One of my Favorite Characters, Sister Grace

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I’m excited to blog today about one of my dear characters, Sister Grace, for two reasons:  First, her second book came out this month—Live and Let Fly.  Second, her story, Siren Spell, comes out today from Flying Island Press.

Sister Grace is not your typical nun.  First of all, she’s not from our world.  She was born in Ireland, but in the Faerie dimension, where magic, elves, demigods and all manner of unusual creatures are a fact of life.  Secondly, she’s not fully human—but I’ll let you read about that in Flying Island.  Suffice to say, it gave her some very powerful magical ability, which for the safety of herself and everyone, were consecrated to God when she was very young,  Currently, Sister Grace is partnered with a dragon, Vern, and they run a private investigations agency here in our world.  Most of the time they handle mundane (and Mundane) cases like finding lost animals or assisting the police when magic might be in play.  Every so often, they have to take on major supernatural baddies  to save our world and Faerie.

Grace is the perfect complement to a snarky, cynical and sometimes selfish dragon.  She’s got the spunk—and the grace—to keep him in line and following God’s direction more willingly than he usually does.  She’s also helped him enjoy his current situation.  Vern is good for her, too—she feels protected and secure with him, and he makes her laugh, which she hadn’t done for a long time before they met.  He also gave her the confidence to use her magic again after having faced some difficult temptations at the hands of some demons.  The two love each other dearly—which makes things a little awkward when Vern turns human for the case in Live and Let Fly.

That’s what I love about Grace, though.  She’s spiritual and utterly devoted to God, but she’s nonetheless human.  She’s been known to lose her temper, grab people by the ear, even get into magical spats with other beings.  She lets Vern get away with stuff now and then.  (Check out Vern’s “Apologia on Extortion,” https:// flowersonthefence.blogspot.com.)  But she’s also ready to sacrifice herself for others and always ready to follow God’s call.  And her reaction to seeing her very best friend as a gorgeous guy?  “Mary loved her sweet Joseph, and there have been plenty of married but celibate saints.  I’ll be fine.  But, just don’t touch me.”

Spirit, spunk, and a big dose of practicality.  That’s Sister Grace.

About Live and Let Fly:

The magic is Faerie.  The technology, Mundane.  When they meet, the survival of the world rests in one dragon’s…er…claws.  See Vern as you’ve never seen him before!  

For a dragon detective with a magic-slinging nun as a partner, saving the worlds gets routine. So, when the US government hires Vern and Sister Grace to recover stolen secrets for creating a new Interdimensional Gap– secrets the US would like to keep, thank you—Vern sees a chance to play Dragon-Oh-Seven.

No human spy, however, ever went up against a Norse goddess determined to use those secrets to rescue her husband. Sigyn will move heaven and earth to get Loki—and use the best and worst of our world against anyone who tries to stop her.
It’s super-spy spoofing at its best with exotic locations (Idaho–exotic?  Well, it is to them!), maniacal middle-managers, secret agent men, teen rock stars in trouble, man-eating animatronics, evil overlords and more!

Here’s an Excerpt with Vern and Grace talking the details of a case:

“Sure it was 2:30, exactly?”

Grace pulled off her shoes and massaged her feet. Then she wiggled her toes. She’s never cared for shoes. “They didn’t say exactly. Why?”

“Something about that time…”

Grace waited patiently while I mulled it over, then wracked my brains. Once upon a time, everything I learned I remembered; now “Wisdom of the Ages” is just a tag line on my Yellow Pages ad. I had my excellent memory back, but only of more recent events, and not always with perfect recall. There was something about the Gap and 2:30. Two-thirty. Two hundred thirty. Two-Three-Oh…

I felt more than heard Grace begin a prayer. She did that sometimes, prayed that a particular bit of knowledge would come to me. In fact, in our first case, her novena caused me to translate a popular song that turned out to be an ancient summoning rite—just in time, too.

I let it go. If there was something about the time we needed to know, God would help me remember. I settled myself down, arms tucked under my chest, and said my own dragon-style prayers until I saw Grace cross herself. “Hungry?”

