the Rafters Scriptorium

Bearing the Saint in progress sneak peek reading DATE CHANGE

2009-08-07T12:01:00.000-07:00

CHANGE IN DATE!

Apologies for the confusion-- Due to a mixup in the booking of the two summer readings at the Whalley and Semiahmoo branches of Surrey Public Library, I will no longer be reading at Whalley tomorrow night. Instead, I will be reading there on Wed. Aug 12th

The Summer Reading Event

at the

Whalley branch of Surrey Public Library

10347 - 135 Street, Surrey BC

takes place

7 p.m.

Wednesday August 12th 2009

there is a $5 charge which includes refreshments

no pre-registration required

I will be reading along with a number of other local authors, and my chosen passage will be from the opening of my young adult novel about the company of Saint Cuthbert, Bearing the Saint

If you are in the BC lower mainland area, I do hope you can attend!

Back in print, apparently....

2009-06-06T10:36:00.000-07:00

Stumbled upon the fact that Catfantastic is now back in print, apparently....or at least, Amazon says there are New as well as Used copies for sale. Nobody tells the writers these things! :-)

My very first professional fiction publication, "It Must Be Some Place" was a quarter finalist in the 1986 Writers of the Future competition, but did not make the final cut for publication.

The story then sold to this inaugural volume of a highly successful series in 1988, edited by Martin Greenberg and Andre Norton.

Click the picture to go to the "Look Inside" feature at Amazon. My story does not appear in the preview, only the opening of the first story in the book does. But I will be posting a short teaser either here or in my story archive as soon as I have time. I need time because it won't be a quick cut and paste-- This story was originally submitted in a photocopy of a typed manuscript back in the olden days! So I'll either have to get hold of a scanner, and see what quality that produces posted on a blog, or just re-type a couple of pages from the story.

News and Stuff Spring 2009

2009-05-26T17:51:00.000-07:00

Wed. July 9, 7 pm at the Whalley Library,

I will be among the local authors reading at this event.

It is a drop-in, with $5 admission including refreshments.

More info about the other authors will be posted in future.

Meanwhile, back at the Scriptorium.....

Orthodoxy Today has picked up my Christian Bale post, slightly adjusted for context.

I continue to work with my editor, giving input for the illustrations for Ravens of Farne.

And I am now counting down less than a month to Orthodox Writers Week at the Beach!

"an explosion of pent-up rage, social anguish, resentment, bilious, other-annihilating nastiness, prejudice...

2009-05-20T18:07:00.000-07:00

...and all the rest of the dark side."

(That's how I started a note on Facebook a week or two ago. I have re-posted it here with a few changes for context. --DF)

The post title is from an interview with David Denby, author of Snark: It's Mean, It's Personal, and it's Ruining our Conversation.

More from the interview:

"If you’re going to attack someone personally, ask yourself whether the writing creates a fresh image, whether it has a physical quality which brings it to life.
The trouble with snark is that it doesn’t engage. It’s almost bulimic: It takes something into its mouth and then regurgitates it. So that’s something you can ask yourself: Am I really engaging with the subject or am I just trying to show off and be clever?"

Now, I know I just likened our BC politicians to a skunk. (in a Facebook post on BC election day recently, when there also happened to be a skunk in my back yard--DF.)

Actually, I compared them unfavorably with a skunk.....It's election day, and snark is in the air. But I think I will call that my snark quota for the next little while. A long while, I hope. Even though public figures expect to be satirized. Criticism is valid and necessary, but I think we need to ask, is there any content to our criticism? Or, as Denby says above, are we just trying to show off?

And, I wonder, at what cost to our own and others’ souls?

The use of snark gets even stickier when we cast the net of criticism beyond the field of literary works, films, politicians and celebrities. Denby decries the effect of the Internet in ruining public discussion, but snark and nastiness seem to have spread well beyond the internet, as one commenter on the interview linked above remarks.

