Review of The Handbook for Catholic Moms by Lisa Hendey

Summary:

Drawing from the deep tradition of the Catholic faith, Lisa Hendey coaches Catholic moms in how to care for themselves—heart, mind, body, and soul—so that they can better love and care for their families, their neighbors, and their Church.
With warmth and wisdom, Hendey creates an environment where Catholic moms can reflect peacefully upon often-competitive topics like parenting style, types of schooling, and working outside the home. By sharing her own story, Hendey inspires readers to better balance their own needs with the demands of family life and faith commitment.

Lisa shares stories from her personal life as a wife and mother, as well as stories contributed by Catholic moms and families from around the country. Each chapter of The Handbook for Catholic Moms contains relevant scripture passages, Church doctrine, and quotes from the lives of the saints. Noted Catholics such as Danielle Bean, Father James Martin, Donna-Marie Cooper O'Boyle and Phil Lenahan contribute their expertise and wisdom to make this a tremendous resource for Catholic mothers. "Mom's Homework" reflections at the conclusion of every chapter help the reader apply the book's principles to her real world challenges as a Catholic Mom.

Review:


This is not a parenting guide, despite the title. Reading Lisa Hendey's Handbook for Catholic Moms is like having lunch with a group of Catholic friends who share their personal stories, well-thought wisdom and practical tips for living as a Catholic woman who is a mother. In her 22 chapters, she covers everything from keeping physical health to creating a home where the Catholic faith is present and vibrant in our home.

I have to admit, parts of it intimidated me. Sometimes I felt like the shortfalls she shares were at the level of my aspirations, but as she says several times, each home is different; each family is different, and God calls us to do our best. The information in her book provides not a blueprint of the perfect Catholic family, but a road map to help Catholic moms find direction to improve themselves as moms, as women and as Catholics.

I read this on the airplane in about two hours, and frankly, that's not the way I recommend doing it. Rather, I suggest treating it like a study, taking a chapter at a time, reading, considering and executing some of her tips. I think it would make a great guide for a Catholic mom's group. Regardless of how you read it, if you're a Catholic and a mom, you'll find a lot of great information and inspiration in Handbook for Catholic Moms by Lisa Hendey.

My Novel's Journey: Rediscovering Discovery: Assigning Jobs

This week has been a series of starts and stops in rewriting Discovery. I'm not just killing off entire chapters and watching new ones rise from the ashes, but I'm having to rethink events and even characters.

This week's challenge came with Chapter Three: I'd decided that Thoren trying to keep the mission secret even from the participants until they were all on the ship was just silly and pointless. So James gets to meet the rest of the research team on the moon. I hadn't really introduced them formally in the previous versions, and thus didn't really mention all their jobs or special skills. Now I needed to.

I'd thought before about what kind of people would be on the team, but lost the notes and had to think about it all over again. This time, I made a comment online and before anyone saw my answer, they chimed in their own ideas. I won't go over them all, except to say that, while some didn't work for the situation in my novel, they did make me think. As a result I changed several positions. Here, then, is the research crew:

Dr William Thoren--Mission Leader

Chris David--astronomer who discovered the ship

Casey Ostrand--vidoegrapher--injured shoulder using exoskeleton

Merl Pritchard—environmental engineer

Keli Riggens—zoologist

Jason Larache--systems engineer.

Ian Hu--drive systems specialist, warp drive theorist

Gordon Radell-cryptography

Zabrina Muha--microbiologist

Mikah Kowalski—linguist

Unfortunately, changing Merl's job also changed his ability to be the inadvertent bad guy. However, that worked in my favor. You know the saying that if you're going to use a gun in Chapter 15, put it in Chapter Two? The corollary is don't make a point of the gun in Chapter Two unless you're going to use it in Chapter 15. Well, in both versions of Discovery, I had a "gun," a character named Cay who panics and accidentally hurts Ann. He's never seen or heard from again. Now, he's going to be part of the recovery crew, trying to prove himself, and as such will get involved in a series of events that will lead to his trying to destroy the alien ship. And Merl will still have a hand in that, but as the inadvertent influence that pushed Cay off the edge.

To get to this point, Merl gets to do some ol'-fashioned-down-home-come-to-Jesus preachin'! I had some fun with this, because Sister Ann goes to sit in, and in typical Ann fashion, seems to get the point while appearing completely flighty. (Merl says in his sermon that God's love is sufficient.)

Ann: I enjoyed listening to you. It made me think Plato.
Merl: my sermon made you think of a pagan philosopher?
Ann: necessary and sufficient conditions. Is God's love sufficient or merely necessary?
Merl: Merely?
Ann: As opposed to necessary and sufficient. Certainly accepting His love is merely necessary. It's in Corinthians… ( Get the quote about faith and deeds)
Merl: But He who liveth and believeth in me shall have everlasting life
Ann: Yes, exactly! Necessary and sufficient! So would you like to join me in Adoration?
Merl blanches: I think not.
Ann: Oh. Well, it's neither necessary nor sufficient, but it is loving!

Five Reasons to attend a writers' confernece

1. Improve your craft. There are usually seminars on everything from idea generation to marketing. Sometimes, presentations cover a more philosophical approach to writing. They're good places to get a taste of different types of writing, like learning to write for children when you're an adult writer. It's not just writers talking about themselves--it's about writers teaching some topic they're knowledgeable about.

