Amanda Lauer's Blog, page 3

Welcome To This World

To say the last month or so has been busy would be an understatement. Five weeks ago, I had to relocate my mom to a new assisted living facility. Three days after she was settled in I flew to Columbus, Ohio, to help our daughter Samantha out by watching our 2-year-old granddaughter and working on some projects with Samantha as she prepared for baby #2 to arrive, who was due Oct. 5.

 

My Scottish time-travel book, Royal & Ancient, was released October 2. Even though I had very little time to promote it, it held the No. 1 New Release spot in its genre on Amazon for a full week. (Order yours now, AmandaLauer.com or Amazon. I still don’t have time to adequately promote it!)

 

October 12, my husband John drove my dad out to Columbus and that evening we celebrated my dad’s 85th birthday and our son-in-law Dave’s birthday (both October 11) with all of our children and grandchildren plus Dave’s family at brewery/food truck spot. The next day our youngest daughter Elizabeth got married along the banks of the Scioto River in Columbus. The following day she and Richie had their wedding pictures taken and held their reception at The Kitchen in downtown Columbus. We enjoyed a sumptuous meal and danced the night away celebrating the newlywed couple.

 

The good news is that Samantha and Ryan got to enjoy the whole wedding weekend because Baby Boy decided to take his time arriving. Thus, John, my dad and I drove home without meeting the little guy. The day after we left Samantha went into labor and on early Tuesday morning, October 17, Henry Theodore was born. At 9 pounds, 1 ounce, and 22 inches long, he was certainly well done! And all that black hair! He was the spitting image of him mom when she was born.

 

Or course, being a huge fan of babies, particularly our grandchildren, I booked a flight back to Columbus on Nov. 11 to meet Henry. But, when Samantha asked if I could come early, I booked another flight October 28. So, I’ll have two full weeks in Columbus, with one week back home in between. By the time I get back, we’ll be just four days out from Thanksgiving.

 

While I’m in Columbus the second time in November, on the 17th, the fifth book in my Heaven Intended Civil War series, A Faith Such as Heaven Intended, will be released. (Again, please order your copy when it becomes available. I’ll have even less time to promote this book!)

 

The last two weeks should’ve been dedicated to working on book #6 in my Civil War series, but, instead, I’ve spent nine days sorting through all my mom’s items that have been stored in my basement since she first went into an assisted living facility in 2019. We’ve downsized her from a two-story, three-bedroom home, to a one-bedroom apartment, to a studio apartment, to a bedroom. As you can imagine, it’s a lot of stuff. Hundreds of items to be categorized, photographed, and posted on Facebook to give my friends and family first dibs at everything.

 

Two days out from leaving for Columbus, we’re down to the last few items. 32 to be precise. Will they be dispatched before I depart? Who knows, in between here and there I have a presentation to give on my books at a local parish, a luncheon, items to deliver, a pair of jeans to shop for, Bible study, Mass, and packing (which I haven’t even started yet).

 

All this busyness is worth it because it means I get to spend special time holding Baby Henry, playing with his big sister, and hanging out with Samantha and Ryan. Someday I’ll rest, but I’m happy with the packed schedule I’m currently facing and doing my best to savor each moment of every day.

 

 

 

 

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Don’t Ever Bet Against Me

My 86-year-old mom has been in assisted living facilities since she underwent emergency surgery in 2017 for a ruptured colon that caused her to have short-term memory loss. After she was released from the hospital, she stayed at the closest nursing facility to our house, just .5 miles away, so that I could visit her daily.

 

The facility has since closed its doors, not too surprisingly. Mom was there maybe a couple weeks and when she was released, John and I quickly discovered that she not only had short-term memory loss but was also suffering from a severe case of hospital delirium. After a few weeks at home, she was readmitted to the hospital.

 

From there she was sent for rehab at a facility in our city that had better care but didn’t acknowledge and/or recognize her hospital delirium. After a 2.5-month stay there, she was basically sent packing because her federal insurance would no longer pay for her care.

 

That left me as her primary caregiver, taking care of her in her home, working from her dining room table, making meals, cleaning, chauffeuring her to doctor appointments, and performing all the physical cares that a person in her situation needed.