I like sharp humour as much as the next person, perhaps more. I’m a writer and I love wit. I write occasionally for The Onion Dome, a satirical site by, for and about Orthodox Christians, of which I am one. (Of course, YMMV-- some may not think there is much wit on the Onion Dome!)

A bit of gentle parody is one thing, especially if we take aim at ourselves; but a steady diet of mean-spiritedness is just tiresome. I love the BritCom series Blackadder, for instance. But it’s mostly fun because snarky Blackadder, bonkers Melchet, brainless George and poor old Sodoff Baldrick are not real people.

I can honestly say that the good folk at The Onion Dome, though they base many of their creations on their own experiences in Orthodoxy, produce gentle, self-mocking, affectionate satire.

Sadly, this is not always the case on the internet or in life, even among Christian folk. The myriad Biblical and patristic admonitions to tame our tongues remain ever-timely.

additional link July 2009: The Serious Side of Put-Down Humor

...it's really happening now!

2009-04-29T19:05:00.000-07:00

...the production of my picture book The Ravens of Farne, that is.

Today my editor Jane Meyer sent a file with the planned basic layout of the book and a few sample sketches from illustrator Heather Hayward (by the way, that is a good Anglo-Saxon surname she has :-).

This is going to be loads of fun!

Meanwhile, I have another new post up on the HALIWERFOLC blog. I have been serializing my previously published article "Saint Cuthbert: England's Saint", with the edition of some gorgeous graphics and lots of interesting hypertext links. Now and then I am also adding posts on related topics.

And the work on Bearing the Saint continues as well. I am pursuing the elusive Guthred, and thinking about how he will interact with my main character, Edmund. Guthred is one of the invaders, and it will not do to have just black hats and white hats. Sure, who doesn't feel like they are on the side of the people being invaded? But you can't just demonize the aggressors. In the case of the Vikings and Anglo-Saxons, they eventually (well, after a few hundred years' struggle, I suppose) settled into a new reality in which their ethnic origins became less important.

But that's getting ahead of our selves. To understand these pre-Christian Scandinavian invaders of the island of Britain, I'm looking at some primary sources in translation. I am quite liking the Havamal. There are values quite compatible with Christianity here, and a respect for wisdom and for common sense (a pragmatism shared by the Anglo-Saxons as well.) I think Guthred and Edmund are going to clash over personality more than over religious beliefs, actually...and yet they will indeed find a great deal of common ground as they journey through war-torn Northumbria.......

Seasons of Grace excerpts on Feast of Feasts website

2009-04-16T16:21:00.000-07:00

"Untidy Death", a reflection on Holy Saturday, is excerpted from my Conciliar Press book Seasons of Grace on the new website celebrating Orthodox Pascha, www.feastoffeasts.org.

UPDATE: there is now also another excerpt posted, "This is the Day of Resurrection".

Click here for both articles

Validation

2009-04-06T10:49:00.000-07:00

My SPELL FOR THE REFRESHMENT OF SPIRIT blog is on hiatus, in order not to diffuse my blog traffic and to give me more time to spend on my Saint Cuthbert Blog. But every now and then something will turn up that could fit on the Refreshment of Spirit blog, and I will post it here instead. Today’s post is one of those.

The Refreshment of Spirit blog is about spiritually refreshing stories—the kind that Lucy read in the Magician’s Book in Voyage of the Dawn Treader, after she had been on some rather harrowing adventures, including reading another of the spells in the book that was not so refreshing.

I am not a Pollyanna by any means. But a while back I began to grow weary of the constant negativity and incivility and downright injustice I seemed to be seeing, not just on the evening news but everywhere I went. I don’t think we need to pretend such things don’t exist—quite the opposite. We need to point them out, refuse to let them be swept under the rug, and do what we can about them. Thus was born the Refreshment of Spirit blog, so I could write about the thing I love best in all the world—stories that bring us a little closer to the Author and Redeemer of all.