Incidentally, it's not always about writing, either. I had about 20 people show up for my presentation on time management for authors. Afterward, other people were asking if they could have my notes.

2. Meeting new editors. Just because you're happy with the editor of your current work doesn't mean you'll publish everything with that house. Michelle Buckman is a good example. Her YA novels have been published by a major Christian publishing house, NavPress. She's very happy with them and has other books with them. However, she has some books that are too Catholic for their audience. She sold "Death Panels" to TAN books and "Rachel's Contrition" to Sophia. She loves her editor at Sophia, but that editor doesn't care for sci-fi, which is what "Death Panels" is. By the same token, TAN is not ready to take a plunge into publishing Women's Contemporary Fiction, which is what "Rachel's Contrition" is.

So writing conferences are a great place to get to know editors and what they want. As for pitching: it's a nice way to skip the slush pile!

3. Meeting like-minded writers. Writing doesn't have to be solitary, of course, and the Internet has brought us together. However, there's a lot to be said for personal communication. My roomies at the Catholic Writers' Conference Live and I stayed up until 2 am talking, laughing and sharing some pretty deep stuff. We'd only met briefly online, but we are best friends now. We went out with others to dinner and such, and I haven't laughed so hard and so often in a year.

4. It's a chance to stretch your writing wings. I'll give you an example from my Idea Generation workshop from CWCL. Rather than a lot of instruction, I answered a couple of questions, then gave everyone exercises: I presented a character, setting and conflict/object from a published book and told them to make a story synopsis, novel outline, or article query from it. Afterward, I told them the book. One woman came in believing she didn't know how to flesh out ideas, but wrote an outline for a novel and a short story synopsis--in 15 minutes each! Another writer, a novelist, discovered a talent for flash fiction. All of them left with writing they could polish and sell.

5. It's a chance to promote yourself. Writers are readers. I already have several reviews written and more books in the pile to review as a result of CWCL. Several folks I know came away with writing jobs, interviews on radio, and promises of reviews from others.

Incidentally, there's very little writing going on at a writers' conference. Writer's workshops, like Clarion, are different. Those are intense courses taught (hopefully) by experienced writers or editors and are geared specifically toward teaching you to write and write so that you get published.

My Novel's Journey: Rediscovering Discovery

Did I ever mention that this is the first time I've done reconstructive surgery on a manuscript?

With Mind Over Mind (coming September 2011 from Dragon Moon), I had started with a college manuscript that was, well, lame, and changed it so radically that I really just tossed it, kept a few characters and general plot progression and made it into a trilogy. It is simply NOT the same book except in the most superficial ways. In fact, Romeo and Juliet and Unseen Academicals (Discworld) have more in common. (Loved Pratchett's book!)

Discovery, however, has a lot to salvage--and a lot to chuck without a second thought. The more I dig, however, the more I need to chuck.

Take Chapter One. Please. But seriously, I loved Chapter One. It has action, drama and a lot of good introduction to the world. It's as close to hard SF as I've ever come. It had a lot of nice details that come back again in the book.

It was 6000 words long.
It was hard SF, while the rest is soft SF.
It takes place on an asteroid we never see or hear from again except in passing.
But the worst thing yet…

The emergency I postulated could not happen in space!

Oh, headdesk, headdesk, headdesk.

You see, when I wrote this in the heady month of NaNoWriMo, I was thinking that spacesuit air was like scuba air--an oxygen/nitrogen mix. So Sister Ann's suit malfunctions and she gets nitrogen narcosis, which allows her to talk pretty freely about stuff Sister Rita would just as soon not hear! Only problem: spacesuit air is pure pressurized oxygen. And oxygen deprivation or oxygen narcosis won't cause the same euphoria and delirium that nitrogen will.

I don't remember why exactly I wanted to revisit the first chapter--I think the length and explanations bothered me--but as I delved more into suits and air, I realized my fatal error. After I'd rewritten the entire chapter.

But you know me! I'm always glad to torture my characters for fun and plot-fit. So poor Sister Ann has basically the same situation but instead of whacking her pack against something and causing it to malfunction, she gets slammed into a broken piece of the station, a rebar that stabs her through the suit into the side. Sister Hard Core saves her own life by spraying around her suit and the bar with a plasticine glue I'd invented for the story, thus sealing the leak, then stays very still until someone can cut her free. The chapter actually starts as Basilica lands at St. Joseph de Cupertino Station, where she can get medical help.

Here's a before-and-after shot of the key lines I wanted:

BEFORE:

Instead of answering, Ann said, "Faith, hope and love; and the greatest of these is love. Did you know Brother Jubal didn't like people very much? He had hoped to spend his life in solitude at the Oceanus hermitage. Know what else he wrote?

I came as a wanderer,
found You, Beloved, here
in a dead world poised
on the edge of eternity.

"Yet God called him to go minister to the Drake Lunar station. He left the life he loved and as a result, came to love life more. But could he have done it if he hadn't had that revelation of God's love? Then, there's St. Gillian: Nowhere do I feel closer to God than watching the sunrise across the mountains. God made this world to suit us; and us, uniquely suited for it. She rode animals."

