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Dear members,

As you know, we have had some difficulty with our site over the past week. It was hacked, and we were unable to restore the previous system.

While our new site is being developed, we have launched in interim site (thanks to Secretary and Master Programmer, Dave Law – THANK YOU, DAVE!).

The problem – while your username will not change, your password will no longer work on this interim system. Therefore, we’d like to ask you to do the following.

Go to this URL:

http://www.catholicwritersguild.com/forum/

Click the “forgot my password” link. Put in your email address associated with your account. The system will send you a confirmation. After clicking the link in the confirmation, you will be given a password you can use to login. Return to the link above and login with the new password. At which point, you’ll be able to reset your password to something you can remember.

Thank you for understanding. If you have any questions, you can email us at
info at catholicwritersguild.com .

Thanks and God bless you!
–Ann Lewis

Seal of Approval 3rd Quarter 2013 Notice

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We will NOT be accepting Seal of Approval applications for 3rd Quarter 2013.

In the last six months, we have lost two volunteers on the Seal of Approval Committee. In addition, we’ve been experiencing an increase in submissions.

We’re working on restructuring the back end. We have put a few things in place, including a limit on the number of titles an author can submit each quarter as well as a limit to the total number of submissions we’ll accept. We’ll be employing a waiting list in the future.

If you’re interested in being an evaluator for the Seal of Approval process, we’d love to have you. Evaluating includes:

  • Reading at least one book a quarter;
  • Determining whether a book is appropriate to be sold in a Catholic bookstore;
  • Determining whether a book has earned the Seal based on being true to the teachings of the Magisterium;
  • Assessing whether a book needs further editing to bear the Catholic Writers Guild Seal of Approval; and
  • Completing the SOA Evaluation form and submitting it by the deadline stated to evaluators.

The purpose of the Catholic Writers Guild Seal of Approval is to help Catholic bookstores and venues in their determination of the Catholicity of a work. This reassurance from a professional organization can assist authors in marketing and promoting their works to Catholic bookstores.

For more information, feel free to contact me directly. I’m going to be contacting a few people personally to try and flesh out the committee vacancies before 4th Quarter submissions begin in September. I will also be contacting the current evaluators to touch base and make sure we’re all on the same page with expectations.

Thanks for your support and prayers!

2013 Catholic Writers Conference Online CANCELED

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2012 proved to be a difficult year for many of us, and we’re sorry to have to begin 2013 on such a sad note.  Circumstances beyond our control have caused us to cancel the Catholic Writers Conference Online, which was scheduled for March 4-15.  It was a combination of several factors, and not a decision reached lightly.  We had high hopes for this conference and some wonderful workshops planned, but alas, it was not meant to be.

We’d like to thank the generous people who volunteered to present and moderate at CWCO in March; it is through no fault of yours that the conference faltered this year.

In the meantime, we are still going ahead with the writers’ retreat October 13-17, 2013, at St. Francis Retreat Center, Dewitt MI.  The speakers will be Michelle Buckman, Al Kresta, Father Matthias Thelen, David Krajewski.  We are not sure of the fee yet, but will keep you informed.

In addition, we are also holding the Catholic Writers’ Conference Live on August 7-9, 2013 – Garden State Exhibition Center, Somerset, NJ.  We are in need of presenters, and thanks to a generous contribution, are able to pay small stipends to speakers this year.  Please contact Ann Lewis at treasurer(at)catholicwritersguild.com if interested.  We will also need volunteers, and as always, will provide hotel rooms and free admission.

New Evangelizers Blog Seeking Catholic Bloggers

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I’m writing today to ask you if you might be interested in writing for the New Evangelizers blog.

We’re trying to put together a team of writers/bloggers to write about the New Evangelization and build up both the content and the audience at New Evangelizers. Our goal is to have someone writing

In the event that you are interested, I’m including the guidelines below.

Please pray about it and let me know if you might be interested in it. Please feel free to share this information with anyone who you know who might be interested, to share it on your blogs and social networks, and to send anyone who’s interested my way.

That said, here’s the caveat: I’m offline next week due to family travel. (Smile, wouldja? It’s likely to be a hilarious picture.) So if you don’t hear back from me in a timely manner, know that I will do my best when I return (and maybe even from my iPad while I’m hiding in a bathroom in a rest stop somewhere, but you DID NOT hear that from me).

Many blessings and thanks!

New Evangelizers Blog Writers Guidelines:

Thank you for being willing to be part of the New Evanglizers blog writing team! We ask that you keep your writing 100% in line with the teachings of the Church. Unfortunately, we aren’t able to pay for submissions, but will be happy to work with you to promote your work and writing projects.

Items we need to get started:

1.  Your first two column submissions sent to Sarah Reinhard at blog@snoringscholar.com – you can send them as Word docs or within the body of an email. Please include “New Evangelizers submissions” in the subject line. If you have images, please attach those separately (not in the body of the doc).

