Congrats to new Catholic Writers Guild officers

Stepping Down, Not Stepping Out

Congratulations to our new officers!

President: Walt Staples (aka GK Fields)
Vice President: Ann Lewis
Secretary Margot Davidson
Treasurer: Laura Yarus (aka voxsum)
Committee Coordinator: David Law

I have served at President of the Guild for three years. I've seen it grow from some folks talking (and arguing) on the Yahoo group about what a the guild might do, to our becoming incorporated, internationally recognized and--most importantly--useful to Catholic writers who need practical help and support for their craft and their faith. I've made some terrific friends, not the least of which is Ann Lewis, who's been VP this whole time. One of the toughest parts of leaving is breaking this wonderful partnership, but even though our friendship formed discussing Guild business, it's transcended that. I've also had some wonderful opportunities to meet publishers, editors and writers, as well as members of the media interesting in telling others about the Guild. Overall, one of the greatest experiences of my life!

But it's also been a time-consuming and mentally taxing experience, and as my older kids have entered high school, I find I need to turn more of my energy to them.

Thus, this year, I'm passing on the office of Guild President to Walt Staples. Walt is a funny guy with a good head on his shoulders. He'll keep this Guild moving forward!

In the meantime, I'm retiring to the ranks, playing in the forums and crit groups, organizing the online conference and helping Ann with the live conference. It's been a great couple of years as president, but I'm looking forward to my adventure as member-at-large.

Ten Things I'm Thankful For

#1 I live in a country that, despite its troubles, is one of the safest, free-est and most prosperous in the world.
#2 I married my best friend and after 19 years am as much in love with him as ever.
#3 I have four healthy, intelligent, fun-loving kids who think Mom and Dad are the coolest geeks ever!
#4 The Catholic Writers Guild has grown not only in membership size, but in the amount of service we provide writers and bookstore owners--from the Seal of Approval to the conferences.
#5 I am finally passing the CWG Presidential torch to Walt Staples! Now I can have fun for a couple of years!
#6 I have three books published and one to be published; I have several stories in anthologies and magazines.
#7 I have wonderful and supportive friends thanks to the wonder of the Internet.
#8 My imagination continues to amuse me, and I have the opportunity to let it amuse others as well through my writing.
#9 I am finally able to spend time with my sister as we have a year together in California.
#10 I have health, sanity, humor, and enough smarts to get by.

All of this, of course, is thanks to the loving God who gifted me with so much; the many brave men and women who have fought to keep us free; my parents who raised me so well (and my mother-in-law who raised a fine son); and a good educational system that gave me the skills I use each day. Thank you!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

My Novel's Journey: Gapman! Seeking Supervilian Plot

I'm working a novel again. This one is Gapman, a super-hero spoof. Once again, I'm flying seat-of-the-pants, with some rough ideas and a whole lot of fun scenes to drive the way.

This time, I'm still in search of the perfect Supervillian plot. I know it needs to involve the designer drug called Puck. I have one idea: get the elves high on Puck so they'll agree to sign life insurance policies and make the villain a fortune in commissions. However, exactly how he plans on doing that, I'm not sure yet. And the more I think logically about it, the more holes I see. So if anyone has ideas, I'm glad to listen. I discarded the politician trying to get the elves high to sign a treaty with the US (mainly because they were taking so long.)

Friday, I thought about bringing the plot closer to home: a more personal attack on Vern and Grace, and Gapman will get to help them out. It would also have a very nice foreshadowing into the next book I want to write, Damsels and Knights, which is a spin-off trilogy involving Los Lagos Police Captain Santry and a griffin-turned human, Veronica Bates. I'm wondering if it's too heavy for the spoofing, though.
In the meantime, I'm having a great time developing the Gapman character, Ronnie Engleson. He's a real sweetie, but, as my friend Devon Ellington put it "reverts to being 11 at the slightest provocation." He lives with his mom so that they can afford a nice house up in the mountains, bikes and runs (though he has a bit of a pudge), and works as the entertainment reporter for the Los Lagos Gazette. Of course, getting superpowers was a childhood dream, so he's determined to use them for good--yet in his zeal, he's causing a lot of problems, too.

