Welcome back to the Extra Edition newsletter! December’s crazy busy so this edition has one request and a reminder. I hope you all have a Merry Christmas!
***A Quick Request*** – I received a comment from the Reader Preferences Survey asking, “I know very few Catholic authors and would love to know more! Can you email me if you know more?” The survey didn’t collect names or email addresses, so if this was you, please reply to this newsletter. I would love to talk more!
***Reminder!*** – My 2025 Reader Preferences Survey is still open until this Wednesday, December 17. With so many options available to readers, it’s important to pinpoint what brings you back to my individual stories and newsletter time and again. I would greatly appreciate it if you could take ten minutes of your time to complete the survey below. All the questions are optional, but I do hope you will consider completing them. Responses are anonymous, so please share all your thoughts! Thank you to all those who have already responded!
Happy December, readers, and welcome to new subscribers from the O’Fallon Holiday Market and Francis Howell Craft Fair! Between family and church events, my day job, designing covers, and completing my Missionaries of Joy classes, there hasn’t been a lot of time for writing lately. But don’t worry; I’m still making progress on Astonished. Slow and steady wins the race!
What’s in this Edition:
2025 Reader PreferencesSurvey – Let me know what you want to see!
Events! – Photos from 3 Recent Events
Christmas Gift Guide – Gifts from the Catholic Marketing Network
Releasing in December– Other authors’ new releases I’m most excited about
Reader Preference Survey
By Timothy Eberly on Unsplash
My last reader preference survey was in August 2022, over three years ago, which means it is past time for an update. (How does time always get away from us?) With so many options available to readers, it’s important to pinpoint what brings you back to my individual stories time and again. Obviously, you each signed up for this newsletter for a specific reason and there are reasons you continue with me month after month. There are reasons why you buy a book and reasons why you don’t. I want to know all those little details that help bring an ideal experience to my readers.
I would greatly appreciate it if you could take ten minutes of your time to complete the survey below. All the questions are optional, but I do hope you will consider completing them. Responses are anonymous, so please share all your thoughts! Thank you in advance! Survey closes on December 17.
On November 8, I attended my first JustRead Rendezvous, an event that brings Christian authors and readers together for laidback discussion, community building, and of course, lots and lots of books! This year, the event was held in my own hometown of St. Louis which means I didn’t have to journey far to spend the day with over 150 other people who love Christian Fiction just as much as I do. The best part of the event was meeting bloggers I’ve only talked to online, talking to both familiar and new authors (yes, authors can still geek out about meeting other authors), and meeting readers who would literally chat all day about books. Seriously, so many free books. Out of this pile shown, I only ended up buying two of them. I’ve already finished Christy Award winner, Between the Sound and the Sea by Amanda Cox (5 stars!). Which one do you think I should read next?
On November 19, O’Fallon, Missouri had their Tree Lighting Ceremony which included a Holiday Market. Fellow author, Susan Laspe and I sold our books wearing festive hats within a corridor that doubled as an art gallery. The current exhibit showcased paintings by local author, Hannah Smith, including the one behind me in the photo above. I don’t know Hannah personally, but her acrylic paint and permanent marker art was a beautiful way to spend an evening. Here are a few of my favorite pieces linked from her site on Best of Missouri Hands.
Prickly Pear by Hannah Smith
Raspberry Vines by Hannah Smith
Finally, to finish out 2025’s events, Susan Laspe and I had a table at Francis Howell High School’s Craft Fair on December 6. There was a huge crowd at this one with lots of opportunities to chat about books and even take photos with readers. Thank you to everyone who came out to all three of these events. We look forward to seeing you at next year’s events!
Christmas Gift Guide
Still looking for Christmas gift ideas? Check out the Catholic Marketing Network’s 2025 Christmas Magazine. My books are listed on page 13 along with many other Christian books and gifts.
Need another read? Here are the new releases I’m excited about:
Every Voice Heard by N.Y. Dunlap, Sarah Hanks, & D.T. Powell – The third novella collection from the Brave Authors group focused on stories of overcoming church hurt and abuse
Waking Courage by Madisyn Carlin, Samantha Seidel, & Courtney Ranger – A collection of fantasy fairy tale retellings
My Fair Frauds by Lee Kelly & Jennifer Thorne – A high society fraud and a scrappy swindler team up to take down Gilded Age New York in a tale of intrigue, drama, and female friendship.
The Relationship Remodel by Callie Thomas – Opposites attract during a cross-country RV roadtrip romance
Perfectly Complicated Christmas Romance by Grace Worthington – A closed-door holiday hockey romcom, featuring a grumpy athlete with a soft heart, a sunshine single mom, and a bet that proves opposites don’t just attract—they make a perfect mistletoe match.
