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In case you missed it here, my annual anniversary signed book sale is on!
For $15, you get: a signed copy of my book, Living Memento Mori; a specially created bookmark and prayer card, and free shipping! (Normally this package is $20.)
To order, email me with your address (or the address of the recipient, if it’s a gift) and I’ll send you a PayPal invoice from there! (We can also figure out other ways to pay if you’re not on PayPal).
The sale runs through July 20.
As Lent approaches—which is the perfect time for my book!—I thought I’d do an AMA post!
AMA=Ask Me Anything.
So if you have questions or comments about Living Memento Mori, drop them in the comment section below and I will answer them!
I am insanely happy to announce that Living Memento Mori has been named a finalist in the Association of Catholic Publishers Excellence in Publishing Awards! Publishers submit books to the ACP and the finalist list was just announced. The winners will be announced in June.
I am thrilled to be a finalist (just like all the Oscar nominees say, it’s an honor to be nominated—because it is). My book is in the “general interest” category. Here’s the entire slate of nominees in the category:
You can see the entire list here, as well as click on links to find out more about each book and purchase it.
Thank you to Ave Maria Press for submitting my book! (And thanks to all of you for reading it! :) )
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Around these parts this week…
My interview for the Ave Explores Lent Podcast is live!
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I’ve started Bullet Journaling again—I’ve missed how it keeps all my lists and various things together, so I’m back to doing that. It’s fun! At least I think it is. I’m a big believer in having my life in one place. I still use my Emily Ley Simplified Planner, but my bullet journal is a place to keep my lists, medical information, travel plans, all sorts of things like that in one place as opposed to scattered throughout the house on pieces of paper.
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Trying to get back in the workout groove—I’ve worked out three days this week so far and hoping I can do it today. I’m just so darn tired. Maybe it’s the weather? It’s really gray here. Hopefully I’ll perk up in a little bit and manage to do something!
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Next Saturday I’m going to see the touring production of My Fair Lady and I am really excited about that. I haven’t been to a show in forever. Really. And I’ve never seen My Fair Lady on stage. So I’m excited about that!
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Favorite thing I’ve cooked this week: Outlander KItchen’s Scotch Broth. Give it a try, it’s really good! (If you can’t find pot or pearl barley, you can use quinoa or couscous instead!) And it’s so not hard. It cooks for a while—so it takes awhile—but it’s mostly hands-off cooking.
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A photo I took last week of Venus and the moon:
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How’s your Lent going? Did we all make it through the first week OK? :)
It’s here.
Publication Day.
Books that were pre-ordered should be arriving in mailboxes all over the place, and now you can walk into a store and request my book.
Wow. That’s a really weird, and yet amazing, feeling.
I mean, my book is on the Target website! (and part of a 3 for 2 deal….)
Pub day flowers from Farmgirl Flowers
I spent five years shopping the proposal for what became my book. I was sad, frustrated, I never thought anyone would want my story—was my story no good? Was it just bad?
I am so thankful that Ave Maria Press accepted it and they have been a fabulous team to work with!
I am so thankful for all of you readers—without you this would not have happened! (really. It’s true!)
I hope that you love the book. I hope it helps you in your own life.
Today, I am just really, really, really thankful.
Rejoice and be glad!
The pre-orders for Living Memento Mori: My Journey through the Stations of the Cross, are now open!!!!!
So, go pre-order!!!!
Amazon US, Amazon Canada, Amazon UK
You can also ask your local Catholic bookstore to order a copy for you!
And you can add the book to your Goodreads shelf!
I am so excited!!! This is a day I’ve been waiting for for, well, ever actually—the day that a book I wrote is available at real bookstores!
If you have any questions, put them in the comments or email me at hello@emilymdeardo.com
linking up with Kelly!
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Why yes, I am alliterating my titles.
To start with St. Francis—it’s his feast day! Dominicans celebrate the feast days of Franciscans (and vice versa!), because we just love each other that much. :) Well, we do, but here’s the story.
St. Francis and St. Dominic, Fra Angelico
So, happy Feast Day, Franciscans! We celebrate with you!
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Might be a good time to remind everyone that St. Francis didn’t really give us the “Prayer of St. Francis” (it was written in the 60s) and that he did more than just like animals. St. Francis was a pretty bad-ass saint. The Word on Fire documentary about him in The Pivotal Players is eye-opening, if you’ve only ever thought of him that way. This piece is a good overview.
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OK, Forgiveness.
