Ellen Gable's Blog, page 79

Veterans Day – Remembrance Day 2013

Today is Remembrance Day/Veterans Day. I’d like to remember in a special way my father, father-in-law and stepfather (all now deceased). Each served their country in war: my father-in-law was in the USAF during WW II and was MIA for months, my father and stepfather (my father’s first cousin) both served in Korea. This is also my father’s birthday. He died in 1978 at the age of 49.

Remembering Tony An article about my father-in-law, who was a gunner for the USAF in WW II. He was shot down over Yugoslavia, near his father’s birthplace.

Remembering Dad A tribute to my own father, who served in both the USMC and the United States Army, and who died when I was 18.

This last post is a special way to remember, with fondness, the three father figures in my life: Remembrance Day/Veterans Day 2009

Lest We Forget…

Sunday Snippets – November 10

Image copyright Ellen Gable Hrkach

Please join me and other Catholic bloggers at RAnn’s Place for Sunday Snippets where we share posts from the previous week and answer a weekly question.

The question: Do you have any recipe you make for religious reasons–i.e. to celebrate a religious holiday or to teach kids something about the faith or to help you remember something about your faith or as a prayer? My answer: We do Christmas baking every year but nothing that specifically teaches anything about the faith.

Here are my posts:

7 Quick Takes Friday

FQP Giveaway on Catholic Mom

FQP Giveaway on Catholic Mom – Enter Before November 15!!!

Catholic Mom is hosting a Full Quiver Publishing giveaway until November 15th. Enter before then to win a print copy of Don’t You Forget About Me by Erin McCole Cupp and Angela’s Song by AnnMarie Creedon!!

To enter, click on the photo above or this link: Catholic Mom FQP Giveaway.

7 Quick Takes Friday – Volume 96

Please join me and other Catholic bloggers at Conversion Diary for 7 Quick Takes Friday.

1. Interview with Erin McCole Cupp

If you missed my interview with Erin McCole Cupp, author of FQP’s new book, Don’t You Forget About Me, you can read it here. If you leave a comment before tonight at midnight, you can be entered to win a free print copy of Erin’s new book.

2. Crazy Love – Now Available on Kindle

Eileen Leamy’s moving account of finding love late in life (and the joys and challenges that came with it) is a beautifully inspiring read. Paperback edition coming soon! Check it out here at this link.

3. Goodreads Giveaways

Right now, Goodreads is giving away Don’t You Forget About Me by Erin McCole Cupp and a delightful children’s chapter book called “The Willow Tree” by Alexandra Valentien. If you’re on Goodreads and you’d like to enter to win a copy of either of these books, pr just read more about each book, click below:

Don’t You Forget About Me Goodreads Giveaway

The Willow Tree Goodreads Giveaway

4. Dancing on Friday

For the past two years, I’ve been helping an elderly friend and fellow parishioner of my church write her life story. The local newspaper ran an article last week about it.

photo copyright James Hrkach

5. St. Gertrude’s Prayer for the Holy Souls in Purgatory

This beautiful prayer is one that I say daily but it is an ideal prayer to recite during November, the month of the Holy Souls. According to tradition, our Lord promised St. Gertrude that 1000 souls would be released from purgatory each time it is said devoutly.



Eternal Father, I offer Thee the Most Precious Blood of Thy Divine Son, Jesus, in union with the masses said throughout the world today, for all the holy souls in purgatory, for sinners everywhere, for sinners in the universal church, those in my own home and within my family. Amen.

6. Reading/Review Shelf

Angels for Kids – Donna-Marie Cooper O’Boyle (highly recommend…of course I highly recommend any book Donna-Marie writes!!)

7. Game of Life Cartoon

image copyright James and Ellen Hrkach Please do not use without permission

Copyright 2013 Ellen Gable Hrkach

Sunday Snippets – November 3

Image copyright Ellen Gable Hrkach

Please join me and other Catholic bloggers at RAnn’s Place for Sunday Snippets where we share posts from the previous week and answer a weekly question. This week’s question: What is your favorite non-blog Catholic website? My favorite non-blog Catholic website is the Vatican website. I can spend hours on it, reading old encyclicals or news about Pope Francis.

Here is the one and only post this week:

7 Quick Takes Friday – An Interview with Erin McCole Cupp Read my lengthy interview with Erin about her new novel, Don’t You Forget About Me (and comment to be entered to win a free print copy of her book!)