“Ach, no. I’ve been filled with snacks.”

“Sure, nuns get pastries, but who feeds the dragon? After all, by now they know I prefer lunch meat over lovely maidens.”

She chuckled. “Well, someone hit a doe on the Gap road. Randy asked me to see if you were interested.”

“Best tip I’ve had all day. So how was the wedding?”

“Beautiful. Very simple, very heartfelt. A pleasure to sing at.”

I couldn’t help but grin at Grace’s starry gaze. Who said nuns can’t be romantics, too?

Then her expression changed. “Vern, do ye not think it’s time to apologize to Kitty?”

“Apologize?” I resisted the urge to ask, “What for,” since she’d come up with a list as long as my tail. “If I apologize to McGrue, she’ll only take that as evidence that she’s won somehow. That woman is as bad as—”

“—a dragon?”

There were times I’d rather face McGrue’s accusative stares than Grace’s guileless looks. Couldn’t she at least arch an eyebrow or something?

“I’m going to see what I can pick up at the Colt’s Hoof,” I growled on my way out.

Purchase on Amazon:  https://tinyurl.com/amazonllf

Purchase from Publisher: https://tinyurl.com/LiveAndLetFly

Great Marketing Opportunity – the CWG Booth

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Every year at the Catholic Marketing Network Trade Show, the Catholic Writers Guild organizes a booth which displays members’ books. Wholesalers, bookstore owners and other attendees can see, page through and even read excerpts of displayed books.

It’s time again to gather books for the booth. You don’t need to attend the conference or trade show to have your book displayed. As you can see from the photo, it’s an extensive booth (usually taking up three to four booth spaces).

This year’s trade show is August 28-31, 2012. To take advantage of this great marketing opportunity, your book must be pre-approved!

We are representing the Guild and its mission, so books must be approved to ensure they conform to Catholic principles. The books do not need to be exclusively Catholic, but they do need to be free of any philosophies or elements that are contrary to Catholic beliefs. We also look for a minimum standard of quality of writing. Because we have so many members and because we anticipate a high number of requests, we have a few rules. Please read them carefully, as we will not be making exceptions:

1. If your book has been approved for the booth in 2010 or 2011, it is still approved for this year. (We probably still have the copy you sent us, plus any ordering information.)
2. If your book has been rejected in the past, it will not be considered again unless there have been significant rewrites.
3. If your book has the Seal of Approval or an Imprimatur, it is automatically approved for the booth.
4. If your book has not been approved, you can either submit it to the SOA committee (link above) or submit it for screening by July 1, 2011.
5. Books scheduled to be published after July 1st can be submitted digitally before this date (if approved, a hard copy must be made available for display).

If you are able to attend the conference, there are additional opportunities to take part in author signings and readings at the booth.

For more information, please contact me – (Ellen Hrkach, VP and Booth Coordinator) at ellengablehrkach(at)gmail.com.

Design Matters

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Does design matter? Yes. Yes, it does.

Let’s use the example of books, because if you’re here, I’m assuming that (a) you write and/or (b) you read.

When’s the last time you picked up a book with a terrible cover? Or, even worse: when’s the last time you picked up a book that had terrible interior layout?

I think I did, a bit reluctantly, about a month ago. The book wasn’t so bad in content. But it was really, really, REALLY hard to get past my snobby opinion of the design, including the font choice (which was a little less than hard to read) and the page layout. And the editorial errors throughout? Well, yes, I consider those part of the design. It’s a package, and this package could have done a lot better at making what was a pretty good book into a far better book.

Content is king, but design matters. The same is true for your blog or website design.

There’s something to be said for different opinions of what looks good, so here’s my advice to you.

1. Do some research.

What sites look good? Make a list of why you think they look good or what elements you like. Try to find the underlying element to it: do you like the sidebars because they don’t have much in them? Do you like the way things are organized? Design doesn’t have to cost you money (though it can, and a lot of it). You can pull this off on the cheap, but you have to put some time in seeing what works and what you like.