"Horses. Lots of people ride horses."

"And shrews ride people."

"What?"

Ann's voice deepened into a snarl. "'Research! Work! Give your pain to God!' Vaccing shrew rides me like one of her horses. R. Charles Hawkins was very cranky after his accident. He wanted to give up work on the gravity generator and die, and Gillian left earth to be with him full time at L5. I guess it's easier to ride someone in zero g."

Rita had long broken the habit of smacking her own forehead, but times like these brought back the urge. "I think he's speaking figuratively."

"I see. I think he was literal when he wrote There would be no gravity here were it not for my wife, my dear shrew. The first successful test of the Hawkins gravity generator. Gravity. A force of attraction. Love is a force of attraction. Gillian stayed with R. Charles on L5, even though the earth pulled at her heart. Human love is strong."

Suddenly Rita's heart thundered in her chest and her mouth went dry. "It wasn't human love that kept St. Gillian in space after her husband died. It was her love for God that called her to start our order," she snapped.

"That's true. Faith, hope and love." Ann mused, as if she hadn't noticed the anger in Rita's voice.


AFTER:

"Ann, are you okay?" It was a stupid question. The broken piece of strut protruded from her side like a Roman lance. A messy glob of plasticine glue pasted it to her spacesuit, holding it in place and sealing the tear that would have bled air from her suit. Ann was still in her suit, gloves and helmet off, snoopy cap still on at her insistence so she could hear the progress of the other sisters on the rescue.

"The St. Gillian caught Dome Six," she reported and smiled. "Claire is scolding it for wandering!"

Rita gave a distracted chuckle as she checked readings from Ann's skinsuit. Tommie reported the airlock mated and pressurizing. Hurry up!

"I came as a wanderer,/found You, Beloved, here/in a dead world poised/on the edge of eternity," Ann murmured. "Clair can scold you."

Rita glanced from the readouts to see Ann staring at her. "What?"

"You wandered so far, but he was always right there," she muttered. Then her eyes clouded and she turned to where eleven miners sat in jump seats along the wall of the shuttle's bay or in the microgravity rover now secured to the deck.

PROGRESS REPORT: About 5000 words cut. Finished rewrite of Chapter One, which is now Chapter Two. Made some slight changes to Chapter Two, which is now Chapter One. Trying to decide what to do for Chapters Three and Four. Overall goal: TIGHTEN THE FRONT HALF.

Thoughts on Marketing Your Books

Recently, I was on a marketing panel at the Catholic Writer's Conference Live. John Desjarlais was the moderator, and he kindly supplied me with questions ahead of time. I made some notes, which I never really got to because of the flow of questions from the audience. I thought I'd share with you today.

How does a non-artist get good promotional material?

• Use the cover art
• Get help
• Remember that “good” does not have to mean expensive or flashy—capture them with the story

In the modern age, has the web trumped public presence? Do you still need to shake hands and kiss babies?

• If in bookstores, I think physical presence is more important.
• However, it is fun and helpful to be available, to make live contacts (like Ann said in her opening speech) Not just for sales, but support and future publishing
What marks you as a professional when you market? How do I market on the cheap without looking like an amateur?
• Know what you’re doing—take some classes, get some examples of what works.
• Don’t hard sell. They say writing is an isolated art, but at the core, it’s about establishing a relationship, however temporary, with the reader. Marketing is the same.

example: There’s an author I friended on Facebook. Every post I see of his is really just an ad—often the same ad—for his book. A review quote and a buy link. Sometimes when he sees me on facebook, he IMs me to ask when he “can send me my copy.” Compare that to Carolyn Howard-Johnson. She has several books on book promotion and writing. She has a twitter account and a newsletter for promoting them and she mentions them fairly regularly, but mostly, she has interesting things that help authors. People learn to trust her, then they buy her books.

What do you think of getting your name out in tangential ways - teaching classes, apearing at conferences, etc.?

• I definitely recommend it. I sell a lot of stuff and gather new readers—and new friends that way.
• You don’t need to teach either. I always use conference workshops to work on a work in progress, like from my DragonEye. People get sucked into the characters, and I can mention that I already have one book out.

Your thoughts on appearing as original vs being compared to other authors? (Example: all the fantasy authors whose works are described as points on a line with Tolkein in the center.)

• I like what Terry Pratchett said on his website. “I’m having a real identity crisis, since apparently there are four or more of me.” I love Terry Pratchett and I aspire to write on his level, but I don’t want to be the next Terry Pratchett. However, when asked what my books are like, I have been known to say “Discworld meets Harry Dresden Files.” Or “Terry Pratchett meets Jim Butcher.”

Do you blog? Doesn't it take away from your writing time?

• I have a love-hate relationship with blogging. At one point, I had three blogs I kept up regularly, but they didn’t do anything for me except, as you say, take away from my writing—and my imagining time. This year, I narrowed it to one blog, twice a week. On Mondays, it’s anything goes, and I share news or review others or whatever. Thursdays, I write about my latest work in progress. That way, it does help me—it keeps people up to date, gives me a chance to give back to others who have hosted me on their blogs, and it gives me a little reward because I can talk about what I’m writing.