Want to know what I’m currently reading? Follow me on GoodReads.
Did you know reviews help both readers and authors? Even one sentence is enough, and every word greatly appreciated. Consider leaving a rating on Amazon, Goodreads, BookBub, and/or your favorite retailer!
Welcome back to the Extra Edition newsletter! I’m excited to bring you bonus content each month with a special inside look at my novels and the history behind them.
What’s in this Edition:
Priests Who Paint – The real-life priest who inspired my fictional one
Triumph of the Heart – The one movie you need to watch
Priests Who Paint – Blessed Fra Angelico
The Crucifixion with Saints via Wikimedia Commons
In my next book, Astonished, you’ll meet the fictional Father Angelico. While his name was originally chosen because Blessed Fra Angelico is one of the patron saints of my daughter’s school, his back story is actually pretty cool. Fra Angelico, or Fra Giovanni da Fiesole (1395-1455) was an Italian Dominican friar and known as the Angelic Painter of the Renaissance. He started out illustrating manuscripts and choir books and eventually moved on to painting interiors of convents, churches, and other religious buildings. This included commissions from both Pope Eugenius IV and Pope Nicholas.
Fra Angelico was beatified (the last step before sainthood) by Pope St. John Paul II in 1982 and made the patron saint of artists in 1984. When the Pope was asked which miracles were attributed to the beatification, he pointed at Fra Angelico’s artwork and said, “These are his miracles.”
The Annunciation by Fra Angelico via Wikimedia Commons
What started out as just a character’s name in my book has now begun to transform the character himself. After learning about Fra Angelico’s work, I’ve given my fictional Father Angelico more of an artistic background himself. He may even play a role in future books; who knows?
Fra Angelico’s painting of The Last Judgment (shown below) has special meaning for by book, Astonished, as much of the story involves a woman with a near-death experience. This painting shows Christ at the center surrounded by angels and saints with heaven on his right and hell on his left.
The Last Judgment by Fra Angelico, via Wikimedia Commons
Triumph of the Heart: The one movie you need to watch
I recently had the opportunity to attend a screening of the new movie, Triumph of the Heart, about St. Maximilian Kolbe’s heroic decision to take the place of a man sentenced to a starvation bunker at Auschwitz. While this movie isn’t related to my books, it is an inspiring story for people of all faiths or no faith at all.
Simply put, this was one of the best movies I’ve ever seen. It made me think about our choices in life and how we relate to others, even when they don’t share our beliefs. In the bunker with Maximilian Kolbe were nine other men, all randomly chosen to die because another prisoner from their area had escaped. While no one knows the full backgrounds of these men, the movie does an excellent job of creating characters who represent a diverse range of professional and religious backgrounds. Within their interactions over their 14 days without food or water (yes, 14), these men show the darkest parts of humanity, but also that the beauty of human dignity, compassion, and faith cannot be defeated. It is a hard movie to watch and yet, one essential to the times we’re living in where martyrdom is still a regular occurrence yet rarely discussed.
I won’t give an age recommendation as parents know their children best. Although there is some violence, it is not gratuitous and is certainly tamer than many PG-13 movies I’ve seen. My husband and I took our middle schooler and high schooler to see it and it led to some wonderful discussions.
Happy Tuesday, readers! Today’s Top Ten topic is “The First 10 Books I Randomly Grabbed from My Shelf.” Isn’t that fun? To keep it truly random, I used an online number generator and chose one book from 10 shelves. The genres chosen were all over the places.
Estuary by Lisa T. Bergren – Medieval Time Travel
Not By Sight by Kate Breslin – Historical Fiction
Meet Addy by Connie Rose Porter – Children’s Historical Fiction
Our Town by Thornton Wilder – Theatrical Script
The Grace Crasher by Mara Faro – Christian Romance
Uncharted Mercy by Keeley Brooke Keith – Historical Fiction/Dystopian/Magical Realism mashup
The Forgotten Queen by Kortney Keisel – Dystopian Romance
The Curse He Chose by Sr. Allison Regina Gliot, FSP – Christian Paranormal
The Haunted Showboat by Carolyn Keene – Nancy Drew Mystery
Death Panels by Michelle Buckman – Christian Dystopian
Have you read any of these books? Pick a book at random from your shelf. Would you recommend it to me?
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!
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.
Did you know reviews help both readers and authors? Even one sentence is enough, and every word greatly appreciated. Consider leaving a rating on Amazon, Goodreads, BookBub, and/or your favorite retailer!