All good things come from Him, and the stories I love are not always explicitly theological. Indeed, I even sometimes find refreshment in the stories of avowed atheists, because anything good in them comes from the source of all good. All creativity flows from the Creator. The end product may be warped, muddied and distorted, but the jewels that shine through the grime still get their sparkle from Heaven.

Lately there has been talk of the need for civility in human interactions. As I noted in another post, politeness, civility, good etiquette --whatever you choose to call it—while it falls a long way short of the self-sacrificing agape Christians are called to, does enable us to make a start. Decent social behaviour does not make a saint of a sinner any more than tithing can make a generous man of Scrooge; but both can help ease the damage done to other people surrounding the miser or the misanthrope.

As Deacon Michael Hyatt, CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers points out, only God can ultimately ‘validate’ us. But this delightful short film which I found posted on his terrific publishing blog shows one of those ways in which every day life can be transfigured with a small change. T.J. Thyne of Bones stars in this fable as a parking lot attendant who transforms the lives of people who come to him to get ‘validated’. The film is 16 minutes long—I encourage you to take your coffee break to watch it and be refreshed!

My husband the genie.....

2009-03-26T15:04:00.000-07:00

It is pretty simple. I make a wish for a book, e-mail it to the upstairs office, and he orders it from Amazon. What more could anyone want in a husband? :-)

This book's publication was delayed, but I'm excited to read it now that it's finally arrived. AD 600-900 covers both my books-- the picture book about St. Cuthbert and the Ravens, which takes place sometime during his stay on Inner Farne as a hermit AD 676-684; and the YA novel which takes place during the Viking invasion AD 875 ff .

I've also added an Amazon Favorites widget to my HALIWERFOLC blog, which now features the second post about the life of St. Cuthbert.

The blog got 80 hits the day of its launch, and I got a sudden influx of new members on my Facebook group. Like my STORYSPELL blog, this one is drawing readers from all over the globe, though primarily the English-speaking world. I admit I remain curious about the reader who visits both blogs from Nunavut!

HALIWERFOLC is here!

2009-03-19T18:02:00.000-07:00

Wishing you a very blessed Saint Cuthbert's Day!

As I type, it is 6:00 pm PST, but I know it is already March 20th, AD 2009 on the other side of the International Date Line. It is past midnight GMT, in Saint Cuthbert's country. And here it is the Eve of Saint Cuthbert's Day.

In honour of God and Saint Cuthbert, I hereby launch the

HALIWERFOLC blog.

For lovers of Saint Cuthbert, about the saint and his world, and about my upcoming books about him.

Come visit, leave a comment, pass on the URL to anyone else you think would like it!

The Saint Cuthbert podcast interview is now up!

2009-02-27T18:30:00.000-08:00

Go to this web address--

Today's program features St. John the Compassionate mission. My short interview about St. Cuthbert is at about 1:15 of the file.

Remember my map obsession?

2009-02-25T16:41:00.001-08:00

bulletinboard2
Originally uploaded by matushkadonna

Another craft project...something I don't do willingly. Ugly old cork bulletin board recovered with odds and ends. In retrospect, I should have turned the wired Christmas ribbon inside-out like I did for the lamp-- this is a bit too sparkly!

This was an afterthought to our kitchen re-do. The room still needs a lot more done, but it has been utterly transfigured by flooring, paint job and a few accessories.

I have several years' worth of calendars featuring antique maps. Can't throw 'em out after all, can you? (note to fellow bloggers: Good post titles seem to consistently drive traffic to your blog. Apparently many, many readers arrive at my Refreshment of Spirit blog because they have been searching for "Maps to Treasure". I just thought I was making a bit of clever word play.....:-)

Forgiveness Sunday

2009-02-23T21:23:00.000-08:00

Another addendum to my post Apologies by Bale and other Christians.

