Ellen Gable's Blog, page 93
January 12, 2013
Sunday Snippets – January 12
Image copyright Ellen Gable Hrkach
It’s almost Sunday so it’s time to connect with other bloggers at RAnn’s Place for Sunday Snippets.I’ve been trying to finish the edits of the first draft of my fourth novel, A Subtle Grace, so my week was light on blogging and I only managed to post once:
7 Quick Takes Friday – Volume 54
Copyright 2013 Ellen Gable Hrkach
January 11, 2013
7 Quick Takes Friday – Volume 54
It’s Friday and time to join up with other Catholic bloggers at Conversion Diary for 7 Quick Takes Friday.
1. Prayer Requests
Please continue to keep Jen from Conversion Diary in your prayers. Also, I’d like to ask readers to pray for fellow CatholicMom contributor, Cassandra Poppe’s son, Fulton. He was severely burned in an accident. Prayers and donations are needed. Here’s the website: http://www.giveforward.com/PrayForFulton
2. Stealing Jenny Reaches 100 Reviews!
My novel, Stealing Jenny, just received its 100th review on Amazon with a 4.3 average ranking! Woo hoo! It was #1 for most of the month of December, has been in the top three for the past week, and in the top ten for the past 18 months.
3. Ellen Gable Author Facebook page
Please consider “liking” my author page. You can either click the link or click the link at the side bar to the right and just below the Stealing Jenny cover photo. There will be weekly free giveaways listed over the next few months and news about upcoming books.
4. Bring Him Home
With the recent release of Les Miserables, I decided to post a video on Facebook of my husband’s moving rendition of “Bring Him Home” (which was recorded nearly four years ago at my surprise 50th birthday concert). Please feel free to take a look and let me know what you think. You need not have a Facebook account to watch the video, although if you want to comment or “like” the video, you’ll need to have a Facebook account.
One of the reasons I wanted to post this video is because “Bring Him Home” is my favorite song of Les Mis. On the whole, I enjoyed Hugh Jackman’s portrayal of Jean Valjean very much, although I was disappointed with his “live” rendition of this particular song.
5. A Subtle Grace
I’ve been busy editing and trying to finish my latest work in progress, A Subtle Grace, the sequel to In Name Only which continues the saga of the O’Donovan Family. I’m specifically writing this book so that it can be read independent of the other, although reading both will give a more complete experience.
A Subtle Grace takes place in 1896 in Philadelphia. Each week during 7 Quick Takes Friday, I’d like to introduce one character from the book. This week: Kathleen O’Donovan, main female protagonist, is the oldest daughter of Caroline (main female protagonist of In Name Only) and her late husband, Liam O’Donovan. At the beginning of the story, Kathleen is 19 years of age and present with her mother as the older woman gives birth to another baby. Kathleen is the oldest of six children (soon-to-be seven children). She is naive, carefree and innocent although an unforeseen circumstance causes her to question everything she has believed about herself and her family.
6. Reading List
The Lion’s Heart by Dena Hunt
7. Cartoon – Skydiving
image copyright FQP – James/Ellen Hrkach
Copyright 2013 Ellen Gable Hrkach
January 6, 2013
Sunday Snippets – January 6
Image copyright Ellen Gable Hrkach
It’s Sunday (Happy Epiphany!) so it’s time to meet up at RAnn’s Place for Sunday Snippets where we share posts from the previous week.7 Quick Takes Friday
Prayers for Jen, thoughts on Les Miserables, Epiphany Blessing, Saints Name Generator, Reading List, my work in progress
Happy New Year
Our 2012 original Christmas Card
Copyright 2013 Ellen Gable Hrkach
January 4, 2013
7 Quick Takes Friday – Volume 53
It’s Friday so it’s time for 7 Quick Takes. Usually, Jen from Conversion Diary hosts it, but since she is in the hospital, Hallie Lord is hosting this week.
