Monday, August 12, 2013

Back in the Saddle...

...after a fantastic time at the Catholic Marketing Network Tradeshow and Catholic Writers Guild conference.  I met lots of Catholic bookstore owners, whose work is not just a business, but a ministry. Salt of the earth types. And most of them sounded relieved to learn that there was a book to solve a frequent customer question: "How do I figure out how to use this breviary?"

I  learned that it is quite possible to do a decent interview with EWTN even if the gorgeous earrings one had picked out to wear  for the interview were left behind on the hotel night stand. I'll be sure to let you know when my Bookmark segment airs next month.

I also learned that marketing a book does not feel quite so crass if you think of it as "planting seeds", in the words of my marketing--I mean, seed-planting--advisors at Franciscan Media/Servant Books.

Confession: Sunday is the hardest day of the week for me to do all 5 liturgical hours that I"m normally committed to. There's Mass, family brunch, and often, some other activity that puts me off my groove. Now, I figure Mass makes a good substitute for  either Morning Prayer of Office of Readings, but sometimes I end up blowing both of these, and yesterday, due to company, I
lost day time prayer as well.  I say this so you'll all realize that I'm not any better than the rest of you.


Vespers tonight: bowled over by something I"d seen a bazillion times:
God chose us in Him 
before the world began.

What does it mean to be "in Him"?  There's material for a long meditation in just those two words.
And before the world began? The mind boggles to think that we were present to God before there were dinosaurs or even a solar system.

Okay, back to book reviews, which are on hard deadline.
At the moment I am enjoying and recommending:

Seven Secrets of Confession by Vinny Flynn
The Miraculous Medal by Donna Marie Cooper O'Boyle
If Aristotle's Kid had an Ipod by Conor Gallagher.
Dangers to the Faith by Al Kresta

If I had time I'd put in Amazon links and click thru's to make me some pennies, but, I don't.