Join committed and enthusiastic Catholic Christian artists as we begin to explore Pope St. John Paul II’s Letter to Artists!
(During my brief visit to Toronto, I am privileged to help “launch” the exploration!)
Pauline Books & Media
Adventures in Blogging a Book Continue!
On July 9th, I posted about a possible new writing adventure that I was quite excited about: blogging a book! In that post, I talked about the resources I used in developing my ideas (especially How To Blog a Book by Nina Amir), and my first “baby steps” in this new venture. Several of you let me know that you shared my excitement and that you were praying for this new initiative. Thank you!
In the past two months I’ve taken quite a few steps in moving this project forward from idea to reality:
- developed a complete table of contents, and then revised it; and then revised it again;
- wrote half a dozen blog posts to play around with length, tone, and topic;
- wrote a proposal for the editor;
- discussed the project in a fair amount of depth with the editor;
- shared the proposal and four blog posts with a small group of the target audience for feedback;
- researched recent books that have developed from blogs or websites;
- met with the Editorial and Marketing teams at Pauline Books & Media to explore what blogging a book means: benefits, risks, issues to keep in mind, etc.
And during that meeting, they decided right then and there to accept the project!
As the author, I don’t usually meet with the Editorial and Marketing teams at a decision-making meeting for a project that I’m proposing to write–and normally, I wouldn’t recommend it. But this meeting was so much fun, with about 15 people in the room who were all interested in helping this book be the best it can. I left the meeting totally energized and excited.
The name of the blog is still being researched (titles are not a strength for me, but I think I came up with several good suggestions). Hopefully a name will be decided upon in the next few weeks, which is when I’ll put up the blog page. I can give you a clue about the topic, though: I’ll begin the new blog on November 30, the first Sunday of Advent and the opening of the Year of Consecrated Life (November 30, 2014-February 2, 2016). (Feel free to guess in the comments!)
I will still continue blogging at Windows to the Soul, but instead of posting more often as I’d been planning to do, I’ll continue posting here once a week during the next year. However, I’m delving deeper into my studies and reflections on the theology of communication, so I may not be able to help posting here a little more often!
Pauline Webathon: Help #fundthenuns
Pauline Books & Media, the “mission arm” of the Daughters of Saint Paul, are hosting a novena-long “Webathon,” to help raise money for our mission of evangelization. Some cool stuff will be going on at http://www.pauline.org for the next nine days–come on over and visit if you need a little inspiration!
Wonderful Pauline News & Beginnings!
My first 10 days in my new assignments (writing for Pauline Digital and Video/Audio Studios) at our Pauline Books & Media publishing house got off to a great start!
I was barely in my office five days and it (and I) were blessed at the Blessing of our newly renovated apostolic departments: Editorial, Digital/Social Media, Spanish Radio Studio, and Central Book Center Offices–all dedicated to the Pauline Mission–the New Evangelization.
My new office (don’t blink–it may never be this neat again!)
Fr. Joe Moser blessing the Digital/Social Media Department
Being blessed in my new office as I begin my new writing assignments!
I haven’t actually begun to do any writing yet. Instead, I’m trying to absorb as much as possible: learning how to put up webpages, giving ideas for the development of a new app, catching up on our newest video projects, sharing ideas for new projects, investigating an exciting new possibility for live streaming classes over the internet, and developing my author webpages. If you’d like to see an early version, visit: www.pauline.org/mariepaulcurley (about me) and www.pauline.org/godslove (a shared mini-site of resources for readers of my books and those of Sr. Kathryn J. Hermes ). If you have any suggestions, I’d love to hear them!
Advent Happenings
Our annual Christmas Party for Kids on Saturday was a big success as always, thanks to the 20 volunteers who helped with everything–from dressing families into costumes for their photo with Baby Jesus, to inflating balloons, serving cake and juice, and face painting! Several families told me that this has become their family Christmas tradition. One father told me that, when his children saw the date advertised on the sign outside our Pauline Books & Media Centre, they were so excited they went home and wrote it on the family calendar. “That’s the first time they’ve ever put something on the calendar,” he smiled. “They’ve been looking forward to it and reminding me about it all month.” Another mother brought her two teenaged boys because “We’ve been doing this for ten years and we can’t have Christmas without coming!”
The joy of the day was tangible in the air, and this year a number of children were not too shy to have real conversations with our special visitor, St. Nicholas. At the end of the day, I felt very blessed to have been able to spend such a joyful and lively time with such beautiful families–even if we did run out of cake and almost ran out of balloons!
Our Daughters of St. Paul Choir has also had a busy week of concerts, traveling to New York, New Jersey, Cleveland, and Alexandria, Virginia. This coming weekend they will be singing in the Boston area.
Saturday night I was not able to get to my computer, but the new Salt + Light radio show is available for download. I came up with some unexpected movies to review! Here is the write-up for the hour long program:
Are you a mother trying to cope in today’s hectic world? This week on S+L Radio we speak with Dorothy Pilarski about her new book, Motherhood Matters. And if you’re wondering about the purpose of your life, we’ll also speak to Ken Yasinski, founder of Face2Face Ministries. He tells us about his book, The Fullness of Purpose and we listen to his music. Our Saint of the week is St. Ambrose and Sr. Marie-Paul Curley reviews Winnie-the-Pooh and Last Holiday.
Rosary Miracle Prayer App
Pauline Books & Media’s newest iPhone app–one of the few apps which makes me want to get an iPhone or iPad–is now available. The Rosary Miracle Prayer App is receiving really great reviews from users and is truly a wonderful help to contemplating the mysteries as you pray the Rosary. Here’s a sneak preview:
Joy of the Unexpected
2010 has started off with the unexpected.
The first unexpected event is a joyful one–I will be going for retreat in just a few days. Which means that, once again, my blog will be very quiet.
While I’m away, I’ll try to at least post up the new events coming up at our Toronto Pauline Book & Media Centre. And the first is one that I am sorry to miss.
Windows to the Soul Blog 