A writer on the BBC online suggests there should be an Apology Day

I found it quite interesting that several Orthodox folks from around the world posted remarks about Forgiveness Sunday in the comments to the article.

Here is a sermon from Fr. Tom Hopko about this Sunday.

Sooner than I thought.....

2009-02-22T21:41:00.000-08:00

My Saint Cuthbert internet radio spot will be posted on Come Receive the Light on Friday, February 27th.

Meanwhile, I have now signed my contract for Bearing the Saint. We had a bit of delay with the contract because my editor's computer crashed.

I also completed a few tweaks to my other book, The Ravens of Farne.

Lastly, I will be putting my STORYSPELL Refreshment of Spirit blog on hiatus for a while when I launch my St. Cuthbert blog, HALIWERFOLC (see countdown in the sidebar here!!)

25 Things NOT really about me....

2009-02-16T18:40:00.000-08:00

Strike a blow against narcissism and lack of privacy—Post 25 random things worth knowing that have nothing (obvious) to do with you personally!

Sponsoring a child through an organization like Compassion or World Vision costs very little, around a dollar a day.
Many jurisdictions have good Samaritan laws that reimburse you for discharging your fire extinguisher to help someone else.
Exercise is good for you. It slows deterioration of brain cells in seniors, helps relieve depression, controls body fat and lots of other stuff. (You knew all that.)
Women live longer than men on average, so make sure you are covered financially, ladies.
Reader’s Digest has always said it, laughter is the best medicine; so while you are online, go visit icanhascheezburger.com, a clean joke site, or someplace you can download your favorite sitcom.
Good communication is more than fifty per cent LISTENING.
If you aren’t going to sell your house, you can decorate in any darn colours and style you want instead of those boring neutrals.
Every day goes better if you begin it with gratitude.
If someone gossips to you, they will gossip about you.
Be careful what information you make available online—identity theft and worse happens all the time.
Babies love music, among other things.
Buying local is a Good Thing. Less shipping, less damage to the environment; good for the income of your neighbours who work locally. And lots of other stuff, I’m sure.
You can find lots of copyright-free books and graphics on the net.
Google is your friend.
Facebook has changed their Terms of Service. Knowledge is power, check into the issue and follow the developments if you want to know how it will impact you.
You will never regret flossing, but you might regret not doing so
It’s okay to state the obvious in this list, because things aren’t less true because they’re obvious. Besides, who’s going to stop you?
Facebook is probably the biggest timewaster ever invented. After fishing. Which is why some wag decided to declare that God doesn’t deduct the hours spent fishing from a man’s life span. (did I make you laugh? No? try icanhascheezburger.com instead then. )
Murphy’s law isn’t really a law. It just seems like it. And you will know it if you ever fail to back up your data.
We have way more stuff than we need in our homes. WAY MORE. There are lots of sites and books that can help you declutter. (see #14 above)
If you want to know about bias in religion reporting, check out getreligion.org
Stay away from Poetry.com and PublishAmerica.com. You will be glad you did. (once more, Google is your friend.)
I am posting this meme on my blog before I put it on Facebook, hoping not very hopefully that it will help me escape entanglement in their new terms of service. For the record, this meme is the creation of Donna Farley, Surrey BC, and my answers are copyright by me.
You don’t have to register a copyright to own it. You own it the minute you create your piece of writing or artwork.
I don’t in fact care if Facebook wants to own this meme anyway, as I hereby release it into the wild. I do assert my moral right to be known as the author.

Apologies by Bale and other Christians…

2009-02-07T16:17:00.000-08:00

I don’t often write about current events, but there was a lot that was interesting, as we approach Lent, about this week’s Christian Bale kerfuffle, so here we go….DF

Apologies by Bale and other Christians

Etiquette is kind of like tithing: a very inadequate frame for Christian charity. A bare minimum—and yet how reluctant we sometimes are to meet even this minimum.

