This month, the Catholic Writers’ Guild is touring Guildie Carolyn Astfalk’s book, Ornamental Graces. It is a CWG Seal of Approval winner.
Teaser:
After his duplicitous girlfriend left, Dan Malone spent six months in a tailspin of despair and destruction: emotional, physical, and spiritual. Just when his life seems to be back on track, he meets Emily Kowalski, younger sister of his new best friend.
Summary:
After his duplicitous girlfriend left, Dan Malone spent six months in a tailspin of despair and destruction: emotional, physical, and spiritual. Just when his life seems to be back on track, he meets Emily Kowalski, younger sister of his new best friend. Emily’s the kind of girl he’d always dreamed of—sweet, smart, and sincere. But he’s made a mess of his life and ruined his chances for earning the love and trust of a woman like her. Could Dan be the man Emily’s been waiting for? How could he be when every time they get close he pulls away? And will he ever be free from his shady past and the ex-girlfriend who refuses to stay there? A Catholic Christmas romance that spans all seasons.
Special:
Read for free anytime on Kindle Unlimited or in the Kindle Lending Library with your Amazon Prime membership.
Website:
http://www.carolynastfalk.com/carolyn-astfalk-author/books/ornamental-graces/
Excerpt:
It had come to this. Daniel Malone sold instruments of torture just to keep food on his crappy Formica table for one. Of course, that probably wasn’t how others saw it.
They were bringing home a piece of the outdoors, a symbol of the season, a reminder of Christ’s nativity and resurrection, the eternal— evergreen—promises of God. Dan had seen things that way too before the past year took everything he had and shredded it with a mulcher. Muster- ing his remaining whit of self-respect, he’d succumbed to desperation and now sat in a drafty shack waiting for the next giddy Christmas revelers to select a fresh-scented, needle-dropping nightmare.
Okay, so maybe the trees weren’t exactly torturous, but he’d had enough of rough bark, sticky sap, and sharp needles to last a lifetime. Af- ter this, he’d be an artificial tree enthusiast—if he bothered to put up a tree at all.
Inside his small, weather-beaten shack, the one he’d assembled most- ly from leftover wooden pallets, Dan couldn’t smell the fresh, evergreen scent, the only trait of Christmas trees he still enjoyed. Instead, the odor of burnt coffee lingered though he hadn’t made a pot in days. He never cared for the taste, burnt or not, but he had needed something to keep him awake during the long, boring hours when no customers visited his lot.
The space heater at his feet gave a death rattle, and its electrical hum ceased. He kicked it with the tip of his boot. Nothing.
Great.
Dan folded his large frame under the wooden table that served as his desk and jiggled the wire where it entered the cheap heater. It knocked against the laminate floor remnants and hummed to life. A blast of warm air hit his face and then penetrated his boots. As he sat upright, he glanced out one of the two square windows and spotted a young couple beneath the lights in the rear of the lot.
The man had lifted a Douglas fir from where it leaned against the rope Dan strung across the lot. He stamped its trunk on the frozen, dry ground a couple times and then twirled it around so the woman could see every side. It was a woman, wasn’t it? No telltale pink gloves or hand-knit, sparkly scarf. No expensive boots designed for gawking rather than walk- ing. Just a puffy, navy jacket and white tennis shoes. It could be a skinny dude.
The person spent less than three seconds observing it before planting hands on hips and signaling disapproval with a shake of the head. Yeah, definitely a woman.
Dan rolled his eyes. Another one. If nothing else, this job had given him an unforgettable real-life lesson in male-female dynamics—a lesson that would’ve been helpful a couple of years ago. The man would ferret out the best-looking tree, well-shaped and full, and the woman would turn up her nose, forcing them to cycle through four to seven more trees before one met her approval—sometimes the same tree the man had first shown her.
Poor sap. He had at least three more trees to go.
Bio:
Carolyn Astfalk resides with her husband and four children in Hershey, Pennsylvania, where it smells like either chocolate or manure, depending on wind direction. She is the author of the inspirational romances Stay With Me and Ornamental Graces and the coming-of-age story Rightfully Ours. Carolyn is a member of the Catholic Writers Guild and Pennwriters and a CatholicMom.com contributor. Formerly, she served as the communications director of the Pennsylvania Catholic Conference, the public affairs agency of Pennsylvania’s Catholic bishops. True to her Pittsburgh roots, she still says “pop” instead of “soda,” although her beverage of choice is tea. You can find her online at www.carolynastfalk.com.
Buy Link:
https://www.amazon.com/Ornamental-Graces-Carolyn-Astfalk-ebook/dp/B01M60UCQB/
Tweet:
Dan’s mistakes bedevil him. Is there grace enough for a future w/ Emily? Ornamental Graces @CMAstfalk bit.ly/OrnamentalGraces #inspyromance
Michael Fraley
Michael Fraley has been editing and posting the CWG Book Blast since 2016. He's adapted the Arthurian portion of Geoffrey of Monmouth's “Histories of the Kings of Britain” to the comic page, has worked in book illustration, graphic design, and has also served as a newspaper columnist. In 2019 the story of his conversion to Catholicism was told in Nancy Ward's book Sharing Your Catholic Faith Story. His primary area of study is in the Jewish roots of the Church, with an emphasis on the Gospel of Matthew and the Epistle of James. He holds a MA in theology from St. Joseph's College of Maine and a BFA in fine art from Indiana University. He can be reached at michael@michaelfraley.com