Cath-Lit Live! Episode #59 – Beth Ann Ramos

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Explore the wisdom of saints with Saint Sayings About the Eucharist: A Picture Book for Catholic Kids, featuring 14 quotes alongside vibrant images of these saints. This book’s compact size makes it convenient for reading at home or taking along to church, prayer groups, or Bible studies. Through simple illustrations, this book emphasizes the Catholic Church’s belief in the True Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. Moreover, it serves as a tool for adults to engage children in discussions about the Eucharist. This book is perfect for First Communicants, Easter Baskets, and Eucharistic Revival initiatives. Also available at bulk pricing and in coloring book format.

Beth Ann Ramos is a children’s picture book author, illustrator, and publisher. Her first book, I’m Getting New Glasses! placed 3rd at the 2023 Selah Awards. Her fourth book, Saint Sayings about the Eucharist, was created in celebration of her son’s First Holy Communion. Beth is a lifelong Catholic and homeschool mom. She holds her BBA in Marketing from Texas A&M University and her MBA from Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi. She and her husband have two young boys. They live in Texas with too many cats.

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Cath-Lit Live! Episode #58 – Antony Barone Kolenc

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Xan and Christina embark on a journey to Harwood Abbey, where they reunite with their old friends, Lucy and Joshua. When a brutal murder occurs at nearby Penwood Manor, all evidence points to Laurence, a Crusader recently returned from the Holy Land. Unconvinced of the man’s guilt, Xan and his friends must act swiftly to solve the crime. Who could have committed such a horrible killing, and is anyone safe? Is Laurence tormented by demons, or is he haunted by some other secret? And will Xan be forever changed by the choice Lucy and Christina present to him?

Antony Barone Kolenc (“Tony”) is the author of the teen historical fiction series, “The Harwood Mysteries,” which has won a dozen book awards. He is an author of fiction and non-fiction books and articles, a columnist for Practical Homeschooling Magazine, and the host of “The Shepherd’s Pie” radio show and podcast. He retired as a Lieutenant Colonel from the U.S. Air Force Judge Advocate General’s Corps after 21 years of military service. He currently teaches law at Ave Maria School of Law, and he speaks at writing, legal, and homeschool events. Tony and his family live in Florida.

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Cath-Lit Live! Episode #57 – Daniel McInerny

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Kate Montclair is dying. She has arrived at late middle age loveless, childless, and having failed to achieve the career dreams of her youth. Now diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor, she sees the next fourteen months of suffering as an intolerable prospect. Desperate to avoid excruciating suffering and the indignities of so-called palliative care, the terminally ill Kate Montclair secretly plans to break Virginia law with an assisted suicide–but she isn’t prepared for the passion for life a “good death” can inspire.

Daniel McInerny is a novelist and dramatist as well as associate professor and chair of the philosophy department at Christendom College in Front Royal, Virginia. In March of this year he published, with Chrism Press, his novel, The Good Death of Kate Montclair, which his fellow Catholic novelist Maya Sinha has called “an instant classic of 21st-century Catholic fiction.” In June 2024 Word on Fire Academic will bring out his scholarly monograph, The Way of Beauty: A Philosophical Reflection on the Arts, and in the fall of 2024 his play, The Actor, on the early life and underground wartime dramatic activities of Karol Wojtyla, the man who would become Saint John Paul II, will premiere at Christendom College. Visit his Substack, The Comic Muse, for more of his reflections on philosophy, the arts, technology, and culture. 

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Cath-Lit Live! Episode #56 – Amanda Lauer

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Bronwyn Campbell’s end-of-summer plans were simple: wrap up her job at Saint Andrews Country Club, meet her friends one last time at the virtual reality arcade, and move across the country—again—with her father. But when lightning strikes while she’s working the club’s Saint Andrews Heritage Day, she’s transported from an American fairway to the home of golf, The Links at St. Andrews, in Scotland—and in the year 1691, no less.

