January 2016 - Carolyn Astfalk, Author

What We’re Reading Wednesday

Published by CAstfalk on 01/27/2016

I had hoped to link-up with others for What We’re Reading Wednesday, only to discover the link-up is no more. If I can find enough interested bloggers, I may decide to host it myself.

So, if you’re a blogger and you think you’d like to link your own reading posts from time to time, please comment below. (Post at will, no hard and fast commitment.) I rotate my blog posts, so this feature/link-up would only run once every four-five weeks, on Wednesdays, obviously.

I would provide the schedule and set up a mail list to send you a reminder a week in advance. I hope you’ll consider joining me!

9 Comments

The Dreaded Virtue of Humility

Published by CAstfalk on 01/25/2016

Prudence, justice, fortitude . . . Who doesn’t want to attain those virtues? Temperance, the fourth of the cardinal virtues, may be less appealing, but still garners respect.

Then there’s the virtue of humility, the tempering virtue of pride.

7 Comments

Seven Quick Takes Friday

Published by CAstfalk on 01/22/2016

The Force Goes Overboard Edition

If you follow me on Instagram, you may have seen my sporadic posts of increasingly bizarre Star Wars promotions. Mostly these are random products with Star Wars packaging and absolutely no tie-in to the movies.

–1–

Apples

This one really got me. No connection here. None. And then I considered that my bananas often have Minion stickers on them. But Minions eat bananas. I’ve never noticed Darth Vader slipping an apple slice through his mask.

There are apparently other fruit tie-ins not carried by my local supermarkets. (language warning)

13 Comments

Interview with Author Quenby Olson

Published by CAstfalk on 01/18/2016

Although we live geographically close, I met Quenby Olson through an international Facebook group, 10 Minute Novelists. The more I read her work, the more impressed I am with her writing ability. I’m grateful she took the time to answer some questions for me!

Your published books and short story are so diverse. I get the sense both from your writer’s voice and your stylistic choices such as tense and point of view, that you read very widely. Am I correct, and what genre do you most enjoy reading?

I do read very widely! I remember in school (I was homeschooled) reading everything from Little Women to Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy to the latest John Grisham thriller. I also have a tendency to go through obsessive periods of reading all about a certain point in history, or the entire catalog of a single author. My favorite is probably historical, and that could be romance, non-fiction, mystery, etc. I think it’s the draw of being pulled into another time, not only another place, that I find so attractive and keeps me coming back for more.

5 Comments

#5Faves: Winter Weather

Published by CAstfalk on 01/13/2016

fivefaves

Having lived in Pennsylvania my entire life, I’ve gone trick-or-treating in the snow multiple times. I remember winters when the snow was piled higher than my head and winters in which the kids didn’t get to play in the snow once. But I can’t remember a winter in which we hadn’t had more than a few sparse flurries this far into winter. While I’ve enjoyed the warmer temps and lack of snow-related mess, there are aspects of snow that I miss.

**Within one hour of writing this post, it looked like this out my back door:

Catholic Novel Book Group Visit 2/18/16

Published by CAstfalk on 01/12/2016

I’ll be visiting the Catholic Novel Book Group hosted by the St. Patrick Council of Catholic Women in Carlisle, PA, on Thursday, February 18, 2016.…

1 Comment

How Can You Receive If You Do Not Ask?

Published by CAstfalk on 01/11/2016

I don’t take time to read the Bible as often as I should. Thank God for a four-year-old who provides me with vivid lessons to accompany the verses and stories committed to memory simply from decades of Mass attendance.

My four-year-old daughter has been extremely articulate from a very young age, but that didn’t stop her from devolving into an inarticulate, whiny hot mess recently.

She simply wanted a peacock feather on lying out of her reach on the dining room table. (Don’t ask. I’m not certain where it came from or why it was there. Last I checked, we had no peacock.)

She groped, groaned, and moaned in frustration as she reached for the feather. It was easily within my reach. She simply needed to ask.

4 Comments

Small Success Thursday

Published by CAstfalk on 01/07/2016

I needed the small successes this week. I look around me and see major, seemingly insurmountable tasks that take more time than I have available. It’s discouraging. These little successes remind me all hope is not lost.

The financial stuff caught up. Ordinarily, I sync Quicken with our online accounts each weekday. With Christmas, I got a bit behind. Come January, I had dozens of transactions to categorize. A flurry of Amazon and PayPal purchases took hours to sift through, matching the amount with the product so that I could properly account for where our money had gone. And then there were the bills. It took a full morning, but everything is paid up and all accounts are balanced.
Continue readingSmall Success Thursday

6 Comments

Month: January 2016

The Force Goes Overboard Edition

Apples

**Within one hour of writing this post, it looked like this out my back door: