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CWG Member News: January 2023

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Guild election results, conferences, retreat, & new Heartbeat community

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January 2023

I don’t have a pretty picture for you this month, but with Saint Thomas Aquinas’ feast day coming up, this quote seemed apropos. “It is only God who creates. Man merely rearranges.”

First, it’s a great reminder that our creativity ultimately comes from God. Second, we’re doing some re-arranging lately at the Catholic Writers Guild. So, let’s get right to it.

Election Results

Thanks and congratulations to our new officers according to our election results (certified by our vice president, Barb Szyszkiewicz).

President – Carolyn Astfalk
Vice President – Barb Szyszkiewicz
Secretary – Michael Shelton
Treasurer – Cesar Chacon
Committee Coordinator – Patrice Fagnant-MacArthur

One-hundred fifty members voted in the election, and four of our five elected officers are incumbents. Welcome to Patrice Fagnant-MacArthur, the new Committee Coordinator, who has served the Guild in a variety of ways, most recently as the Author Coordinator on the Seal of Approval Committee.

Thank you to Patrick Chalmers, who so generously gave his time to the Board as Committee Coordinator in 2022. Your input and wisdom is much appreciated, Pat!

There are many roles in which you can support the Guild besides being an officer. I hope you’ll consider how you can assist the Guild, whether as a 2024 officer, supporting our events, joining a committee, blogging, or more. I’ll be listing volunteer needs in our newsletter each month.

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Catholic Writers Conference Online

February 24-26, 2023
Price: $60 non-Guild members, $40 for Guild members.

Register today!

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Save the date!

Our in-person conference is scheduled May 30 – June 1, 2023, in Chicago, Illinois, at the Holiday Inn O’Hare. This year we’re partnering with the Association of Catholic Publishers, and we look forward to this new conference adventure! Registration links, room rates, and more will be available soon. You can view the conference schedule: CatholicWritersGuild.org/live-conference.
Catholic Writers Retreat 2023!

 

Our retreat is back after a hiatus!

Member Margaret Rose Really, Obl. OSB, has graciously volunteered to coordinate a retreat set for October 9-13, 2023 at St. Francis Retreat Center in DeWitt, Michigan.

More details on theme and presenter coming soon!

 

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One of the Catholic Writers Guild’s greatest strengths, as we discovered from our informal survey in 2021, is our community. Relationships are at the heart of what we offer the Catholic writer, along with education conferences and other support for the writing craft and publishing business.

We have a lively Facebook community and a thriving Discord community. (But nary the twain shall meet.)

Additionally, many members are not active on either Facebook or Discord. Some are wary of social media or disenchanted with Facebook, where users are subject to its whims and changes. Discord is sometimes difficult for new users to access or acclimate themselves to. Both sites have various advantages and disadvantages.

In an effort to unify our membership and expand our community, the Board has decided to use Heartbeat as the place where our members meet and interact.

You can learn more about Heartbeat and what it has to offer. Our hope is that it will integrate well with our (new) website and provide a place for not only discussion threads and critique groups but events as well.

I know we’re all comfortable where we’re at. And we’re all tired of adding another app. (Even my puppy’s vet expects us to download an app!) But, I hope you’ll give Heartbeat a look. It’s fairly simply to join and navigate. Is it a perfect solution? No. Is it an improvement for our community? Yes, I think so.

We’ve started inviting our Discord members over, and, if you’re an active member, you’ll be receiving an email invitation soon. Heartbeat is accessible both from your desktop computer and by mobile app. Please take a few minutes to check things out.

(Our Facebook and Discord groups will remain operating as we all learn to navigate Heartbeat.)

Volunteer Corner

Our blog is a place where Catholic Writers Guild members can publish their articles and showcase their writing. We are looking for volunteer writers and editors to join our blog team for 2023.

We especially need editors who can edit one or more articles per month. If our team of editors grows, we will have the capacity to publish more writers.

If you are interested in writing or editing for the blog, please contact [email protected].

Thank you!

 

Seal of Approval

The Seal of Approval application opens for the 2nd quarter on Friday, April 14, 2023 at Noon EDT. Once open, you can access the Seal of Approval Application Form for 24 hours. 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.

Remaining application dates for 2023:

  • Fri., April 14
  • Fri., July 14
  • Fri., September 15
You may notice that the dates have shifted from the beginning of the month to the middle. This was done to avoid regular conflicts with New Year’s, 4th of July, and Labor Day.

Check Your Spam!

If you’re waiting on a reply from an official Guild email account (one ending in catholicwritersguild.com or catholicwritersguild.org), please be sure to check your spam or junk folder. Unfortunately, our messages have a way of ending up there.

If you’ve not received a reply to a message in a reasonable amount of time, please check your junk or spam folder before resending your message.

