Set within the expanses of the American frontier, The Woman in the Trees follows Slainie, an inquisitive pioneer girl, whose life is forever transformed when a mysterious seer shows up at her door. Amidst the backdrop of the Civil War, family tragedy, and the nation’s most destructive wildfire, Slainie must navigate her rugged pioneer life as she encounters love and loss, and comes face to face with the story of America’s first approved Marian apparition.
Book 1 in The Harwood Mysteries from Loyola Press.
About the book:
An attack by bandits in the middle of the night leaves a young boy with no memory of who he is or where he is from. Nursed back to health by the devoted monks in a Benedictine abbey, he takes the name Alexander, or Xan for short. Aided by the kindly Brother Andrew, Xan commits himself to finding out who he really is.
Does he have a family? Are they still alive? And who—or what—is the shadowy figure creeping around the abbey in the dead of night?
Embark on an adventure while reading Shadow in the Dark as young Alexander tries to recover his memory and, with his new friends, uncover the mystery of the shadowy figure in the dark.
“Love doesn’t exist. And Fr. Jacob is right about one thing.
Without it, life is utterly meaningless.”
NO LOVE. NO NOTHING.
Carl Jarrold, a convicted assassin, believes that all human relationships turn on what one human being wants from another: that there is no such thing as love and thus no meaning to life. Prison chaplain Fr. Jacob, the closest thing he has to a friend, has struggled for three long years to convince Carl how wrong he is—to no avail. But the day of execution has finally arrived, and nothing goes quite as Carl expects. Soon it’s shaping up to be the strangest day he has ever had. But will it prove the worst day of his life…or the best?
This tense, “psychologically-compelling,” spiritual thriller is a standalone novella from the Carnegie Medal Nominated author of the award-winning I AM MARGARET series. Described as “beautiful,” “fantastically good,” and “one of the most moving stories I have ever read,” this is a race against time for the highest possible stakes.
Mara the Huntress resides in the sunny little town of Archangel, California, the location of the Gate of the Underworld—a fact unknown to the general populace. Most people don’t even know that vampires exist. As Huntress, Mara does know, and it is her job to kill those that dare venture forth to the Upperworld to prey on the humans living there. She is well-suited to this purpose, gifted with skills and talents far surpassing those of ordinary mortals. Though some vampires manage to evade her, she has so far managed to prevent the unleashing of a full-scale infestation. She has been at this job for a good portion of her not-quite twenty years, and it seems she has everything in hand. Then one day she gets a chill of foreboding, a feeling that things are about to change . . .
For she stands in the way of the master vampire’s plan for world domination, and, he fears, may be a key player in the fulfillment of an ancient prophecy foretelling his destruction. One dark night he sends the mighty Prince (his second in command) to put an end to this Huntress, this bane of vampires, once and for all. Mara confidently goes out to face him, but finds she has met her match at last. Just as all hope seems lost, this powerful vampire turns from the “dark side” to become Mara’s ally in the battle against his own kind.
I’ve got a bazillion books on my to-be-read list. There are paperbacks, hardcover books, ebooks, and audiobooks. There are books by friends and strangers. Beta reads and books to review. And they multiple like rabbits.
I will likely read many more books than these this summer. I plan to read some books aloud to my kids, read friends’ new books, and whittle those lists. (I’m looking at you, NetGalley!)
How did you first conceive the idea for Sisters of the Last Straw?
It is so strange how God works. I had a Bible study with a number of women for about thirty years. We were great friends and one night at our meeting we started laughing about how we all should have been nuns. Looking around at the five women in the group who are all good women, I had to laugh. We each have our own foibles and personality quirks. I laughed and said that we would probably be kicked out of any order because of our bad habits. Another woman said that we would probably have to form our own order. After much laughter and silly plans for the order, one of the women said, “We better call it the Sisters of the Last Straw.” I wrote my first story about the nuns for those women. Then I decided to write a children’s book to teach children that while all people have faults, we can love God and each other. That is how the Sisters of the Last Straw were created.
One of my “things” is to be an advocate for Catholic fiction!
What is Catholic fiction? Well, we could have a scholarly discussion on the topic, but for our purposes here, let’s say it’s fiction written with a Catholic worldview.
To help bring some of the fantastic Catholic fiction out there to the forefront, I’m hosting an IG challenge in February that will allow us to share our favorites and not-yet favorites that have caught our eye so that more and more readers (including me!) can discover them.
If you’re on Instagram, please join in the #CatholicFictionChallenge beginning February 1, 2020. Join us for one day, every day, or somewhere in between.
This is an opportunity to promote your favorite Catholic novels, picture books, chapter books, audiobooks, etc. I’ve done my best to incorporate a variety of genres, themes, and formats. Use the challenge to promote your own books as well!
Let’s share and bring attention to Catholic fiction and discover some books we may not have heard of as well. You can find my post to comment and share in your Instagram stories at @CMAstfalk. Post link here.
You can pop in a day or two here and there as inspiration strikes or time allows. Whether you post one day or twenty-nine days, I hope you’ll watch my stories and follow the hashtag #CatholicFictionChallenge so that you can discover some great books for you and your family and friends to read and share.
(And if you don’t know what I’m talking about, here’s a handy explanation of an Instagram challenge: “An Instagram challenge is a set photo theme that’s hosted by an account or brand. They provide an overall theme, daily prompts for inspiration, and have a hashtag for everyone to use.”)
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A Single Bead really drives home the power of prayer in such a compelling way, one that is entertaining and organic to the story and gives us that big-picture glimpse of what many of us know intellectually about the efficacy of prayer but rarely recognize in daily life. Did you know from the start how that theme would permeate the book or did it develop as you wrote?
To really answer that question, I have to share the story of how I came to write A Single Bead in the first place. Having consecrated myself to Jesus through Mary in early October of 2013, I found myself feeling renewed conviction to write a Bible study on the Rosary. By mid-October, I was researching publishers and came across Pauline Books & Media, who said they were specifically seeking Catholic young adult fiction. That single sentence set bells ringing in my head, as if the Holy Spirit were saying, Stephanie, pay attention to this! I had never even considered writing fiction, though, so I said out loud, “God, if you want me to write Catholic young adult fiction, you’re going to have to give me the idea. Because I’ve got nothing!”
