Sunday, June 29, 2025

Why I Started Praying the Rosary (And Why You Should Too)


After watching the video, if you decide to try the Rosary, Our Lady's Psalter, the USCCB has the format here.

I've found that St. Louis de Montfort's 1st method takes one much deeper into the meditation of the life of Our Lord and His Mother and into developing the virtues they demonstrated in full. You can find it online here or in The Secret of the Rosary.

God bless!




Friday, June 27, 2025

Why I Left The Protestant Church | My Journey To Catholicism


This is another very well-reasoned conversion story.

I always find more after one video and will add any additional videos I feel support the first one within the next day, like this:



Wednesday, June 25, 2025

Almost there...

Book 22 of Forgotten Worlds is nearly finished.

I am at the climax and have just a couple of chapters to go, maybe 5K words max. It's currently at 40K, the minimum for novel length, so this is perfect. It will be right in the target length that I set for these books. Some have grown longer, but most are around 45-50K words in length.

This is just the first draft, so the word count will change a bit, and I'm guesstimating on the final word count of the first draft as it is. If I can get 1000 words/day in for the rest of the month, I'll be right around hitting my goal of finishing by the end of June. Then, I'll jump into editing Book 20, DARKEST DEPTHS and aim to publish that by the end of July, a bit over four months after Book 19 was released.

I've had some issues with writing Book 22, but those were resolved with amazing insights. It turned into another great addition to this series, although I notice L'NI kind of taking over. It makes sense, given his involvement with Nya and his past as one of the enemy, but Nya kind of took a side seat to his presence. She still gets her main story, however.

After I finish this book, the work will only get more difficult--putting it all together for a series finale that makes the wait and dedication to reading it all completely satisfying. The final three books will be the toughest to plan out and write. I know the ending. I just am not quite sure of the details to get there, but that's not unusual. I'll figure it out.

It's been quite a journey writing this series and even more fun re-reading it all, but in another year or a bit more (depending on the lengths of the final three books and the planning and issues that might come up in the first drafts), I'll be done with writing Starfire Angels: Forgotten Worlds. The final few books will see plenty of editing before they're ready. With Book 25, it's done, and I have the title for that. The two before that, I don't know yet.

I can't believe I'm so close to finishing. This has been a HUGE project for me. When I started writing, I never planned a series, and certainly never one like this; but readers asked for more in the Starfire Angels universe, and I loved what I had created, so I continued with it. It has become something I never would have thought possible but a project that I've loved for over seventeen years so far, since the first spark hit me for an angel story like none other at the time. By the time I'm done, it'll be a good chunk of my life devoted to this universe.

Lastly, and back to the update, I want to see if I can do something better for the cover image of Book 22. The more I look at it, the less happy I am with how that image turned out. The general theme is good, but the overall style of the ruins, not so much.

So, that's what's coming up. I'm excited to finish this and present Book 20 to you when it's ready.

Thanks for reading!

Saturday, June 21, 2025

writer's block unlocked

I was stuck, stuck, STUCK! As if I'd fallen into quicksand and was only sinking further. The more I tried to walk through it, the deeper I sank.

I could not do a thing of what I had expected... for a week! My mind was completely at a halt. And I had been doing so well with the writing on Book 22 up to that point.

A couple of days ago, I finally escaped.

I realized I needed a different POV scene. I kind of knew, but I didn't know how.

The answer only came after lots of prayer and my scheduled adoration time. I had been so completely blocked in writing that I said to the Lord (interiorly) in front of the Blessed Sacrament--paraphrasing--if you want me to write this to serve you, I need you to make it clear that it's your will, not just mine. (I know that anything promoting sin (i.e. deeply romantic or sexy scenes or gratuitous violence, occult, etc.) does not come from the Lord, so I do exercise discernment.)

He came through and showed me a glimpse at that time of the way out of the mire into which I had fallen. The next time I sat to write, the scene I needed just flowed out onto the document effortlessly, by the grace of God. It was an antagonist POV that added a layer to the story that I hadn't even considered!

Eucharistic adoration isn't where I go for writing ideas. It's where I've had wonderful encounters with Jesus, my guardian angel, and the Holy Spirit; but I'll take writing inspiration, if that's what He wants to give me. Generally, I'm there just to be with Jesus Christ, our Lord, in the Holy Eucharist exposed in a monstrance, and I pray for others; and sometimes He provides insights that completely blow me away. And when I bring a trouble like this to Him, and it's the right time, He gives me something I want.

