“I was intrigued with Julianna’s personal mystery as she wrestles with her own emotions to discover how and who she loves while finding her own strengths of faith and character. Virginia Lee Bliss has a grasp of the female psyche like Dorothy Parker and a Parker-like wit that Virginia shows us time and again. When I say “Parker-like wit, I do not mean the ribald, sarcastic, sardonic wit, but I do mean the incisive sense of the motives of characters, like when Julianna sees through corrupt politics or unearths the darker motives that lead even to murderous acts. And, in a way, Julianna is a perfect Catholic foil to the kind of ribald woman that Parker portrays. What really sold me on the book was the descriptive power that Virginia brings to her story. For me, the story is a page-turner.” – Patrick Chalmers
“In The Dark Side of the Valley, Virginia Lee Bliss weaves romance, adventure, and mystery into a fascinating story featuring the talented and lovable Julianna. The young adventuress, with degrees in music from a Massachusetts conservatory and from the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, accepts a job in the scenic Massachusetts Pioneer Valley. Like many young persons, Julianna faces the challenges of making ends meet and finding an affordable place to live. And like so many young women, she dreams of meeting Mr. Right. But she never expected to become a detective—until the hocking disappearance of a thirteen-year-old boy. Despite her efforts to remain uninvolved, clues come her way and so does romance. The reader will admire Julianna’s creativity and ingenuity, empathize with her dilemmas, laugh at her humorous take on life, and rejoice in her successes.” – Don Mulcare
“A gripping and morally charged narrative, Bliss’s novel draws readers into a shadowed landscape where faith, suffering, and human frailty collide, revealing grace not as escape, but as a hard-won illumination within darkness.” – Dr. Sebastian Mahfood, OP, author of The Narrative Spirituality of Dante’s Divine Comedy
Virginia Lee Bliss brings the perspective of a traveler, teacher and biologist, to her published works. Her experience of living in Scotland and Poland appears in her books, as do her years of teaching college biology. She lives on a lake in Central Massachusetts, where she’s inspired by the history and beauty of New England.
Ties that Bind: The Story of a Marriage by Ronda Chervin January 4, 1984 would be a day to remember for Margo Kemperdick. It began when the thirty-five year old woman walked out of her dilapidated, wooden frame row house in the South Bronx one morning to get her mail,...
Sisters Karamazov by Natalie Karamazov “So what kind of a title is that Hmmph! The Sisters Karamazov? So you think you’re a female Dostoevsky? Isn’t that more than a little arrogant?” Let me explain. The idea for writing this fictionalized account of my life came in...
Eye of the Tiber by S.C. Naoum Reporting Catholic news as it happens, when it happens, and before it happens, Eye of the Tiber has been delighting readers online since 2012. Now, it provides a book that can be thrown! The only news source brave enough to report...
The Table by Dcn. Dennis Lambert First century Christianity and present-day musical aspirations meet in the story of a miracle table built by the grandfather of Jesus Christ. The table is placed in the hands of a Centurion named Cornelius following the death of the...
Great news! To Whom The Heart Decided To Love won 2nd place as a Backlist Beauty in the 2021 Catholic Media Awards!So Shine is the debut album by brothersister 10 new original Catholic Christian songs Music & Lyrics by Fr. Lawrence Edward Tucker, SOLT“‘So Shine’...
“Not a language that evolved gradually into the linguistic families we know today, but one shattered by divine will. Torn apart by God, who deemed mankind unworthy to wield it.”
A haunting, cerebral debut novel that moves from the quiet courtyards of Trinity College Dublin to the shrouded archives of the Vatican, from forgotten places to the sacred ground of Iona… where faith, history, and obsession converge.
Daniel, a Trinity College graduate student lost in his discernment, spends his days deciphering old languages under the mentorship of the enigmatic Professor Ashcroft. He goes about his quiet and studious tasks, until a letter from a long-lost friend arrives. What begins as a scholarly pursuit becomes stranger, as Daniel follows a thread that leads him far from Dublin into the heart of Catholic power and toward the edges of his own certainty.
The First Silence is a meditation on the unavoidable violence of pride. The novel traces the intersection of language and religion, and the perilous secrets carved into history itself.
