LisaHendey.com

A huge thanks to my friend and fellow Catholic Mom blogger Anne McClure of Catholic Mommy Brain for offering her readers a “sneak peek” at my upcoming book, A Book of Saints for Catholic Moms: 52 Companions for Your Heart, Mind, Body and Soul. Anne generously invited me to share a few thoughts on the writing of the book and some of my favorite intercessors. I hope you’ll head over to Catholic Mommy Brain and enjoy not only this article, but also some of Anne’s terrific writing!

A special thank you to Karen Jones and Publishers Weekly for sharing my comments in their recent article Can Mommy Bloggers Help Christian Children’s Book Sales? Also included in the piece are the insights of my friend and Ave Maria Press colleague  Karey Circosta, who seems to agree with me that the trust we bloggers work to build with our readers truly does help them in their book buying selections.

A huge thanks to my friend and fellow Ave Maria Press author Heidi Schlumpf for featuring my work and advice on Catholic social media in her recent article for the National Catholic Reporter. Heidi references my recent webinar on the topic sponsored by Ave Maria Press and does a great job summarizing some helpful guidelines for parishes and ministries looking to become involved in using social media tools to communicate and to serve. Thanks Heidi!

I would like to thank my dear friend and fellow writer Roxane Salonen for including me in her recent articles for U.S. Catholic magazine. You’ll find me quoted in Roxane’s pieces entitled Come follow me: On faith and Facebook and One Tweet too many: Take a social media fast. In both articles, Roxane offers a terrific perspective on how Catholics are employing the latest digital technologies to share their faith. Thanks to Roxane for including me in her findings!

If you live anywhere near Rockford, Illinois, I hope you’ll consider joining me for the upcoming Catholic Moms Retreat being hosted by the Diocese of Rockford.  I am so honored and humbled to be leading this retreat, which will focus on several of the topics from The Handbook for Catholic Moms.  Registration is still open and you can find additional details here and register here.

January 7-8, 2011
Bishop Lane Retreat Center, Rockford, IL
$75 for Shared Room, $55 for Commuters.

Arrival is 6:00-6:30pm with dinner staring at 6:30pm. Retreat includes time for confession and adoration. We will conclude with a vigil Mass on Saturday.  For more details and to register, check out the Office of Family Life website at www.familylife.dpsrfd.org or call (815) 399-4300.

I wanted to share with you my recent interview with Genevieve Pollock of Zenit, where we discussed the vocation of motherhood and The Handbook for Catholic Moms. Genevieve posed some incredibly thoughtful questions, and it was a real treat to have my book featured by one of my favorite Catholic resources.  View the entire interview here.

Since I’m such a huge fan of Catholic podcasts, it was a real treat last week to have The Handbook for Catholic Moms: Nurturing Your Heart, Mind, Body and Soul featured on two of my favorite shows.  Listen in to the iPadre Catholic Podcast to hear my conversation with one of my favorite priests, Fr. Jay Finelli.  Fr. Jay is a contributor to the book, and one of those hold priests who really “gets” the use of new media in his priesthood.  If I had the opportunity to chat with Fr. Jay every week, I’d likely be a much better wife, mom and person.
[podcast]http://media.libsyn.com/media/ipadre/ipadre_178-catholic-mom.mp3[/podcast]

The second podcast to feature the book last week was my very own family of mom bloggers at the Faith & Family Live Cast.  You can almost hear me blushing out loud at the very kind remarks offered by my friends and writing colleagues Danielle Bean and Arwen Mosier.  Honestly, hearing the two of them talk so sweetly about our book made my heart sing.  Since both of these two fine writers are also contributors to the book, it was especially joyful to share this conversation with them!
[podcast]http://a1.video3.blip.tv/0170001876239/Faithandfamily-FaithFamilyLivecastEpisode39821.mp3[/podcast]

Today, I have the good fortune of appearing on two morning radio shows to help spread the word about my new book The Handbook for Catholic Moms: Nurturing Your Heart, Mind, Body and Soul. At 5:50 am Pacific Time, I will join Brian Patrick on his Son Rise Morning Show, followed by an appearance with Greg and Jennifer Willits on their wonderful show, The Catholics Next Door on Sirius XM’s The Catholic Channel at 9:20 am Pacific Time.  I hope you can join me for one or both of these conversations!

A big thank you to my friend and fellow podcaster Chris Cash for inviting me to appear on his great program, Catholic Spotlight. Chris and I had a very fun conversation about the background behind my book, how the idea came together, and the content of the book. Chris is a great interviewer, so I had a blast chatting with him about this exciting time in my life. Listen to the podcast on the player here, or visit Chris’ Catholic Spotlight website for many great interviews with noted Catholics.

[podcast]http://catholicspotlight.com/podpress_trac/web/597/0/128-lisa-hendey-handbook-for-catholic-moms.mp3[/podcast]

My new book, The Handbook for Catholic Moms, is nearing release.  The excitement is building, and my friends at The Catholic Company are running a great contest to help me spread the word!  Here are the details:

Just send us your  favorite, best working, or funniest piece of motherly advice you’ve heard from your Mom, Grandmother, etc.  We’ll compile all the entries and pick our Top Five Favorites to win a signed copy of Lisa’s new book!  We’ll post all entries online and share the Top Five on YouTube, Facebook, CatholicSpotlight.com and more.

Email your entry to contest@catholiccompany.com; please include your full name, email address, and mailing address. No purchase is necessary. Submissions will be accepted now through February 14, 2010. Only one entry per person.  Participants must be 18 years of age or older as of the time of submission.  This contest is open to legal residents of the 50 United States and Washington, DC except for employees of The Catholic Company and Trinity Road, LLC, and all companies contributing prizes, judges, and members of their immediate families.

To build a little excitement, I filmed the following video today.  Please help spread the word by sharing this on your website, blog or podcast – and don’t forget to send your entry to contest@catholiccompany.com by 2/14/10.

My book is now available at The Catholic Company, Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, Aquinas and More, or a Catholic bookstore near you!