My Scribbler’s Heart

Why I Remain Catholic. . .

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Over at Patheos, Elizabeth Scalia has put out a call to answer the question “Why Do YOU Remain a Catholic?” I’ve mulled over whether I have anything new to say or whether I should say anything at all.

I spent ten years being a public voice for the Church. In some ways, I’m happy to be done with that. For an introvert that dislikes controversy, it can be exhausting. I’m happy to care for my little family, write my little stories, and discover my little niche of readers. But the niggling desire to skip this exercise felt too much like a cowardly cop-out.Chalices

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Top 10 Tuesday: 10 Signs You Might Live In A Tourist Town

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The home I grew up in sat on a dead-end road. It was once a main thoroughfare leading west from Pittsburgh, but in the 1960s, it was cut off by the development of Interstate 79. Where my Italian immigrant grandfather once had a wholesale whiskey business and then a gas station, businesses died and homes were moved – literally. In our little town, multiple homes, including the home in which my husband was raised, were picked up and moved. My father kept his property and his business, as did my uncle. A lone home remained as well. Our buildings were the last in a road that circled in on itself, deadening at a macaroni company. If tourists came through, they were most assuredly lost. WAY lost.

For the past seventeen years, we have lived in Hershey, Pennsylvania. Well, technically there is no town of Hershey. Hershey lies within the bounds of Derry Township, and that’s where we live. Derry Township is home to HersheyPark, among other attractions, including a natural limestone cavern right across the street. Things are. . . different.

In case you’re unsure, here are ten signs you may live in a tourist town.

  1. People pose with the “Welcome to. . .” signs. Many a summer day, I can ride down the highway and see one or more vehicles pulled onto the berm and a family huddled underneath the welcome billboard.Welcome to Hershey Sign

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Stay With Me: The Recipes, Part I

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Today marks four months until the release of Stay With Me. Last month, I wrote about the music that inspired the book, and in April, I blogged about the settings. This month and next, I’ll highlight several of the recipes for the delicious treats mentioned in the book.

Fudge-Full Peanut Butter Bars

Early in the story, Rebecca bakes a batch of these Fudge-Full Peanut Butter Bars for Chris. The recipe is one my husband asked me to recreate – a favorite from his childhood. I got the recipe from his mother more than a decade ago only to find that it included an ingredient – Pillsbury Coconut Pecan Frosting Mix – that is no longer produced. It was several years until I found a substitute recipe for the frosting mix on the Internet. As everyone in my family will attest, these chewy, gooey, delicious bars are well worth the trouble to recreate them! Continue reading →

Five Favorites: Trader Joe’s Products

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Five Favorites

The closest Trader Joe’s is more than sixty miles from our home, so I have only visited the store a handful of times. (I’m so desperate for a local store that I started this.) BUT, for several weeks out of the year, my husband works nearby one of the Pennsylvania locations, and he stocks ups. I mean, STOCKS UP. With my limited ability to peruse the available products, these five stand out as among my favorites. By necessity, they are items that travel well.

Stocking Up at Trader Joe's

Stocking Up


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Memorial Day: Remembering Dad and His Service

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In the past weeks, for reasons unclear to me, my thoughts have turned again and again to my dad, who has been deceased nearly eleven years. Again they turn to him on Memorial Day.

It is hard for us, as children especially, to fathom that our parents had lives before we came along. More than half of my father’s life was over before I was born, putting his military service more than twenty-five years before my birth. It was a part of his life I never knew and one about which he seldom spoke.

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Seven Quick Takes Friday

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Seven Quick Takes Friday

Girls Road Trip Edition

–1–

I did something I’ve never done before – gone away overnight with only my girls. I borrowed an electronic audiobook from the library for this trip and was able to listen to most of it on the way to our destination and back, either with the girls or while they watched a movie. I seldom listen to audiobooks because never-ending interruptions require constant, clumsy backing up and repeating on my iPod Nano. I’m still not sure whether audiobooks enhance or diminish my enjoyment of novels (I tend to prefer to listen to nonfiction books).

This particular story was narrated by a woman, but only one of the main characters was female – a Southerner. Nearly all the other characters were male, a few Southern, but most from a fictional European island in the North Sea. For those, she adopted a quasi-British, snooty-sounding accent. While the quality of the writing and the narration were both very good, I was underwhelmed by the story and never connected with any of the characters, most of whom bordered on unlikable. Was it the book? The narration? Both? What do you think of audiobook adaptions of fiction?

Audiobook

Flickr photo by Nicola Einarson. Some rights reserved. http://bit.ly/1AeTnzv

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Author and Publisher Extraordinaire: Interview with Ellen Gable

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Ellen Gable is a busy lady. I was flummoxed by how to encapsulate all her roles, so I’m going to steal her description right from her blog: “I am a freelance writer and author of five books, President of the Catholic Writers Guild, self-publishing book coach, speaker, Natural Family Planning (NFP) teacher, book reviewer, Marriage Preparation Instructor. However, the roles I love the most are being wife to my husband, James, and mother to our five sons, ages 15-27.”

I’ve had the pleasure of knowing Ellen first through her novels, then the Catholic Writers Guild, and, now, as my editor and publisher.

Your most recent novel, A Subtle Grace, is a historical romance and the second book in the O’Donovan Family Series. You can read it as a standalone novel, but I think the story is enriched by knowing the family’s history, particularly the patriarch, David. How are the themes from the first novel, In Name Only, essentially David and Caroline’s story, interwoven with the challenges their children face?

Ellen Gable

Author Ellen Gable

One of the themes I wanted to focus on, in particular, is the theme of marital love and that one’s future spouse might not be in the person they expect it to be. In Caroline’s case, she found love with the man she initially despised. Kathleen, her daughter, found love in a simple, kind man rather than a charismatic, charming, deceitful man. Like In Name Only, the other themes are unconditional love and trust in God. All of these themes will also be included in the third O’Donovan novel, which I’ve already outlined, but haven’t yet written. (That one will take place roughly starting in 1913, just before the beginning of WWI).

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Small Success Thursday

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Small Success Thursday

Why small success? Because that’s the only kind I know! Even the big ones come in small steps. Here’s my paltry offering for the week.

  1. Spared my fresh veggies from waste. For many years, we’ve purchased a share in a local, organic farm. For those not familiar with community-supported agriculture (CSA) shares, we pay a set price and receive a weekly allotment of the farm’s harvest. The produce varies from week to week depending on what is in season. While our family goes through many of the fruits and vegetables quickly (corn, squash, lettuce, potatoes), there are others I’m not sure how to cook (turnips, kohlrabi, collard greens, swiss chard). Spiral Path Farm provides recipes with its produce each week, which should make it easy. Still, I’m ashamed to say sometimes unfamiliar items spoil before I’ve figured out to prepare them. I’ve been making an effort use every fruit or vegetable we receive and avoid any waste. I made Collards Sweet Potato Pot twice now, and it is simple and delicious! And if you have a favorite turnip recipe, would you please share it?

    Collards Sweet Potato Pot

    Collards Sweet Potato Pot
    I switched out collard greens for Lacinto kale and Italian sausage for smoked sausage.

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