I'm playing with alternating between him and Vern--first, with them living their own lives and dealing with their own problems, then working together as Vern takes him as his Padawan (at Grace's behest.)

Here's a brief introduction to Ronnie.

My name is Ronald Engleson. I prefer to be called Ron, but people have called me Ronnie since Kindergarten. Mom's always called me Ronnie, of course, but that's her prerogative. I had a brief time in college when I was Ron, but that ended when I returned to Los Lagos and started working for the Gazzette. Guess that's the problem when your mom used to date the editor-in-chief; Richard Redfeathers still thinks I'm ten years old.

Otherwise, I like the job. I've done a little of everything. Started in the Classified, but now I'm the entertainment writer. You know, movie reviews, features on the local thespians. Bet you anything, my articles get stuck into scrapbooks more than any other writer's on the paper. Yet even though my byline reads "Ron Engleson," people still call me "Ronnie." I try not to let it bother me.

Word count: 5,719

Join me in writing Gapman! and editing Discovery

Welcome back to Fabianspace

As many folks know, I gave up blogging for awhile. I wasn't enjoying it and it wasn't drawing people to my site or writing, so I decided to play with Twitter and forget about the blogsphere.

Not sure why, but this month, I decided, "I'd like to try blogging again." One thing enjoyed in my blogging time was chronicling my adventures writing Live and Let Fly. I found it also motivated me to write, as I needed something to blog about. So I'm going to start again with regular writing and editing adventures. Hopefully, I can teach something as well.

I have two projects going right now:

Gapman! is my super-spy spoof in the DragonEye, PI universe. I've already got several scenes worked out, which are spit-out-your-soda funny. Los Lagos, Colorado, home of the Interdimensional Gap and the sleuthing duo of dragon Vern and Sister Grace, gets its first real superhero. Here's a teaser I made up for fun:


I'll be sharing the adventures of my seat-of-the-pants writing.

Discovery is the Catholic science fiction story I started as a 2006 (2007?) NaNoWriMo project. I'd put it away for a long time, but it kept calling to me, so this year, I made myself finish it. I fought tooth and nail, lead and byte for this one. It changed quite a bit mid-stream (for the waaaay better), so it is in need of a serious re-write and edit. I have a publisher in mind for it, and he's interested in seeing it, so I want it to sing! Join me as I conduct major surgery on a hard-won novel.

Discovery is my priority, since I'm still trying to sell Live and Let Fly, and Gapman comes after that, so I'm posting about it every Thursday. Gapman will be every-other Monday, and I'll intersperse news and other fun stuff in the opposite Mondays. So please, come on back, make comments and let me know if I'm interesting you at all.

An Author's Christmas Wish List

It's time once again for my annual Author's Christmas Wish List. You can make any author in your life happy with these gifts--some of time, some of talent, and some of treasure.

Authors, feel free to copy and paste this to your own blogs, slip under your spouse's pillow, or e-mail to those who never know what to get you. Friends of authors, imagine your friend wrote this.


Gifts of Time:

Take my book to a store and ask the owner to stock it
* Mention to friends or user groups about my website, newsletter or blog
* Babysit the kids so I can have a few quiet hours for writing
* If I'm having a booksigning in your area, come visit and bring some friends
* Help me set up a book signing at your local bookstore or library (especially appreciated if we live far from each other and I'm coming for a visit)
* Contact your local newspaper or radio station about me and arrange an interview--also a great idea if I happen to be coming for a visit
* Offer to donate a couple of hours to some project I'm working on--like sending letters to bookstores, sending out PR releases, making a database of readers, etc.

Gifts of Talent:

* Create a website for me--or better yet, teach me how
* Make a template I can modify
* Give me ideas on how I can market myself or my books--and help me to put them into practice!
* Design a banner, book "sell sheet" (a one-page flyer about the book), or other marketing materials
* Make a book trailer video for my book and post it on YouTube, etc.
* Make a recording of a chapter of my book to put on my website

Gifts of Treasure:
Just like with clothing or jewelry, some of these items (from domain names to pens) may require you knowing your author's friend's taste. When in doubt, a gift certificate for the item is a good fall-back.

