Association Of Catholic Bloggers

Scientists may have found an upper limit to pterosaur wingspans. A fossil ichthyosaur is our first look at how these marine animals returned to the ocean, and scientists found a spike-headed ankylosaur species. I'm fascinated by this sort of thing. Your experience may vary.... ...I saw the universe as a place of order and beauty before I became a Catholic. Now, I must see it as a place of order and beauty. It's 'in the rules.'... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

I was recently asked to contact a young woman who was attempting to write a book. The request came from a friend whose life in the church has resulted in her path begin crossed with a whole lot of people from all walks of life with all sorts of varying gifts, talents, and calls. In particular, I was told that the young woman had an “emerging gift of writing” which is why I was asked to meet with her and help in her discernment process. This “emerging gift of writing” is something, according to the friend who made the request, which is happening more and more often in the lay populace. I agree. I’m receiving more and more requests from people—everyday people who live their lives as nurses, mothers, engineers, government employees, teachers and even priests—who feel they are being called to write and would like me to help assess if this is a real call or just a wild goose chase. Catholics are on-fire for their faith in a new way and with that fire comes a wish, desire and

HOW AND WHY I STARTED WRITING  I am a story-teller who regaled family and friends for decades with the exploits of my nine kids and  the large menagerie of farm animals, pets and wild creatures which surrounded our small hobby farm. My kids, friends and even strangers came up to me for years and asked, Yongsung Kim ” When are you going to start writing?” AND  “God is calling you to write.”   Yet, two years ago, when I closeted myself in a room to sit down and write, I froze. I considered writing to be a solitary craft but looking at a blank screen or talking into thin air was a sterile exercise in futility for me. I could not translate the same creative energy that I experienced telling a story verbally to the keyboard. My intuitive, imaginative side stayed buried and my logical intellect wrote boring drivel. Then I discovered blogs, blogging sites and blogging directories. I snapped to attention. Suddenly, I was thinking up a username, a title for a blog, looking at te

In December of 2011, right around the time I was finishing up my manuscript for Finding Grace , I began to search the Internet for information about how to go about having it published.  My cyber-travels ultimately led me to  this 2007 article about Cheryl Dickow, a former middle school teacher who had started her own Catholic publishing house called Bezalel Books .  I was immediately struck by the thought that I'd started writing Finding Grace in 2007, and that was the same year that this article originally appeared in Catholic Review-- and I believe the same year that Cheryl started her company.  I felt an immediate connection with Cheryl and it seemed that God was pointing me in the direction of Bezalel Books. I will always be grateful that I stumbled upon that particular article about this extraordinary woman at that particular time. Cheryl Dickow is not only a publisher; she is also an editor, a speaker, a blogger, and a contributor to many Catholic periodicals.  She

Once there was a child whose name was Nancy.  This post is about something that happened to her while she was very young... There was a tall brown wardrobe in Nancy's bedroom.  Mother and Daddy borrowed it just for the few years when they'd be living in a very old house, because there was not a single closet.  No, not even one... (continued here)

I’ve been writing, furiously, for April. I am participating in the A to Z challenge , writing through the alphabet entire in Catholic, with a twist, of course. About a month or so ago, I created an editorial calendar with ideas for each letter that I could research and write about. The twist, is that I also want to provide a reflection from my point of view, that could be slightly different for the myriad of readers and bloggers participating (over 1,500). This is pretty daunting. How can you keep anyone’s attention for longer than a paragraph? How do you do it if the reader is wholly uninterested in organized religion, let alone Christianity and specifically, Catholicism. That’s my hook. That’s my twist. What does that mean? It means everything. It’s what being Catholic, for me, means. Kata- according to, holos- the whole.  According to the whole . It’s not, as  Eddie Izzard  (whom I do love, by the way) defines in his stand up: “Catholicism, we believed in the teachings of Catho

When I remember that I am a writer, a born writer, not someone pretending to be a writer by wearing a mask, then work becomes play. God gave me a love of books and an artistic gift of writing and drawing. When I simply relax and enjoy life as a child of God, then I can allow Him to work through my fingers and my imagination. Now we create together. It is a joyful experience. MY FAMILY’S LOVE AFFAIR WITH BOOKS IS A GENERATIONAL BLESSING. My maternal grandfather, uncles and my mother love to read. I in turn love books.In fact, I have always loved books, reading voraciously as a child. I remember walking slowly home from the library with a tall stack of exciting choices, reading my first choice even before I managed to walk through the front door. My mother would cajole me in the summer, “Well, at least read outside in the fresh air.” read more

I am an English Literature Grad who loves a well written book. I refuse to read pedantic, heavy-handed, moralistic, Catholic books masquerading as fiction. Ellen’s books are anything but. I could hardly put down the first novel I read. My reviews will come next week but first I urge you to pick up one of these novels on Kindle and enjoy well-rounded, realistic characters who will work their way into your heart as they keep you spell-bound, insuring you read well past your usual bedtime. Enjoy! Introducing Ellen Gable Hrkach Ellen is an award-winning, best-selling author of four books. Her third book, Stealing Jenny, a pro-life suspense novel, spent six weeks at #1 on Amazon Kindle in Religious Drama in June/July of 2012. All three of her novels have been in the top ten of that category since January of 2012. She is a columnist for Amazing Catechists.com, a columnist at CatholicMom.com, and a reviewer for CatholicFiction.net. She and her husband create the “Family Life” carto