Do you do anything to determine what marketing methods are giving you hits and - more importantly - sales?

• I can’t get my head around SEOs and all that. One thing I found has helped is not depending on my own sites. For example, I started publishing my Dragon’s Eye View newsletter on myebook.com. Before, I only had a few readers each issue, now I average 10,000 reads. I’m still not sure how well that’s translating into sales.

What is the first thing I should do when I go home tonight to start marketing well?

• Set up a regular time or a regular task list. One thing about marketing is that you have to plug away at it, even if just baby steps. I actually publish a weekly newsletter, 30-minute marketer, that gives 4 tasks that take about 30 minutes each, to help folks organize that, and I have some samples. But really, the key is find that tasks that work and keep at them, a little each day or a little each week.

If you'd like a sample issue of the 30-Minute Marketer, check it out at www.fabianspace.com.

Top Ten Reasons the Catholic Writers Conference Rocks

There have been a lot of blogs about the Catholic Writers Conference Live. I'll be having a few more here and there myself. Here, in a nutshell, is why I love it.

1. Talking about papal encyclicals, getting published and the Cleopatra's Boudoir fantasy suite in the same conversation.
2. Starting the day with Mass, being able to go to Confession during the day, and having a dedicated place to spend time in adoration, pray the rosary, or spend time in quiet spiritual contemplation.
3. Laughing so hard that people come from the other side of the trade show to ask what's so funny. (And it's an NFP cartoon!)
4. Finding out that you are not alone or crazy to want to write Catholic fiction.
5. Taking that workshop that teaches you that you can do something you previously thought beyond your talents.
6. Telling that vendor on the last day how much you like their samples--and having it presented to you as a gift.
7. Discovering the "catholic" in Catholic: meeting people from all walks of life from the rural Southern writer of women's lit to the intellectual North England apologeticist to the soft-spoken article writer from Cameroon, and finding out you all share common ground, common morals, common goals.
8. Being able to talk pitch to publishers on the exhibitor's floor as well as in pitch sessions.
9. Hearing someone talk not just about the mechanics of storytelling, but the theology and philosophy of the creative process.
10. Knowing that when it's done, it's not really the end.

Lessons Learned at an idea workshop

Just for fun this year at the Catholic Writers' Conference Live, I ran a panel on ideas. Rather than a lecture, I took some questions and we all shared our personal tips on handling ideas, then we did exercises. I'd gone around the exhibitors' floor and picked books at random, writing down the protagonist, the setting and the crisis/object:

13th century cathedral
a thief
a relic

OR

a planet where trees are sentient
a deaf woman
an alien wants to marry her

Then I gave them 15 minutes (later cutting it to 10) for them to write a story synopsis, novel outline or article proposal. The response was phenomenal. Not only did these people come up with different twists on the same three elements, but several of them produced writing that they could do some minimal tweaking to and submit. One person realized she can come up with a complete story progression. Another discovered she had a talent for flash fiction. (Her stuff was amazing!)

I can't claim any credit for teaching them because I did not teach. We shared our ideas about generating ideas, prioritizing when we have too many, and fleshing out ideas. Nonetheless, these simple exercises taught them some valuable lessons:

* Ideas are out there
* You can flesh them out if you concentrate
* It doesn't have to take a lot of time and contemplation
* Sometimes a forced creative flow can produce awesome stuff--you don't always need to "wait for the muse"

I hope the lessons they learned will help you as well.

BTW, thanks to them I have another idea for a DragonEye, PI novel: a thief steals a relic from a 13th century saint and smuggles it across the Gap to Faerie. However, the relic, being from the Faerie St. Dismas, wants to return home. It starts a epidemic in Los Lagos--but only among thieves. I'm thinking of calling it "Dismas-ly Ill"

My Novel's Journey: Rediscovering Discovery

Well, I finally did it today. I finished reading the 80,000 words I have written on my Catholic sci-fi novel, DISCOVERY. I know what works and what doesn't and it really comes down to fixing the first half so that it dances with the second half. That means character development, minor conflicts during the trip out to the Kuiper Belt that foreshadow the crises when they explore the ship, and researching some great quotes for Sister Ann to lob off that are perfect for the situation as she understands it--and does she ever understand!--but that confuse everyone else. It also means some re-constructive surgery, then a really good polish.

Now, I have to decide how to best go about this. Should I outline? Cut the manuscript into pieces and play with them like a puzzle? Scrap the whole thing and start over armed with the knowledge of what I've written?

I'm not sure, and tomorrow, Steven gets his wisdom teeth pulled, and Rob took the day off. Not going to be doing a lot of writing this weekend. However, Monday, the kids go to school, and thanks to a different schedule and the fact that they have buses, I will have an extra couple of hours to work during the school day. I'll work a plan this weekend, and Monday start. I'll let you know how it's going!

Incidentally, I'm miffed at StarGate: Universe (aka StarGate: Whinyverse) for naming their ship Discovery. I'm wondering if I really have to change mine. For the record, I came up with it long before the show.

Thanks to the Catholic Writers Conference Live!

(Note: This was written on Friday, Aug 6.)