With rare exception, I personally reply to messages within 2-3 days, maximum.

Copyright 2023 Carolyn Astfalk

CWG Member News: November 2022

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CWG Member News: November 2022

Supporting Your Writing Season

 

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Here we are, well into fall in the northern hemisphere. The red maple tree outside my daughters’ bedroom window is beautiful, isn’t it? Especially with the Blessed Mother there in front of it.

Every season has beauty here. The brilliant white of winter, the vibrant blossoms of spring, the lush green of summer, and the colorful foliage of fall.

Every season has its beauty and its challenges, both our natural seasons and the varied seasons of our lives. Seasons of burgeoning creativity and seasons where our priorities shift. Sometimes caregiving, parenting, illness, injury, and work take the forefront.

The challenge in every season is to prioritize wisely, keeping our faith and family at the forefront. It’s okay to have seasons when writing takes a backseat. It’s also okay to make room for writing.

The Catholic Writers Guild wants to come along side you in those journeys, a unique melding of faith and your writing life. Please see below for our upcoming opportunities.

Also, it’s almost time for our annual elections! Keep an eye out for a nomination message in your inbox next week!

And finally, the Guild has signed a contract for re-branding and updating our website!  The Guild will have a new, more contemporary look, a more user-friendly website, and a new opportunity for easy member communication. (Not on Facebook? Don’t like Discord? That’s okay. We’ll make this simple.) Look for positive changes coming soon!

Carolyn Astfalk
President

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Register at CatholicWritersGuild.org/onlineconference

Social Media Spotlight

We’d like to spotlight our favorite things about the Guild or ways Guildies have helped each other! Do you have an item to share? Bonus points if you send a photo with it. Send a note about your favorite thing about the CWG to vicepresident@catholicwritersguild.com.

Seal of Approval

The Seal of Approval application opens for the 1st quarter on Monday, January 16, 2023 at Noon EDT. Once open, you can access the Seal of Approval Application Form for 24 hours. 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.

Application dates for 2023: 

  • Mon., January 16
  • Fri., April 14
  • Fri., July 14
  • Fri., September 15
You may notice that the dates have shifted from the beginning of the month to the middle. This was done to avoid regular conflicts with New Year’s, 4th of July, and Labor Day.

 

Volunteer Corner

Annual officer elections are just around the corner! Please take a few moments to consider whether you are being called to serve your fellow Catholic writers as an officer in 2023.

We’re seeking a new author coordinator for our Seal of Approval Committee. Thanks to Patrice MacArthur, who has filled this role for many years. Her service is greatly appreciated.

Patrice left a detailed description of her volunteer role, which will make it easy for a new volunteer to step into the job.

Very simply, the author coordinator prepares the spreadsheet before the start of each submission period (four times/year), communicates with submitting authors as to whether their submission has been accepted or if they are waitlisted, updates the spreadsheet to reflect new applications, and uploads book files to the appropriate folder. (Familiarity with Google Drive is helpful.)

If you’re able to take on this role, please email [email protected]. Thank you!

 

Check Your Spam!

If you’re waiting on a reply from an official Guild email account (one ending in catholicwritersguild.com or catholicwritersguild.org), please be sure to check your spam or junk folder. Unfortunately, our messages have a way of ending up there.

If you’ve not received a reply to a message in a reasonable amount of time, please checking your junk or spam folder before resending your message.

With rare exception, I personally reply to messages within 2-3 days, maximum.

Copyright 2022 Carolyn Astfalk
Photo copyright 2022 Carolyn Astfalk, all rights reserved.

Seal of Approval Now Accepting Submissions

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We’ll be accepting submissions for the Seal of Approval from April 1-30.

If you meet the qualifications below, consider applying now!

Purpose

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.

Our Process

Submission and awarding periods as follows:

  • Accepting submissions January 1-31, awarding by March 31
  • Accepting submissions April 1-30, awarding by June 30
  • Accepting submissions July 1-31, awarding by September 30
  • Accepting submissions September 1-30, awarding by November 30

Requirements

For a book to be considered for the Catholic Writers Guild Seal of Approval:

  • Book is published OR will be self-published OR book is under contract with a publisher
  • Author must be Catholic
  • Book is Catholic in nature (for fiction, this means Catholic themes and characters)
  • Book does not contradict nor disparage Catholic teaching
  • Book does not speak disparagingly of an accepted Catholic practice (such as Novus Ordo Mass or Tridentine Mass) nor give the impression that only a particular Catholic practice is the right way to salvation.
  • Book does not support heresies or New Age philosophies

One of the concerns we face as an organization is the quality of the work we stand behind. While we do reject titles when we have concerns with poor editing, there is now the opportunity for one resubmission with proof of professional editing.

We may request up to five hard copies and/or electronic copies for our evaluators.

