Welcome to the September 2017 edition of An Open Book, hosted both at My Scribbler’s Heart AND CatholicMom.com! I’ve been swapping chapters for critique with author…
5 CommentsRelevant Fiction for Body & Soul
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.
Close out summer with a romance! Stay With Me is for FREE on Kindle September 4, 5 & 6! Stay With Me
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Updated: February 2021
I’ve spent the better part of the past decade connected to a variety of online circles in which Catholic fiction is not only known, but loved and nourished. So when I step outside that literary bubble, I’m sometimes surprised to be reminded that many people – even practicing Catholics who are voracious fiction devourers – have yet to discover contemporary Catholic fiction.
9 CommentsTurning In Circles is permeated with what is – to me, anyway – a Southern fiction voice. What characteristics do you see as setting Southern fiction apart from general fiction set throughout the United States? (Because I wouldn’t necessarily call everything set in the American south, “Southern fiction.”)
Because I was born in New York and raised in Canada, I arrived in North Carolina as an outsider when I was at the critical teeny-bopper stage. That experience permitted me to observe the South from a different perspective than those who have always lived here. There is a difference in mannerisms, in how families interact, in how people interact in public, and even in the social structure of small communities.
I’ll be signing and selling copies of Stay With Me, Ornamental Graces, and Rightfully Ours at two upcoming conferences for Catholic women. Harrisburg Diocesan Women’s…
Leave a CommentBy Guest Blogger Billie Jauss
I’m feeling old. “Life flies by so fast.” I hear myself saying this more and more often now that I am ‘over 50’ and my baby boy just turned 21 and is heading into his junior year of college. It seems that I have seen a lot of the past flash by in front of me. Panic creeps deep into my spirit. I become focused on the past and what I think I have lost, not the truth of who I am. I focus on me, not on Jesus.
The yearning to change my focus sent me on a spiritual journey to rectify my panic, my selfish spotlight. Being a consummate list maker, I began to list the positive truths of who I am now.
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Seven Most Recent Reads Edition
As if I didn’t blather enough about books already, right? Between An Open Book (here and at Catholic Mom), Sabbath Rest Book Talk with Erin McCole Cupp and Rebecca Willen, and my Relevant Fiction Reviews posts, you’d think I’d be covered on the book front. But, no, I’ve read such a strong string of books – fiction and nonfiction – that I thought they’d earned their own post. Here are the seven books I’m reading or have recently finished, in order from currently reading to already read.
6 CommentsBy Guest Blogger Theresa Linden
You only get one life. Live it to the fullest. Follow your calling. Give it your all.
I am a Third Order Franciscan, often called a “Secular” Franciscan because we still live in the world. Some Secular Franciscans are married. Many work regular jobs, but we all seek to pattern our lives after Jesus in the spirit of St. Francis of Assisi.
St. Francis of Assisi has been my inspiration for giving myself completely to whatever I do.
Do you know the story of St. Francis of Assisi? Regardless of your faith, his life is very inspiring. He gave it all to God, holding nothing back. But even before his calling, he went “all in” no matter what he did.
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