The Catholic Writers Conference Live is over. The trade booth is struck, and my roomies (Michelle Buckman and Elizabeth Weiner) are on their way to the train. Fortunately, I get to have breakfast with Ann Lewis, Margaret Reiley and John Desjarlais in an hour or so or I might be crying.

I've been to writers' conference before, and it's always a high to be sharing your excitement for the craft with others, but being a Catholic conference adds a special element. It wasn't just that there was daily Mass offered before the day's events--it was the new friend who nabs you on the exhibitor’s floor and says, "They're doing benediction and Communion. Since you missed Mass, you need to go get the Sacrament now." It wasn't just hearing about how to write a great villain; it's learning how you can access that darker side of our nature and make it a force for Good. It wasn't just that you could talk to publishers an authors; it was that authors and publishers shared with each other in friendly competition but with a solidarity that comes from the knowledge that we share a higher mission than just making money (we hope) off our works.

It's more than just being able to talk freely about our faith--it's feeling free to live our faith as passionately as we live our craft.

While other writers' conferences inform my mind and inspire my imagination, the Catholic Writers Conference Live touched soul.

Thank you to all who helped put the conference together and to all who attended.

Waiting—the worst part of being a writer

Taking a break from My Writer's Journey as I wait for critiques and prepare for the Catholic Writers' Conference Live. So, appropriately, here's my take on waiting!

I know that most writers think getting rejected is the worst part of the vocation, but not for me. I hate the waiting. Waiting on critique buddies to get back to you. Waiting for publishers to accept or reject. Waiting for the book or story to come out. There’s a lot of waiting involved in writing.

Part of why I hate it is I’m an impatient person when it comes to completing a project. I like knowing something is finalized, and an unpublished manuscript is somehow incomplete.

I also get insecure: Did the editor receive it? Did it get lost in a pile somewhere? Did the reply get lost? I try to combat this by making sure I follow-up, but sometimes, even follow-ups (and second follow-ups) go unanswered. Even an autoreply would be nice!

I’m also insecure about moving on. I know the guidelines say they’ll get back in a certain amount of time, but 8 times out of 10, they don’t, even with a follow-up. However, I always feel like I’m being impolite if I send it someplace else. What if they find it in that pile they finally got to? Did I just miss a chance at Asimov’s or Tor because I got impatient and sent it to a small press?

Finally, I hate waiting because it plays on my biggest weakness: my memory. As I look back at my list of submissions, I find that some of them have been with a magazine for over a year! And no reply. Why didn’t I forget it and move on? I got involved in something else and forgot. Obviously, I need to start making a schedule to check on these things. It’s my next focus area in writing.

I know the best way to get past my distaste for waiting is just to keep moving on, and I do. But as I look at the growing pile of submissions that languish while I wait, I feel the weight of my dreams sitting in someone else’s in-box.

To be honest, I’d rather have a fast rejection than a long wait. At least then I know where I stand.

Who I write like...and other mis-analyses

I write like
Stephen King...no, Cory Doctorow...wait, Richard Chadler? David Foster Wallace?

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

In one of my writing groups, a person put up this link http://iwl.me/s/2b568272. It’s supposed to be a writing analyzer that claims to be able to tell you who you write like.

I Write Like checks which famous writer you write like by analyzing your word choice and writing style and comparing them with those of the famous writers.
Learn which writer you write like and get yourself a badge!

Just for kicks, I decided to try it out. Of course, having been a math major and a logic-minded geek in general, I decided to treat it like a statistical experiment.

I put in three sections from three different novels:

Neeta Lyffe: Arthur C. Clark
Magic, Mensa and Mayhem: Stephen King
Live and Let Fly: Stephen King and (because I didn’t believe it and put in a second sample) Dave Foster Wallace

I put in three different sections chosen at random from Neeta Lyffe, Zombie Exterminator. According to the analysis, I write like Chuck Palahnuik, Cory Doctorow, and Raymond Chandler. All in the same book.

So I tried it again, with four consecutive sections: Raymond Chandler, Dan Brown (hm, maybe I should rewrite that part), Cory Doctorow, and Stephen King.

Then I took just the King section and divided it into three parts: Stephen King, Cory Doctorow and Stephen King.

Interesting that Cory Doctorow and Stephen King came up so often, especially since I write humorous fantasy.

Just a note: I did put the same bits of text in more than once and would get the same author, so I don’t think it’s just a random generator. It’s just not very good.

Apparently, the only thing it could agree on consistently is that I write like a lot of male writers, which is doubly ironic because another writing analysis program I tried said I have a female voice (which would have disturbed me if I’d believed it, since I was analyzing Vern’s stories.)

Now you know why I have no faith in these analysis machines.

Ten Reasons I'm a Writer

I’m at the Catholic Writers’ Conference Live this week. I adore this conference and have waaaay too much fun connecting with live people to take time out to blog. So this is prepared ahead of time.

