January 2022 - Carolyn Astfalk, Author

My Review of Things Worth Dying For

Published by CAstfalk on 01/31/2022

I don’t typically share individual book reviews unless they are part of a virtual book tour/blog tour. But Things Worth Dying For, more than anything I’ve read in recent memory, was the right book at the right moment.

Things worth dying for and its flips side, things worth living for, are what it’s all about. Over the past couple of years, those things have crystallized for me. Not that my beliefs have changed, but in a messy world, painted in blacks, whites, and shades of gray, the contrast between the darkness and the light have appeared, to me at least, more stark.

Register Now for Catholic Writers Conference Online 2022

Published by CAstfalk on 01/27/2022

The Catholic Writers Conference Online is just around the corner!

Have you registered yet?

Take a look at the line-up for the conference and then get registered!

You’ll find all of the pertinent details at the link, but here are some highlights:

Amazing presentations
Daily networking sessions
Affordable fee
Pitch sessions with publishers
Special discounts for Catholic Writers Guild members and clergy/religious. (Contact me for details using the form at the very bottom of this page.)

Catholic Writers Guild 2022 Reading Challenge

Published by CAstfalk on 01/24/2022

Up for a challenge? The Catholic Writers Guild invites you to participate in its 2022 Reading Challenge. Read as many or as few books as you like in this challenge designed to have you reading Catholic books, fiction or nonfiction, in a way that expands your reading horizons without having you search for arcane titles on dusty old shelves. (Though dusting off some of the books in your personal library may be a good idea!)

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An Open Book

Published by CAstfalk on 01/05/2022

Welcome to the January 2022 edition of An Open Book, hosted both at My Scribbler’s Heart and CatholicMom.com! My husband stumbled across a book I’d given…

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The 15 Best Books I Read in 2021

Published by CAstfalk on 01/01/2022

I didn’t quite hit my Goodreads reading goal this year. I usually do. But circumstances were different this year, and that meant less reading and almost no writing. I’ve also become pickier and pickier about what I read and more and more critical, a hazard of being a writer and consuming many books.

In looking back over the 90+ books I read last year, these five-star books stood out. I didn’t double-check, but I’m fairly certain these are all 2021 releases. (Or, in the case of The Work of Our Hands, late 2020.)