* A marketing class by The Marketing Mentor (I'm offering a Christmas special: gift certificates are $15 a class, half off! Contact me.)
* Music to write by
* Amazon gift certificates to get books
* Buy my book--order it from a bookstore
* Buy me a domain name for my website
* Bookmarks with my cover, name and website
* Subscription to Writers Market
* Subscription to The 30-Minute Marketer (Again, I'm offering 50 percent off the subscription--just $6 a year. Contact me.)
* Journals
* Book signing gear--poster with my photo and name on it, a roll-away carrier to put the books and materials, book stands
* Business cards
* Gift certificate to a printer/VistaPrint if they do that
* Reams of paper
* A mug warmer (or a good thermos)
* Pizza coupons for those days when the need to write overcomes the need to cook
* A really good pen!
* Stamps
* Business-sized envelopes

Bookstore Efforts Led to Book Signing Success

I had a lovely book signing at Godspace, the Catholic bookstore in Thousand Oaks. I sold more books than I had in a long time.

What did I do different? Not a single thing. In fact, I only had three days' notice. I have to credit the store owner, Claudia Satori.

First, it was her grand opening, so that was a draw. People attended who were loyal to the store, friends of hers, or who came in for the other deals and the free cider and cupcakes.

Second, another local author, Greg Stone, was there signing his new book, Taming the Wolf, which our local Franciscan priest, Father Joe, helped write. Thus, there was an additional draw of readers coming for his books. His is a nonfiction on conflict-resolution, but some folks did check out my table as well.

Third, she gave me a lovely little table outside the door. That way, I caught the foot traffic that might not otherwise have come into the store. Since my books have readership in the secular world as much or more than the non-Catholic, I was able to stop people and talk them up. Also outside was the Christmas caroler who was selling his kereoke CDs, so we did a lot of singing.

Fourth, she TOLD HER CUSTOMERS ABOUT MY BOOKS! I'd dropped off some copies for her a few weeks ago, and she'd read and loved them, and she let people know. I sold four in the first half hour because she told one reader, "You will not believe what Karina writes! Catholic sci-fi." Turned out her customer was a big SF fan.

Fifth, she asked Greg and me to give a presentation about our books. He gave an interesting presentation on the levels of conflict resolution, while I read from Infinite Space, Infinite God and Magic, Mensa and Mayhem. I got a couple of purchases and some nice compliments.

It goes to show that sometimes, the bookstore's efforts can make just as much an impact on the success of your sales as you can. What can you do to help that?

--Leave the owner a copy of your book.
--Give them materials and suggestions for advertising
--Suggest a location. If it's a small store in a mall, you might suggest begin put outside.
--Get some info about their event so you can draw people in, too. (I would let folks passing by know it was the grand opening and everything was on sale so it was a great time for early Christmas shopping.)
--Try to go in with other authors. Several authors doing a signing will draw more attendees.
--Offer to do a reading or small lecture.

I wish I'd known about the grand opening sooner--I had four day's notice; three, because I had to check with Rob on his schedule--because I could have added my advertising to hers. She runs a terrific store, with as many books as gifts, and a huge children's book section. If you live in the Thousand Oaks, CA, area, I'd suggest checking it out, or look at her website for more info.
Thanks, Claudia and the members of Godspace!

Reviving my Blog

I've been giving blogging a lot of thought and have decided to try once blog for awhile, concentrating on writing and sci-fi/fantasy. Mainly, I will be blogging about the writing and editing process in my latest books. I may also tour a few books here, but they will be titles of my choosing and in my time.

In the meantime, I'm thinking about monthly themes for Twitter. I had a lot of fun with 31 days of zombies. However, I'd like feedback. Is it too much? I'll try to stay away from popular themes this time.

Please give me some feedback.

I'll be part of a virtual book tour for The Zombie Cookbook, edited by Kim Richards. I have two stories in it: "Wokking Dead," where zombies invade a Korean restaurant, and "My Big, Fat, Zombie wedding."

It's the Zombie Cookbook Virtual Book tour!

