Cath-Lit Live Episode 25 with guest Eleanor Bourg Nicholson

For Athene Howard, the only child of renowned cultural anthropologist Charles Howard, life is an unexciting, disillusioned academic project. When she encounters a clairvoyant Dominican postulant, a stern nun, and a recusant English nobleman embarked on a quest for a feral Franciscan werewolf, the strange new world of enchantment and horror intoxicates and delights her—even as it brings to light her father’s complex past and his long-dormant relationship with the Church of Rome. Can Athene and her newfound compatriots battle against the ruthless forces of darkness that howl for the overthrow of civilization and the devouring of so many wounded souls? In this sister novel to A Bloody Habit, the incomparable Father Thomas Edmund Gilroy, O.P. returns to face occult demons, gypsy curses, possessed maidens, and tormented werewolves, accompanying a charming neo-pagan heroine in her earnest search for adventure and meaning.

In addition to scholarly pursuits, Eleanor Bourg Nicholson occasionally strays into fiction, including her epistolary novella, The Letters of Magdalen Montague (Kauffmann Publishing, 2011; Chrism Press, 2021), and her Victorian vampire novel, A Bloody Habit (Ignatius Press, 2018). A former assistant executive editor for Dappled Things, she is assistant editor for the Saint Austin Review (StAR), as well as the editor of several Ignatius Critical Editions of the classics. Her work has appeared in the National Catholic Register, Touchstone, First Things, The Catholic Thing, The Imaginative Conservative, and elsewhere. By day, Eleanor is the resident Victorian literature instructor at Homeschool Connections and with her husband homeschools their five children. By night, she reads the Victorians, writes Gothic novels, and cares for feral offspring. She is joining us tonight to talk about her new book Brother Wolf.

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Monday Book Review: On the Day I Died by Candace Fleming

Looking for a great young adult story filled with chills? Check out this delightful Chicago-based novel from one of my favorite local authors, Candace Fleming.

IMG_4053Title: On the Day I Died

Author: Candace Fleming

Genre: scary story (but not too scary)

Age group: young adult/late middle grade

Synopsis: While driving home after midnight, high school junior Mike Kowalski suddenly sees a strange girl in his headlights. She’s dripping wet, and her skin glows like white marble. Mike’s late for his curfew and his mom’s gonna kill him, but he can’t leave this girl out alone on a dark road. When he offers her a ride home, he discovers that “home” is a Chicago cemetery. Inside the iron gates of the cemetery, Mike discovers a world of ghosts who need to tell their stories in order to “rest in peace.”

I met the author Candace Fleming at a writing conference while she was working on this book. She’s extremely funny and talented, and I learned a great deal from her. She even critiqued a piece I was working on at the time, and I think she’s the first person to ever tell me I had good “voice” in my writing. (Yay!) I also remember her saying that because she wrote mostly picture books, she was worried what her editor would think when she handed in this, her first YA manuscript, and realized how “dark” she could be.

The book is a fun collection of legendary ghost stories, some of which you may have heard in some version or other in the past. I love how Ms. Fleming weaves particular Chicago settings into some of those stories. While it may be much “darker” than her  picture books, I don’t think there’s anything parents need to be worried about in letting their teen or older tween read this book. These are just great “ghost stories” retold by one of my favorite authors.

Before I close, can I tell you how lovely of a person Candace Fleming is? Like I said, I met her first at a writing conference, but then I saw her again a couple years later at an International Reading Association conference. I got in line to get a few books autographed, and when I stepped up, she read my name tag and said, “We’ve met before, haven’t we?” She remembered me!

Then when I told her that I’m pretty sure this book was the one she was working on when we’d first met, she said, “Yes, it is!” and you can see how she autographed it for me below.

IMG_4064You can learn more about Candace Fleming and her books on her website. I particularly recommend her picture book Gabriella’s Song (the ending of which has been known to make my sister-in-law cry) and her middle grade book The Fabled Fourth Graders of Aesop Elementary School.