When Iain MacDonald discovers Bronwyn knocked out cold on the seventeenth green, little does he know their meeting would change not only the course of their lives but the course of history. The son of the chieftain of Clan MacDonald, Iain bears the weight of responsibility for his family and his clan’s survival on his shoulders. Family drama and the growing discord over religion in Scotland add to the heavy load he carries daily while stepping further into his role as future chieftain.

As political events between England and Scotland heighten the conflict surrounding the MacDonald lands, Bronwyn and Iain rely upon their shared faith and growing feelings toward each other for survival. Amid the questions that plague both of them, though, one stands out: How can you be with the one you love if your choice ultimately influences history?

An avid reader and history buff since childhood, Amanda Lauer is the author of the award-winning Heaven Intended Civil War series. In addition, Amanda has written two time-travel novels Anything But Groovy and Royal & Ancient, she contributed short stories to the anthologies Treasures: Visible & Invisible and Ashes: Visible & Invisible. Amanda and her husband John have been married 42 years, have four grown children, a daughter-in-law, three sons-in-law, and eight precious grandchildren.

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Cath-Lit Live! Episode #55 – Annie Harton

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Single Truth is written from the heart of a marriage counselor who shares her story of longing, heartache, and adventure as a single woman in her 30’s. Two years following an excruciating breakup with her first love, she committed to a year-long dating fast to dive deeper into her personal relationship with God, confront her deepest fears, and learn to embrace her season of singleness.

This book will help you to:

  • Experience a love that is free, faithful, and fruitful
  • Discover your true identity in Christ
  • Accept the gift of the present moment

Annie Harton provides a refreshing perspective on singleness as she integrates her personal experience with her background in theology and psychology. She learned the hard way to not let her relationship status define her. Join her on a journey of getting unstuck and thriving in the tension of “ready – but not yet.”

Annie Harton is a proud alumna of Saint Mary’s College and the University of Notre Dame. She is a licensed marriage and family therapist, author, and speaker. Her book Single Truth inspired her to start a business called You Are More. She specializes in helping singles and couples explore how they’re more than their diagnoses, their pasts, their jobs, and their relationship statuses; while also reminding them that God is more than any problem they bring Him.

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Cath-Lit Live! Episode #54 – Rachel Bulman

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Whether you are preparing to be or are already a wife, you likely are immersed in the external reality of marriage. But being wife is so much more: It’s a call to holiness and a vocation of incredible significance. Becoming Wife explores what it means for a woman to fulfill this vocation. Catholic wife, mother, speaker, and author Rachel Bulman shares – like a friend over a cup of coffee – how being a wife is at once a calling and a purpose. The more a wife makes herself a gift to her husband, to her children, and to the world, the more she inevitably becomes the person God created her to be. She becomes more wife, more woman, more Christian. Thus, she fulfills her identity as a daughter of God and cultivates the soil from which her motherhood comes to fruition. By exploring the life of the Blessed Mother and the guidance of great minds in the Church, like Saint John Paul II and Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, this book unwraps the gift of becoming a wife and what it means to make a “total gift” of oneself through matrimony.

Rachel Bulman is a lover of humanity, especially her husband and six children. A national speaker and author, she also appears with her family in the show Meet the Bulmans currently airing on the Word on Fire Institute’s YouTube channel. She serves on the advisory board of The GIVEN Institute and frequently gives talks at retreats, conferences, and other gatherings. In her spare time, she enjoys reading a good book, lifting weights, and perfecting her Old Fashioned cocktail recipe.

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Cath-Lit Live! Episode #52 – Erin Lewis

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Firetender (Book One) Sometimes true strength only comes with surrender. Hot-headed Dallas Malone has spent most of his life putting up emotional walls around himself, softened only by his best friend Channing, who he protects with the fierceness of a big brother. When the two are faced with sudden homelessness, Dallas’s impulsive decisions leave them fleeing from law enforcement and land him in prison. While struggling for mere survival in an abusive environment, his mistakes threaten to ravish Dallas like a wildfire, unless he can learn to allow something more powerful than himself into his life.