2. Keep it UNcluttered.

This is a particular weakness of mine. There is SO! MUCH! I want to share in my sidebars especially, and keeping things uncluttered is hard.

3. Make it easy to use.

Your blog or website has to be easy to use, functional, intuitive. Period. My test is whether a certain family member, who loves me very much but is a little bit computer-challenged, can easily navigate through my site. If so, I consider it golden. If not, then it’s time to rework some things.

4. Stay true to you.

Years ago, in grad school, I read a copy of the Fast Company classic “The Brand Called You.” The idea of myself as a brand has stuck with me. Whether you like it or not, YOU are a brand. You stand for something. What is it? Or maybe it would be easier to answer if I ask it this way: What do you want it to be? Stay true to that. As a Catholic wife, mom, and writer who lives on a farm, I have a brand that includes prayer, poopy diapers, a husband, and shoes in my mudroom that have a fragrance all their own.

5. Have fun.

I tend to say this a lot in one form or another. Smile. Have fun. Enjoy yourself. Because you know what? God’s not calling you to do something that makes you miserable.

A few resources:

I didn’t want to leave you with just my advice when there’s so much good stuff available online. Here are a few things I found to share:

YOUR TURN:

What tips do have to share? Feel free to chime in with your favorite designs and ideas (because I’m all eyes!).

image source: MorgueFile

Lions and Tigers and Bears! Oh, my! Tension, Conflict, and Suspense – Creating Compelling Stories

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One of the most fundamental techniques of fiction writing is skillful creation of tension, sometimes referred to as conflict. Our favorite authors hook us on page one with a character so compelling that we read further to find out what happens. The character is engaging, with likeable traits that endear them to us, even if they have rough edges or find themselves in untenable situations that force a choice, a decision they wouldn’t normally make.

Therein lies a clue to a story that draws a reader in. Tension. Conflict. A mystery, a question, something out of the ordinary, an event that pushes the character out of their ordinariness. Suspense. What happens next? And why does the reader care?

Tension can be internal or external. Events that influence a character’s life are external (think plot). What goes on inside the character’s mind is internal – and don’t we all identify with (and love) characters who struggle with their own doubts yet persevere and triumph in the end? Stories have more depth if the character must face both types of conflict. Literary fiction often focuses more heavily on the internal, while suspense and thrillers lean toward the external, but the very best of any genre incorporates both.

Take some time – ten minutes or an hour – to think about your characters. What drives them? What are their core beliefs? What do they want (both their conscious goals but also their unconscious, deepest desires)? What obstacles exist to their attaining those goals? Can you come up with a Goal-Motivation-Conflict statement for each character? (Below, based on Debra Dixon’s book, Goal, Motivation and Conflict) How about doing this for an internal GMC as well as an external GMC? The best GMC statements pit the main characters against each other on all levels, with a worthy adversary throwing even more wrenches into the works. An extremely successful author friend (Katie McGarry) adds one more twist: in order for the hero/ine to achieve their highest goal (usually the internal, unconscious goal) they must sacrifice the thing that they initially thought meant the most to them.

Fill in the blanks: Sally wants ____  because ____, but ____. John wants ____ because, but ____.

Notice, this looks like the back copy of a book – and it can also serve as the basis for a pitch, either verbal or written. It also serves as a down-and-dirty template for your book, if you write without an outline.

Once you’ve come up with a general idea for your story, you can use this technique for each scene in the book. In each scene, make sure you know what’s at stake for the Point-of-View character. What does the character have to gain or lose? Make it a crucial goal (James Scott Bell refers to it as ‘death’, a risk of personal or professional failure of grand magnitude), then get right to it, using dialogue, action, reaction. Add obstacles, and let the character go to battle.

But the secret to end-of-scene suspense is…to cut away, to leave the scene before ‘the answer’ is revealed. Leave the character in a quandary, the question unanswered. Or introduce a new complication, complete with a hefty cost to the character.