The tithe is a tool that helps us see to it that we make some provision for God’s church and for the needs of the poor, before we go allocating the other 90 per cent of our income (which we regard as our own, but which is really God’s too.) Christian charity is much, much more than giving ten per cent, of course, and if we want to live up to our faith we must take not the tithe but the widow’s mite as our example: giving all, generously, sacrificially. But the tithe at least is a tool that minimizes damage to others by keeping our natural selfishness in check. The tithe cannot transform Scrooge’s heart, but it does at least pry a bit of cash out of his hands for the benefit of those who need it more.

Similarly, etiquette and civility are a start on minimizing the negative impact our sinful inclinations can have on those around us. Now, I haven’t followed all the details of the Christian Bale rant & subsequent apology, but I don’t think many will argue that there was much civility in his foul-mouthed tirade against director of photography Shane Hurlbut, who had walked into the actor’s sightline on the set of Terminator: Salvation. Some have argued that the rant was or might have been at least somewhat–justified- incivility, or said it is no big deal. But I don’t think anyone has said it is a politely-framed, respectful rebuke and correction.

As for Bale, he himself says of his behaviour "I was out of order beyond belief…I acted like a punk…I make no excuses for it. It is inexcusable."
According to Terminator: Salvation director McG, Bale “made amends and apologized clearly and plainly” to Hurlbut, and they continued work on the film together the very same day.

When an offense is committed, etiquette and good manners demand an apology. And it does appear that Bale, having committed an offense against good manners, has subsequently rectified it.

There are several aspects to a proper apology. These include (examples from the Bale story):

1. Acknowledge the specifics of your offense and the damage done to the person you are apologizing to (“I took it way too far. I mixed up fact and fiction.”)

2. Take responsibility for the behaviour ("I make no excuses for it. It is inexcusable.”)

3. Explain how you came to offend, though without excusing your behaviour (In character for the film, Bale “was trying to show a little of that in the blood craziness. It went very wrong. . .. I made it ugly. That was awful of me.”) (Note: DON’T make a non-apology apology that says you are sorry the other person was hurt without taking responsibility for your actions.)

4. Ask forgiveness (We aren’t privy to what exactly passed between Bale & Hurlbut in this respect, but it is clear the apology was accepted.)

5. Promise not to let it happen again (Bale “gave thought to the adjustments he wants to give to his life”.)

6. Make restitution if at all possible (Bale “made amends….took pains to praise Hurlbut's work.”)

Fr. George Morelli sums this up a bit more succinctly, with Scriptural references:

“…use unambiguous words. The wrongdoer may say something like: "I have sinned" or "I have done wrong" or "I did (name the act) and I ask your forgiveness." Say this in imitation and the spirit of the Prodigal Son: "Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, (Luke 15:18).”

We may also think here of Zaccheus, who promised to make amends for all he had done wrong by ‘restoring it four-fold’.

Bale apologized to Hurlbut and made amends quickly. But months later, Bale’s recorded rant was sprung on the public.

Now somebody else needs to make an apology—the anonymous person who released the embarrassing tape, making public something that was not theirs to share and dredging up the unpleasant situation once again for Bale, Hurlbut, McG and the rest present on set that day.

We probably will never hear that one—the actions of this anonymous gossip-monger were illegal as well as unkind. Bale, on the other hand, continues to take his lumps, laughing at himself—"Feel free to make fun of me ... I deserve it completely."

Pursuing good manners, such as in making an apology when needed, is really only civil behaviour. Christian agape requires a great deal more of us. Still, in order to take some first baby steps on the journey to becoming Christ-like, we could do worse than start with civil behaviour. At least this will reduce the impact of our passions upon our neighbours. Then perhaps we can move on to what Saint Paul calls the ‘more excellent way’ of Christian Love.

addendum: just found a nice summary of the apology procedure in the online limited preview at Google books for this book, How to Say It: Choice Words, Phrases, Sentences and Paragraphs by Rosalie Maggio

and some more useful articles:

"... several different ways that narcissistically motivated people tend to substitute some other kind of interpersonal transaction for an apology. For the party on the receiving end of such a transaction, it also becomes a problem to restore intimacy, since it is difficult to forgive in the absence of the other person's genuine remorse." From Narcissistic Pathology of Everyday Life: The Denial of Remorse and Gratitude , a somewhat technical but informative article.