 

She underwent a second surgery to reverse the colostomy that had been performed at her initial surgery six months earlier. While that didn’t help her short-term memory loss, it lessened the delirium symptoms, so she was able to live without me being with her 24/7.

 

In September of 2018, we helped her sell her home and found an assisted living facility that was less than 2 miles from our house. We’d hoped it would be Mom’s forever home, but after self-paying for a year and using up all of her assets so that she would qualify for Medicaid, we were told that the facility would not accept her as a Medicaid client because they had reached their capacity.

 

So, in September of 2019, we moved Mom to another assisted living facility, this one six-plus miles from our house. In the course of two years, she went from her three-bedroom house to a one-bedroom apartment to a studio apartment. Downsizing was tough on her, especially since she’s been on her own for so long and had so many things that she’d purchased to make her house a home, but she got through, and lived there relatively happily for four years.

 

Fast forward to September 20, 2023, when I got a call from the provider that manages her Medicaid case, and was informed that Mom had to find a new place to live by December 5, 2023. For various reasons, this company had canceled their contract with her facility.

 

That call sent me into overdrive. I had literally one week to rehouse Mom before I left for an extended visit to Ohio to help our middle daughter as she and her husband are expecting their second child, and to attend our youngest daughter’s wedding October 14. Most people thought it would be impossible to pull this off in such a short time. But, like John always says, don’t ever bet against me. When I set my mind to something, I will not quit until I succeed.

 

People said it was an impossible task, but I refused to back down. What was the rush, they wondered? Because good assisted living facilities are hard to come by. There are only openings when a resident passes away. The agency gave me a list of seven facilities in our area that had openings as of that day. I have a friend who owns a business where they help place elders into care facilities, so I ran the list past her. Four of the choices were a hard no for her (spotty care, outdated facilities, not a place she’d want for anyone’s mom). That left us three options.

 

My first choice was a four-bedroom home in a residential neighborhood just 1.7 miles from our house. I happened to know the original owner of that facility (one of a half-dozen in our area) and he connected me immediately to the new owner. I called to make an appointment to walk through it the next day. He had a showing at 9:30. I asked if my husband and I could tour the house at 8:00. He agreed and so we did.

 

The house is about a year old and in a beautiful neighborhood. The four residents are looked after full time by one person on each of three shifts throughout the day and night. John and I knew instinctively that this would be a good fit for Mom. We told the owner and asked to start the application process.

 

We did tour a larger facility, about 6 miles from our house, a couple days later. After seeing that, we knew we’d made the right decision. Mom would’ve been in the advanced memory care section, and she’s not to that point in her life yet. I’m not sure how hard it would’ve been on her, but I couldn’t handle it. Her condition has been down-graded from short-term memory loss to dementia and now to Alzheimer’s dementia. If it gets worse (which seems somewhat unavoidable), we’ll be faced with more decisions for her. Hopefully, that’s a ways off.

 

With the owner of the house and his staff aware of the fact that I wanted Mom moved in by September 27, we all went to work. This included filling out a stack of paperwork, getting DNR paperwork and bracelets from my mom’s physician (a lesson in patience if there ever was one), communicating with the nurse at the new facility, the staff at my mom’s previous assisted living facility, and the staff at her doctor’s office.

 

On top of that was the actual move. John and I spent the weekend before at Mom’s packing up her apartment. This was the third downsizing for her (and the third upsizing for me and John as we’ve added 90 percent of her belongings to our basement).

 

The night before the move we had everything boxed up, sorted by things going to our house vs. those going to Mom’s new apartment (make that room) but we still hadn’t figured out how to actually facilitate moving her furniture. There wasn’t one moving company that could either move her on our timeline or had a price that fit her budget. I resorted to asking the gentleman who owned the house she was moving into if he could help us move the larger items. Not only did he say yes, he provided a truck and covered trailer, moved the items from her apartment onto the trailer with John, moved the items with John into Mom’s room, and also offered to let us store the large items she wouldn’t be using (dining room table, chairs, and hutch) in the garage of her new house.

 

Miraculously, we had Mom completely moved in on September 27. That evening John and I even went over and hung up her pictures so it truly looked like home. After one of the most intense weeks that I could remember in a long time, I was exhausted, but relieved that we’d pulled this move off in such a short time. Three days later I took off for Ohio.