This is just a reflection—a thought—on something I’ve been pondering this week.
I’m 37. That means in three years, I’ll be 40 (God willing and the creek don’t rise). That’s a good chunk of time living on planet earth. That’s two score of years!
But one thing I have noticed in those almost 40 years is how vital forgiveness is, how terrible it is for a person who doesn’t forgive past things to be weighed down by that anger and resentment and pain.
Holding on to that anger does nothing to the person who wronged you. It hurts you.
Some things aren’t possible to forgive easily. That’s true. They require work and prayer and maybe sessions with therapists or other professionals.
But after seeing a teenager forgive the woman who murdered his brother—he hugged her, for pete’s sake!—it just brought home to me how vital this call of Christ is.
We’re called to forgive the way we want to be forgiven.
I honestly don’t know how this young man did this. Christ works strongly in his life, is all I can say. If someone killed my brother, I’d be….full of rage. I’d be absolutely incapable of this kind of grace, at least at this point.
This teenager puts me to shame.
And in a way, this ties into St. Francis and his story about perfect joy (I excerpted this from a longer piece that you can read here.)
“One day, on the road home, Francis was walking with Br. Leo. Francis said to Br. Leo; ‘If the Order of Friars became world famous for doing good works, and spreading the Gospel, this would not be perfect joy. Br. Leo asked, ‘Father Francis, what then would be perfect joy?’ Francis responded, ‘If all the most famous and powerful people in the land entered the Order of Friars, and worked with us proclaiming the Gospel, healing the sick, caring for the poor, and converting many souls to Christ, this would not be perfect joy!’ Br. Leo then says, ‘Please Father Francis, tell me what is perfect joy!’ Francis said; ‘Brother Leo, if we come to our friary, after this long journey, tired, wet, cold, and hungry, longing for a meal, and a warm dry place to sleep, and we knock on the door, and hear from within our brothers who ask, ‘Who are You?’ We respond that we are your brothers coming home from a long journey, and we wish for you to let us in. But instead of the welcome we long for, we hear a response from inside, go away; we do not know who you are. We are expecting no one, you must be liars and thieves, intending to harm us! If, Brother Leo, after that, we can still have peace in our heart, that is Perfect Joy!’”
Man. I have such a long way to go to achieve perfect joy.
But back to forgiveness—run of the mill forgiveness—in the words of Into the Woods, “People make mistakes!” And they do. We’re hurt in all sorts of little ways that the other person might not even notice. But we have a choice. We can either hold on to that hurt and let it poison us (because it doesn’t poison the other person), or we can forgive and stop poisoning ourselves.
This isn’t new ground. But it’s something I’ve been thinking about this week.
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And that leads us to fear! (And then we’ll do some fun things, I promise, so this isn’t all heavy.)
Satan loves fear. He loves to play on our sense of inadequacy and comparison and uncertainty. He love, love, loves it.
Christ does not call us to fear. He calls us to trust and joy and hope.
So, if you’re feeling a lot of fear or doubt or inadequacy—tell Satan to get behind you and that Mary is crushing his head. :) And so is St. Michael.
(Do you say the St. Michael prayer daily? I recommend it!)
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On the blog this week:
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BOOK STUFF!
The cover is 99% done. I love it and can’t wait to show it to you.
I’ve read the forward for the book and I love it. Can’t wait to tell you who’s writing it.
Basically it’s a lot of I love what’s happening but I can’t tell you yet! :)
(If you want to be the first to know, sign up for the newsletter…..)
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So glad to be going on retreat. If you have prayer requests, hit me up!
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In case you missed it, here’s what’s been going down around these parts this week:
Simplicity Series #1—Reset Day!
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The reason this post is entitled the 60th of September is because this month has seemed insanely long. Isn’t there a song called “Wake Me Up When September Ends?” That’s how I feel right now. It’s just been so long. And sort of crazy.
One of the big crazy-making things is that I’m in the middle of Doctor Roulette, which I really haven’t written about here, so I probably need to catch you up.
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(If you’re not interested in medical stuff, skip this and go to point four, where I talk about BOOK THINGS!)
So, being post-transplant, and being fourteen years out, is….interesting. Obviously, I am INSANELY GRATEFUL to be at that marker. I am. Never think I’m not. But at the same time, it’s a Brave New World of Medical Stuff, because it’s rare. So when things happen, there’s not a lot of research to go on. There’s just…..talking. And guessing. And seeing what works.