1. There are too many people living out their lives in my head. If I didn’t exorcise some of their stories, it would get too crowded to think!
2. Along the same lines, it keeps me from sitting in a corner of my room, staring blankly at the wall while in my mind, I live their lives with them.
3. I can indulge a snarky side of my personality without anyone getting mad at me. (Or if they do, they can write about it on the Internet, giving me more publicity!)
4. I love to read my stories aloud to my kids and hear their laughter and comments. It’s the best compliment in the world when Steven starts reciting my lines at random.
5. I really don’t care much for discussing current events or celebrity gossip (more and more, the same thing). Writing allows me to explore a lot of issues without getting into what I consider the banal.
6. It’s a great escape from reality.
7. I can learn about a lot of really cool things without having to be an expert on any of them. This suits my impatient attention span just fine.
8. I’ve always been one for telling tall tales, anyway. It’s nice to get paid for them.
9. It’s rewarding to know I touched a heart—or made someone snort soda out their nose and enjoy the experience.
10. What other job lets you spend copious amounts of time locked in your own head, yet enables you to communicate with the world?

Review of The Bishop by Steven James

Summary from the Publisher:

FBI Special Agent Patrick Bowers's cutting-edge 21st-century geospatial investigative techniques and impeccable logic have helped him track some of the country's most grisly killers. But those skills are pushed to the limit in this new installment of the highly-acclaimed, award-winning The Bowers Files series. This time it's a congressman's daughter who is found dead even as her killers launch a spree of perfect murders in the Northeast. With nothing to link the crimes to each other, Agent Bowers faces his most difficult case yet--even as his personal life begins to crumble around him. Known for his intricately woven, masterfully plotted novels of high-octane action and spine-tingling suspense, Steven James delivers once again. The Bishop is a gripping, adrenaline-laced story for readers who are tired of timid thrillers. Strap on your seatbelt and get ready for a wild ride. The game is on.

Review:

I got this over the weekend from the publisher because I volunteered to review it. I love James' books. This time, however, I was planning to give it a quick look, as I had a busy weekend before my writer's conference.

"Quick look" led to staying up until 1:30 a.m. James' novels are totally engrossing, and I was fooling myself to assume any different.

The description has it right: masterfully plotted, high-octane action, spine-tingling suspense. I know you're going to find plenty of other reviews of Steven James that will tell you the same thing, so I won't repeat.

One thing I love about James' writing is that his characters are very intelligent and deep thinking, and not just about their case or their relationship. They ask big questions, about the meaning of life, about the basic nature of Man, and they always have interesting insights. James does a great job of brining in a lot of views without pushing an agenda, too. Because of that, I always find the Patrick Bowers Files books compelling on more than one level.

If you love intelligent, well-written, can't-tear-your-eyes-off-the-page thrillers, get The Bishop. In fact, get any of his books in this series. You wont' be disappointed.


Incidentally, he's having a party on Facebook. Come join us.

Grandma's House

Dad called last night to let me know that my grandma's house finally sold. My grandmother lived in the house from early in her marriage until the day she died. It started as a run-down shack, but the efforts of my Grandpa Rex, Grandma Ruby and their sons (including my dad), made it into a lovely home where people felt comfortable celebrating, mourning, or just visiting.

Back in 2004, I asked my grandma to tell me the history of the house, and I wrote an article on it. It's one of the best things I've ever done. I'm sending a copy to the new owners today, but I thought you might like to see it, too.

You can find it here: http://www.karinafabian.com/LumbertHomeArticle.pdf

Sorry the copy isn't so good: Fence Post liked the older, brownish newspaper paper.

This article is the only thing I have left of my grandmother's house, but that's okay. There's a new family in it, making their own memories. Isn't that what homes are for? I pray that they're mostly happy ones.

Conference Preparation Tips

The Catholic Writers Conference Live is in just a couple of weeks!

I've been working off and on the past few days getting things ready. I've packed my books, business cards and clothes. I've filled a binder with all my lecture notes and handouts. (I love page protectors for this). I've put important phone numbers in my cell phone. I've written out my schedule of panels, presentations, booth volunteer time and books signings and interviews.

On the home front, I've printed out my flight information and made daily checklists for the kids. If they follow it and Rob does the rest, I might come home to a clean house and minimal laundry!

The only thing I didn't prepare, much to my regret, is a book to pitch; however, I have a couple of concepts to discuss at the conference, so maybe I'll be ready next year or can make initial contact to follow up when I am more ready. And, I have to remind myself, two books in seven months is nothing to sneeze at, esp. with everything else I've done.

Are you heading to a conference? What do you do to prepare? Here are a couple of websites with some fabulous tips.

My list from February: http://fabianspace.blogspot.com/2010/02/feb-tweet-list-conference-tips.html

A great list I discovered yesterday: http://www.chrisbrogan.com/27-things-to-do-before-a-conference

my novel's journey: Neeta Lyffe, Zombie Exterminator--Editing

I'm working now on editing Neeta Lyffe, Zombie Exterminator. I thought to start, I'd share again my "method."

Five Steps For Editing a Manuscript:

1. Spell and Grammar Check: I do this as a quick check, and I don't believe everything Microsoft says about grammar. There's a lot the word processor doesn't understand. However, it's a good start.

2. Use the Find function for spotting passive voice and other common problems I have. If you use the Find function for words like is, was, were, very, etc., you will discover the passive-voice sentences. I also use it for other common problems I have--words I tend to overuse; names I may have misspelled (I find the misspellings, or use the Replace to change them all.)