Check out the invasion schedule:

October 5 Virtual Book Tour de Net www.virtualbooktourdenet.blogspot.com  info + tour schedule

October 5 Midlist Writer http://www.midlistwriter.blogspot.com   review

October 5 It Came From Ryan's Brain; Goodreads http://theorangemonkey.livejournal.com/ review

October 5 Goodreads http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1341280.Ryan_Harron  review

October 6 New Book News http://doylebooks.blogspot.com/  information

October  One Writer's Journey http://pennylockwoodehrenkranz.blogspot.com/  review

October 7 Unwriter http://unwriter1.wordpress.com/  review, interview

October 7 One Writer's Journey http://pennylockwoodehrenkranz.blogspot.com/  interviews

October 8 Virtual Book Tour de Net www.virtualbooktourdenet.blogspot.com  interviews

October 8 Joyce Anthony information http://joyce-anthony.blogspot.com/

October 9 The Writer Apprentice http://novaham.blogspot.com/  Interviews

October 9 Lily's News, Reviews and Interviews http://lilyauthor.blogspot.com/ interviews +

October 9, 10, 11 The Writer Apprentice http://novaham.blogspot.com/  interview of ZC authors

October 9, 10 Joyce Anthony interview http://joyce-anthony.blogspot.com/

October 11 Joyce Anthony  review http://joyce-anthony.blogspot.com/

October 12 Word of Fennatia http://www.worldofenantia.com/musesblock review

October 12 Virtual Book Tour de Net www.virtualbooktourdenet.blogspot.com  review

October 12 Yes We Can! http://kbaccellia.livejournal.com/ interview

October 1: If You Give a Girl a Pen http://giveagirlapen.com/ Guest blog

October14  Chelle Cordero's XANGA Blog http://cce613.xanga.com/  Interview with Kim Richards

October 14 The Writers Chat Room http://www.writerschatroom.com/blog.htm  guest blog

October 14, 8-11 pm Eastern: The Writers Chat Room http://www.writerschatroom.com/Enter.htm join the chat to talk about writing for anthologies

 October 15 Kim Richard's Blogs     http://kim-richards.livejournal.com/

http://www.myspace.com/kim_richards

http://kim-richards.blogspot.com/

October 17: If You Give a Girl a Pen http://giveagirlapen.com/  Review and Interview

October 17: Trent Kinsey http://www.trentkinsey.com/ Review

October 18  Rites of Romance Reviews http://rorreviews.wordpress.com/ information, reviews

October19 Chelle Cordero's XANGA blog http://cce613.xanga.com/  book promo  

October 20 Virtual Book Tour de Net www.virtualbooktourdenet.blogspot.com  wrap-up of reviews

Order From Amazon

Book sale at Twilight Times!

If you've been wanting to get Infinite Space, Infinite God, now is the time!

This year is the 10th anniversary of the founding of Twilight Times Books (1999) and
the 5th year since we went to print (2004). Those are significant milestones.

In celebration, Twilight Times Books will have a print book sale from Oct. 1st to
Nov. 15th. Most titles will be offered to the general public at a 10 - 30% discount.
http://twilighttimesbooks.com/print_books101509sale.html

For a limited time, and while quantities last, we are offering a 30% - 50% discount
on selected titles.
http://twilighttimesbooks.com/print_books101509special.html

Check out our newsletter for info on our latest releases.
http://twilighttimesbooks.com/ttb_nl19.html

Lida E. Quillen, Publisher
Twilight Times Books
http://twilighttimesbooks.com

Cell Phone/Anal Cavity Ring tone Winner!

"Possibly the most beautiful song ever written about a cell phone being shoved up an orifice." - Craig Marks. An ELO pastiche. Lyrics by Craig Marks. Music, production, acoustic guitars, electric bass, cello, synthesizer, vocoder and all vocals by Chris Mezzolesta. http://thefump.com/fump.php?id=1006

There are no new ideas....

Ring tone?

Some days, you just have to love the brainstorming that does on between writers.

My friend wrote me: "Say a guy falls down, while naked, and somehow ends up with his cellphone stuck where the sun don't shine. give me your top 5 funniest ringtones ......"

