Greetings and salutations!
May has been a month of all sorts of new beginnings. Most of mine have been interior, the deep work of overhauling my habits and health. Some are exterior, like tidying up my website, switching this newsletter to Substack, and creating a new marketing plan in preparation for my novel’s launch this summer. And some are literary, like my friend and fellow editor Karen Ullo’s new book, To Crown with Liberty!
Jumping on the Substack Bandwagon
When everyone gets excited about something, I usually run the other way…which is precisely why I have never read Harry Potter. (I know, I know — maybe next year.) But, well, Substack is useful, and I needed a platform that would let me manage two newsletters at the same time. At the advice of a marketing professional who also happens to be one of my best friends, I’m starting a secondary newsletter just for my children’s books: The Greatest Adventure! That one will be all about saints and vocations for kids, and explore my upcoming children’s book projects. Please subscribe and share if this interests you!
All About Virtuous Fluff
I jokingly described my fiction once as “virtuous fluff”, and the name has stuck in my mind. Since it was time to focus on a brand for my writing, both long form and short form, I settled on this description:
Virtuous Fluff is a short, fun monthly newsletter that takes you behind-the-scenes of a Catholic author writing contemporary romance, fantasy, and much more.
I write fluff — fun stories that entertain us and enrich our lives, without making us pull out literary criticism textbooks to parse a hidden meaning. At the same time, I refuse to fill my brain or yours with images and characters that make our souls feel grungy, so I tell stories of men and women living ordinary lives and striving for what matters most. That’s where the adventure of virtue comes in.
If you like good stories that help make good humans, come hang out with me.
Speaking of Good Stories
I have been reading so much these past few weeks. Due to some health issues I took a brief leave of absence from my job. While resting and recuperating and overdoing it a bit in the garden, I also read — mostly non-fiction, not usually my preferred genre unless I’m editing it. The Holy Spirit decided to lead me to some powerful books and ideas.
The Next Right Thing: A Simple, Soulful Practice for Making Life Decisions by Emily P. Freeman — Emily (who might be my new favorite person) brought up a fascinating point: we all like the fresh excitement of new beginnings, but nobody likes the idea of “being a beginner.” Being a beginner requires humility, courage, trying and failing and learning. After several repeated cycles of burnout and overwhelm, today I am embracing the fact that I am a beginner at being an integrated, balanced, healthy human. I’m also a beginner at writing, still, and definitely at marketing!
Time for God, by Fr. Jacques Philippe — “If we make God our first concern, God will look after our affairs better than we ever can. Let us acknowledge humbly that our natural tendency is to be too attached to our activities, to allow ourselves to be carried away by them until they fill our minds entirely. This won't change until we acquire the wise habit of abandoning all activities, even the most urgent and important ones, in order to give time freely to God.” This hit me upside the head with a Holy Spirit 2x4. Why not build in half an hour of mental prayer? What’s really stopping me? (Answer, a combination of not trusting God to “look after my affairs” and not giving him higher priority than my tasks. We’re fixing that now.)
Try Softer: A Fresh Approach to Move Us Out of Anxiety, Stress, and Survival Mode—and Into a Life of Connection and Joy by Aundi Kolber — This was a fascinating psychological look at the reality that we are body-soul composites. When we can recognize the complex way God crafted our bodies and souls to work together, not just as a vague concept but as a visceral truth, we can begin to care for ourselves as integrated humans. The whole concept of integration is providing me a great deal of food for thought lately.
Brand New Books
I can hardly call it fluffy, but To Crown with Liberty is absolutely fantastic historical fiction:
New Orleans, 1795. In the wake of the French Revolution’s Reign of Terror, Alix de Morainville Carpentier—a former lady-in-waiting to Marie Antoinette, now married to her gardener—seeks peace and security in the Spanish colony of Louisiana. But her journey into the man-eating swamp called Attakapas reopens the wounds of her old life in France. Alix is forced to reckon with the choices that saved her life at the cost of her honor—and perhaps her soul.
And, coming very soon, is The Oystercatcher of Southwark, the dual-timeline debut novel by Erica Colahan. I am so excited for this one, as I got to read it when it was just a draft for submission to Chrism Press, and I did the first round of edits.
Philadelphia, 1897—On the shores of the Delaware River, Italian Catholic Mary Paragano dreams of a happily ever after. However, when she defies her family and runs away to marry Jakob, a Jewish boy, her fairy tale takes an unexpected turn. Disowned by her father, abandoned by Jakob, and pursued by a jealous gangster, Mary’s life spirals into tragedy, culminating in accusations of attempting to harm her own children and a harrowing end in an asylum.
Philadelphia, present-day—Bella, Mary’s great-great-granddaughter, grapples with the aftermath of her recent divorce. Amidst her pain, a mysterious stranger named Sophie enters her life, claiming to be related to Jakob, the man who left Mary to her devastating fate over a century ago. Together, Bella and Sophie unravel the layers of Mary’s haunting past, question the stories they’ve been told, and uncover the impact of these historical secrets on their modern-day lives.
Last but not least…
I’m heading to the Catholic Writers Conference in a few days! I’m excited to co-present with Sr. Maria Grace Dateno from Pauline Media, and a number of other Catholic authors and editors. Stay tuned for more updates from the conference!