These questions, both at the beginning of a scene and the end, are called ‘hooks’ for an obvious reason. Like fish, we are lured into the story, and get ‘hooked’ so it becomes difficult to put the book down. (As I glance at the bedside clock and mutter Just one more page…, then look up again a half hour and thirty pages later, realize how short on sleep I am going to be, and mutter Just one more page again! Don’t tell me you’ve never done that!)

Other strategies for managing tension include word choice and sentence structure. Choose each word carefully, to reflect the exact mood you’re trying to create. Smooth, languid words setting the stage, perhaps, then more active words leading up to an explosive eruption of emotion or action. Stretched-out, descriptive sentences for the set up; short, fast ones for the pay off.

As with all great writing techniques, there are caveats. Don’t ‘make stuff happen’ just to make stuff happen. The plot needs to unfold in a way that is authentic for the book and for your voice. Resist the urge to overdo. Hooks, suspense, tension, conflict – these can all be very subtle. Trust your reader to understand without spelling it out or hitting them over the head with it.

Tension boils down to posing a question, grappling to find an answer, then ending with another question. Do it enough times, and you have a book – a gripping book that the reader stays up way past bedtime to finish.

And that’s the kind of book you want to write!

What’s New, CWG?

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Hey, everyone!  It’s been a great month for the CWG.  here are the highlights from your committees:

CWG Essay Contest: Maria Rivera

This is still on hold, but please keep in mind that we may be asking for judges and looking for folks to submit their stories for the CWG/Christus story contest.

Seal of Approval:  Sarah Reinhard

In March, 13 books were awarded SoA.  The next submission period is open until April 30.  For more information see the sidebar!

CWG Retreat: Margaret Realy & Ann Lewis

We’re looking toward a retreat for April 19-23, 2013 at Our Lady of Fatima retreat House in Indianapolis, IN.   David Krajewski (Answering God’s Call to Write with the Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary) had agreed to be a speaker and are looking to secure two more presenters.  The goal is one presenter to speak each day, with time for prayer and writing in the afternoon before an evening critique session.  We are looking for 20 people to attend.

CWCO:  Laura Lowder

Laura Lowder has agreed to take on the CWCO and is already starting on her committee, getting tentative presenters, volunteers, etc.  We’ll be doing something different for the pitch sessions next year.  Joan Edwards has agreed to run her pitch workshop before the conference and end with a couple of crit sessions, so folks will be ready before the conference begins.

CWCL: Ann Lewis

Have you thought about the live conference?  It’s August 28-31 in Arlington, TX.  It’s going to be even bigger than ever, with other groups having their conferences at the same time.

Speaking of….SQPN will be next door to us, and while they cannot let members of our conference attend theirs without also paying their fee, their Friday line-up is all blogging, so they are offering those folks who want to pay an additional minimal fee (as yet to be determined) to go to their blogging track on Friday.  Stay tuned for more details.

CWG Blog:  Jennifer Fitz

Annette Tenny is the new newsperson.  Congrats!  We’d like to open the blog to flash fiction and poetry, but we need a poetry editor if so.

Catholic Arts and Letters Award: Michelle Buckman

The CALA award will not be presented in 2012, but will be in 2013 to give a larger group of writers a chance to submit.  We would love volunteers to join us in making 2013 a huge CALA year. We especially need people to help promote by writing up and/or distributing press releases, blogging about it, advertising it on their sites, and posting about it on email loops. There is always room for more judges, and behind the scenes helpers that handle entries. If anyone would like to volunteer, please contact me at:
[email protected] with CALA in the subject line.

—-

The other programs are continuing along, all making some nice progress thanks to a shot in the arm of volunteers.  We still need more help!  If you are a member and want to assist, please check out the volunteer blog at https://blog.catholicwritersguild.com/2012/04/cwg-members-we-need-you.html, and if you’ve not filled out the talent survey, please go to https://catholicwritersguild.com/index.php?name=Content&pid=20, and do so.  You must log into the CWG website before you can see the survey, and it is for dues-paying members only.