 

Is this facility a perfect fit? That’s to be determined. There’s definitely been a few glitches, but, being just 5 minutes from our house, we’re able to stop by on almost a daily basis, so we’ll be able to stay on top of things. Will this be Mom’s forever home? I’d like to say it will be but only God knows the answer to that. For now, Mom’s settled in, safe and secure. We’re taking things one day at a time and thanking God that we still have her in our lives and that she still remembers us.

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Biking Reinvented

I can still remember the first time my husband brought up the topic of investing in an e-bike for me. He claimed that it would help me keep up with him on our longer bike rides. Being the competitive person that I am, I was actually offended that he was implying that I was struggling to keep up with him on any ride. Technically, I was, but I was too stubborn to admit it.

 

The subject stayed on the back burner until the summer of 2022. A local library had e-bikes that you could check out on your library card for 24 hours at a time. After one trip with the borrowed e-bike, I was hooked. An e-bike leveled the playing field (or riding field) for me and John. Even with the bike on the lowest power-assist setting, eco, I could not only keep up with him, I could be the one in the lead setting the pace.

 

Hills? Wind? No problem. It felt a bit Pee-wee Hermann-like sprinting up hills, a smile on my face, enjoying the scenic ride, rather than just trying to make it from Point A to Point B without collapsing from the exertion.

 

On occasion, there would be two e-bikes available to check out, so both John and I got to experience the comfort and joy of riding e-bikes. Later in the summer, we borrowed e-bikes from his brother and sister-in-law to check out the hilly areas in their neck of the woods. That really convinced us that these would be game-changers in our quest for fitness and fun.

 

By the time the summer ended, we were determined to invest in e-bikes when we retired. While we really wanted the e-bikes for the summer of 2023, we were willing to wait another year to get them. However, circumstances changed for us this spring when John was gifted some money in his uncle’s will. Because of that, we went forward with the purchase of our e-bikes this May.

 

The consummate researcher, John spent months over the winter and early spring watching more YouTube videos than you can imagine on e-bikes before he determined the brand and style of e-bikes we would be purchasing. We ended up getting the Aventon Pace 500.3. John’s is the step-over style in black and mine is the step-through style in blue.

 

His uncle, Joseph Endres, Jr., was an avid fan of the Friendship Trail, which loops a portion of Little Lake Butte des Mort in Wisconsin’s Fox Cities. After his passing, a bench was dedicated to him and his older brother, Jerome Endres, who’d enjoyed that trail himself many times through the years. To honor Joseph (or Hans as the family called him), when we left the bike shop, our first destination was the Friendship Trail.

 

Talk about love at first sight. Or first ride. These bikes met all of our expectations and more. Biking is so much more fun when you’re not winded and can truly enjoy the experience, taking in the beauty of God’s earth around you as you ride, and not collapsing from exhaustion when you get back home.

 

Don’t let any non-e-bike riders harass you about “cheating” when you’re riding an e-bike. John’s standard response is, “Do you consider it cheating when you’re riding a $2,000 road bike and we’re riding $200 cross comfort bikes?”

 

These bikes have allowed us to go much further distances, ride longer, and head out for rides regardless of the wind or other weather conditions. I’d guess I’ve put more miles on this summer (500+ so far), than I have in the last three years combined.

 

John’s favorite thing about the e-bikes is watching me smile as we ride. All the pain from riding I used to have, whether it was my back, knees, or hands, has diminished since we got the e-bikes. With fall just around the corner, we’re anticipating riding much later into the year than we usually do.

 

E-bikes are an investment, but a worthwhile one. We plan to do even more bike riding next summer when John’s retired. What better way to spend our time than being together, working on our fitness, and living in a state of gratitude—particularly since we reside in an area with an abundance of river trails and other great biking areas.

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Our Walk to Remember…

 

I’ve been a goal setter as long as I can remember, and I truly believe in the power of written goals. Many times through the years I’d written down goals, and, without even consciously working on them, in time they were reached.

 

Recently, I dug out a goal list from 2010. Out of the 137 goals I’d written down, I (or John and I) had completed half of them. Three of the goals are visiting states we haven’t been to yet, which will happen in the spring of 2024. Most every other goal is something I/we no longer desire to do, so, in essence, this goal list is complete.