Paperback $19.95 USD| Audible: $14.99 | Kindle $9.99 USD
“Morris crafts an intellectually luminous and spiritually resonant narrative that draws readers into the drama of truth-seeking. The First Silence invites the reflective soul to discover how scholarship, friendship, and grace converge in the quiet depths of vocation.” – Dr. Sebastian Mahfood, OP, author of The Narrative Spirituality of Dante’s Divine Comedy
Dr. Michael J. Morris brings a unique perspective to the thriller genre, combining his extensive academic background in biblical studies with a talent for crafting compelling narratives that explore the intersection of language, history, and the unseen spiritual realm.
With a doctoral degree in biblical studies and years of research into early Christian demonology, Morris has published on topics ranging from Jewish angelology in the Dead Sea Scrolls to the development of early Christian anti-demonic traditions. His academic work provides an authentic foundation for the supernatural and historical elements that drive his fiction.
Morris earned his Ph.D. in Biblical Studies from the University of Dublin, Trinity College, and his M.A. in Scripture from Augustine Institute. He has taught Scripture and theology for the St. John Vianney Theological Seminary, the University of Mary, and Holy Apostles College and Seminary. He served as a contributing writer for the Augustine Institute’s Bible in a Year and Word of Life curriculum projects, and is the author of “Warding Off Evil: Apotropaic Tradition in the Dead Sea Scrolls and Synoptic Gospels.” His scholarly work has appeared in the Catholic Biblical Quarterly and other academic publications.
When he’s not writing or teaching, Morris enjoys exploring the connections between ancient texts and modern storytelling, believing that the greatest narratives reveal timeless truths about the human condition.
Ties that Bind: The Story of a Marriage by Ronda Chervin January 4, 1984 would be a day to remember for Margo Kemperdick. It began when the thirty-five year old woman walked out of her dilapidated, wooden frame row house in the South Bronx one morning to get her mail,...
Sisters Karamazov by Natalie Karamazov “So what kind of a title is that Hmmph! The Sisters Karamazov? So you think you’re a female Dostoevsky? Isn’t that more than a little arrogant?” Let me explain. The idea for writing this fictionalized account of my life came in...
Eye of the Tiber by S.C. Naoum Reporting Catholic news as it happens, when it happens, and before it happens, Eye of the Tiber has been delighting readers online since 2012. Now, it provides a book that can be thrown! The only news source brave enough to report...
The Table by Dcn. Dennis Lambert First century Christianity and present-day musical aspirations meet in the story of a miracle table built by the grandfather of Jesus Christ. The table is placed in the hands of a Centurion named Cornelius following the death of the...
Great news! To Whom The Heart Decided To Love won 2nd place as a Backlist Beauty in the 2021 Catholic Media Awards!So Shine is the debut album by brothersister 10 new original Catholic Christian songs Music & Lyrics by Fr. Lawrence Edward Tucker, SOLT“‘So Shine’...
Humans never existed.
The burden of morality fell to predators.
Herald, a young Australian magpie raised by a raven and taught the principles of the Breath, believes that dignity lies not in appetite but in restraint. Sent across the southern lands to share those teachings, he finds a world of intelligent creatures struggling to reconcile survival with conscience.
When a devastating wildfire destroys an entire colony, leaders from across the land gather to forge a new order. What begins as a sincere effort to preserve peace gradually hardens into an expanding system of laws that ignores the realities of life. Predators starve. Communities fracture. Those who preach virtue increasingly fail to live by it themselves.
As hunger, loss, and disillusionment close in around him, Herald is forced to confront questions no law can answer: How much harm can a good creature endure before it breaks? Can mercy survive failure? And what becomes of a society that values purity more than life?
“With the imagination of a master storyteller and the insight of a theologian, Genevieve Ponce has crafted an unforgettable allegory of truth, freedom, and the moral life. The Chronicles of Law invites readers into a world that illuminates our own with remarkable beauty and wisdom.” – Dr. Sebastian Mahfood, OP, author of The Narrative Spirituality of Dante’s Divine Comedy and The Victim Soul in the Dark Night of Nosferatu
Gen Ponce is a freelance author, artist, and community organizer from South Texas. A devoted Catholic, wife, and mother, she draws inspiration from Scripture, philosophy, and the beauty of the natural world to create stories that explore the deepest questions of the human person. Her writing reflects a lifelong love of storytelling and the Christian intellectual tradition. The Chronicles of Law, her debut novel, presents a richly imagined allegory of truth, freedom, virtue, and redemption through an unforgettable cast of animal characters.
