GABLE TRIPLES THE TOP TEN LIST

Ellen Gable Hrkach, Vice President of the Catholic Writers Guild, reached a milestone last week: all three of her novels were in the top ten of their category  on Amazon Kindle.  At one point, all three books were in the top five! (As of January 24, 2012, the books are number 2, 5, and 7).

After being in the top 100 of Religious Fiction for nearly eight months, Ellen’s second novel, In Name Only (a Catholic historical romance) made it to the #1 position in Religious and Liturgical Drama three weeks ago. In 2010, In Name Only was the first Catholic novel to win the IPPY Gold Medal in Religious Fiction.
Ellen’s first novel, Emily’s Hope, has never appeared on any bestsellers’ list before now and has been consistently in the top ten for the past two weeks. Emily’s Hope tells the fictionalized true stories of Ellen and her great-grandmother and includes pro-life and NFP themes.

Stealing Jenny (http://www.stealingjenny.com), Ellen’s third novel, made it to the #1 position last November and has been consistently in the top 10 for the past four months.  Stealing Jenny is a suspense novel about a pregnant woman who is kidnapped by a mentally unstable infertile woman.

In a recent interview by Lisa Mladinich over at Patheos, Ellen shared why she began writing Catholic novels: “Like anyone, I love a good story, but I especially enjoy a compelling romance or suspense novel. As I grew in my faith, I no longer had any desire to read fiction with explicit sex scenes. So I began seeking out Christian fiction. However, I yearned to read good fiction with Catholic themes. I missed this in the Christian fiction I was reading after my re-version. And I didn’t like the formula and the predictability of many of these novels. “Trashy” novels — that is, romance or suspense with sexually explicit scenes — are probably the largest-selling market of books. I decided to write books that were compelling but not explicit. It was my goal to write novels that dealt with sexuality, abortion and contraception, but to handle with them in a way that illustrated Catholic truths and teachings.”

Ellen’s novels are available on Amazon in print or on Kindle.  She’ll be presenting chats on self-publishing and Kindle books at the Catholic Writers Online Conference in March.

You can find Ellen most days at her blog, Plot Line and Sinker, writing about various Catholic topics.  She can also be found online frequently at Amazing Catechists.com, CatholicMom.com and here at the Catholic Writers Guild blog.

MIND OVER MIND: HUGO AWARD NOMINEE

Karina Fabian’s book, Mind Over Mind, not only got a 5-star Amazon review but is on the reviewer’s short list for nominating for a Hugo.  (The Hugo is the premier award for science fiction/fantasy.)  Even better, one of the main characters is unabashedly Catholic.  If you’d like to review this book, contact Karina at karina(at)fabianspace.com and she’ll send you an electronic copy.  See the review at http://www.amazon.com/Mind-Over-Karina-L-Fabian/dp/1897492367. (Scroll down to Erin Lale’s review).

 

 

 

SUNDAY NIGHT CHAT LIVE

Join CWG members for a live chat on Sunday nights from 9-11 p.m. EST to talk about craft, faith, books and stories. Non-members are welcome. Go to the www.catholicwritersguild.com site and click on the chat link under the CWG banner.