An Archive of Reviews of Finding Grace and Erin's Ring

I am in the process of cleaning up and updating the sidebars of this blog and and my flagship blog, String o' Pearls.  I used to have an image of an old blogging/writing friend, Kari Burke (author of The Life I Dreamed) on the String o' Pearls sidebar, and if you clicked on it, you could read a review of Erin's Ring.  I also had an image of the cover of Kari's novel on there, and if you clicked on that, you could read a review of Finding Grace.  But I've decided to simplify the look of both home pages.  However, I do love and appreciate these lovely reviews so much, so I thought I'd post links to them here, for old times' sake:

Kari Burke's review of Finding Grace

Kari Burke's review of Erin's Ring

Another dear Catholic author friend from my early days of writing and publishing books was Therese Heckenkamp (author of Frozen Footprints).  I had one of her reviews posted on the sidebar here, and one over at String o' Pearls.  Now, I'll just list the links to that pair of generous reviews right here.

Therese Heckenkamp's review of Finding Grace

Therese Heckenkamp's review of Erin's Ring

 

I was able to "meet" and correspond with so many wonderful Catholic writers during those years (from about 2012-2015), and one of them was a sweet blogger named Tiffany Walsh, who was kind enough to write reviews for both books, and a blurb from one was printed on the back cover of Erin's Ring. (Tiffany's blog was called "Life of a Catholic Librarian," and one of the characters in Erin's Ring was a librarian, so it was a match made in Heaven!) 

Tiffany Walsh's review of Finding Grace

Tiffany Walsh's review of Erin's Ring

For ages now, I've had a review of Finding Grace on the sidebar over at String o’ Pearls, one written by a twenty-something young blogger with whom I used to correspond regularly.  My sweet friend posted her review on a site called "The Catholic Young Woman."

Review of Finding Grace at The Catholic Young Woman

A website called "Catholic Fiction" posted a review of Erin's Ring back in 2015, and I've had a link to that review on my String o' Pearls sidebar.  Here is the link to that one.

Catholic Fiction's review of Erin's Ring

There have been other reviews over the years, on Amazon and Goodreads and on other blogs; but these are the ones that I'm going to eliminate from my sidebars now, and I didn't want to forget how to access them.

P.S. I don't know if anyone outside my family and close ring of friends will ever read Marguerite's Diary; but if you do, and you feel compelled to write a little review,  I would love to read it!  (I promise my skin is thick enough to take it if you're not a fan!)

P.P.S. While I'm updating my sites, I should probably change that picture up there.  It was taken in 2012, and my hair is a good bit grayer now (my face a good bit saggier as well!) than it was back then, when I was a mere 54-year-old newbie author!

Reminiscing about My Second-born (Book)

Sometimes I wish I'd known the best way to promote/market my YA historical novel, Erin's Ring, when doing so might have made it a successful book.

Six years after publication, it has died a quiet death, without eulogy, without mourning.  I think it was last year that my publisher at Bezalel Books, Cheryl Dickow, informed me that she would not be able to carry the title anymore for distribution, because it had not sold well enough.  New and used copies of the paperback are still available from other sellers on Amazon; I also have a number of copies that I bought myself, back when I thought I might need to have them on hand for book signings and the like, and I have sold those here and there over the years.  But now I kind of regret not having made Erin's Ring available in the Kindle format at the outset, which might have helped sales (although who knows?).

Marketing books does not come naturally to a shy and introverted person who loves to write them (almost as much as she loves to read them) but can't imagine a scarier scenario than being center stage or trying to call attention to herself.  When I used to confess my discomfort about getting out there and doing what seemed to be "tooting my own horn," Cheryl would always remind me that it was the work I was promoting--work that gave glory to God and the Catholic Faith--and not the author of that work.

I would remind myself all the time that this was true; and yet I struggled.

But here I am, six years later, with a promotional post about a book that never really found its audience, even though it received two Book Awards from the Catholic Press Association and it seemed to have so much potential--especially in the Catholic homeschool community, perhaps.

If you go to this page of the Bezalel website and scroll down to the cover of Erin's Ring, you'll get an idea what this novel is all about. 

Also, here is a generous blurb that appears on the back cover of the book, written by Nancy Carabio Belanger, a well-known author of Catholic YA fiction:

"Highly recommended for Catholic classrooms, Erin's Ring is a Catholic novel that weaves Irish-American history with the present. This wholesome novel had me shed tears of sadness and joy, and these brave young Irish-Catholic women from different generations drew me in. Lovingly and tenderly written, Erin's Ring is a story of true friendship, sacrificial love, and above all, the God Who is never bound by time or space."   --Nancy Carabio Belanger, author of The Gate First Place Winner, 2014 Catholic Press Awards for Novels

Talk about shedding tears: that exceedingly kind endorsement by an author I greatly admire makes my eyes glisten with tears of gratitude.  