Using My Blog to Promote My Book

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Now that I have a few books under my belt, I can speak from experience about using my blog to promote my book.

At least, I think I can.

Before you read on, here are a couple of possible caveats:

  1. I have an existing audience. I’ve been blogging since May 2006. The people who read my blog and are my fans have been around for a while. They know me. Other people in the blogosphere know me. This making friends has taken time and commitment.
  2. I have a traditional publisher. I think my ideas would work for self-published works, but I can’t say for sure.
  3. I write nonfiction. Those of you who write fiction have my eyes, but I know your marketing work is far harder than mine.

My first feature-length book, Catholic Family Fun: A Guide for the Adventurous, Overwhelmed, Creative, or Clueless is fresh out on the streets.

The publisher, Pauline Books & Media, has a whole arsenal of marketing tools they use. They have actual brick-and-mortar stores, an online store, and promotional material sent to Catholic retailers and a large email distribution list.

I’m using my online presence to help build on what they are already doing. Here’s how I have been using my blog to promote my book.

Build excitement.

I’ve been sharing my book-writing journey on my blog from the beginning. When I first saw the cover art, I couldn’t help but gush to the world.

And then, when I heard that the book was at the publishing house, I asked them to send me a picture of it so I could share it on my blog. When I got my copies, I promptly took a picture of my girls with the book.

Having a book released is exciting, but it can be a lot of work. The work can be a burden that makes us forget the excitement.

People want excitement! They want to cheer for you! We all want to have fun!

So even if you feel like you’re lying, share the excitement!

Share the love.

I’m doing a book tour on a variety of different blogs. I invited people to participate, if they wanted, through a personal email. I also offered it to readers who were interested.

Though not many took me up on it, it was a chance to give some small bloggers a hook into the tour.

I’m also making sure I tell people what’s going on, when, and how. On the one hand, I feel like maybe I’m giving out too much information. On the other hand, the communications major in me wants to make sure that people who are interested have a way to find out what they want to know.

I’m also planning to liberally link to and cross-promote people who mention and promote my book.

Giveaways are another way to share the love. I am hoping that this generosity plants seeds in the buying sector. I’m promoting the giveaways through my blog and networks.

Ask for support.

This is, without a doubt, the hardest thing for me to do. Asking for support–whether it’s for prayers or for people to buy my book–does not come naturally to me.

When Welcome Baby Jesus was new, I gave people five reasons to buy it.

I’ve also asked people for their ideas…and I plan to keep doing this. What ideas work for them as it relates to the topic of my book? With Catholic Family Fun, that means asking people what they do for fun. It also means acknowledging that I’m not perfect (which has gotten easier to do with time), because I don’t have all the answers.

YOUR TURN:

How do you use your blog or online presence to promote your book(s)?

CWG Members–We Need You!

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Dear members of CWG (or those thinking about becoming members)

How would you like the opportunity to make some terrific online friends, get your name associated with a professional organization to fellow writers, editors, publishers and news sources, and do something worthwhile for Catholic literature?  What if I told you it would only take a couple of ours a week or less of your time?

The Catholic Writers Guild needs volunteers–and needs them badly!  The many programs we offer–some with national scope!–are being run by a few dedicated individuals.  We have come to the point where we cannot grow, however, because these people are maxed, and we’re not getting folks to step up to leadership positions as well as people to help consistently with the behind-the-scenes gruntwork.

Please, look over the following needs, pray over them, and if you can help, contact me at committeecoordinator(at)catholicwritersguild.com.

Public Relations: URGENT NEED!

1. Assistant to PR Coordinator.  No experience needed, though PR/marketing experience helpful.  This person would assist Maureen Martin in coordinating the PR activities for the Guild, including the conferences, awards, retreats, etc.  During heavy weeks, could be as much as 2-3 hours a week, but this would only be now and again.

2.  Database workers:  Knowledge of Excel helpful as are Internet research skills.  We want to build a huge, searchable contact database of newspapers, blogs, podcasts, etc. in order to be able to send out press releases and announcements quickly and efficiently.  This is a steady project of perhaps an hour a week.

