Highlights from the recent CMN/CWG conference

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Book signings at the CMN

While at the Catholic Marketing Network (CMN) conference last week, I did a couple of book signings. One was Wednesday evening in the grand ballroom. Book store owners came by to peruse the newest books to then decide what they'd like to carry in their stores. It was fun meeting them and chatting about my books with them.

Other signings were held at the Catholic Word Booth throughout the conference.

Signing with fellow author Heidi Bratton

Exciting discovery - my new book!

Coming very soon!

As I took a quick walk around the trade floor between a couple of my events at the CMN conference last week, I happened upon the Our Sunday Visitor booth. I have two books published currently with them: Catholic Prayer Book for Mothers and Catholic Saints Prayer Book. And my newest book with OSV will be released next month. It's titled A Catholic Woman's Book of Prayers. I spotted the "mock" copy of the book displayed prominently and so I posed for a photo op with it.

OSV's new catalogue advertises my book for its September release and has this to say about it...

Here it is!

With all the mixed messages that women receive from society today, women can be distracted from--and even unreceptive to--the deep and abiding love that Christ has for them. Whether single or married, religious or consecrated, parenting children, or spiritually mentoring others, women need to know that the Lord understands the many challenges they face, their desire for inspiration, and, above all, their need to be affirmed as women.

Through this book of original and traditional prayers from one of the top ten most fascinating Catholics of 2009 as rated by Faith & Family Live, women can realize God's divine Love, thrive in inspiration from Saints and the Church and rest in the affirmation of the "feminine genius" that Christ offers.

My joint talk with Claudia Volkman of Circle Press

Claudia and me as we await my name card to be delivered

Another highlight of my fabulous time at the CMN (Catholic Marketing Network conference) this past week was giving a joint presentation with my dear friend and publisher Claudia Volkman of Circle Press. We also presented together last year at the CMN. At that time, our talk was about the ideal author and the ideal publisher from each of our perspectives.

This year our presentation was entitled, "Ten Tips for Would-Be Authors." It was attended by a very wonderful audience. Claudia and I each offered our top ten tips and ended with a 10-Point Checklist - "Do You Have What It Takes To Be A Master Writer?" Our audience was very gracious.

It's a lot of fun presenting with Claudia and I hope to present together again next year.

My interview with Al Kresta at the recent CMN conference

One of the highlights of the recent CMN conference for me was to visit Al Kresta again for a radio interview. He's such a light to others through his ministry on the radio. I have seen him at many events and have also had the honor and pleasure of chatting with him at other times as well in various interviews.

You can hear our interview by going to the Ave Maria archive  on Al's blog here. Look in the left column under Podcast Archives and then click on "Friday, August 6, 2nd hour." I am at the beginning of the segment.

We talk about my "EWTN Series: “Everyday Blessings for Catholic Moms”  and my book Mother Teresa and Me: Ten Years of Friendship and my friendship with Mother Teresa.

I also was finally able to get a photo of the two of us. I carried my camera with me throughout my busy days at the CMN conference so I'd be able to snap a few photos or have some kind person nearby do the honors.

More CMN stuff coming up, stay tuned!

God bless!

Donna-Marie

The recent CMN conference

I'm now back home from participating in the CMN, Catholic Marketing Network conference which was held in Valley Forge, PA from August 3rd through 6th. I headed down to PA on Tuesday with wonderful friends and colleagues from Circle Media (Circle Press, the publishing arm of Circle Press published 3 of my books (Grace Cafe: Serving Up Recipes for Faithful Mothering, The Domestic Church: Room By Room, and Mother Teresa and Me: Ten Years of Friendship) and I also write book and movie reviews for the National Catholic Register which is part of Circle Media as is Faith & Family magazine where I have written as well) and we all settled in Tuesday evening.

Wednesday morning it was up bright and early at 5:15 AM to get ready to meet the people in my party downstairs before heading over to the next hotel where we would go to holy Mass which would begin our very busy day at the conference.

My first presentation was at 10:15 AM right after the Opening Welcome from Ann Lewis and Karina Fabian of the Catholic Writer's Guild. My talk was entitled "Your Manuscript is Complete, Now What?" It was attended by many writers of manuscripts who were interested in the publishing process, hoping to be published one day. I opened with a remark that I thought it was so wonderful to begin the day with holy Mass and then a Eucharistic procession. Where else can you find that at a writer's conference? We were surely blessed!

I enjoyed the audience's company. I don't have a photo of that event at the moment, but will post one when I do receive one from the Catholic Writer's Guild.

After my first presentation I hurried over to the blogging panel which was being held right after my talk to meet up with my dear friend and fellow Catholic author (founder of Catholic Mom.Com) Lisa Hendey, as well as Mark Shea, and Karina Fabian who graciously moderated our panel. Our panel was called "Making the Most of Your Blog."

It was a lot of fun to participate with these seasoned bloggers as well as to interact with our audience.

I plan to continue to post bits and pieces of the conference in the coming days.

God bless!

Donna-Marie