1. Prayers for Jen
I’d like to ask my readers to pray with me for Jennifer Fulweiler and her unborn baby. She is presently in hospital with pulmonary embolisms. “Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou amongst women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.”
2. Les Miserables
I recently saw the movie, Les Miserables, with my husband and one of our older sons. It was an outstanding movie, although admittedly, I prefer the live version to the movie version. I thought Hugh Jackman did an outstanding job and Anne Hathaway’s acting and portrayal of Fantine was riveting. However, I’m not sure I liked the “live,” “raw” singing. It worked well most of the time, but there were some moments when it distracted me enough to pull me out of the story. Perhaps I’m too accustomed to listening to the Les Mis CD (which I’ve done hundreds of times…) What I loved most about this movie, though, was the positive portrayal of the Catholic Church and the kindness of the bishop and the sisters. In this day and age, it’s unusual (and refreshing) for a film to show the Catholic Church in such a positive light.
As we were exiting the theater, I was thinking, “I’d love to see my husband play Jean Valjean on stage…” A friend of mine, who happened to be at the theater for that showing, commented as she caught up with me, “Your husband would make a great Jean Valjean.” Indeed.
3. Original Christmas Card
Check out our original Christmas card for this year!
image copyright James and Ellen Hrkach 2012
Image copyright James and Ellen Hrkach 2012
4. Epiphany Blessing
This Sunday, my husband will mark the doorways of our household and say the Epiphany blessing.
5. Saints Name Generator
This Saints Name Generator is a great tool to use if you want to pray to a particular saint for a certain time period. The two saints I’ll be focusing my prayers to this year are St. Paul and St. Dominic.
6. Reading List
Blood of the Martyrs and Other Stories by John Desjarlais
(got this free on Kindle yesterday.)
The Ultimate Saints Guide to the Immaculate Conception of Mary
(got this free earlier this week.)
7. A Subtle Grace
I haven’t been blogging much lately as I’ve been busy with other deadlines, but I’ve also been trying to finish my fourth novel, A Subtle Grace, which is the sequel to . A Subtle Grace takes place in Philadelphia about 15 years later than In Name Only (1896). More about my latest work in progress in upcoming blog posts.
Copyright 2013 Ellen Gable Hrkach
December 31, 2012
Happy New Year!
image copyright James and Ellen Hrkach 2012
Image copyright James and Ellen Hrkach 2012
December 25, 2012
A Blessed and Joy-Filled Christmas to All!
photo credit: Josh Hrkach 2011 (copyright)
“And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.” Luke 2:8-11
“Fear not little flock, fear not. Come with me to Bethlehem. Let us celebrate a joyous Christmas. Let us be merry and happy no matter what because Christ is born.” Catherine Doherty
I’ll be taking the next week off from blogging.
Merry Christmas!
December 22, 2012
Sunday Snippets – December 22
Image copyright Ellen Gable Hrkach
It’s almost Sunday so it’s time to join with other Catholic bloggers at RAnn’s Place where we share our previous week’s posts.Here are my posts:
Copyright 2012 Ellen Gable Hrkach
December 21, 2012
7 Quick Takes Friday – Volume 52
It’s Friday so it’s time to connect with Jen’s Conversion Diary.
As promised, I’d like to share just a few of the 25 original Christmas cards we’ve created over the past 28 years. As I’ve mentioned before, our “Family Life” cartoons began as Christmas cards 24 years ago. To learn more about this, you can read my previous guest post at Catholic Sistas entitled “Life in a Cartoon World.”
Those on our Christmas card list really enjoy and appreciate our cards; the caricatures of the members of our family are drawn by my husband. With some of these, I scanned only one part of the card, since I just wanted to share the caricatures of the family.