 

We swapped out one last goal for another one last week. I had a goal of running a marathon, but, because of back issues, I’ve had to hang up my running shoes. So, instead of running 26.2 miles, John and I decided to hike 21+ miles around Geneva Lake in southern Wisconsin.

 

The two of us arrived at a hotel in the Lake Geneva area on Monday, August 21, 2023. We had an amazing pizza dinner at Mama Cimino’s (highly recommend), and addictive popcorn for dessert — Ralph’s Caramel Gold (cheese popcorn coated in homemade caramel) — from Constant Cravings in Lake Geneva, then hit the hay. 

 

After a decent night’s sleep and the standard free motel breakfast, we set out from the Lake Geneva Library at 8:00 the next morning. John and I were armed with walking sticks, and he carried a backpack with four 16-ounce bottles of Kangen water, granola bars, string cheese, a nut mixture, and a box of Mike & Ike fruit candy. Note to anyone considering this walk, swap out the nuts for more Kangen water (KangenWisconsin.com), and don’t bring anything (i.e. candy) that turns sticky in tropical heat.

 

The path around Geneva Lake, which winds through the yards of all the residents living on the lake, was spectacular. A number of the homes are literally mansions, many dating back to the late 1800s and early 1900s, and were built by wealthy families — a good deal from the Chicago area — with familiar names like Sears, Wrigley, and Schwinn.

 

This wasn’t exactly a walk in the park. The path varied from concrete, to gravel, pavers, woodchips, and dirt, and was not necessarily level, as it tilted toward the lake, and there was a good deal of hiking uphill and downhill. Thank goodness for the walking sticks, or I’d never have made it all the way around the lake, and we’d have had to resort to using the Uber app on John’s phone to get us back to our vehicle.

 

About a quarter of the way in, my hips started to hurt. The further I went along, the more areas of my body started complaining, from my lower back to my knees, calves, and upper arms (from holding the walking sticks). Three-quarters of the way around, I was getting exhausted and we’d run out of water. We refilled at a county park, but the tap water I consumed gave me a gut ache.

 

It was a gorgeous summer day with the temperature hitting 86 degrees. We were fortunate to have a fair amount of shady areas to walk through. Regardless, by the time I was done, I looked like I’d just gotten out of a sauna. Every piece of clothing I wore was wringing wet.

 

We started out at a decent 3 mph pace but were down to 2 mph by the end. The last 3 or 4 miles seemed to take forever. We could see the city of Lake Geneva in the distance, but it never seemed to get any closer.

 

Finally, some nine hours after we’d started our trek, we made our way into the city. I was never so happy to see a public library in my life! I collapsed onto a bench while John went the extra couple blocks to get the car. All together, we walked about 26 miles that day. So, in essence, I did complete that marathon.

 

The nice thing about crossing something off your goal list is that you don’t have to do it again. As beautiful as the day was, and as gorgeous as the scenery was, the walk was grueling, to put it lightly. That being said, we continually expressed our gratitude for the opportunity for this experience as we went, and we tried to take in everything around us, from the wildlife to the stunning flowers to the serene lake. John knew that I was hurting, and he was so encouraging. He kept telling me what a great job I was doing. 

 

What an awesome feeling it was to complete this. For the rest of our lives, John and I will be able to say that we walked around the entire Geneva Lake. That, in and of itself, made the whole adventure worthwhile.

 

 

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Anatomy of a Novel

When my first book, A World Such as Heaven Intended, came out in October of 2014, I thought it was “one and done.” God had other plans. Here I am, nine years later, and yesterday I send my 10th book off to the publisher.

 

One of the most asked questions I get is, “How long does it take to write a book?” That’s a great question. When I wrote my first novel, the process took about two years. I literally wrote only one chapter per month.

 

With each successive book, I’ve gotten the process down better. Over the last nine years, I’ve learned so much about writing—thanks to some amazing proofreaders and copy editors, and I’ve uncovered the mechanics of writing.

 

Now, each book that I complete, I swear it’s better than any of the ones I wrote before. Which is probably true. That being said, I’m enamored with the novel I just finished, Lucky & Blessed.

