A lot of my readers are writers…

Last updated on: February 17, 2015 at 12:23 am by Mark Shea

A lot of my readers are writers… 2015-02-16T11:11:46-07:00 Mark Shea

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…I am pleased to report. And they are writing me to let you know about various projects they are involved in. I’m always happy to see writers–especially new ones–spread their wings. So here is a small grab bag of projects that are out.

Reader Elaine Spencer writes:

You may recall me asking you about breaking into publishing when you spoke at Theology on Tap in Springfield IL last summer. Well, I now have a newly published book to promote, but it’s not mine, it’s my husband’s.

The book is titled Round Prairie Inferno and it’s a Western/historical novel, the first in a planned series. Set in antebellum Illinois, the series recounts, through one man’s journey, the story of a struggling nation experiencing profound and fundamental change.

We are going to have a book signing in Springfield on Feb. 19. The book is available only in paperback right now, from Amazon for $6.99 per copy.

Go check out the book signing and meet the author!

Reader Daniel Schwindt writes:

I have a 30-some page essay up on Amazon for 0.99 cents, and our mutual friend Elias Crim said that it might be up your ally. It’s called The O’Reilly Function: A Short Study on Propaganda and Talking Heads.

My interest is more psychological, which means the essay doesn’t do party politics—it does propaganda and the degrading effects it has on the American mind. It analyzes O’Reilly from that point of view. This means I’m not going point by point over any particular issues, although I do mention Catholic Social Teaching.

Here is a relevant passage on the ability of propaganda to create a new “sphere of the sacred.” It is from the section titled “O’Reilly as priest”:

“…the scapegoat offered by the pundit—in this case, Bill O’Reilly—allows him [the viewer] to avoid another admission that would have been forced upon him in the confessionals of old: he is allowed to avoid the labor of self-knowledge. He does not have to blame himself for any part he plays in the evils of the world, or acknowledge his own wrongs (or, in some cases, the wrongs of his party or nation). Nothing is his fault, because his ideology is true. And so, not only is evil extinguishable in this life, but it is also not his doing. His conscience, which had threatened him with his life, is soothed.

Jacques Ellul observed this as one of the most significant functions of propaganda: that it creates a “good social conscience.”[1] To tune in to an episode of the O’Reilly factor is, from an emotional standpoint, to be absolved of one’s sins.

What O’Reilly brings to the television screen is, as we have already said, the scapegoat—but a man could easily imagine one of these up for himself. What O’Reilly delivers, by the authority vested in him, is credibility to the sacrificial victim. He provides a more convincing specimen than the viewer would have been able to think up all on their own, and his choice (although we know that it is not really his choice, but is given to him from above) is, within the group, given social approval. Socially approved hatred is quite a pleasing thing to an angry man.”

[1] Jacques Ellul, Propaganda (New York: Vintage, 1973), p. 186.

Next up, one of my favorite people, Donna-Marie Cooper-O’Boyle, writes:

I would like you to know that Ignatius Press has just created a page to introduce and promote my upcoming memoir, The Kiss of Jesus: How Mother Teresa and the Saints Helped me to Discover the Beauty of the Cross in which they have included your endorsement. Hopefully, in time, they will include the other stellar endorsements I received for this book as well.

Please send folks to my website where I am having a PRE-SALE!

You can see the page from Ignatius Press here.

And my blog post here.

I have also created a page on my website which I plan to update regularly and highlight endorsements (using the full version) as well as other news about the book.

I’m gonna have Donna on “Catholic and Enjoying Live” on March 18 at 6 PM Eastern. You can listen in here.

Finally, reader Wendy Joseph alerts me to her novel

The Witch’s Hand

                by Wendy Joseph

                   from All Things That Matter Press

Print and Kindle: www.amazon.com

Print: www.allthingsthatmatterpress.com

Nook: www.barnesandnoble.com

Signed copy: [email protected]

Author website: www.wendyjosephwrites.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/WendyJoseph924

Blog: www.wjoseph924.blogspot.com

Wendy is a from my parish and is what you call a colorful character. Here’s her bio:

Wendy Joseph vies with her characters for a life of romance and adventure. A deckhand on merchant ships, she has outrun pirates off of Somalia, steered ships large and small through typhoons and calms from the Bering Sea to Shanghai, and helped rescue seals on the Pacific coast. Believing history must be lived, she has crewed the 18th century square-rigger Lady Washington, the steamer Virginia V, the WWII freighter SS Lane Victory, and the moored battleship USS Iowa. She has shared her food with Third World workers and starving cats. A musician, she sings sea shanties, her songs, and with classical and medieval choirs. Her passion is for works of the imagination, for telling a really good story, and for connecting with the minds and souls of readers and taking them to a magnificent and finer place. Researching THE WITCH’S HAND in France, she traced the paths of her characters over the terrain they covered to get the description right, and dug up old documents for historical accuracy. Her plays GARGOYLES, BOOKING HOLD, and THE HAMLET INTERVIEW have been produced to audience and critical acclaim, and she appeared in the movie Singles. She holds two Master’s in English and can splice a twelve strand line. Ashore, she holds court with her cats Jean Lafitte and Bijou in the wilds of Washington State.

By the way, the Lady Washington played the role of the Interceptor in the first Pirates of the Caribbean movies. A beautiful old girl she is.

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