The Seal of Approval application is here. If you are a Catholic Writers Guild member, you may apply free of charge. If you are not a Guild member, there is a processing charge.

We also need volunteer evaluators!

To be an evaluator, you have to be a member in good standing with the Catholic Writers Guild. To evaluate a book, you read the title you sign up to read and complete the evaluation form. We ask that you have some background in the Catholic faith and that you are willing to look up things that may be questionable.

All evaluations must be true and faithful to the Magisterium of the Catholic Church.

What we evaluate:

  • Is the work libelous or slanderous?
  • Does the work seek to foster hatred or conflict among individuals or groups, including racism, religious fanaticism, or anarchy?
  • Does this work contain obscenity or promote anti-Catholic views of modesty, decency in language, actions, or basic morality?
  • Does this work contain pornography?
  • Does this work promote pre-marital, extra-marital, or other non-marital sexual relationships?
  • Does this work lack respect for the reasonable privacy of others?
  • Does this work degrade the dignity of the person, including the promotion of euthanasia, abortion, homosexual actions or unions, child labor, or prostitution?
  • Does this work promote the worship of false gods?
  • Does this work attempt to draw others away from the orthodox teachings of the universal Catholic Church?
  • Does this work use others’ proposals or ideas without credit or permission?
  • Does this work present others’ work as the author’s own original ideas?
  • Does this work violate any known laws?
  • Does the author of this work belong to an association(s) or participate in activities that may compromise integrity, damage credibility, or cause scandal in the Guild’s sole determination that you are aware of? Examples include freemasonry, Catholics for a Free Choice, NAMBLA, a history of works opposed to the Guild’s values or ethics, excommunication, etc. For example, these may be stated on the book jacket or may be from your prior knowledge of the author.
  • Is this work so badly written or edited that granting the Seal of Approval would harm the reputation of the Catholic Writers Guild as a writers organization?
  • Can you see this book in your local Catholic bookstore?

We have a “theological experts team” that is on-hand to answer any issues we have with doctrinal issues.

If you’re interested, email us at SOA -a-t- catholicwritersguild.com

Meet the committee:

  • Sarah Reinhard, Fearless Chair (or Big Boss Lady, depending on the day)
  • Carol Ann Chybowski, Submissions and Evaluator Coordinator
  • Mary Gildersleeve, Awarding Coordinator

If you’re interested in learning more about the Seal of Approval, email us at SOA -at- catholicwritersguild.com.

The New and Improved Seal of Approval Process

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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.

Our process includes submission and awarding periods as follows:

  • Accepting submissions January 1-31, awarding by March 31
  • Accepting submissions April 1-30, awarding by June 30
  • Accepting submissions July 1-31, awarding by September 30
  • Accepting submissions September 1-30, awarding by November 30

These are the requirements for a book to be considered for the Catholic Writers Guild Seal of Approval:

  • Book is published OR will be self-published OR book is under contract with a publisher
  • Author must be Catholic
  • Book is Catholic in nature (for fiction, this means Catholic themes and characters)
  • Book does not contradict nor disparage Catholic teaching
  • Book does not speak disparagingly of an accepted Catholic practice (such as Novus Ordo Mass or Tridentine Mass) nor give the impression that only a particular Catholic practice is the right way to salvation.
  • Book does not support heresies or New Age philosophies

One of the concerns we face as an organization is the quality of the work we stand behind. While we do reject titles when we have concerns with poor editing, there is now the opportunity for one resubmission with proof of professional editing.

We may request up to five hard copies and/or electronic copies for our evaluators.

The Seal of Approval application is here. If you are a Catholic Writers Guild member, you may apply free of charge.

We also need a team of volunteer evaluators!

To be an evaluator, you have to be a member in good standing with the Catholic Writers Guild. To evaluate a book, you read the title you sign up to read and complete the evaluation form. We ask that you have some background in the Catholic faith and that you are willing to look up things that may be questionable.

All evaluations must be true and faithful to the Magisterium of the Catholic Church.

These are the items we consider on the evaluation:

  • Is the work libelous or slanderous?
  • Does the work seek to foster hatred or conflict among individuals or groups, including racism, religious fanaticism, or anarchy?
  • Does this work contain obscenity or promote anti-Catholic views of modesty, decency in language, actions, or basic morality?
  • Does this work contain pornography?
  • Does this work promote pre-marital, extra-marital, or nother non-marital sexual relationships?
  • Does this work lack respect for the reasonable privacy of others?
  • Does this work degrade the dignity of the person, including the promotion of euthanasia, abortion, homosexual actions or unions, child labor, or prostitution?
  • Does this work promote the worship of false gods?
  • Does this work attempt to draw others away from the orthodox teachings of the universal Catholic Church?
  • Does this work use others’ proposals or ideas without credit or permission?
  • Does this work present others’ work as the author’s own original ideas?
  • Does this work violate any known laws?
  • Does the author of this work belong to an association(s) or participate in activities that may compromise integrity, damage credibility, or cause scandal in the Guild’s sole determination that you are aware of? Examples include freemasonry, Catholics for a Free Choice, NAMBLA, a history of works opposed to the Guild’s values or ethics, excommication, etc. For example, these may be stated on the book jacket or may be from your prior knowledge of the author.
  • Is this work so badly written or edited that granting the Seal of Approval would harm the reputation of the Catholic Writers Guild as a writers organization?
  • Can you see this book in your local Catholic bookstore?