Column/post guidelines:

  • Word count of less than 2000 words. The average blog post is around 500 words, but can be shorter (Sarah has been averaging 300 words with her weekly posts).
  • Feel free to be personable, but please only write things that somehow tie into New Evangelization and specifically with ideas of how to Know Your Faith, Live Your Faith, and Share Your Faith (which is the motto of New Evangelizers).
  • Your writings may also tie into any of the other missions of New Evangelizers (Rosary Army, Total Consecration, Promote Catholicism, That Catholic Show, The Catholics Next Door), but with an emphasis on how those things tie into New Evangelization (for example, Rosary Army and Total Consecration help people develop better spirituality (Know and Live Your Faith), etc.
  • Please note, you must have full permissions to use any images you want attached to your entries.  These can be royalty-free photos or your own originals, but you need to procure permissions for images that will be included with your blog entry.

2.  A digital author photo

3.  A brief bio paragraph – this will appear at the bottom of your columns, so please include any links, projects you would like to promote, etc.

4.  Your scheduling preference: weekly, biweekly, or monthly. When you give me your submission schedule preference, I will assign you dates on our publication calendar and notify you of your schedule. We ask that you submit your contribution the week prior to your scheduled run date or notify me that you will be unable to submit by that deadline. This helps me with planning and balancing content on the website.

5.  Contact information, including your mailing address and a telephone number.  This will remain confidential and is for internal New Evangelizers purposes only.

6. Facebook Page – We are working on getting our Facebook page active. Please go to https://www.facebook.com/NewEvangelizers and “like” the page so that you can be tagged and mentioned in posts on the Facebook page.

Submission Guidelines & Procedures:

Send your New Evangelizers submissions 1 week prior to your scheduled run date to Sarah Reinhard with “New Evangelization submission” in your subject line.

If you can’t make your scheduled slot, please notify us. This helps with planning and balancing content on the website.

Please let us know if you have any additional questions – we look forward to getting to know you and sharing your writing!

What’s New, CWG?

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Hi all!  A little late with this because my life has been busy!  The great news is, the Guild has been busy, too!  We’ve been going strong with several of our projects, and a couple that have been on hold took off this month.  Here’s the scoop:

Catholic Writers Conference-LIVE: Arlington, TX, Aug 29-31 (http://catholicwritersconference.com/index.php):  Are you going?  It will be an awesome time, as usual.  In addition to the workshops on writing, the opportunity to promote your work to publishers and bookstores on the events floor, and the in-person pitch sessions, we have secured a special deal with SPQN!  They are having their conference next door to ours, and for an extra $25, you can attend their Friday workshops on blogging.

Ann Lewis still needs some volunteers to help her out.  Contact her at president(at)catholicwritersguild.com.

The Catholic Arts and Letters Award:  We hope eventually this award, also known as the CALA or the Lilly, will become the premier award for Catholic writing.  After a small start, we had to put it on hiatus for a year because of lack of volunteers to help out.  (Folks—we need you!)  However, Michelle Buckman has courageously taken it on, and is gearing up to do an award in 2013 for books published in 2011 and 2012.

In addition to fiction, the 2013 award will have nonfiction categories.  We’re tentatively thinking theology, devotionals, biographies and self-help/misc.  We may also be able to offer a cash prize to the winner—someone has offered a grant, and we are talking with that person about details.

IMPORTANT NOTE FOR THOSE WHO MIGHT ENTER:  You must have an Imprimatur or the CWG Seal of Approval to qualify.  That means if your book is published in late 2012, you must get the manuscript approved (if you are a member) or the book submitted no later than Jan 2013 to the CWG committee.  There will be no exceptions!

Right now, we have a committee of three and could use some more folks to help.  Of special need are a couple of people to receive and distribute the books to the judges (CWG will pay for postage), and folks to help promote in conjunction with the publicity committee.  Please e-mail MichellePBuckman(at)gmail.com if you can help.

Catholic Writers’ Retreat:  April 19-23, Indianapolis, IN:  Things are looking good as far as getting a grant to help us keep the costs down on this.  We’re putting a down payment on the Our Lady of Fatima Retreat House in order to hold the dates.  Mark your calendar!

Steady as she goes…

Catholic Writers Conference Online: March 4-13, (http://catholicwritersconference.com/index.php).  We’re already lining up presenters and publishers.  If you know someone who could do a workshop (or want to do one, yourself), contact Laura Lowder at laura.lowder(at)gmail.com

Blog:  If you’re here, you know it’s awesome.  However, it’s getting BIG!  Jennifer would like someone to help her with the tech side of wordpress to make sure it doesn’t get out of hand.

Note for Paying Members Only:  We are taking poetry submissions for the blog.  No pay, just credit, and do remember that publishing on a blog does count as publication to some magazines.  If interested, send your submission and a short bio to:  poems(at)catholicwritersguild.com.  If you can devote an couple of hours a month to tweaking and some simple tasks, e-mail her at blog(at)catholicwritersguild.com

Seal of Approval:  We’re in our second quarterly cycle, and things are running smoothly.  Please note that we have a new PO Box for sending hardcopy books to.

CWG Book news:  We send out a monthly newsletter to bookstores and interested readers.  We’d like to expand this list.  If you know any stores, libraries, schools, etc. that might be interested in learning about new Catholic books, please send a note to Ellen Hrkach at vicepresident(at)catholicwritersguild.com

CWG newsletter:  Maria is always looking for new writers!  She especially wants some help with book reviews, the saints column, and news.  Please contact her at mariarr(at)comcast.net

 

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