Essentially, all summer we have been messing with insulin, because my blood glucose levels have been off. (I”m trying to keep this as medical jargon free, but when I say this, what I mean is my A1c, not my BGLs. If you’re confused, I can explain in another post, so let me know if you want that much detail into my life!)
So my team decided to put me on some long-acting insulin.
But……that didn’t work. First, it didn’t lower my BGLs, which I was testing twice a day, and second, insulin is a hormone. That means it can affect lots of parts of your body.
For me, that meant—headaches. Not sleeping. Weight gain (DAMN IT), and insanely inappropriate mood reactions. If Big Ben threw an interception I wanted to break things. If someone parked next to me at the supermarket, I became incandescently angry.
This is not appropriate.
And the scariest part for me? Forgetting things. Words. Ideas. What I was doing. This is not good. I rely on my brain, and words are my trade. I can’t be forgetting them! I need to be mentally sharp.
(But you’re never mentally sharp, Emily, says the peanut gallery….)
I did some digging and found out that when you have too much insulin—as in, you have WAY too much, and your body doesn’t need it—this is what happens.
And this is the problem. My body is weird. Not just the transplant weird, but weird for a CF person. I’m what’s called “pancreatically sufficient”, which is rare. It means my pancreas works like a normal person’s, not like a CF person’s. I don’t need to take enzymes to help digest my food, because my pancreas does it. I never had CF related diabetes.
And my A1c starting rising once I hit menopause—so there’s probably a connection there as well.
So, long story short, my team is sort of confused, and I’m seeing an endocrinologist the day before Halloween. That’s one reason I haven’t been writing as much this month, because things have just been crazy, but also my body has been through a lot, and I’m trying to be nice to it. Which means, chilling out, after all the non chilling out. :-P
There are some other issues, too, mainly that I don’t have a great track record when seeing endos, because they look at me and go, you’re really messed up, what do you want me to do about it?
But anyway, that’s at the end of October. Yay.
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in the meantime!
BOOK THINGS!
People are starting to ask for interviews, which is….weird. I mean, good, but weird.
The cover is 99% done. I’ve seen it. I can’t show you yet. If you want to be the first to see it, subscribe to the blog!
It’s really pretty, I like it. :)
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Hockey season starts soon and this makes me very happy!
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I am going on retreat next week, so if you have prayer requests, I am honored to take them with me! Drop them in the combox, or use the contact page.
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If you haven’t seen the Word on Fire team’s newest entries in their Pivotal Players series—Fulton Sheen and Flannery O’Connor—I highly recommend them! They’re great! Flannery is a really important influence for me, in how to live as a Catholic and a writer, and I write this quote from her at the beginning of all my journals:
I feel that if I were not a Catholic, I would have no reason to write, no reason to see, no reason ever to feel horrified or even enjoy anything. I am a born Catholic, went to Catholic school in my early years, and have never left or wanted to leave the Church. I have never had the sense that being a Catholic is a limit to the freedom of the writer, but just the reverse. … I feel myself that being a Catholic has saved me a couple of thousand years in learning to write. (The Habit of Being *)
So I love the Flannery film. It was also nice to learn more about soon to be Blessed Fulton Sheen—I had read some of his books, and I knew of him, but the film does a great job fleshing out what I knew.
(Also, in a nice twist, a college friend of mine composed the music for both films. Go Sean!)
And I really don’t think we can improve on Fulton and Flannery, do you? :) Have a great weekend!
*==Amazon Affiliate Link
From my IG feed….
We’re reaching the end stages of my work on the book—yay!
So, after I wrote the draft, and worked with my editor and a copy editor to correct that draft, I’m now woking on the proof. The proof is when the book has been typeset and designed—so all the fonts and headings and all that are in place, and it’s starting to look the way it will look when it’s published. This is my last chance to make any corrections to it!
My baby printed out—it’s set to the trim size of the book, so that’s why it’s not a whole page of text.
So, what’s proofing? Essentially I go through and read it all again, to make sure that the people who type set it didn’t leave out sections, that everything is spelled correctly, that my notes are correct (meaning, my citations at the end), and that the notes themselves are put in correctly, and that everything is accurate. A copy editor at Ave Maria Press is also looking at this for things like style and heading consistency, but since I also edit, I generally just looked at everything that wasn’t right!
The proofs are due by October 7, but I finished them up today. Now I have to send them to the editor so we can get them into the current digital file at AMP.
The publishing date is getting closer!!!!