My answers:

Any Way You Want It
Stuck On You
Ride of the Valkyries
Bolero
Intercom Whistle from the Starship Enterprise

What do you come up with?

More Fallout From Disney Taking Over Marvel

Storm put in charge of weather control. Disneyworld now sunny 365 days a year.
Spiderman to star in the remake of It's Tough to be a Bug 3-D show.
Cinderella leaves Prince Charming to hook up with Iron Man.
Insurance rates for Disney theme parks and hotels have rocketed.
Magneto is only allowed to ride the wooden roller coasters.
Mr.Fantastic's robot and the Love Bug are fast friends. Folks call them, "the Herbies."
Hydroman tried to hijack the USS Tipton.
Earth Force forced to join Friends for Change: Project Green.
The mutants at Xavier Institute learn valuable lessons about diversity and breaking stereotypes in High School Musical II: Generation X.


Do you have some to share? Comment!

The results of Disney Buying Marvel

The results of Disney Buying Marvel

Pinocchio will never lie around the Torch.
Henry McCoy will have to be let go--there's only room for one beast.
Wolverine will have to stop smoking. Disney is "family friendly," after all.
Wolverine will have to cut down on his language. Disney needs to maintain its reputation, after all.
Wolverine will have to wear a helmet when riding his motorcycle. Disney promotes safety, after all.
Wolverine has just thrown the Disney Board of Directors out the window and is heading home. He has his pride, after all.
Mylie Cyrus is giving Mystique wardrobe hints.
Black cat! Spit that mouse out!
Doc Oc and Urusula (Little Mermaid) are dating.
Doctor Strange and the Genie got into a magical tiff and are MIA.
Goofy had levied to join the X Men.
Donald Duck bumped into the Hulk in the Disney cast cafeteria. It was not pretty.

If we had a dollar a day...we'd never get out of debt

I just read that scientists estimate the universe to be 13.73 billion years old. (in a story about warp drive theory), and it got me wondering--is our national debt greater than the universe's age?

Some quick math shows that if we stopped spending and tried to pay back the debt at $1 a day, we would not be able to pay it back in the life of our universe. (The universe is 5,011,000,000,000 (five trillion, 11 billion, approx) days old. Our debt to date is 7,395,572,420,301† (seven trillion, 395 billion and growing). Check it out here.

I remember when the debt hit a trillion, and folks thought our economy would collapse. Twenty-five years later, we're still going strong--and have increaded the debt seven-fold. What's that say about our economy? Our government?

A Peek Into the Realities of Small Press Publishing

An author for one of my publishers recently did an ad campaign on facebook, and he asked if he could see the sales to compare them with the ad campaign. The following is the reply from the publisher. It's a great eye-opener into the reality of being a small-press publisher: (This is printed with permission)

PRINT
We sell our print books through the following:
1. Ingrams
2. Website
3. Folletts
4. Brodart

Of the above, Brodart and Folletts sell directly to libraries and bookstores. They send us purchase orders and I fulfill the purchase orders and bill them. Brodarts pays very promptly. Folletts pays somewhat promptly. (Although they did send me a check for $0.00 last month. I’ll try not to spend it all in one place.) Generally the only books they buy are the ones that have been reviewed in PW or LJ.

If people order from our website, they generally pay in advance. I sometimes have libraries or stores order via email or phone and depending on the situation, I may or may not get payment in advance. If I do not get payment in advance, it can take FOREVER to get payment from some bookstores. Since I’ve been stiffed so many times in the last year on these invoices I am beginning to be more hard -nosed about demanding money in advance.

This paragraph edited by request of the publisher: We have a contract with one distributor who is very large, but is notorious in the business for being slow to pay. I have no way of tracking our sales through them. It just has to be a pleasant surprise when and if I receive a statement from them.