7QT Friday – An Interview with Erin McCole Cupp

Please join me and other Catholic bloggers at Jen’s Conversion Diary for 7QT Friday.

Today, I have the pleasure of interviewing Erin McCole Cupp about her new book, Don’t You Forget About Me, now available on Kindle and in Paperback! Thank you, Erin, for stopping by on your blog tour!!

1. The lone piece of tomato pie on the front cover of your book is intriguing. Why the pie? (Besides the fact that tomato pie is delicious!)

Tomato pie: it’s pizza—only made by angels! Ah, yes, why the tomato pie? Forgive the cliché, but I think at the heart of every story is a quest for something deep: truth, meaning, love, what have you. We humans are searching for those things in real life as well. However, just as real humans do, characters often distract themselves from those abstract longings with a desire for something base. Does Mary Catherine Whelihan want to find truth, meaning, and love on her trip back to her dreadful hometown? Of course she does. She just thinks the only thing worth returning for is the one concrete, guaranteed pleasure the place can offer, and that is tomato pie. How often do we despair of finding higher ideals and instead go looking for Esau’s bowl of pottage? I guess the tomato pie was just a wink at how we all search for what we think we want, but God usually has something much better in mind.

Here’s a picture of my husband taking pictures of tomato pie for the book cover. There is no tomato pie in Full Quiver Publishing’s area, so in a pinch we had to enlist Scott’s photography skills. We had to buy a whole pie for the photo shoot. Then, oh darn, we had all that tomato pie to eat.

2. Are any of the characters in your book based on real people?

I was pondering this question recently, even before you asked it! This is going to sound absolutely insane, but the more I write, the less it seems like I’m basing characters on people from real life. Mostly that’s because novel characters must behave in a more believable fashion than real people do! These days, when it comes to the characters I write, it’s starting to feel like I get this window inside my head, and the characters are doing their thing and I’m just a fly on the wall. The only reason I can recognize these characters because I’ve had life experiences with similar types of people, and that allows me to recognize the characters when I meet them in my imagination. Still, I have been known to name characters I really adore after adorable people in real life. For instance, one of DYFAM’s “magical helpers,” the grade school secretary, I named after your dear friend and mine and fellow Guildie author Margaret Rose Realy.

3. Your novel includes some fascinating information on the intricate connection between chemicals, environment and fertility. What kind of research was necessary?

I’m a big nerd, so I actually enjoy research. I remember in my early 30s reading an article in a women’s magazine—I forget which, just something I picked up to read while doing cardio at the gym—that talked about a number of studies in which primates were fed dioxin-laced food and the overwhelming result among the subjects was endometriosis. I didn’t think of that article until years later, while I was recovering from endometriosis removal surgery, that my brother and I were sharing memories of, in the late 1970s, having to be evacuated from our home town for a couple of nights because the chemical plant down the road had had an accident. My brother mentioned that dioxins were involved, and that reminded me of that magazine article I had read in the gym a few years before (yeah, I remember nonsense like that, but ask me where I put my keys an hour ago…). Anyway, the link between endometriosis and dioxin sat stewing in my mind for a few months while the story for DYFAM burbled to the surface. Once I knew I was writing a novel, I spent a lot of time with Google to get an idea of where to look for the science behind the story. I also had to talk to a pharmacist friend of mine as well as three separate Catholic gynecological specialists. I specifically wanted to talk to the Catholic specialists, less so for the spirituality aspect and more because I know the Catholic approach to women’s health problems shies away from covering up symptoms with “The Pill” and seeks to correct the underlying causes. Without those underlying causes, DYFAM would not have been as credible, I don’t think.

4. Have you always felt called to be a novelist? And if so, elaborate (or if not, elaborate)…

Being called and feeling that call are two different things! I can’t remember a time in my life when I wasn’t telling stories in my head. Whether it was about Star Wars, Little House or eventually The X Files, I was always taking what I read or watched and then after the book was closed or the show was over, my imagination wanted to take all the “what if”s a few steps further. I usually was too lazy to actually write any of it! For a very long time, I thought I wanted to be an actress or a theatrical director. I even majored in theatre in college. Then, while drafting a novel as part of my senior project, my theatre department advisor held up the journal in which I’d been writing and said with this rueful smile, “This is what you’re supposed to be doing.” It was heartbreaking and scary but at the same time validating and invigorating. I did complete my degree in theatre, but I have been pursuing little but writing ever since.

5. Today is All Saints Day and is also the official launch date of Don’t You Forget About Me. Were there any saints who inspired you or with whom you felt a particular devotion/connection during the writing of this novel?