Ties that Bind: The Story of a Marriage by Ronda Chervin January 4, 1984 would be a day to remember for Margo Kemperdick. It began when the thirty-five year old woman walked out of her dilapidated, wooden frame row house in the South Bronx one morning to get her mail,...
Sisters Karamazov by Natalie Karamazov “So what kind of a title is that Hmmph! The Sisters Karamazov? So you think you’re a female Dostoevsky? Isn’t that more than a little arrogant?” Let me explain. The idea for writing this fictionalized account of my life came in...
Eye of the Tiber by S.C. Naoum Reporting Catholic news as it happens, when it happens, and before it happens, Eye of the Tiber has been delighting readers online since 2012. Now, it provides a book that can be thrown! The only news source brave enough to report...
The Table by Dcn. Dennis Lambert First century Christianity and present-day musical aspirations meet in the story of a miracle table built by the grandfather of Jesus Christ. The table is placed in the hands of a Centurion named Cornelius following the death of the...
Great news! To Whom The Heart Decided To Love won 2nd place as a Backlist Beauty in the 2021 Catholic Media Awards!So Shine is the debut album by brothersister 10 new original Catholic Christian songs Music & Lyrics by Fr. Lawrence Edward Tucker, SOLT“‘So Shine’...
“Ryan Starrett masterfully intertwines history, faith, and psychological depth in a gripping tale that confronts the realities of sin, justice, and redemption. Blood and Beads is both hauntingly beautiful and spiritually unforgettable.” – Dr. Sebastian Mahfood, OP, author of The Narrative Spirituality of Dante’s Divine Comedy and The Victim Soul in the Dark Night of Nosferatu
Ryan Starrett was birthed and reared in Jackson, Mississippi. After receiving degrees from the University of Dallas, Adams State University and Spring Hill College, as well as spending a ten-year hiatus in Texas, he has returned home to continue his teaching career at his alma mater in Madison, Mississippi.Ties that Bind: The Story of a Marriage by Ronda Chervin January 4, 1984 would be a day to remember for Margo Kemperdick. It began when the thirty-five year old woman walked out of her dilapidated, wooden frame row house in the South Bronx one morning to get her mail,...
Sisters Karamazov by Natalie Karamazov “So what kind of a title is that Hmmph! The Sisters Karamazov? So you think you’re a female Dostoevsky? Isn’t that more than a little arrogant?” Let me explain. The idea for writing this fictionalized account of my life came in...
Eye of the Tiber by S.C. Naoum Reporting Catholic news as it happens, when it happens, and before it happens, Eye of the Tiber has been delighting readers online since 2012. Now, it provides a book that can be thrown! The only news source brave enough to report...
The Table by Dcn. Dennis Lambert First century Christianity and present-day musical aspirations meet in the story of a miracle table built by the grandfather of Jesus Christ. The table is placed in the hands of a Centurion named Cornelius following the death of the...
Great news! To Whom The Heart Decided To Love won 2nd place as a Backlist Beauty in the 2021 Catholic Media Awards!So Shine is the debut album by brothersister 10 new original Catholic Christian songs Music & Lyrics by Fr. Lawrence Edward Tucker, SOLT“‘So Shine’...
“Kenneth Francis transforms suburban ruins into haunting monuments to memory, loneliness, and cultural decay. These absurdist tales echo with vanished laughter, abandoned dreams, and the unsettling ghosts of places we once called our own home.” – Dr. Sebastian Mahfood, OP, author of The Victim Soul in the Dark Night of Nosferatu
Kenneth Francis is the current Editor of Mind Matters and a Contributing Editor at New English Review. For the past 30 years, he has worked as an editor at various publications and as a journalism professor at a university. He also holds an MA in Theology and is the author of The Little Book of God, Mind, Cosmos and Truth, The Terror of Existence: From Ecclesiastes to Theatre of the Absurd (with Theodore Dalrymple), and Neither Trumpets Nor Violins (with Theodore Dalrymple and Samuel Hux). His most recent books are Theology in Music: How Christian Themes Permeate Classic Songs, Theology in Film: How Christian Themes Permeate Classic Movies, Cities of the Absurd: Strange Tales from the Dark Metropolis, Corridors of the Absurd: Sinister Tales from the Deep Halls of Power and Dreams, and In the Belly of a Dead Beetle.