Enkindle in Me (Book Two) Dropped back into the real world with a newfound faith following a lengthy prison sentence, 23-year-old Dallas Malone is bombarded by the tantalizations of secular society and all the changes that seem to have occurred overnight. His Catholic faith burns deep inside him, but now he must live it out amidst morally bankrupt co-workers and without the support of his best friend. Struggling to get back on his feet and prove himself, Dallas’s wounds are becoming scars, and he knows he’s not that same person he used to be. When he meets Samantha, enchanting and headed for trouble, his natural protective instinct is inflamed while past demons of failure chip away at what he thought he knew was a true calling from God enkindled in his heart. Can Dallas forgive himself and heal from his past mistakes to discern the life path God has laid out for him as a man?

Erin Lewis is a first-time author who has combined her interest in writing fiction with her love of her Catholic faith and her desire to support religious vocations. Her inspiration for writing the Chalice series came three years ago when she completed a story based on characters she had originally created over twenty years earlier. She lives with her husband and four children in Georgia.

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Cath-Lit Live! Episode #51 – Kelsey Gietl

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Six months after traveling the westward trail, the town of Larksong isn’t the utopia the Lark Family imagined. Instead, it’s falling apart, much like Coraline Shay’s life. Due to a degenerative eye disease, her vision is failing. Once blind, rather than helping to build Larksong, she’ll become a burden on her already disgruntled sister. To protect them both, Coraline swallows her guilt and devises a plan to trap an honorable man into marriage. Luckily, her chosen target doesn’t believe in divorce

Jamison Lark always felt called to be a priest, until family obligation drove him west. He uses his Gift as a physician to help Larksong, but his contributions never feel like enough. When Coraline professes unexpected affections for him, Jamison’s own feelings for her are overshadowed by his doubts. For the first time, he faces a test of faith he’s not sure he has the strength to pass. When war is waged between the native tribes and the United States Government in nearby Seattle, Coraline and Jamison face challenges which threaten to tear them apart for good. Could this be the end of everything they love, or are their fractured lives more extraordinary than they ever imagined?

Kelsey Gietl is the author of six novels. Combining faith, family, and lessons from our past, her books provide inspirational stories with a dose of romance and a dash of intrigue. She lives in Missouri with her husband, two children, and two dogs and is a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution and the Catholic Writers Guild.

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Cath-Lit Live! Episode #49 – Dan Masterton

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Go Your Way is a set of three stories of people trying to live out their faith. Theresa is a Catholic school teacher discerning a jump to administration as she finds her love of mobilizing students and forming them to lead. Noah is a young man with a secular job and a lukewarm spirituality whose prayer life gets a jump-start that gets him discerning for real for the first time in his life. St. Brendan is a parish at a crossroads, where the various stories of parishioners overlap and add up to the next chapter for this faith community. Each one invites reflection on how to live out one’s faith.

Dan Masterton is a Catholic pastoral minister and writer. Dan studied theology at Notre Dame and Catholic Theological Union, and he’s worked in pastoral ministries for several years. He has published professional guidebooks on campus ministry and retreat ministry with NCEA and written reflection pieces for Grotto Network, Millennial Journal, Jesuits.org and more. Go Your Way is his first work of fiction.

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Cath-Lit Live! Episode #49 – Karina Fabian

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What could challenge a dragon more than being human? When a curse turns Vern human, he does not have time to deal with it; Sister Grace’s cousin has gone missing in the Mundane. Besides, how hard could humaning be? He might even enjoy it for a while. But from stubbed toes to fever dreams of emus, he discovers that humaning is not as easy as it seems. When women throw themselves at him, the unfamiliar hormones catch him off guard – especially because his heart, dragon and human, belongs to the nun who is his best friend. Can he master his new emotions and solve the mystery before Grace becomes the kidnapper’s next victim?

By day, Karina Fabian freelance writes business articles. After hours, she’s a snarky dragon who thinks he saves the world all too regularly, a psychic who’s desperate to save his world; a zombie exterminator who just wants her world clear of undead vermin, and Catholic religious sisters whose callings have taken them off our world. She enjoys Florida life with her husband, Rob. They have four adult children, two dogs, and a rocket company. Last year, she started taking standup comedy classes because she’s a glutton for punishment.

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