1. Let the Spirit In – 1989
Image copyright James and Ellen Hrkach 1989
2. She Brought Forth Her First Born Son – 1992
Image copyright James and Ellen Hrkach 1992
3. Glorious Strains – 1996
Image copyright James and Ellen Hrkach 1996
image copyright James and Ellen Hrkach 1996
4. Cookies are Like Baby Jesus – 2002
Image copyright James and Ellen Hrkach 2002
5. ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas – 2007
Image and text copyright James and Ellen Hrkach 2007
Image and text copyright James and Ellen Hrkach 2007
6. Hrkach Boys Assembly Line – 2008
Image and text copyright James and Ellen Hrkach 2008
Image and text copyright 2008 James and Ellen Hrkach
7. Vertical Enhancements – 2009
Image and text copyright James and Ellen Hrkach 2009
Image and text copyright James and Ellen Hrkach 2009
All text and images copyright James and Ellen Hrkach 2012
December 20, 2012
Prayer: The Cry of A Child
As we get closer to Christmas, I’d like to share another beautiful excerpt, this one from Catherine Doherty’s “Living the Gospel Without Compromise.” This is entitled “Prayer: The Cry of a Child” and is available free as a Pass it On article at this link.
The first step in praying is to understand who we are, and that is awfully difficult. We must acknowledge that we are creatures, saved sinners, entirely dependent on God. We must be, as the bible says, anawim, poor people of God, the poor people of the beatitudes who know that they depend on God. We must face ourselves and realize that we cannot exist on our own, that we are dependent.
To the proud, this is anathema. We look at ourselves and we say “I depend on no one” — and suddenly, in the very saying, we realize that this is not so: we do depend on God. This is the beginning of prayer: that we become beggars before God, knowing that we receive even the steps we take from him.
To begin to pray we must first cleanse our souls of arrogance and pride. In grave humility and as beggars, must we come to him who alone can make us princes and kings and queens, not of earthly kingdoms, but of the kingdom of God. Only when we are thus poor and realize our total poverty, can we go to Bethlehem and meet the Child who became poor for us.
Is there any human being who does not respond to the cry of a child? Did you ever consider the first cry of the Child Jesus? It was his first message of love to us. When we know that we are poor, we can easily enter Bethlehem and answer his cry. We can easily walk behind the donkey that bears the woman and Child. If we are poor we will not hesitate to enter the humble home of Nazareth to take part in the hospitality of Joseph and Mary. Yet the proud and the arrogant look down their noses at simple folk from Nazareth: “Can anything good come from Nazareth?”
If we realize our own poverty we will follow him who had nowhere to lay his head. Prayer is the interpersonal relationship of a poor man with the Poor Man.
If we remain poor and keep following the Poor Man, a change will take place. Up to a point Christ will console us. But as our prayer deepens, we will enter the darkness of a fantastic faith, a faith that we have to pray for. The time will come when we will have to console Christ. For we see him all over the world — in slums, in Park Avenue — in people committing suicide because of the greed of people.
When we console him our prayer will take on a new dimension. The Son of Man became incarnate that we might console him, so that in consoling him we might learn to console one another, to be tender toward one another. He offered himself as a victim for us on the cross so that we might take him in our arms as Our Lady took him in hers.
Our prayer will be dirgelike, and yet, a joy! Our pain will be purified and our prayer will have moved into another dimension: we will want to be on the cross because Love is crucified. A strange thing will happen: our prayer will become a prayer of joy, a fantastic resting in the heart of God.
Thus from a recognition of our total dependence we are led to a prayer where we realize the Father is coming to us, know the touch of his hand, see Christ’s human face reflecting his glory. Thus does prayer become a total and final resting place, a unity, a complete union of ourselves with God. The darkness of faith grows light and there is no need for words anymore. There is only a need for rest, the rest of a beloved in the arms of her Beloved.
December 15, 2012
Sunday Snippets – December 15
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.Self-Publishing and Web Presence My latest post for the Catholic Writers Guild.
7 Quick Takes Friday A cool video, a cartoon, a recipe and other stuff.
Trust, Fertility and Advent My latest column for both Amazing Catechists and Catholic Mom.
Copyright 2012 Ellen Gable Hrkach