 

The writing process for this one was a total of nine weeks. Here’s the breakdown:

 

On April 27, 2023, while at a silent retreat, I peeked at my e-mails and found a note from my editor of the book Royal & Ancient, which comes out October 2, 2023.

 

Just a quick idea for you to ponder during your retreat and into the future. Would you be interested in writing royal stories for WhiteCrown? If so, I’d love to have you as part of my author team. =) There’s no pressure to answer, but think and pray about it and let me know whatever you decide. The door is open if royal inspiration ever strikes you.

 

To which I replied: I haven’t even been at this retreat three hours, and I just thought of something. I have a book set in 1540 in England during the reign of King Henry the VIII about the Dissolution of the Monasteries, and how it affects a young man and a young woman. I had written a short story of this for the book Treasures: Visible & Invisible. I had always wanted to turn it into a full-length book. This might be a good one to consider.

 

On May 4, I got this reply: Write away! Please and thank you and all the gratitude for all your writing projects coming to WFPG! I could not be happier with what you’ve produced so far, and I hope to see ALL of it as soon as possible. =)

 

May 9, I started writing the manuscript, with the deadline of September 1, 2023. That gave me 12 weeks to write a book. From scratch. No outline. Talk about a daunting task! BTW, when I say 12 weeks, I should clarify that six of those 12 weeks were vacation weeks for me and John.

 

It was a slow start. By July 1 I was already two weeks behind. I made the decision that I’d need to work nights, weekends, holidays, and vacation days if I was going to get this book done on time. Which is exactly what I did. Even when I was “relaxing” I was writing the book outline in my head.

 

However, that wasn’t even enough to get this project done on time. After years of hearing the advice from my husband about the advantage of using the Pomodoro Technique, I was finally desperate enough to get the timer from his office and implement this into my daily schedule. (FYI, The Pomodoro Technique is a time management method based on 25-minute stretches of focused work broken by five-minute breaks. Longer breaks, typically 15 to 30 minutes, are taken after four consecutive work intervals. NOTE: I used 45-minute stretches or writing sprints as I called them. No interruptions, particularly scrolling my phone, were allowed.)

 

This productivity stuff actually works. On August 11, 2023, I completed a 51,942-word novel (that’s 222 pages, 45 chapters, 114 pages of historical notes for those of you interested). It took three days to read through and proofread the manuscript.

 

As of August 16, 2023, the book is in the hands of my editor. Now, it’s a matter of waiting for her feedback and the developmental edits, which I’m hoping aren’t too extensive. Meanwhile, John and I are taking another week of vacation—a non-working vacation, and then I’m back at it, working on book #6 in my Heaven Intended Civil War series. You’ve got to make hay while the sun shines, don’t they say? And God has been shining His sun/son down on me in abundance the last few years, so I’ll keep on keeping on.

 

 

 

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No man is a failure who has friends

So, this thing happened a couple of weeks ago. I celebrated my birthday. Which, coincidentally, happens to fall one day after my husband John’s birthday. We’re a day and a year apart.

 

Part of the fun of celebrating birthdays for me is all the birthday wishes I get every year. The vast majority come through Facebook, with a smattering of phone calls, texts, and Facetime well-wishes (three precisely, one from each of our out-of-state children and their families).

 

I’ve noticed through the years that consistently 10 percent of the people who are my Facebook friends post birthday wishes on my timeline. In real numbers, that’s 2,000+ Facebook friends, or roughly 250 birthday posts.

 

It made me wonder the other day. How did I ever accumulate that many friends on social media? The vast majority are people  I actually know, not just strangers who sent friend requests (that’s more of an Instagram thing, but that’s a whole other story).

 

This is the conclusion that I came to. I’ve done a lot of stuff in my life, and I’ve met a lot of people. Through the marvel of social media, I’ve been able to stay in contact with them, or reconnect with the ones I hadn’t seen in years.