All other print copies are sold through Ingrams. This includes the books sold on Amazon.com. I do not sell print copies directly to Amazon.com. Our printer is a subsidiary of Ingrams so I can check my compensation report and see how many copies they have sold but I don’t know who they sold them to. I have no way of knowing how many of those sales are to Amazon.com. Bookstores and libraries also order through Ingrams, as well as other online book retailers. I can sometimes tell when some of you are doing signings because I will see an order in a multiple of 5. This is generally updated on a weekly basis. There is a three month delay on these payments to me. If we’ve had returns, then there may not actually be anything left for them to pay me by the time they get done taking out the money for the returns. Sometimes we end up OWING them money because the cost of the returns in a single month exceeds the amount they owe us for sales.

Electronic
We sell our electronic books through the following:
1. Fictionwise
2. Mobi
3. Kindle
4. Our website
5. Reader’s Eden

We sell most of our ebooks through Fictionwise. I can track our sales from their website. They update it weekly. They pay quarterly.

There are a gazillion other EBook vendors out there who are Mobi retailers and who sell our books through their agreement with Mobi. If you see your ebook on a site other than one of the ones above, don’t worry about it. They have a license with Mobi to sell the book and we get the same amount from them that we do from Mobi. I can track our sales on the Mobi website. We used to sell a lot on Mobi but since we have gone to Fictionwise and since the introduction of Kindle, we sell very little on Mobi. Amazon.com owns Mobi. Mobi pays annually provided the amount hits a minimum level. We haven’t hit their minimum for the last two years (It’s a VERY high minimum.) That’s why some of you have very old Mobi sales on your royalty statements that are still in the payment pending table.

Our Kindle contract is rather convoluted because it is an addendum to our Mobi contract. We don’t actually have a contract with Amazon.com to sell on Kindle—our contract is with Mobi to sell in Kindle format on Amazon.com. There is a 3 month delay on receiving sales figures from Kindle. They send me the statement just before they send payment.

So, I will not be able to tell for 3 months if your ad on Facebook is resulting in sales on Kindle. I can, however, tell you that I have not seen much activity on Fictionwise. I’ve seen 3 copies sell on Ingrams. FWIW, that’s the data I have.
I can also tell all of you that I have google alerts out for every single one of you and the people whose names show up on google alerts the most often have the highest number of sales.

Link for Finding out if a Website is safe

Thanks to my wonderful husband, Rob, for finding this link. You can go to it and put in the address and it will tell you if a site has malware on it: http://safeweb.norton.com/

It happened again!

Yesterday, I blogged about an red flag I'm recognizing for infected links through Google. Today, I got another one. This one came from a Google alert:

The Fifteen Mysteries And Virgin Of Rosary
So when you get a book like Magic, Mensa, and Mayhem, that of rosary ... Check out the rest of the stops on Magic, Mensa, and Mayhem's Virtual Book Tour. ...

Notice that that the sentence doesn't really make sense, but the words I put in bold are the same ones in all the other links I mentioned yesterday.

I'm wondering if the person who originally used those words in her/his review has contracted a virus and that's how it's spreading. I'm going to look back over my reviews and see if I can figure out who it is. In the meantime, if you do Google searches or Google alerts, make sure the summaries make sense before clicking on a link!

Clue to Protecting Yourself from Infected Websites

Today, I was doing a standard Google on "Magic, Mensa and Mayhem," clicking on links I'd not seen before and my computer was attacked by a virus. Fortunately, I recognized the signs and stopped it in time. However, when I went back to try to find what site was going to infect me, I discovered the following. Notice how similar the partial summaries are:

• King Stephen Hung Fitzalan Army
So when you get a book like Magic, Mensa, and Mayhem, that really DOES ... Check out the rest of the stops on Magic, Mensa, and Mayhem's Virtual Book Tour. ...
jamisonjimpson.unraiiqwy.cc/king_stephen_hung_fitzalan_army.html - 13 hours ago - Similar -
• Sky Bus, Flight Information
So when sky bus, you get a book like Magic, Mensa, and Mayhem, that really DOES make you laugh out loud, how do you express that without it sounding cliché? ...
ashlynnhucquart.btigryxi.com/sky_bus_flight_information.html - Cached - Similar -
• Pose De Puce Wii Toulouse
So when you get a book like Magic, Mensa, and Mayhem, that wii toulouse really ... Check out the pose de rest of the stops on Magic, Mensa, and Mayhem's ...
katelynnfennell.mklqjkme.cc/pose_de_puce_wii_toulouse.html - 23 hours ago - Similar -
• Invalid Partition Fix Disk
So when fix disk you get a book like Magic, Mensa, and Mayhem, ... Check out the rest of the stops on Magic, Mensa, and Mayhem's Virtual Book Tour. ...
mckenziedelbergue.bxpfxiu.com/invalid_partition_fix_disk.html - Cached - Similar -
• Barry Citizens Advice Bureau Volunteer
So when you get a book like Magic, Mensa, and Mayhem, that really DOES make you laugh out loud, how do you express that without it sounding cliché? ...
juliannewintour.mxwvwhc.cc/barry_citizens_advice_bureau_volunteer.html - 11 hours ago - Similar -