3. Print and read it. I always catch more stuff when it's on paper than when I have it on the computer.

4. Read it out loud. This lets me check for flow of narrative and hard to follow sentences. Also, by reading it to my kids, they will tell me what works and what doesn't.

5. Read it backward, one sentence at a time. By isolating each sentence from the narrative, I can better analyze it.

Usually after that, I will give it a final read, beginning to end, on the computer.

Ten Random Thoughts

It's 11 pm on Sunday and I've not prepared a blog as I've been working all weekend on the first-round (which really is first 2 rounds) of edits to Neeta Lyffe, Zombie Exterminator. So tonight, I present 10 random thoughts that keep me up tonight:

1. What's with the latest Dr. Who? Is he defective? I'm getting rather irritated at how he's so reactive and slow to come up with solutions. The "Tenant" Doctor would have solved half his dilemmas by mid-show and gotten into some really juicy trouble. Is it because he's not ginger like he wanted?

2. Why is geekiness cool now, and not when I was a self-conscious teen? (Glad it is, since we're raising geeks.)

3. What is it about me that ruins computers? This is the fourth time in six months a computer's died on me. Rob wants to build me a desktop. At least then, I know my tech support.

4. Why did God create wasps and mosquitoes?

5. If I get royalties from Damnations Books, are those the wages of sin?

6. WHAT is the lure of Facebook games? They're about as interesting as slot machines without tangible payoff.

7. Why is it so hard to come up with ten things when you want to--but when you don't want to, questions and thoughts don't go away?

8. Who really reads my blog? I supposedly have 130 or more followers--do they really follow or are they just being polite?

9. What IS the approximate air velocity of the unladen sparrow? (African or European.)

10. Now that I've finished this, will how many questions will I come up with?

Good night!

My Novel's Journey: Fueling the Full Speed Ahead

Oops! It’s Thrusday, and I haven’t blogged!

All I can say is that I’ve been on a wonderful, awe-inspiring writing spree the past few days. I wrote 8300 words yesterday—good words, not stuff I’m going to cut or totally rewrite—and an hour after waking up this morning, I had another 600 to added.

This despite the fact that my laptop is down—yes, AGAIN!

So, yeah, I’m bragging a bit, but before you go hide in a corner (like one writer friend suggested she would do last night), let me share what got me here:

I’ve been working on Neeta Lyffe off and on since January. For the past 6 weeks, it’s been mostly off because of the move. In June, I gave myself permission to forget about writing obligations and just concentrate on the house. As a result of that and some major help from Rob, the kids and especially my parents who drove up to help, it is done. That took a major stress off my mind—and stress does stall creativity. (when we let it, but that’s another blog) I wrote when I had a chance and felt the need, but didn’t start my schedule. By the time I was done with the house, I was hungry for my routine. So, kill off stresses when you can.

However, just because I wasn’t putting a lot of words on paper, didn’t mean I wasn’t writing the book. The characters and scenes were still going on in my mind. Some people call this pre-writing. So daydream your stories when you can’t write.

My laptop dying probably helped. I didn't have as much incentive to be trolling the internet (which is hard on the netbook's tiny screen) or reading all my e-mailed newsletters (even harder on webmail and a tiny screen.) So cut distrations!

One thing I do have on the netbook is Yahoo IM. When I got stuck, I'd IM a writer friend (usually Rebecca Butcher, but also Ann Lewis and Susan Kirkland) and bounce ideas off them. Sometimes explaining helped gel a concept. So, talk through ideas with a friend or writer friend.

Two days before my writing spree, I had a day that was mostly spent staring at the same image on Google Earth for hours. (a concrete slab near West Burbank between I-5 and South Front Street in Burbank, CA. Twisting it, figuring out angles. Getting directions to the nearest hospitals and studios. Trying to figure out what it’d originally been used for. Drawing out the logistics of a zombie invasion spilling out of the imaginary factory I placed there. I am not a visualizer in the literal sense, so this was painful work for me, and wow—did it pay off in the end! So, do the research. Don’t be afraid to take time to think.

However, there came a point where I had to stop staring at the picture, get over my insecurities and self-doubt and just write. I chanted my mantra (“Sh**y First Draft”) until I had the nerve to start typing. Once I got into it, things flew! So, get over the self-doubt and just write!

Finally, I let the characters dictate the story. I had intended on a pretty grand battle, lots of strategy and good tactics, but these are a bunch of TV show contestants learning to be exterminators. Like reality TV contestants, they each wanted their moment. So that’s what I wrote—everybody got a scene, everybody did something cool. Then they surprised me: Katie finds courage, LaCenta meets a hot guy, Spud decides to propose. Neeta steals a HumVee and saves the very lawyer who sued her. As I wove these together, following their leads, I remembered a line Motzart said in the movie Amadeus about seven voices singing individually is music. They made music. So, don’t be afraid to let the characters take control.

Okay, enough for today. I want to get back. Everyone’s going to a big victory reception some political candidate is throwing for them Then I have to announce the winner of Zombie Death Extreme. Who will get the million?

Think you’ll have to buy the book to find out.