3.  Marketing writers.  Write press releases and announcements, create flyers.  Knowing how to add photos to a document and convert to PDF helpful.  Perhaps an hour or two a month.

4.  Social media workers.  Knowledge of Twitter, Facebook, etc. helpful.  We have one person who is taking the Twitter account, but it’d be helpful to have a few people who would post news, not only about the Guild but its members and their books.  A couple of minutes a day (even a post a day would give us awesome traffic.)

Inside the CWG–the Guild newsletter

1.  Staff writers, especially for the saints column.  This would take perhaps an hour a month and gives you writing credit.

2. Editors.  Knowledge of PHP/HTML helpful.  To read over the newsletter draft and check for typos, etc.  Takes an hour a month, and you’d share the responsibility with her other editors.  (or serve as back-up)

CWG membership

Welcome committee.  It would be great to have a couple of people who would greet new members and help them to understand the forums, make them aware of the chats and FB page, etc., and basically make them feel welcome.  We’d also like these people to drop by the forums once a week and comment now and again.  Steady work of 20-60 minutes a week, more during heavy membership times (like during and after conferences.)

Seal of Approval

FREE BOOKS FOR READERS!  Read, evaluate, fill out a simple form.  Depending on your reading speed and how many books you volunteer to evaluate, this is a several hours a quarter.  Of reading.  Catholic fiction and non-fiction.  Did we mention free books?

CWG Story Contest

Pre-screening judges.  Looks like this will be getting off the ground at last!  We are going to need people to rate short stories (possibly to novella length) to go to the final panel of judges.  This will be reading-intensive for about a month; then it’s done for the year.

CWG Crit Groups:

We have restarted the critique groups, and in addition to the fantasy/SF group Tauris Tuus, we may have a non-fiction group starting.  However, I know there are children’s book authors, thriller writers, heavy theology writers…  If you would like to coordinate a group, we can give you the tools.

We have two other projects–the Live Conference in August, and the Catholic Arts and Letters ward–that are going to need a lot of help.  I’ll devote another blog to those.

What I Love about Being Catholic Online

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Every week, I encourage you to keep going with your blogging. I share tips and advice to the best of my ability. I try to be candid and not too idealistic.

Blogging’s hard work. But, as I was reminded recently, so is life. Period.

Last week, I had a bit of a family emergency. It took over my life, and it also made me appreciate, once again, why I so treasure my online Catholic community.

I posted on various social networks, repeatedly asking for prayers. I did a blog post and stuck it at the top of my blog so that it was the first thing people saw for three days.

And my family was absolutely buoyed by the prayers streaming in from people who had no idea what exactly they were praying for.

Knowing that my brothers and sisters online, people who have never met me or my family, will so generously offer prayers and more for my intentions…well, it’s enough to make this hard work of blogging worth it.

image credit

Marketing Your Self-Published Book

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After years of creating, editing, polishing and many revisions, the last line of your book is written.  You have sent it off to the printer.  You are finally finished!  Now you can sit back, kick up your feet and relax while your book becomes a bestseller.

Wrong.

For the self-published author, the writing of his or her book only comprises 10% of the work.  In my experience, 90% has been promotion and marketing.

I’ve put together some pointers that might help the novice self-published author.  These are things that I have learned from ten years experience as a self-published author, things that will help you to market your book.

One: Produce a quality book    There is no substitute for a quality book.  Don’t take short cuts! Hire a professional editor and cover designer.  Hire a book coach…please produce a quality book.  If you publish a poor quality or mediocre book, no amount of marketing is going to help it sell.

Two: Create a website for your book, along with a book trailer.  Here is my second novel’s website and book trailer: In Name Only.

Three: Attend local Catholic conferences    Since I was writing Catholic fiction, the first thing I did as a new author many years ago was to attend a local Catholic conference.  I sold 22 books at that conference. I use the word “local” because obviously there will be expenses for attending out-of-town conferences and an author must weigh the cost of attending to the possible income to be made.