"Seven A's of Confession" from Peacemaker Ministries

Seven Deadly Sins that ruin an apology

Three R's of Apologies by Loren Ekroth

Counterfeit apologies-- do not give or accept these non-apologies

On Apology-- by Aaron Lazare, medical school dean Lazare has literally written the book on the phenomenon of apologizing, how it works and what it accomplishes. One eye opener-- apologies for medical errors lead to -fewer- lawsuits, not more.

Another discussion of Lazare's book from Christian blog Experimental Theology

what Ali MacGraw's Love Story character died too young to learn: that love means always being willing to say you're sorry.

paths of apology, with diagram for all the visual learners.

What makes for a great apology by Christian Counselor

Excuses vs. Apologies, with Dos and Don'ts

Scrooge's apology

Effective apology by John Kador....apology in a business context

First a bad apology, then a better one shown in this article.

Forgiveness and Its Limitations -- interview w. David Augsberger:

"....on making amends. If I have injured someone, it is not appropriate for me to ask them to give me something. What I need to do is to become entirely ready for God to change me and then to make amends for the wrongs I have done. The focus is not on asking for something but on demonstrating repentance. I can go to the one I have injured and say “I have wronged you. I recognize that. I deeply regret what I have done. I will live now in a different way. And I hope that someday forgiveness will be possible between us.” This takes the injury seriously and allows the injured person however long they need for the process of forgiveness to move to completion. It is very different from just requesting that the person I have harmed change how they feel about me. "

Lent's a-comin'....what NOT to eat!

2009-02-06T11:32:00.000-08:00

This Sunday is the first in the pre-Lenten commemorations, and next week will be the fast-free week in which we begin to use up all our non-fasting food supplies....!

Meanwhile, I continue to work on my website, including posting this article that appeared in my Handmaiden column ten years ago. It's about something we should NEVER eat, Lent or not.

Wearmouth-Jarrow bids for World Heritage status

2009-02-03T15:16:00.000-08:00

7th Century carving of birds eating fruit. More beautiful images on the website

World Heritage bid for Wearmouth-Jarrow,the home of the Venerable Bede, father of English history and biographer of Saint Cuthbert.

I tried to post their little video here, but no dice. Go check it out on the site, it's wonderful. And then please register your support for the recognition of this cradle of Christian culture, English language and history.

2009 January miscellany

2009-01-26T11:04:00.000-08:00

I have a new post at my Spell for Refreshment blog.

Meanwhile, I will be preparing to do an interview with Come Receive the Light on the topic of Saint Cuthbert. The recording is I think next week, but will be broadcast closer to Saint Cuthbert's day, March 20th.

At that date I will also be launching a new blog, dedicated to Saint Cuthbert, with news about both my books and much more about the Saint, his life, times and world.

Artist chosen for Ravens!

2008-12-17T13:09:00.001-08:00

I've just heard from my editor, Jane Meyer, that an artist has been chosen to illustrate The Ravens of Farne. More news about that soon.

I am also setting up a new blog about Saint Cuthbert. It won't go live till some time in the new year, but it will be a kind of internet shrine to my favorite saint. There will be news about my two books as things progress, yes, but the blog will be much more-- there will be links and info about Saint Cuthbert garnered from my extensive research about him.

meanwhile, there's a quick seasonal post at Refreshment of Spirit about (really!) a Viking ship made of lolly and ice cream sticks!

and a merry Christmas to all!

A little Christmas-season reading....

