You Can Write that Novel - Even if You Only Have 15 Minutes a Day

Check out my latest post on the Catholic Writer's Guild Blog: The Value of 15 Minutes a Day

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The Lacemaker: A Novel of St. Zelie Martin is now available!

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 I don't know if all authors feel this way, but I find releasing a new book into the world to be terrifying, but here it is: The Lacemaker . Those of you who have been following along with the process will notice that the cover has changed since my last post. Once I received the proof copy, I decided the cover needed a little more contrast. I'm happy with how this version came out! Here is the official book description: St. Zélie Martin (1831-1877) is best known as the mother of St. Thérèse of Lisieux, one of the most-loved saints of modern times, but she is also a saint in her own right. In this work of historical fiction based largely on St. Zélie’s letters, a compelling portrait of a working mother who always put God first comes to life. St. Zélie is a saint many women can relate to. She suffered from anxiety, struggled with work-life balance, grieved the loss of children, cared for aging parents, had a child with special needs, and dealt with personal illness. Above all
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First Draft of New Novel Done!

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    It's apparently been almost two years since I posted to this blog! I started working on a new novel in November as part of National Novel Writing Month, knowing full well I wouldn't even come close to finishing it in November. This has been more of a commitment of writing a few minutes (probably 15-20) on most days. It's a tale of a group of young women who are part of the first class of a Catholic women's college. It's the first time I've written an ensemble novel like this and the fictional characters feel like they have become my friends. I've enjoyed the process, filling up nearly four journals along the way. I like writing longhand (even though I have notoriously bad handwriting). I can take the journal with me wherever I am and simply write.  Alas, now the hard work begins. I have to type this up and edit. I am interested to see how many words I wrote! But anyway, this will take a while. I'll keep you posted. Hopefully it won't be anoth
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Amazon KDP's New Hardcover Publishing Service

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 A couple weeks ago, I logged into Amazon's KDP service and was surprised to see that they were now offering a beta service to create hardcover books. I decided to give it a try with my latest book, The Lacemaker: A Novel of St. Zelie Martin .  Overall, the process was very similar to publishing a paperback version on Amazon, so if you are familiar with that, you'll be able to handle this one with no problem. In fact, because I kept the hardcover version the same size as the paperback (6" x 9"), I was able to use the same interior file as I had used with the paperback. It did require some adjustments to the cover, however. If you are using Amazon's Cover Creator to create your cover, you'll need to go through that process again for this version. In my case, I create the complete cover and then upload it. The amount of area needed for the spine is larger on the hardcover version which means the total size is different and visual items need to be moved accordin
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