Hi everyone! It’s been a few months since I have sent out a newsletter, and now that summer is here, we are taking a break from homeschooling, and I am ready to get back into sending these out with a little more regularity. My family has already vacationed for two weeks, and that was a blast. We saw a lot of our country that we’d not yet visited!
In author news, I have several exciting writing-related things going on! I recently got to visit the Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in Denver, the setting of a pivotal scene in Firetender as well as several scenes in Enkindle in Me. If you’ve read either book and want to further visualize the scenes, check back in soon for a post full of photos and videos of this beautiful church.
Speaking of the basilica, it will feature prominently in Book Three of the Chalice Series, The Fire of Your Love. Exciting news: I have signed a contract with Full Quiver Publishing to have this book in your hands early next year! I will be editing and getting it finalized in the coming months. I’ll be looking for readers to send out ARCs to in the future, so be thinking about whether you want to pre-read a digital copy and review it before the release date!
A book birthday: Enkindle turns ONE next week on June 29th! I will be sharing about that with fun photos and reels, some ways to help me celebrate, plus an announcement sharing recent news about the book! If you follow me on Instagram (@authorerinlewis), you’ll be seeing a daily countdown starting on Monday.
A big step for me three weeks ago was to attend the Catholic Writers Guild Live Conference in Chicago! I flew for the first time in nine years, alone, and had a wonderful three days meeting fellow Guild members (two from my online critique group, and two people from my same state!) and attending talks aimed to help us develop as authors. The informational sessions combined with down time and meals to chat up other writers was energizing—so many people all with the same goals and mission, but accomplished in such a variety of ways of writing, all in the same room—wow!! I also got to meet with a highly respected author, also an ordained deacon, who offered one-on-one meetings to give feedback on a story. I sent him the first several chapters of Fallen Angel, the book I am most unsure of in some ways but just burning to tell and to tell it well. His feedback was hugely helpful in reassuring me that I am telling a valuable story, that these characters are very real, and that the writing is done well.
And now for Firetender’s big news…
The Catholic Media Association awarded two book awards to Firetender! It won the First Time Author of a Novel award (2nd place) and the Catholic Novel award (3rd place). Three books from FQP won awards this year! I’m so excited to get Book One of the series onto this list where it will receive more exposure and help get the story out to more people who can enjoy it and benefit from it! For me, that’s the most important thing about awards like this: that it can bring attention to the books so they can have a wider reach. I’m grateful for the chance to write and share my characters’ stories with others.
My main writing focus while I await the first round of edits from my publisher has been engaging with my online critique group. This group has been such a blessing to me and has really taken off in the past few months! I am putting Chalice Book Four through crits right now, with the other members reading in sections and offering feedback and discussion. In turn, I read and offer feedback on their stories, and let me tell you, we have some amazing stories and talent in the Catholic writer world! Participating in a crit group has helped me grow as a writer.
Speaking of… I am not so sure Chalice Book Four belongs in the Chalice Series at all. It might be more of a side story that spawns its own trilogy, the Fallen Angel/Risen Angel books. As I work through it with my group, these are the kinds of questions I am asking myself. It is so different in style—the timeline is fast and furious whereas Chalice Books 1-3 take place over months and years. The point of view shifts to three other characters besides Dallas, something I’ve not done in Books 1-3. And the subject matter is much uglier. However, readers of the Chalice Series may still want to read it for more of Dallas’s story: this one leads him to the truth about what happened to his mother, a question introduced at the beginning of Firetender.
Some books I’m excited about that are coming out now:
The Exile - Book 2 in The Divided Kingdom Series by Allison Ramirez
Sparks Fly Upward - Book 3 in The Larksong Legacy Series by Kelsey Gietl
Well, everyone, I am glad to be back here! I’m excited to share Enkindle’s perfectly timed news for its first birthday, more about the Denver basilica, and some book reviews very soon!
Erin