2008-12-07T19:59:00.000-08:00

...some previously published stuff of mine--

Also, as the feed from Storyspell in the sidebar shows, I'm appealing to people to give books to their local Christmas Bureau. Check it out if you think you might like to do that.

"Cold Hands, Warm Heart"-- what could make Jack Frost decide to rebel against the Winterfolk and join the side of Summer? Short fiction from my archive of previously-published stories.

"The Refreshment of Generosity: A Christmas Carol" -- a post about the Dickens classic

"Silent Night and War Game: The Refreshment of Christmas"-- post about the WWI Christmas Truce in No-man's Land.

Welcome to Saint Cuthbert's Country

2008-11-29T14:47:00.000-08:00

I found this wonderful physical map of the ancient kingdom of Northumbria on Wikipedia. You can see a tiny little spot offshore just south of the Tweed River and east of Two Degrees West in this map-- Two Degrees West being west of Greenwich. Two Degrees West is known as England's meridian, as it runs the length of the land from Berwick-on-Tweed at the Scottish border to the south coast.

The tiny spot is the Holy Island of Lindesfarne, where in the 7th Century A.D. Saint Cuthbert was the leader of a small monastic community and bishop of a large diocese. After his death his incorrupt body was much treasured by succeeding generations on the Holy Island. In A.D. 875, Vikings invaded, and the monks and lay people of Lindesfarne took up the body of their beloved saint and set out on an uncertain pilgrimage over this rough country under threat of war.

We don't know many details about exactly where the company went, but there are a few places named in the narrative of Symeon of Durham, and some place names and archeological remains that hint at a connection with Saint Cuthbert. These are the places my characters will travel through in Bearing the Saint. As I prepare the book for publication, I will be making periodic posts here about the adventurous world of Ninth-century Northumbria.

Camellia Chameleon finds a home!

2008-11-23T21:48:00.000-08:00

Oh, how I love niche publications!

I have a habit of writing stories that combine disparate elements, or that straddle the line between one category, age level or genre and another. My YA/urban fantasy/Hallowe'en/superhero/fairytale story, "Camellia Chameleon", has been looking for a home for quite some time, and has now found it in A Thousand Faces.

The title of this fabulously fun "journal of superhuman fiction" is an allusion to Joseph Campbell's seminal work of mythology, The Hero With a Thousand Faces. The journal is focused on fiction of the pulp sort, fantastic stories of unusual characters who are the forerunners of those comic book guys that run around in spandex.

Editor Frank Byrns tells me he wants to publish "Camellia Chameleon" in 2009, and is leaning toward the October issue, considering the Hallowe'en content of the story. More news later.

I have a new website!

2008-10-30T18:20:00.000-07:00

....and I made one for my husband, too.

unlike me, he doesn't have a blog-- so the website for Fr. Lawrence Farley is the one-stop site to find out about his writing and new weekday podcasts for Ancient Faith Radio.

But since I do have a blog (three, in fact), why do I need a website?

A website is more static than a blog, just a place to keep organized information and links in an easy-to-access manner. Mine is with my ISP, and uses a pretty simplistic web authoring tool. But the design is clean and easy to use. Eventually (before my books are published) I will need my own domain name and a professionally-designed site. But this one works for now, so there it is.

The publisher says Yes.....

2008-10-14T15:12:00.000-07:00

***********YES!***************

....always a highlight in a writer's life!

My YA proposal (synopsis and opening chapters of my novel-in-progress, Bearing the Saint) made a good impression on the editorial board of Conciliar Press at their latest meeting, and they want it.

They are excited about the idea of marketing it in tandem with my picture book, Ravens of Farne, both books being connected to Saint Cuthbert.

Waving goodbye for the moment, as I head back to the ninth century now....

I get interviewed online!

2008-09-13T09:28:00.000-07:00

Podcast interview about my book, Seasons of Grace is now up on Come Receive the Light. This is especially cool because my book is not even new, it's been out for six years. I guess a book about the annual cycle of the church year is just perennially topical.....;-)