We have a “theological experts” team that is on-hand to answer any issues we have with doctrinal issues.

Meet the committee:

  • Sarah Reinhard, Fearless Chair (or Big Boss Lady, depending on the day)
  • Carol Ann Chybowski, Submissions and Evaluator Coordinator
  • Mary Gildersleeve, Awarding Coordinator

If you’re interested in learning more about the Seal of Approval, email us at SOA -at- catholicwritersguild.com.

What’s Up, CWG? (June 2011)

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Posted by CWG Secretary

Hi, Everybody!

How’s your summer going? It’s a busy one for the CWG, with preparations for the conference, the retreat, the Catholic Arts and Letters Awards and more! Read on for important updates and discussions of the June Officer Meeting:

1. Catholic Writers’ Retreat. You should have heard about this from now; if not, check out our blog post for details. We have the registration details set up and the retreat center has made us brochures for handing out at the Catholic Writers Conference Live in August. We’re looking into sending a press release via ChristianNewsWire, once we see if we get results from the press release we sent them for the CWCL. (It’s $65, and we want to be sure it’s an effective investment.) We purposely kept the price of the retreat low, but should there be any profits, they will be split between the three sponsors: the retreat center, Faith Publishing and the CWG.

2. Did you know the Guild has a Spiritual Director? Ann Lewis plans to meet with Monsignor Schaedel next month to brief him on the Guild and find out how active he wants to be in our activities. He was Ann’s pastor, but is moving parishes. We also have a representative for the Archdiocese of Indianapolis, Dr. Harry Plummer. The Archdiocese is our sponsor within the Church; for more on its role, check the bylaws.

3. We have $630 in donations toward our website. Thanks so much! The spec document should be going out in a couple of weeks to all those interested in bidding on building our new website. We’ll be putting this money in savings until we’re ready to go on with the project.

4. It was suggested in CWG Chat that we sell ad space to our website. We are making provisions for that in the upgrade, though we will probably sell the space for all three of our sites: the CWG Website, the CWG blog and the Conference Website. We will probably need some volunteers when this happens to make sure our ads are only for people or groups that conform to the Magesterium.

5. We are going to increase dues in January 2012 to $30 a year. As we’ve grown, so have our expenses; our analysis by accountant Diane Embry shows this should meet our needs.

6. Speaking of, Diane is stepping down as Guild accountant. We have a couple of bids for a new accountant and will be hiring someone in the next couple of weeks.

7. Every now and then, we have an author who disputes a decision by the Seal of Approval Committee or the Booth Committee on approving a book. (Primarily on whether we think it doesn’t conform to Catholic belief and traditions or if we do not feel comfortable recommending it to a Catholic Bookstore.) The thought of an appeals committee was discussed, but rejected for several reasons: We already have several readers making the decision, and when there is any doubt, we take it to a trusted readers’ group when the first run readers have doubts; we would be complicating a process that already overwhelms our coordinators at times; we tend to give books the benefit of a doubt, anyway; and our decisions do not carry the weight of an Imprimatur, but are a discretionary process to keep the CWG in conformity with the Magesterium. Therefore, decisions will be final, although we will consider rewrites.

8. We know that Guild members would like to have more intercommunication. Please remember that we have Facebook, and you are welcome to post there. We also have Larissa Hoffman who posts member news on the blog (see the sidebar). We have put into the website spec the provision to create a Yahoo-type e-mail chat group.

9. Dave will be writing up the committee news later, but a few highlights:

* The PR group has been doing an awesome job. Thanks so much!
* We only have ten folks signed up for the Live Conference in August. Please tell your friends. You can use the info on the press release here.
* We Need Conference Volunteers (you get free admission!) Contact laura.lowder(at)gmail.com
* We Need Some Volunteers for the CWG Chat Committee! Contact me (karina(at)fabianspace.com)
* We Need to Rebuild our Catholic Arts and Letters Committee! Contact me (karina(at)fabianspace.com)
* We Need Volunteers to Build the Catholic Writers Wiki! Right now, it’s simple clean up and uploading photos. Contact davealaw(at)shaw.ca.

Blessings,
Karina Fabian
CWG Secretary

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Eaton, IN 47338

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