Happy November, readers, and Happy National Vocations Week! There’s lots to cover in this one, so you may be asked to click “Read More” at the bottom of this email.
What’s in this Edition:
- National Vocations Week – Celebrating religious vocations across the U.S.
- Spies, Missionaries, and Flying Nuns – Meet My Fictional Clergy
- Author Spotlight + Giveaway – Meet author Erin Lewis
- Upcoming Events – Where to find my books in person
- Releasing in November – Other authors’ new releases I’m most excited about
National Vocations Week
November 2-8, 2025 is National Vocation Awareness Week in the U.S., a time when the Catholic Church particularly celebrates and prays for those who have answered the call to the priesthood and religious life, prays for those still discerning, and promotes the beauty of religious vocations throughout our parishes. The Catholic Christian priesthood and religious life plays a role in many of my novels, and my family is blessed to be part of a parish that is extremely open to vocations, with wonderful priests, deacons, seminarians, and religious sisters on campus. I’m especially thankful to personally know several young men in preparation at our local Kenrick Glennon Seminary and one woman in the novitiate with the Sisters of St. Francis of the Martyr St. George. If you ever have the chance to speak with one of these young people in your own diocese, I urge you to take it. I’ve found the current generation of young priests, seminarians, and sisters are full of life, joy, and dedication to the faith. It brings such hope for the future of the Church.
I ask you to please pray for young men and women who are both in religious formation and those considering the religious life. In particular, I would like to share a video highlighting those men studying in St. Louis’ Kenrick-Glennon Seminary which educates men from across the Midwest.
Spies, Missionaries, and Flying Nuns
As a Catholic Christian, religious clergy play a significant role in many of my novels.
Flying Nuns: The Clergy of Astonished‘s Hawthorn Asylum
Known for their work as nurses, the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul serve patients’ medical needs within my upcoming novel, Astonished‘s fictional Hawthorn Asylum. Described as “flying bird veils” by one character, the Sisters’ high-pointed veils were actually called cornettes. In 1964, the Sisters exchanged the cornette for a simpler veil, but retained the dark blue color of their habits.
Hawthorn Asylum’s clergy also includes a priest, Father Angelico, and a transitional deacon, Deacon Sembrye, who minister to the patients’ spiritual needs. Both would have worn a 33-button black cassock with white Roman collar, as shown in the photo. While a modern priest’s clerics (aka their daily clothes) can also include a black shirt and pants, many priests continue to prefer the traditional cassock. In Astonished, two characters even have a debate over whether it’s ok for the clergy to wear colors underneath their cassocks.
Keep an eye out for this month’s Extra Edition newsletter where I’ll go into more detail on Father Angelico’s real-life counterpart.
Defying Censorship: The Spy Priests of Unsettled Shores
Unsettled Shores focuses on a fictional World War I letter delivery organization, Fides et Spes, based upon two real underground organizations, Mot du Soldat (Word of the Soldier) and Poste des Alliés (Postal service of the Allies). These two organizations delivered uncensored letters between French and Belgian soldiers and their families in occupied territories. Creating an underground organization also meant developing a set of rules to follow, leading me to incorporate Catholic clergy in an integral role. All the priests within the novel are named after French war saints. Father Ferdinand honors St. Ferdinand III, King of Castille; Father Ignatius honors St. Ignatius of Loyola; and Father Jean honors St. Joan of Arc, the patroness of French soldiers.
Expanding the Faith: Larksong Legacy‘s Frontier Missionaries
Two priests are mentioned within the Larksong Legacy series, both in missionary roles. In Dusk Shall Weep, we meet a fictionalized version of the real-life Father Joseph Louis Lionnet who served at Stella Maris (Star of the Sea) Mission on Point Ellice, Washington. Between 1848 and 1860, he baptized, married, buried, and evangelized to an untold number of both Native American and white settlers. In Sparks Fly Upward, we meet Father Bolin, who serves at Old St. Mary’s Cathedral in San Francisco, California. In the 1850s, this cathedral provided missionary work to the local community, primarily to Chinese immigrants and Gold Rush miners.
Meet Author Erin Lewis
In celebration of National Vocations Week, I’m thrilled to feature a giveaway from fellow Catholic Writers Guild author, Erin Lewis, for her novel Firetender. Compelling, convicting, at times gut-wrenching, and absolutely inspiring, her award-winning Chalice series is a love letter to the Lord and a story desperately needed for our present world.