(BTW, yes, the house is a bit messy, but I did make a good breakfast for the kids, did 2 loads of laundry and cleaned the kids' bathroom. I also discussed some conference issues with Ann. You can do it and more!)

Advertise the Catholic Writers Conference and Win a Book

The Catholic Writers Conference Live is being held Aug 4-6 in King of Prussia, PA. It's an awesome writers conference, but we're not getting a lot of registrants. We're trying to make one final publicity push and you can help--and win one of my books.

I'm asking folks to post about the conference. Here're the rules:

* You can post anything below on your blog, website, facebook, twitter, Yahoo groups, Linked In, Ning groups, etc.
At minimum, you need to post the conference name, date, location and website to register
* E-mail me with the link to where you posted. karina(at)fabianspace.com
* For each post, I will enter you in a drawing. Aug 1, I will pick a winner. That winner will get their choice of any of my books. Check out my books at Fabianspace.com

You'll be doing a service not only for me and the CWG, but for any writer who happens to be Catholic and is looking for a place that not only will help them hone thier skills but will support their beliefs. If you might have someone like that in your readership, please help us out.

Minimum Post (140 characters): Catholic Writers! The Catholic Writers Conference Live is Aug 4-6 at King of Prussia, PA. Info/Register http://catholicwritersconference.com/

Video link: http://animoto.com/play/QsIiivcmRlI7XsXnDDTDvQ

Conference graphic link: http://www.catholicwritersconference.com/ref/web-ad.png



Most Current Press Release

M E D I A R E L E A S E

CONTACT: Ann Margaret Lewis
e-mail: annlewis(at)joesystems.com
Karina Fabian
E-mail: karina(at)fabianspace.com

For Immediate Release

Catholic Writers to Hold Conference in Valley Forge, PA

World Wide Web--The second annual Catholic Writers’ Conference LIVE will be held August 4-6, 2010, at the Scanticon Hotel Valley Forge in King of Prussia, PA. Sponsored by the Catholic Writer’s Guild and the Catholic Marketing Network (CMN), and held in conjunction with CMN’s annual retailer trade show, the Catholic Writers Conference LIVE provides Catholic authors with a prime opportunity to meet and share their faith with editors, publishers, fellow writers, and bookstore owners from across the globe.

This year's conference will feature presentations on such topics as market tips and time management for busy writers, poetry, creating evil characters, working with an editor, creating winning proposals, journaling and much more. Speakers include Catholic publishing representatives Claudia Volkman - General Manager of Circle Press, Regina Doman - acquisitions editor for Sophia Institute Press, and Tom Wehner - Managing Editor of the National Catholic Register, all of whom will also hear pitches from writers.

Among the other speakers are Mark Shea (Mother of the Son), Michelle Buckman (My Beautiful Disaster), Donna-Marie Cooper-O’Boyle (Mother Teresa and Me), Susie Lloyd (Please Don’t Drink the Holy Water), and Publicist Lisa Wheeler from the Maximus Group.

“Attending this conference has been the best thing I have done for myself professionally,” Carol Bannon, author of the children’s book Handshake from Heaven, said of the 2009 conference. Her fellow writer Melanie Cameron agreed, saying she left the last conference re-energized. “I recommend [this] conference as a resource for any author (or wannabe) at any stage. You will walk away empowered!”

The Catholic Writers Guild, a religious non-profit organization, sponsors both this live conference in August and an online conference in February to further its mission of promoting Catholic literature. “Our conferences are totally focused on encouraging faithful Catholics to share genuine Catholic culture and faith in their writing no matter what genre,” says CWG President Ann Margaret Lewis. “These events are integral to our mission of ‘creating a rebirth of Catholic arts and letters.”

Registration costs $85 for CWG members, $95 for non-members and $42 for students. There's also a discounted combined membership. To register or for more information, go to http://www.catholicwritersconference.com.

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Graphics, interviews and further information available upon request.


Thanks for your help!

Holly Lisle, an Example to Writers

I'm pausing in my adventures writing Neeta Lyffe to share this inspiring story.

Holly Lisle is a fantasy writer, who has been both prolific and successful. She's also a strong believer in helping other writers learn the trade. As such, she teaches classes and puts out a newsletter that talks about her writing life and lessons she's learned and wants to teach others. Regardless of you genre, you can learn a lot from her. www.hollylisle.com

Recently, she started having medical problems. Severe medical problems, the kind that, to paraphrase her newsletter, leave her lying on the couch with the room spinning, her head throbbing, not able to even read, and wondering if this is the new state of normal for the rest of her life. Nonetheless, she's managed to work on some bonuses for a course she teaches, write job descriptions for a magazine she wants to start (one of her life's goals), outline another class she wants to teach, and is figuring out how to write despite the dizziness and pain.

I can't help but think, "What happened to being sick?"

The answer, of course, is simple. She wants to write. She wants to create. And if she wants to continue doing what she loves, she has to learn to work through or around her health. So she is. Simple...

...but by no means easy.

What do you love? What's stopping you from pursuing it? More importantly, WHY are you letting it stop you?

The next time I get discouraged or feel too tired or busy or whatever, I'm going to think of Holly, lying on her couch, hardly able to get up, yet still making the effort to write her newsletter to inspire other writers. God bless you, Holly.