I shared a list of five of my favorite contemporary Catholic romances over at Shepherd.com. See why I love each of these books.
Leave a CommentRelevant 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.
Welcome to the September 2023 edition of An Open Book, hosted both at My Scribbler’s Heart and CatholicMom.com!
I have only a few books left to complete on my summer reading list, and the one I’ve just begun is A Girl Called Samson by Amy Harmon. I’ve loved many of Amy Harmon’s books, but it’s been a while since I read any. This historical novel is about the real-life Deborah Samson, who disguised herself as a young man to fight in the Revolutionary War. In the early chapters, the reader meets Deborah, an intelligent and curious girl, as an indentured servant living amongst a family of boys. I’m eager to keep reading.
5 CommentsCatholic Teen Books is sponsoring two HUGE giveaways for Catholic school libraries. Schools may enter to win either a Junior High or High School bundle…
Leave a CommentWelcome to the August 2023 edition of An Open Book, hosted both at My Scribbler’s Heart and CatholicMom.com!
After a long dry spell in his reading, my husband has been listening to Annie Jacobsen’s Operation Paperclip: The Secret Intelligence Program that Brought Nazi Scientists to America. Using interviews and archival documents, the author brings to light the decades-long secret post-WWII project bringing Nazi Germany’s greatest minds –those who had committed war crimes and mass murder—to the United States. These men, relocated to the United States with their families, were also responsible for great American scientific achievements. This isn’t a new book, and it’s not unfamiliar to me, but it seems timely as I regularly learn of ways in which the U.S. government is or has been lying to or misleading the American public.
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Welcome to the July 2023 edition of An Open Book, hosted both at My Scribbler’s Heart and CatholicMom.com!
I’ve enjoyed some additional reading time since the school year wrapped up. First up was Ginny Kochis’s debut YA novel, Blink and We’ll Miss It. From the cover to the content, this is a perfectly summery read for teens and adults. Set in the Outer Banks on the Atlantic Coast, it reminded me a lot of T.I. Lowe’s Under the Magnolias, another novel featuring a Southern female teen protagonist trying to hold everything together in the wake of a parent’s ongoing manic episodes (with the help of a handsome, loyal, compassionate boy who loves her).
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This time of year, my kids and I love to watch hundreds upon hundreds of lightning bugs rising out of the soy bean fields behind our neighborhood at dusk. It’s nothing short of spectacular.
Lightning bugs make a couple of appearances in my novel All in Good Time – including the cover! So, what better time to put the Kindle ebook on sale?
Only $1.99 on Kindle right now. Sale runs through July 4, 2023.
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The Catholic Writers Guild’s Retreat for Catholic Writers has returned and is scheduled for October 9-13, 2023, at St. Francis Retreat Center in DeWitt, Michigan.
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Southern fiction is a genre that has clear parameters in my mind that don’t quite match the descriptions I’ve been able to find. One obvious definition is books that are set in the southern United States. I’ve read plenty of those, but only a handful, to my mind, are Southern fiction.
Southern fiction, by my definition, is characterized by a particular mood. It includes quirky characters, languid summer days, and secrets. Usually family secrets. It may lean a bit toward the macabre or Southern Gothic.
Whatever you want to call it, these are some novels that fit my definition.
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