Anyway, I'm happy to report that the 35K I have written on Book 22 is moving along again after a week of a complete block.

ps--All the rose shrubs are in; we planted the last one this morning. After a night of storms that downed tree limbs in the area (and some whole trees completely uprooted in town), two tornadoes in the east that took lives, hurricane-force winds, thousands without power in the north, etc., they're doing well and one is really leafing out already; the company cuts them down and takes off all the leaves for shipping and they're already growing. Also, I was praying my Rosary and the chaplet of St. Michael through the storm; and we had, at worst, some strong wind, but the corn will recover from that. As for the roses, we didn't kill them--yay! We'll see how they look in a month. I can't wait to see blossoms. 😊

Friday, June 20, 2025

the next gardening challenge

I finally have asparagus! It seems to be hard to start from seeds, so this year, I bought crowns from Gurney's and nine out of the ten are growing in my garden. (Strawberries are growing like weeds this year. I'm getting a handful of fresh strawberries every day now! I don't even want to mention the rhubarb; those plants are like weeds too. I need to harvest again already (3 weeks and probably a week overdue) before we get aphids like last year.)

Since I managed that, I chose my next challenge (after watching a talk by Monsignor Rossetti, whose mention of the Blessed Virgin Mary being shown with roses (hence, the Rosary) inspired me).... ROSES! In my devotion to Our Lady of the Rosary and because it's perfect for an area near the house that gets lots of sun and has been an eyesore of nothing, I decided to try growing roses as my next project.

Now, we live in zone 4 for growing, so finding the right plants can sometimes limit us, but I found a beautiful variety from Heirloom Roses called Prairie Harvest. It's a faintly yellow color that would look perfect next to our green siding. This shrub rose is supposed to endure winter, so I hope the money I spent and the time that we'll put into establishing them will be worth it.

This is a new challenge, but I'm up to it. I only hope the plants are too, because a full bloom of rose bushes would look beautiful near the house where there is nothing else to see on that side, which faces the road when you approach our house. So, it needed something more than the trellis with the grapes, which is about twenty feet away.

I'll post a separate update on the writing.

God bless!

Tuesday, June 17, 2025

The Black Catholic Chick: I'm A Catholic Who REJECTED Mary Until I Discovered This...


I will testify that nothing brings you close to Jesus like devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary. She is the perfect example of what we should be as a child of God (and she was also the spouse of God, the Holy Spirit, and the Mother of God the Son.)

I'm not going to go into all the reasons. There are excellent books to explain these in greater detail than I can here. (Behold Your Mother is one of those.)

Know that if you have hate in your heart for the MOTHER OF GOD, you need to re-evaluate your relationship with God, who is love. If you hate anyone, you don't have the Holy Spirit. Hate is not of God but, rather, of Satan. God wants us to even love our enemies, so even more so His mother.

If you want to grow in love for Jesus, no one will teach you better than His mother, and the fastest way to discover that is the daily Rosary. (For help in thaat, I highly recommend The Secret of the Rosary and True Devotion to Mary by St. Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort.)

As others devotees of the Rosary have said, once you start praying a daily Rosary, you'll be changed. Either you'll give up sin and vice or you'll give up the Rosary to remain in your sin. The Blessed Virgin Mary will show you how to love God more fully. She will transform you, preparing you to be worthy of uniting with Jesus Christ, her son, Our Lord, the King of Heaven and Earth, the Word of God who was made flesh in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary through the Holy Spirit. I won't get into how Biblical the Rosary is here, since you can learn that in the links under the Marian Devotion section of my Faith Resources tab on this blog.

Her Immaculate Heart will prevail.

Added 6/18/25:




Thursday, June 12, 2025

We are the Salt and Light of the Earth | Battle Ready with Fr. Dan Reehil


Ever since I first saw Fr. Dan Reehil in his interview with Michael Knowles, I found more of him. I wasn't sure of him at first, but after learning his story of reverting to the Catholic faith that he left for a "successful" life and his story of going on to become a priest--an exorcist priest--I've been hooked on what he has to say. His homilies are direct and insightful. As a former Wall Street banker, he doesn't beat around the bush and can seem abrasive at times, but he doesn't mince words. He tells it like it is, which is what keeps me listening (like other exorcist priests online--they're not soft on the message of getting souls to heaven).

Both his homilies and his Battle Ready program on Radio Maria (available in video like this, and also on the RM website, and on podcast services like Apple Podcasts) are worth listening to regularly.

Enjoy and God bless!