 

I created a list of where I’ve met people in my life. Maybe some of you can relate…

Friends/neighbors/classmates/teachers from the three cities in lived in for the majority of my growing-up years: Antigo, Wis., Baudette, Minn., Appleton, Wis. (That’s three high schools BTW, Antigo High School, Lake of the Woods High School, Appleton High School-West. Let’s see who can top that.)Work: ShopKo, Secura, executive manager with Tupperware, product testing for 35 years for Kimberly-Clark Corp., the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, TPN, Enagic (KangenWisconsin.com), B.A.N.K., various newspapers including The Business News and The Compass. (Add to that John’s work friends.)Church: fellow parishioners, priests, Bible study, and friends I’ve made at various retreats through the years.Modeling and acting, including 12 years performing in community theater, and currently working with Belle Talent.Family (parents, siblings, aunts and uncles, nieces and nephews, cousins, godparents). My family is somewhat on the small size, but when you marry someone with 11 brothers and sisters, your family grows exponentially overnight.Folks we’ve met through our children: their friends, their friends’ parents and siblings, their teachers, and all the children that John and I coached through the years (softball, flag football, soccer, volleyball).Being involved in sports and other athletic endeavors: softball, soccer, running, biking, volleyball, golf, and now pickleball.Neighbors old and new.Volunteer work. I spent a number of years volunteering for a local crisis-pregnancy clinic, and, with four children in Catholic schools from pre-school through grad school, there were plenty of volunteer opportunities.Friends in general that we’ve everywhere, including on our travels, even some famous ones (who have way more friends/followers on social media than I do).My fellow authors, a subset that I’m happy to say is growing substantially as the years roll along. Hand in hand with that are fans of my books who’ve become friends. How gratifying is that?

 

In the words of Clarence the angel in the movie It’s a Wonderful Life, “Remember, no man is a failure who has friends.” That being the case, I would say that not only is my life wonderful, but it’s been pretty successful as well. Thank you for being my friend!

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The Habsburg Way

So, I have this friend who had a new book published this spring, and he sent me a note several months ago asking if I’d like an advanced hardcover copy mailed to me that I could review. Just going to say, when an archduke asks me a favor, I seldom say no. Besides that, I was very interested in the topic of his book, and was touched that Archduke Eduard Habsburg considers me to be an influencer of some sort. (Interesting, seeing that he has 63,700 followers on Twitter verses my 540 followers.)

The book was thoroughly enjoyable. If you have any interest in royal families, particularly one as storied as the Habsburg family, I’d highly recommend investing in a copy of The Habsburg Way: 7 Rules for Turbulent Times for yourself.

Check out my review here

Happy reading!

 

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Review of The Miracle Club

The first week in July I received this message from a professional in the film PR industry:

Hi Amanda. I’ve been meaning to reach out to you for some time b/c I really enjoy your entertainment coverage and commitment to faith. My name is Corby Pons and I work on the pr side for films. I’ve worked on over 55 Academy award nominated films, and I’m a Christian who works in mainstream media. I am aware of your Sound of Freedom coverage b/c the filmmakers are dear friends of mine.

I had a note to myself to reach out to you about this this Laura Linney, Kathy Bates, Maggie Smith Catholic Pilgrimage film, The Miracle Club, that I think would make sense for the Catholic Mom audience. If you are interested in screening this film before the release on July 14th or if you are interested in interviews (the director Thaddeus O’Sullivan, for example, is a really thoughtful person of faith) we can arrange this. I can send you information about the film if you’re interested.

As busy as my schedule has been this summer, I was more than happy to help. My thanks to Corby for reaching out to me. It was an enjoyable film and I had a lovely Zoom conversation with Corby and Thaddeus O’Sullivan the next day. Check out the review below.

Read my review of The Miracle Club here

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That’s All She Wrote…

After 24 years as a freelance journalist, I made the decision last fall to give up my gigs with the last two newspapers that I’d been writing for. My final story in The Business News came out at the end of 2022, and the last story for The Compass newspaper (published by the Green Bay Diocese) was published late this spring. Below is the final column I wrote for The Compass. I got nice feedback from this, especially from fellow journalists, some who said my words expressed exactly how they felt after a long and storied career in this field. Below the column is a follow up on how the alleged “retirement” is going…

Nineteen years at The Compass? Where has the time gone? I still remember the day Pat Kasten and I met at the former St. Joe’s Middle School in Appleton when we were guest presenters discussing our careers in journalism. The friendship we formed that day turned into a rewarding work partnership.

