Novel Thoughts blog
  1. We Cannot Remake Ourselves

    November 17, 2017 4:17 pm Leave a Comment

    I recently traveled to Minnesota to attend a good friend’s wedding. It was great to catch up with him and visit with others. I got to tour the wonderful Minneapolis Institute of Art with Catholic artist Timothy Jones, and also for the first time met with a cousin I hadn’t… Read more »

    Tags: Everywhere in Chains family history Terrapin We'll Never Tell Them

  2. Clemens Cavallin, himself an artist and author who has written a biography of Michael D. O’Brien titled On the Edge of Infinity, recorded an interview with the novelist at his home. In the video, Michael O’Brien talks about his latest novel, The Fool of New York City. Watch the video… Read more »

    Tags: author interviews michael d. o'brien the fool of new york city video

  3. Meryl Kaleida

    Back to Our Bluegrass Roots

    November 1, 2017 12:00 pm Leave a Comment

    Music is the language of the soul. J.R.R. Tolkien’s and C.S. Lewis’ narratives describe creation being sung into being. The scriptures tell us about choirs of angels, playing on the lute and harp, singing and dancing. The liturgy itself is woven with melodies and harmonies to focus our attention on… Read more »

    Tags: art bluegrass country music dolly parton music roy acuff

  4. Taking a Leap

    October 20, 2017 6:16 pm Leave a Comment

    When I was a child I was extremely skinny—not much in the way of extra fat anywhere. It wasn’t something I noticed much about myself until I started going to swim class, and in the beginners’ lessons found that I really didn’t float easily like the teacher said I would…. Read more »

    Tags: cover design creativity painting

  5. The recently released new edition of G.K. Chesterton’s The Flying Inn has been garnering stellar reviews! In Catholic World Report, Dr. Kelly Scott Franklin writes that Chesterton’s gleeful exaggeration satirizes the many-headed Hydra of modernity. Abstract modern art is “bad wall-paper; the sort of wall-paper that gives a sick man… Read more »

    Tags: book reviews G.K. Chesterton the flying inn

  6. John Herreid

    Fear of Women, Fear of Reality

    September 29, 2017 1:39 pm 6 Comments

    Hugh Hefner, founder of Playboy, has died. Along with countless others, I am offering prayers for his soul. But apart from the man himself, one has to look at the legacy he left behind. It’s a curious and strange thing that Hefner managed to make an old, sad sin seem… Read more »

    Tags: hugh hefner men novels sin women

  7. Ideological Destruction and Its Remedy

    August 18, 2017 4:00 pm Leave a Comment

    Over the last several months as political passions have ramped ever higher, despite seeming to peak last year during the election, I’ve ended up thinking again and again about a book I worked on, General Escobar’s War. It’s not about politics. Or ideology. It’s a book about how one man… Read more »

    Tags: book reviews General Escobar's War politics Spanish Civil War

  8. It’s a Homeschool Stake Out

    August 16, 2017 5:04 am Leave a Comment

    We recently ran across this fun video starring editor and educator Eleanor Nicholson, a preview for her course on Dracula for Homeschool Connections, which is an online course supplement for homeschooling families. Watch her intro below–it’s engaging, witty, and worthwhile, whether you’re lining up your literature offerings this Fall or… Read more »

    Tags: book trailers classics dracula horror humor Ignatius Critical Editions video

  9. Ignatius Press Novels

    First Chapter: The Sleeping Witness

    August 11, 2017 5:59 pm Leave a Comment

    Read the first chapter of the novel The Sleeping Witness by Fiorella De Maria. If you like what you’re reading, visit the novel’s page to learn more or order! Father Gabriel never felt the slow encroachment of middle age more painfully than on an evening such as this. It was… Read more »

    Tags: Father Gabriel Fiorella de Maria First Chapter mystery the sleeping witness

  10. John Herreid

    The Rolling Road to Sanity

    August 4, 2017 3:27 pm 1 Comment

    As part of the preparation for designing the book cover for a novel, I always read the manuscript first. An early pet peeve of mine when I was a child was getting a book out from the library based on an intriguing cover illustration and discovering that the content didn’t… Read more »

    Tags: cover design design process G.K. Chesterton illustration the flying inn

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