DYFAM is very much under the patronage of my confirmation saint, St. Catherine of Alexandria. I even went so far as to name the main character after her. Whelihan/Wheeler came from St. Catherine’s symbol of the torture wheel that broke when Catherine touched it. St. Catherine has interceded on my behalf, asked and un-asked, for so many years that I wanted to give her a little thank you gift. I hope she likes it!

6. Are there any contemporary or classic authors who have influenced you as a novelist?

Oh, dear, here’s where you’ll get to see the secular direction in which my tastes lean! I acknowledge quite openly that Neal Stephenson has been a huge influence on me. I admit I haven’t read any of his recent work (in fact, if it came out after my kids were born, I haven’t read it), but I remember reading Snow Crash for the first time and thinking, “Is a writer allowed to have this much fun making stuff up? Seriously? Then I want IN!” I also love Douglass Adams, especially the Dirk Gently series. Adams could take a heap of seeming nonsense and turn it into this great piece of hilarious word-architecture. On the more girly side, I adore how Tracy Chevalier writes a beautiful reality—never arguing, just presenting people as they have been—and always will be—in their conflicts throughout the centuries. As for classics, I love me some Elizabeth Gaskell, Charlotte Brontë, Jane Austen, and Charles Dickens. I try not to read Dickens while I’m working on my own writing, otherwise I start writing as if I’m getting paid by the word.

7. What one piece of advice would you give to the newbie novelist?

Psalm 131, “Humble Trust in God.” That one holds so much for the writer, especially for someone starting out on the endeavor to get to the “sublime” experience of being published. Here’s where I ask people to my book so I can afford a new Bible without the Little Einsteins stickers on it.

8. Okay. So I’ve already asked seven (for 7QT) but I’m not done!! The epilogue suggests this is not the last Cate novel. Can you tell us a bit about future Cate stories?

I’m hoping for at least two more books, if not three. I can’t say much more without spoiling Don’t You Forget About Me, but I can say that I think Cate and Gene have more than enough baggage to fill out a trilogy. What I can say is that I plan on continuing using song titles. The working title for the sequel is Never Let Me Down Again. Right now the first chapter is called “Just Like Heaven.”

9. What is one lesson or message you want your readers to take away from your novel?

This is a really difficult question for me to answer, because I tend not to write with a message in mind. I just want to rip out the reader’s heart, stomp on it, bury it, then give it back, healed and with wings. (Does that make me a bad person?) Messages have to be argued, defended, and honestly I know that I’m not aggressive or clever enough to argue or defend well. I love how St. Augustine says, “The truth is like a lion. You don’t have to defend it. Let it loose. It will defend itself.” So basically I just want to write the truth, to clear a spot in the wilderness of our lives and lay reality out there for people to see—or not.

10. Where can readers find out more about you and your book…please feel free to include Facebook pages, Pinterest, Twitter etc.

Let’s see… The best place to find out what I’m doing is my webpage, where I blog about the writing life. I also have two years of recipes on my meatless Friday blog. Once a month, one of those recipes is featured at CatholicMom.com. I’m erinctotheop on Pinterest. I’m also on Facebook, and Twitter. Click on any of those links, and you’ll find links to my other blog tour posts for November. Thank you, Ellen, for these wonderful questions! This interview was a lot of fun!

Want to win a free copy of Erin’s book? Head on over to Goodreads for a chance to win one of three print copies! And if you don’t like your chances there (currently 3 in 240), leave a comment (before Friday, November 8) below to be entered to win one free print copy of Don’t You Forget About Me!!

Sunday Snippets – October 26

Image copyright Ellen Gable Hrkach

Please join me and other Catholic bloggers at RAnn’s Place for Sunday Snippets where we share posts from the previous week and answer a question.

This week’s question: Who is your favorite saint? I have many favorite saints and intercessors. Mary is one of my favorite intercessors, but I also have a devotion to St. Padre Pio, Blessed John Paul II (soon-to-be St. John Paul II) and Blessed Teresa of Calcutta.

Here are my posts:

Melee in the Courtroom – Mary Brings Peace

7 Quick Takes Friday – FQP Edition (HUGE GIVEAWAY) (Comment before November 1st to be entered to win $100 in books!!)

7 Quick Takes Friday – FQP Edition (Huge Giveaway!!)

TGIF!!! Friday means I’m participating in 7 Quick Takes with other Catholic bloggers, but this week it’s over at Clan Donaldson. Head on over and take a look at the other posts!