Some 400 stories later, I’m wrapping up my work with The Compass to devote my full-time energy into my career as an author. My “one-and-done” novel published in 2014 became the base of my six-book Heaven Intended Catholic Civil War series and the springboard to writing sweet historic romances and time-travel novels.

In the last two decades I’ve covered Your Catholic Neighbor features, vocation anniversaries, the Bishop’s Appeal, Faith Formation, choirs, musicians, service projects, outstanding students, liturgical celebrations, renowned speakers, conferences, theatrical productions, and just about everything in between.

I’ve had some of the most incredible moments, met and gotten to know so many amazing people, and have deepened my faith because of these experiences. It’s been a pleasure spotlighting individuals who give so much of themselves to their churches and communities, never looking for recognition.

The folks I’ve interviewed range from bishops to priests, religious sisters, authors, speakers, ambassadors to the Holy See, musicians, chefs, radio hosts, models, movie producers, actors, and apologists for the Church. There were the everyday cradle Catholics, converts to Catholicism, and reverts to Catholicism all striving to become a better version of themselves on a daily basis and make the world a better place because they were here. Many of these people became friends and sadly, some of those wonderful people have since passed away. I pray for their souls as I know they’re praying for mine as well.

So many moments stand out in my time at The Compass. Like when a grandfather was battling a devastating disease and said that he praised God every day that he was given this cross to bear rather than his wife, children or grandchildren. Or the mom who proclaimed that her number one goal in life was for her children to be with her in heaven one day. I’ve worked for that same thing myself ever since hearing her words.

The hardest interview I ever had was talking with a young man who was dying of cancer, leaving behind a wife and two young children. His attitude was admirable and inspirational. I wrapped up the interview early because I couldn’t hold the tears back.

My husband John and I strive to live a life of gratitude and I will say I’ve been lucky and blessed to have had a career as a Catholic journalist. Every assignment was different, every person had their own unique story to tell, and every day I felt privileged to be able to share those stories with the world.

Thank you to Pat Kasten, Sam Lucero and Jeff Kurowski for your leadership and editorial skills through the years and to all The Compass staff with whom I’ve worked. And my deepest appreciation to the readers of The Compass for keeping this paper alive, allowing me to have a career that most people would just dream of. It’s been a life-changing experience sharing all these stories with you. God’s blessings to you all.  

When I was doing journalism full time, I had an average 8-hour workday. Since my “retirement,” I’ve been inundated with work for my upcoming books, writing up to 12 hours a day — not only during the week but weekends and holidays too. They say that you have to make hay while the sun shines. The good Lord is shining down sun on me every day lately. My book Royal & Ancient comes out October 2, and A Faith Such as Heaven Intended comes out somewhere near the end of the year. Having two books release that close together means that inevitably when I receive a round of edits for one book, then a round of edits comes for the other book as well, usually within the same week. If I was allotted five weeks to make the corrections and edits, that meant it was 2.5 weeks for one book and 2.5 weeks for the other book. That’s a lot of editing in a short time.

To make things even more interesting, I’ve been offered a verbal contract for a book set during the time of King Henry VII, with the manuscript due September 1. Because of vacation time we had planned for the summer, that is the equivalent of writing a 50,000+ word novel in 10 weeks. A challenge for even the most prolific writer!

Between now and September 1 I have 29 workdays. I’m 25 percent through with the manuscript. If I can successfully write two chapters a day for each of those 29 days, I’ll make it. Note: each chapter is approximately five pages long and each page, with research, takes about 1 hour to write.

I’m praying for the fortitude to get this book written on time! The hardest part for me is developing the plot. So, I’m praying for inspiration as well.

Thanks for following me on this author’s journey! Comment below and let me know what’s keeping you busy this summer!

 

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The Sound of Freedom

The Sound of Freedom is one of the most impactful movies I’ve ever seen. John and I had the chance to watch a prescreening of the film in June so that I could review it for CatholicMom.com. Every adult and mature teen who cares about the welfare of children needs to see this movie. The film is about child sex trafficking, so the topic is intense, but the movie was shot and edited in a way that the violence towards children was not on screen. I personally wouldn’t have been able to handle that if it had been.

Click the link below to see my review.

Get your tickets today! “God’s children are note for sale.” Pray for the health and safety of every precious child in this world. I am.

My review of The Sound of Freedom

 

 

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