Four: Ask friends, relatives and anyone who is willing to write a review of your book. This has been helpful, although friends and relatives can sometimes go overboard writing gushing reviews.

Five: Social networking/Web Presence  Ten years ago, the only social networking sites available were blogs. I didn’t have time to start writing a blog, but I did join Facebook way back in 2006 in order to keep any eye on my teenagers. As my friend list grew, it turned out to be a wonderful marketing and promotion tool.  Join Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Linked in, Google plus.  (BTW, feel free to follow me on any of these sites and I will follow you back!) Make a Facebook page for your book.

Social networking takes time, but these websites can be a tremendous help in promoting your book.  Once my boys grew a bit older, I began writing a blog. I also write columns for four different websites and I try to comment frequently on other blogs.

Six: Enter your book in book award contests   A major award has the potential of selling books. I entered my first book, Emily’s Hope, in the 2006 IPPY Awards.  Although I didn’t walk away with a medal, they sent me an “Honorable Mention” certificate and a few stickers.  When I entered my second book, In Name Only, in the 2010 IPPY Awards, I had no aspirations of winning anything.  When I found out I was a finalist, I automatically assumed I would receive a Bronze medal.  Later, I was shocked to discover my book had won the Gold Medal!

Although it doesn’t claim to be all-inclusive, this link contains a list of self-publishing contests to enter: https://www.selfpublishingreview.com/blog/2009/01/self-published-book-contests/   Be aware that most of these require an entry fee.

Seven: Release your book as an e-book at a reasonable price (more on e-book pricing in a future post).  I wrote about Kindle books in a post last year on this blog.

Putting my books on Kindle has been the single most important marketing device for me.  To illustrate this, let me state that in the first six years of my writing career, I sold a total of about 2000 print books, and these sales were mostly from conferences I attended.  Last year alone, I sold 5000 e-books and 500 print books (not too bad for a relatively unknown author). In the last six months, over 60,000 people have downloaded my books.  Some of these were free promotional downloads, but after the free promotions were over, I saw a spike in sales for all three of my novels  (5,000 books SOLD in nearly two weeks).  All three of my novels have been in the top ten of Religious and Liturgical Drama for three months, and most of the time, they are in the top four.

Because a self-published author doesn’t have a publisher to help them market, we should add “marketing” to the long list of things we must do ourselves.

You may have just written a literary masterpiece.  But if you don’t promote it, it will be destined for oblivion.

Copyright 2012 Ellen Gable Hrkach

Image purchased from iStock.

When Lent Becomes Personal

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Part of the Lenten Journey series

 Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and dry them with the towel around his waist. – John 13:5

It’s been a pretty pathetic Lent, or so I thought until about 10 AM on Tuesday morning.

It was then that I got The Call.

As I write this, I don’t know what the outcome of The Call will be. What will that test we worried about show? Will there be a new health challenge with a family member who’s had a fair share of them lately?

I’ve been reflecting about how this one call has changed my entire Lent.

Those reflections have led me back to how Gethsemane probably changed a few people’s perceptions of the Passover, too.

From the time I received that call on Tuesday morning, Lent changed for me. Holy Week, which I hadn’t even fully considered yet, became, suddenly, a time that would draw me closer to Jesus in his suffering and Passion.

What was it like to know what was coming, to want it not to happen, but to accept it anyway?

Lent becomes personal for me, most years, around Holy Thursday, when I find myself humbled and looking Jesus in the face.

This year is different already, and I’m trying to hold on and keep Jesus’ face in sight. He’s bowing his head, praying.

Sounds like a good approach to the unknown ahead.

Lord, hold us close as we face the insurmountable hurdle of Calvary. Let us feel the joy of Easter morning even though we’re struggling with the grief of Good Friday. Lead us into your arms, Lord, and help us to do your will. Amen.

Image source: MorgueFile

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Sarah Reinhard is online at SnoringScholar.com and is the author of the recently-released Catholic Family Fun: A Guide for the Adventurous, Overwhelmed, Creative, or Clueless.

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