Today is the Full Quiver Publishing edition, showcasing each of our books.

Last week, we released the Kindle edition of Erin McCole Cupp’s novel, Don’t You Forget About Me. With that release, Full Quiver now has seven titles under its logo. To celebrate, I’m giving away a FQP prize package worth over $100!!! (If you want to win ALL of the print editions of these books, read below and comment before November 1st!! Even if you already have some of these, they would all make great Christmas gifts!!)

1. Angela’s Song by AnnMarie Creedon

Angela ‘Jel’ Cooke is a widow and mother of three who stays busy so as not to have to face the fact that her marriage was damaged and her husband, Devin, died before it could be repaired. Her good friends realize that no amount of home made lasagna, volunteering at church or late night games of Yahtzee can heal Angela from past regrets. When she meets Jack, the teacher of a class she is taking, he challenges her to face her demons. What follows is the poignant, yet often hilarious saga of how Angela overcomes her guilt and learns to love herself and others. Amazon Kindle Bestseller. Angela’s Song is available on Kindle or in Paperback.

2. Come My Beloved: Inspiring Stories of Catholic Courtship by Ellen Gable and Kathy Cassanto

This compilation contains 12 courtship/dating stories which will inspire, captivate and entertain readers. Some of the stories include: a widow with eight children meets a widower with six children; a man asks his live-in girlfriend “what if we stopped having sex,” and is greeted with tears of joy; an atheist falls in love with her Catholic Prince Charming; a woman prays to God for a husband and years later finds herself falling in love with a seminarian; a sailor prays a novena to marry the right girl. Come My Beloved is available on Kindle or in Paperback.

3. Don’t You Forget About Me by Erin McCole Cupp

Mary Catherine Whelihan made it out of Walkerville alive once before. Can she pull it off this time?

Bullies, sexual harassment, finding a corpse in the local creek…. Cate’s childhood in 1980s Walkerville was murder! So what could possibly tempt her to return? A cryptic email from Eugene Marcasian, MD, her grade school crush, might do the trick. Can Cate and Gene find the cause of the mysterious illness afflicting nearly all of the girls in their graduating class, including Cate herself? Or will corporate bullies continue to take down anyone who gets in their way? More importantly, can Cate stay alive long enough to get one more slice of tomato pie? Don’t You Forget About Me is available on Kindle and is also available in paperback (although official release date is November 1st).

4. Emily’s Hope by Ellen Gable

Emily’s Hope is the gripping story of one young woman’s physical, emotional, spiritual journey from high school to adulthood. Interspersed throughout the story are flashbacks to Emily’s great-grandmother’s troubled life, with a climax culminating in the surprising revelation that Emily and her great-grandmother are connected more deeply than by ancestral ties alone. Based on a true story. Emily’s Hope is available on Kindle and in Paperback.

5. Growing Up in God’s Image by Carolyn Smith

Growing Up in God’s Image makes it easy for families to approach the topic of sexuality — mom to daughter, father to son, parent to child — especially for that first big talk on the facts of life. This book is about the beauty of growing up as a young woman or a young man. For teens, it provides positive answers through an understanding of sexuality as God intended from the moment He created it and when He later gave it to us as a sacrament through Jesus. For young and old couples alike, it gives a new appreciation of their own sacramental marriages. Growing Up In God’s Image is available on Kindle and in Paperback.

6. In Name Only by Ellen Gable

1896 Philadelphia: Caroline Martin’s life has finally taken a turn for the better. After years of hard work, she has met a virtuous and wealthy man whose love seems to promise the kind of life realized only within the comforting novels she keeps on her night table. Tragedy, however, will teach Caroline of the complexity with which God Himself authors the lives of those who turn towards Him. Gold Medal Winner in Religious Fiction, 2010 IPPY Awards. Amazon Kindle #1 Bestseller Religious Drama, February, March 2012.

7. Stealing Jenny by Ellen Gable

Mentally unstable infertile woman kidnaps pregnant mother of six. Amazon Kindle #1 Bestseller Religious Drama February 2012, June and July, 2012. Amazon Kindle Top 20 Bestseller since November, 2011 with over 200,000 downloads. Stealing Jenny is available on Kindle and in Paperback.

This HUGE Giveaway is for ONE FREE PRINT COPY of each of these books (7 BOOKS IN TOTAL)!! To enter, answer the question below before Friday November 1st.