Ties that Bind: The Story of a Marriage by Ronda Chervin January 4, 1984 would be a day to remember for Margo Kemperdick. It began when the thirty-five year old woman walked out of her dilapidated, wooden frame row house in the South Bronx one morning to get her mail,...
Sisters Karamazov by Natalie Karamazov “So what kind of a title is that Hmmph! The Sisters Karamazov? So you think you’re a female Dostoevsky? Isn’t that more than a little arrogant?” Let me explain. The idea for writing this fictionalized account of my life came in...
Eye of the Tiber by S.C. Naoum Reporting Catholic news as it happens, when it happens, and before it happens, Eye of the Tiber has been delighting readers online since 2012. Now, it provides a book that can be thrown! The only news source brave enough to report...
The Table by Dcn. Dennis Lambert First century Christianity and present-day musical aspirations meet in the story of a miracle table built by the grandfather of Jesus Christ. The table is placed in the hands of a Centurion named Cornelius following the death of the...
Great news! To Whom The Heart Decided To Love won 2nd place as a Backlist Beauty in the 2021 Catholic Media Awards!So Shine is the debut album by brothersister 10 new original Catholic Christian songs Music & Lyrics by Fr. Lawrence Edward Tucker, SOLT“‘So Shine’...
In this compelling new collection, Kenneth Francis explores the fragile boundary between memory and imagination, despair and hope, alienation and redemption. Populated by unforgettable characters whose lives unfold on society’s margins, these stories weave dark humor, philosophical reflection, and profound humanity into narratives that linger long after the final page. By turns unsettling, compassionate, and quietly transcendent, Francis invites readers to discover unexpected grace amid the broken landscapes of the modern soul.
Paperback: $12.95 | Kindle: $9.99
“Kenneth Francis possesses a rare gift for uncovering the extraordinary within ordinary lives. With wit, philosophical depth, and deep compassion, these stories invite readers to wrestle with life’s deepest questions while never losing sight of the enduring possibility of grace.” – Dr. Sebastian Mahfood, OP, author of The Victim Soul in the Dark Night of Nosferatu
Kenneth Francis is the current Editor of Mind Matters and a Contributing Editor at New English Review. For the past 30 years, he has worked as an editor in various publications, as well as a university professor in journalism. He also holds an MA in Theology and is the author of The Little Book of God, Mind, Cosmos and Truth, The Terror of Existence: From Ecclesiastes to Theatre of the Absurd (with Theodore Dalrymple), and Neither Trumpets Nor Violins (with Theodore Dalrymple and Samuel Hux). His most recent books are Theology in Music: How Christian Themes Permeate Classic Songs, Theology in Film: How Christian Themes Permeate Classic Movies, and Cities of the Absurd: Strange Tales from the Dark Metropolis and Corridors of the Absurd: Sinister tales from the Deep Halls of Power and Dreams
Ties that Bind: The Story of a Marriage by Ronda Chervin January 4, 1984 would be a day to remember for Margo Kemperdick. It began when the thirty-five year old woman walked out of her dilapidated, wooden frame row house in the South Bronx one morning to get her mail,...
Sisters Karamazov by Natalie Karamazov “So what kind of a title is that Hmmph! The Sisters Karamazov? So you think you’re a female Dostoevsky? Isn’t that more than a little arrogant?” Let me explain. The idea for writing this fictionalized account of my life came in...
Eye of the Tiber by S.C. Naoum Reporting Catholic news as it happens, when it happens, and before it happens, Eye of the Tiber has been delighting readers online since 2012. Now, it provides a book that can be thrown! The only news source brave enough to report...
The Table by Dcn. Dennis Lambert First century Christianity and present-day musical aspirations meet in the story of a miracle table built by the grandfather of Jesus Christ. The table is placed in the hands of a Centurion named Cornelius following the death of the...
Great news! To Whom The Heart Decided To Love won 2nd place as a Backlist Beauty in the 2021 Catholic Media Awards!So Shine is the debut album by brothersister 10 new original Catholic Christian songs Music & Lyrics by Fr. Lawrence Edward Tucker, SOLT“‘So Shine’...