Lesson here: Be wary of the links you click on.

My stories in the Zombie Cookbook!

I just got the contract for The Zombie Cookbook for my two stories:

"Wokking Dead" It's war and love when zombies attack a Korean restaurant.

"My Big Fat Zombie Wedding" So he's undead--doesn't mean he's not the perfect man for a romance that will last 'till death and beyond.

It comes out in September. I'm looking forward to it. I know a lot of the writers through the Writers Chatroom, so I'm expecting some fun and quirky stories, poems and, yes, recipes in this anthology coming from the appropriately named Damnation Books.

(I have a recipe for Intel on Ice. Not for the living. Trust me on this.)

More details as I learn them!

Catholic Writers Conference Aug 5-7

Catholic Writers Guild, Catholic Marketing Network Hold Writers’ Conference

Somerset, NJ--The Catholic Writers' Guild, in conjunction with the Catholic Marketing Network, will host its first-ever Catholic Writers’ Conference LIVE! at the Doubletree Hotel & Executive Meeting Center, Somerset, NJ, from Aug 5-7, 2009. The conference will host publishers, editors and authors from all aspects of the Catholic writing world, including magazines and devotionals, novels and educational materials. The panel discussions, presentations and workshops will cover all aspects of writing including generating query letters, crafting a good story, worldbuilding, marketing finished works and more. In addition, editors from several Catholic publishers will be on-hand to share their wisdom and hear authors propose their works.

The Catholic Marketing Network's International Trade Show, held at the neighboring Garden State Exhibition Center (http://www.gsec.com), will serve as the exhibition floor for the writers’ conference, giving writers a chance to browse the booths, meet with publishing companies, pitch their books to publishers, have their work critiqued at a private critique session and chat with the published authors at book signings at the Catholic Writers’ Guild booth. CMN will also be hosting daily Masses and rosaries at the Doubletree Hotel, and Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament at the exhibition center. Other CMN events including the seminars and inspirational talks scheduled for Tuesday, August 4 will be held at the Doubletree.
Presenters for the writers’ conference include: author/Sophia Press submissions editor Regina Doman (Angel in the Waters); Pauline Books and Media Editor Sister Maria Grace, CEO of Ignatius Press Mark Brumley (How Not to Share Your Faith), Susan Brinkmann editor of Canticle Magazine, Lisa Wheeler, Executive Vice President of the Maximus Group (PR and marketing firm for The Passion of the Christ), author/Ascension Press publisher Matt Pinto (Do Adam and Eve Have Belly Buttons?), Claudia Volkman, General Manager of Circle Press, Tom Hoopes, Executive Editor of the National Catholic Register, and mystery author John Desjarlais (Bleeder) among others.

"This is a fantastic opportunity for both writers and publishers to connect," said science fiction writer and Catholic Writer's Guild President, Karina Fabian. "The CMN has been especially generous in offering to share it facilities and programs with us, which really enhances the quality of the conference for attendee and presenter.”

Conference Coordinator and CWG Vice President Ann Lewis adds “There will be a lot of good information, encouragement and learning opportunities for Catholic authors at our live conference. Our goal is to help good Catholic writers to get published. The world needs their words.”

The Catholic Writers’ Guild has hosted two highly successful on-line conferences.
To register or for more information, go to www.catholicwritersconference.com. Registration is $80 through June 1st, $99 through July 31st and $110 at the door.