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Author: CAstfalk

Carolyn Astfalk is a wife, mother, and author of contemporary Catholic romances, including her latest, All in Good Time. She formerly worked as a communications director and now works just to keep her head above water. Find her books on Amazon and her other words scattered around the blogosphere and social media.

Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep

Published by CAstfalk on 02/07/2022

I haven’t published many personal posts here in a while, so I thought I’d share something I recently wrote for Catholic Mom. Lying down with my little ones, who aren’t all so little any more, has been a great blessing – for them and for me.

So-called “nighttime parenting” gets a bad rap. I can safely say that, now that all of my children regularly sleep through the night. (My children were each at least four years old before that happened with any regularity.)

Sleep disruption, for all its annoyance and the growing bags under my eyes, is the foundation of many warm memories of snuggling a newborn at my breast, rubbing the back of a toddler awakened by a nightmare, and reading picture books to a preschooler who can’t fall back to sleep.

Some of the most honest, intimate moments I’ve shared with my children have come in nearly dark bedrooms while they lay tucked beneath the sheets, a stuffed companion or two (or more) at their side.

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My Review of Things Worth Dying For

Published by CAstfalk on 01/31/2022
Things Worth Dying For

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.

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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.)
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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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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.)

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Where Angels Pass Blog Tour

Published by CAstfalk on 12/07/2021

About the Book:

Teenager Evie Gallagher is stunned when her 45-year-old father dies tragically and suddenly. Too many unanswered questions accompany Evie’s challenging journey to adulthood. When she finally discovers the reason her father led such a troubled life, shock turns to anger. She is determined to find justice for her father.

Nervous about the first day of his freshman year, 14-year-old Hank Gallagher steps inside Holy Archangels High School for the first time in September of 1954. Although the majestic Holy Archangels statues inside the school’s grand lobby present an air of protection, it is not long before Hank passes right under them and into the hands of a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Confused and cornered by threats, Hank attempts to abandon his secret to the past, but a horrible wound on his heart eventually leads to a catastrophic breakdown.

Based loosely on actual events, chapters alternate between Evie and Hank to reveal a life haunted by betrayal and a revelation of true justice and hope.

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