January Writing Updates

CWCO, podcast appearances, Seal of Approval, plus upcoming goals!

Two posts in one week! This one will be straightforward—a list of what I’ve been working on and what you can expect from me writing-wise this year.

AND… I will be calling for BETA READERS soon for my grittiest, longest, but most deeply character-driven book yet! Keep checking in through February for your opportunity to sign up to read!

Catholic Writers Conference Online

This Friday, January 30, I will be speaking on a panel at the CWCO, which is an annual event put on by the Catholic Writers’ Guild. Sessions last from Friday morning through Sunday evening and cover a variety of topics. I will be speaking alongside Guild president Karina Fabian and fellow authors Allison Ramirez and Ginny Kochis on the topic “What to Do When the Story Won’t Work.” We will be sharing from our own experiences of how we had to make changes before our own books were ready for publication. Sign up for the conference here—I’ll also be attending most of the other sessions on Friday afternoon as well as on Sunday!

Me watching one of the CWCO sessions three years ago!

Recent Podcast Appearance

I always love chatting with Jacqueline, so I was excited to be invited to speak with her on her Magic in the Ordinary podcast recently! We talked about my now-completed Chalice Series, what I’m working on now, and how wonder surrounds us in our world and ways it works itself into our writing.

Or find it on YouTube here.

And find all my podcast appearances on my website here.

What’s Up Next for Publishing??

Well, some of you may remember when I called for beta readers last year for Up in Flames, the hinge book between the Chalice Series and the books I am currently revising, the Fallen/Risen Angel Series. I’ve pitched UiF to two agents and one publisher, and I got a no from each of them.

Now, in the grand scheme of things, that is not a lot of attempts. I could keep going, researching other agents or publishers who might be a good fit. But I could also self-publish the book. That is where I am leaning right now.

However, I have a chance to pitch to publishers as part of the CWCO. On a whim, I’m going to pitch my most recent book, A Desert of Angels, which is the last book in the Fallen/Risen universe, but it could stand alone. It’s a women’s fiction story taking place five years after the other books, and it contains themes of marriage, motherhood, self-confidence, and healing from the past. As my most recent story, it benefits from all I have learned over the past six years of writing. As a women’s fiction, it hits a popular shelf in the fiction market. And it includes two adorable kids, a devoted husband and father, and an unsettling paranoia that somebody is watching the female main character. Is it just pregnancy hormones, trauma from the past… or is she going crazy?

I figure—what do I have to lose? A publisher could take the book, and then I still have time while it’s in the process of being published to work more on the others. If they don’t want the others, too, then I can still self-publish those or otherwise find them the right home.

So, I am tweaking my pitch and working on major points I want to hit as I try to sell a publisher on this novel. Prayers very much appreciated!

Prepping Fallen Angel for Beta Readers—Coming SOON!

My biggest project right now is a final reread/revision of Fallen Angel to get it ready to send out to beta readers. This book is like if Demon Copperhead contained spiritual elements, with a wild ride of a romance that breaks all the rules and results in an ultimate fall arc. Its sequel, Risen Angel, shows the redemption arc, so even if you don’t like tragic stories, don’t worry—this one doesn’t stop with Fallen. And FA does end with a glimmer of hope!

If you like character-driven stories featuring characters you fall in love with as children, if you can handle gritty and realistic plotlines surrounding the downfalls of prostitution and addiction, if you want a villain you can hate and an anti-hero you will cry for, then maybe you want to give Fallen Angel a try as a beta reader. Here’s what a member of my critique group had to say:

How do the ideals of Theology of the Body survive in the darkest corners of human experience? Erin’s spiritually gritty story explores the tension between the soul’s divine desires and the 'fall of the flesh' through trauma and addiction. This is not your commonly found “keep sweet” Christian story – it goes right into the whorehouse and the drug den – but it also avoids being overly graphic or voyeuristic.

I’ll share a little synopsis soon to give you a better idea of what this story is about so you can decide if it’s something you’d like to beta read and offer me feedback on. I would especially love it if I could get some readers who have experience with poverty, drug addiction, or living in Boise, ID from the early 1980s-present (yeah, that probably sounds so random, ha). But I want ALL kinds of readers (as long as they are adults—this is not a YA story for teens), those who read deeply for themes as well as those who just want a story with characters they can follow and feel for.

(Caption, ie back-of-book blurb, forthcoming ;-)

I hope to have Fallen Angel ready to send to beta readers sometime in February and will be giving an eight-week timeframe in which to read and offer feedback. So, stay tuned!!

The Fire of Your Love Gets the Seal of Approval!

Last but not least, Chalice Book Three, The Fire of Your Love, received the Catholic Writers Guild Seal of Approval last quarter! This seal indicates that the book does not promote anything contrary to Catholic teaching and is a professional-level, well-edited novel.

You can find all the Chalice Series books on Amazon. And if you’ve read any of them, I would SO appreciate your review on Goodreads and/or Amazon. Firetender needs only ONE MORE Goodreads review before that data will start showing up in the Amazon listing, and that would be a huge goal met for me!

Thanks for reading, and feel free to drop me a line in the comments!

Erin