God has a plan, I firmly believe that.  There was a reason that I wrote Erin's Ring, a reason that it made it into print, and even a reason that it didn't sell.  In spite of its lack of material success, I can only be happy when I think about that book.  I will always remember the complete joy that infused my very being every single time I sat down at my computer to write, during the six months that I worked on it.  It was truly a labor of love.  And just as I said of my first not-very-successful novel, Finding Grace,  I feel that if even one soul was touched in a positive way by the story, it will have fulfilled its purpose.

Why did I write this post today?  I guess just as mamas like to reminisce about the lives of their precious babies, long after they're grown, maybe authors like to reminisce about the lives of their books?  Sure, let's go with that.

Happy reading, dear readers!  

Grace-filled Tuesdays (Book Club "Meeting" #33): Erin's Ring Gets a Couple of Shout-outs

A couple of days ago, the Grace-filled Tuesdays Book Club met over at String of Pearls.  In case you didn't have a chance to join us, here is the beginning of the discussion that day:


It's Tuesday, isn't it?  (Although it's getting late, and if I don't get this posted soon, it will be Wednesday!)

Well, Tuesday's child is full of grace, and my novels tell stories of God's grace (and one of them is even about a character whose name is Grace)...so I think that means it's time to call a meeting of the book club.  (While it's still Tuesday!)

Welcome, book enthusiasts!

Okay, so in case you've never been here before, I use this club to discuss my two Catholic novels with you, dear readers.  I never imagined or expected that the titles of my books would become well-known, or that I would become a household name, or that I'd make a fortune as an author.  But I always did hope that my humble works of fiction would do some good in the world.  I wrote them praying that they would be for God's greater glory and for the good of souls, including my own.  Obviously, God did not want them to be widely read, or to earn lots of money or accolades.  But there are no accidents.  Everything happens for a reason; and I still think there's a reason that I wrote these books and that they actually found their way into print.

It's been a long time since I had a book published.  Finding Grace came out in 2012, followed by Erin's Ring in 2014.  I can't believe it's been four years already since the younger of my two "babies" was born.  Time does indeed fly, doesn't it?  Four years.  Wow!

And just when I think that I lost my shot at marketing and promoting those books the way I should have, in order to ensure that I gave them the best possible chance of finding their way into the hands of young (or old) readers who might enjoy and/or be edified by them, I am made aware that there are generous folks out there who have been helping me--and I didn't even know they were doing it!

If you're interested in reading on to see who helped me out (here's a hint: she's a generous fellow author of Catholic YA fiction) and how, click here  for the full post.  

As always, thanks for stopping by!

Review of Finding Grace at Epihpanies of Beauty

My new on-line writing friend Christine was kind enough to read and review Finding Grace a while back.  Although she felt it was very long (and might have been better as three separate books instead of one), she had some very kind things to say.  I value her opinion, as she writes a blog that is solely dedicated to Catholic writing.   You can read Christine's review here.

(I should think about sending Christine a copy of Erin's Ring for review as well--I can't help but wonder if the shorter length and narrower scope of it might be more to her liking.)

A New Review of Erin's Ring, by Kari Burke

Catholic blogger and novelist Kari Burke (author of the wonderful pro-life novel The Life I Dreamed) recently posted a review of Erin's Ring on her blog, From My Catholic Perspective.

Thanks so much, Kari!  I am humbled and touched by your kind words, and so glad you feel that it's a book you can enjoy along with your daughters!

(Also, I blogged about my first Erin's Ring book signing today over at String of Pearls, if you want to check it out!)

A New Review for Erin's Ring

Here's a new review for Erins Ring, by Catholic writer, artist, and homeschooling mom, Patrice Fagnant-MacArthur (who also reviewed Finding Grace a couple of years ago): http://spiritualwomanthoughts.blogspot.com/2015/02/book-review-erins-ring.html.  The review appeared not only on Patrice's Spiritual Woman blog, but on Amazon, too.  And she gave it five stars!

Thanks, Patrice!

A New Review of Erin's Ring

I was thrilled to get this review of Erin's Ring from Madeline, who blogs over at A Dash of Snark.
http://adashofsnark.blogspot.com/2015/02/wwrw-erins-ring.html

Thanks so much, Madeline!

Review of Finding Grace from Life of a Catholic Librarian

My very good on-line friend Tiffany, a librarian and fellow book enthusiast who blogs at Life of a Catholic Librarian, recently offered this review of Finding Grace , my first novel for Bezalel Books.  (There is also a short endorsement from Tiffany on the back cover of my second novel, Erin's Ring--which coincidentally just happens to feature a character who is a Catholic librarian!)



Thanks for your support of my books, Tiffany!