What It’s About
Hot-headed Dallas Malone has spent most of his life putting up emotional walls around himself, softened only by his best friend Channing, whom he protects with the fierceness of a big brother. When the two are faced with sudden homelessness, Dallas’s impulsive decisions leave them fleeing from law enforcement and land him in prison. His mistakes threaten to ravish Dallas like a wildfire, unless he can learn to allow something more powerful than himself into his life.
My Review
Firetender (and its sequels, Enkindle in Me and The Fire of Your Love) are some of the grittiest, most beautiful, and inspiring pieces of Christian Fiction I’ve ever read. The series is one of redemption, conversion, forgiveness, and discernment for what God wants in our lives. There were many times that I was an emotional wreck over what was happening to the characters, but the journey they had to go through was such an inspiration.
Firetender is not the type of book I usually read. It’s essentially a coming of age story of two teen boys in the 1990s. There are no female characters and no romance. In fact, Book 3 takes place in a Catholic seminary. (For those who don’t know, Catholic priests cannot marry.) I probably wouldn’t have picked it up if Erin Lewis wasn’t a fellow Catholic author. But, once I started reading, it quickly became a series I couldn’t wait to get more of. It defied all my expectations.
This series is a must read for all Christians, especially those looking to find their place in God’s plan and those who want to learn more about the Catholic faith. The author does a fantastic job of addressing many common misunderstandings of Catholicism through the eyes of both believers and agnostics without, at any time, belittling the faith journey of any denomination. It’s the type of Christian fiction the world needs more of.
***I do want to note that the series includes some profanity; however, it is well placed due to the nature of the characters and is never gratuitous.***
About the Author
Erin is a Catholic homeschooling mother and a novelist following a childhood filled with creative fiction writing. She lives with her husband and four daughters in North Georgia. Her passion for vocations became strong when her youngest brother was ordained a priest. Over twenty years of Catholic adulthood have given her time to grow and see what really matters in life with a focus on the good, the true, and the beautiful, and she wants her characters to find and reflect the same. Reading the classics and Church Fathers and especially Chesterton alongside her homeschooled children has informed her current writings.
Erin initially created her Chalice Series characters, Dallas and Channing, over twenty years ago. She was prompted to pull out an old story about them to share with her teenage daughters and was dismayed to realize she had left the characters she loved hanging in hopeless despair. Dallas and Channing were always searching for something, and that something was God all along. The book’s direction was suddenly clear, and Erin gave the characters depth and purpose, knowing she owed it to them to develop them further and give them hope amidst their hardships.
Erin is a member of the Catholic Writers Guild and when she’s not writing is busy reading aloud to her children, organizing a moms’ book club, building community with families from her church, and leading a forest school for local families to get out in the natural world. She enjoys traveling and photography. Make sure to follow her on Substack for writing updates and behind the scenes information.
Giveaway
Erin is offering a chance to win one (1) signed paperback copy of Firetender at the link below. Giveaway runs through November 14, 2025. Thanks, Erin!
Upcoming Events
Craft fairs have been going great! Here’s where to find me over the next few months. I’ll be attending all of these events with historical fantasy author, Susan Laspe. Stop by to purchase our books, get books you already own signed, or just to say hi.
O’Fallon Tree Lighting and Holiday Market – November 19, 2025 – O’Fallon, MO
Francis Howell High School Band Craft Fair – December 6, 2025 – Weldon Springs, MO
Releasing in November
Need another read? Here are the new releases I’m excited about:
- Every Captive Freed by B.D. Lawrence, Shannon McNear, Angela Shelton – three Christian Fiction novellas about human trafficking
- Rebel Writers Volume 2 by Sarah Crowne – more tales of America’s literary rebels who defied convention and shaped the nation’s stories
- Through Each Tomorrow by Gabrielle Meyer – the 6th Timeless book, a tale of love, sacrifice, and the relentless pull of time between 1563 and 1883. Read my review of Book 1.
- The Fault Between Us by Stephenaie Landsem – three sisters fight for their lives and for each other amid the danger of a cataclysmic 1959 earthquake that rips Yellowstone National Park asunder
- Hearts in Circulation by Sarah Monzon – the second book in the Hearts in Circulation series, this time with romance between a bookmobile librarian and the town’s reclusive mechanic. Read my review of Book 1.
Want to know what I’m currently reading? Follow me on GoodReads.
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Until next month, happy reading!
Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam
Kelsey
Purchase signed copies of my books: kelseygietl.com
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