I would like to be able to strongly reprimand you for having so little confidence in our Lord. You should not fear Him, this greatly offends Him Who is so good, so sweet, so kind and so full of tenderness and mercy toward us. You may stand before Him in complete embarrassment because of your poverty and abjectness, but this embarrassment should be that of the prodigal son, after his return—confident and full of tenderness. This is the way you should appear before Jesus, our good Father and Lord. You are still in fear of not loving Him. It is more likely, in these moments, my dearest, that you love Him the most and that He is closer to you than ever. Don’t measure your love of our Lord by the depth of your feelings; this is truly a small measure. Abandon yourself into His hands with confidence; your love will increase more and more, but you will not notice it, and that does not matter.

Ven. François-Marie-Jacob Libermann, quoted in Searching for and Maintaining Peace by Fr. Jacques Philippe

It’s Facebook official: My award-winning debut novel has found a publishing home! The Life We Greet (working title), my three-part historical continuity series, will be published with Chrism Press this coming year.

The funniest part of this (for me, at least) is that the acquisition process began with WhiteFire Publishing months before they founded Chrism Press or asked me to be one of its founding editors. I certainly wasn’t expecting any of this back in January, when I submitted my manuscript. 2020 has been a wild ride.

A detail from a contemporary painting of Joan of Arc. My main character looks something like this, but with less pouty lips. Apologies for the lack of attribution: I have no idea who painted this or where it is located.

I’m excited to work with the rest of the Chrism Press and WhiteFire Publishing team to make this a great book and great series.