What is your favorite Full Quiver book? If you haven’t read any of these books, tell me which book you are most looking forward to reading!! Make sure you comment before Friday, November 1st!! Good luck!! (NORTH AMERICAN READERS ONLY…Sorry!!!)

Melee in the Courtroom – Mary Brings Peace

“The Rosary is a powerful weapon to put the demons to flight and to keep oneself from sin…If you desire peace in your hearts, in your homes, and in your country, assemble each evening to recite the Rosary. Let not even one day pass without saying it, no matter how burdened you may be with many cares and labors.” Pope Pius XI

Years ago, before I had children, I worked as a court reporter. During one pre-trial hearing involving a dangerous offender, the defendant (who was being uncooperative) had already been restrained in a full body shackle as well as handcuffs. Because he was resisting, the officers sprayed mace in his eyes.

He wasn’t a big man, approximately five feet six or so, but he was muscular. With eyes tearing, he began to spit, first at the crown (prosecuting) attorney, hitting the man’s cheek, and then at the judge (landing on the floor near the clerk’s desk), and finally, his spittle ended up on my desk.

I cringed, then continued taking down the testimony on my stenograph machine, making a mental note to disinfect my desk as soon as possible. After the hearing, the defendant, still restrained in a full body shackle, continue to spit. I watched him as the prisoner box was opened. His eyes stared straight ahead and he was frowning.

What frightened me was the glaring expression in his eyes. I had never seen anyone stare with such evil determination. A police officer reached in and pulled him out. As the defendant stepped forward, he immediately rammed his head into the accompanying police officer’s face.

I still remember the look in the defendant’s eyes as he used his head as a weapon against the officer, the officer’s shocked and bloodied face, and six police and correctional officers jumping on the defendant as the defendant hurled each officer off of him. It was all surreal to me, like in a dream or a movie. The defendant seemed to have superhuman strength.

As the melee of defendant and officers started to move in my direction, I immediately became concerned for my own safety. The clerk leaned over and whispered, “We need to get out of here.”

I grabbed my expensive stenograph machine and the two of us slipped into the jury room behind us. We stood close to the door, peeking through the crack to watch was what happening. We were shocked at how seemingly superhuman the defendant was. It took several minutes, but the defendant was finally subdued and taken away. We were all relieved, but in the days following, I began experiencing nightmares.

The real problem began when I was served with a subpoena to testify at the assault trial. Just thinking of this dangerous offender and the apparent evil in his expression frightened me. I couldn’t eat; I couldn’t sleep. I began to conjure up images that he would hunt me down and kill me if I testified.

Finally, I was determined that I was not going to let that man take away my peace of mind. I sat down and recited a rosary for Mary’s intercession that God would protect me and help me to be a good witness for the prosecution.

Weeks later, at the trial, it was nerve-wracking and frightening to testify in front of the defendant and all the others in the courtroom. It was a long half hour while I testified, but I told the truth, to the best of my ability. When I left the courtroom, I breathed a sigh of relief. I was especially happy that it was all over.

Two years later, however, I received a subpoena to testify at another trial involving the same incident. At that time, I was pregnant with my oldest son and all the original worry and fear took hold of me once more.

I brought my anxiety once again to Mary. If they needed me to be a witness, then I would again do my best. I began to make arrangements to travel to court (now three hours away). Thankfully, two weeks before the trial, I received a phone call that they would not need me after all.

I have no idea where this defendant is now all these years later, or if he is still alive. But Mary taught me that if we bring our worry and anxiety to her, she will take care of the rest.

Copyright 2013 Ellen Gable Hrkach (Handcuff photo from iStock. Rosary Photo from iStock).

Sunday Snippets – October 19

Image copyright Ellen Gable Hrkach

Please join me and other Catholic bloggers at RAnn’s Place for Sunday Snippets where we share posts from the previous week. This week’s question: Do you have any suggestions regarding the Rosary? Books? Audios? Ways to pray it? I most often recite the rosary in combination with either driving, walking or on the elliptical. I also try to recite the rosary before Daily Mass, if I can get there beforehand.

Busy week!! This past Thursday was the release of the Kindle edition of Don’t You Forget About Me by Erin McCole Cupp. It went to #1 in Religious Drama within 18 hours of going live! Print edition coming soon! (It’s currently #2)

7 Quick Takes Friday A new book, my work in progress update, a cartoon and a few other tidbits

A Subtle Grace Summary

Our Lady’s Powerful Intercession

Infant Loss Excerpt

Copyright 2013 Ellen Gable Hrkach