The Guest Blog Index -- "Catholic fiction"

This is going to look like a strange post.  But I like things to be organized.  I try not to buy history books unless I go to the index and see if they have certain topics.

For example, there is a recent biography of a Protestant minister involved in the Valkyrie plot to assassinate Hitler .... you may have seen the movie ... I went and looked in the index for Pope Pius XII.  And I found him!  I flipped to the page....

And the minister "met with an aide to Pope Pius XII for a meeting."  That's it?  That's all you had to say?  You don't know anything else?  Thanks, I'm not buying you, you stupid book....

Yes, I think of books in terms of anthropomorphized entities.  If you didn't know I was weird before, You do now.

But, our guest blogs have been some of our most popular thus far.  The only series to outdo them have been the Snarky Theology series, and the blogs beating up on the Phelps Family.

So, my mild OCD has kicked in, and I'm going to do a little sorting.

Our first official guest blog was from Ann Margaret Lewis, of Murder in the Vatican, the Church Mysteries of Sherlock Holmes.  THe premise isn't hard to deduce -- these are "missing" cases of Sherlock Holmes, cases that Arthur Conan Doyle aluded to, but never fleshed out.

Madam Lewis discussed what it was like using historical figures as characters in a novel.  If you weren't here for it, I'd recommend it.

She was also gracious enough to let me interview her on the novel.  I got to ask her about how she wrote through the book in two different voices, that of Pope Leo XIII and Dr. John Watson.  We also touched on a few other topics along the way ... it was a fun interview.

And, last, and possibly least, I reviewed her book, breaking it down by story.  And by writing elements.  And a few other things here and there.

The three articles were a lot of fun to go through.  It was an absolute joy, and a pleasure to have Madam Lewis on the site.

Why did I host a Sherlock Holmes pastische on my blog?

A Pius Man is about a mystery surrounding the Vatican.  This had two murder mysteries IN the Vatican....  That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

Next came the virtual book tour for Infinite Space Infinite God II, an anthology of Catholic science fiction.

Yes, Catholics have science fiction.

First, we had the editor, Karina Fabian, discussing religion in science fiction. 

Then I pumped her for information on the book.  We wandered into Doctor Who territory, Star Trek, science fiction in general, and how religious folk always seem to be the bad guys, hmm....

And I wrap up the week of ISIG2 with my own review of the book.  Considering that I hate anthologies to start with, this came out relatively unscathed. 

And how can I justify science fiction on the blog?  One of the other popular posts on the blog is about my time at DragonCon in 2010.  In this case, demand creates supply.

There is one last thing that I should point out:  I was lucky enough to host both of these fine authors through my tenuous connection to the Catholic Writers Guild.  I'm not actually a member, since I'm too cheap to pay dues ... and I haven't actually published anything.  So, I have no bias towards them one way or another.  I think my review of ISIG2 showed that best -- it had some good stories, some stories I skipped, and some absolutely great tales.

In any event, I would like to extend my thanks to both of these fine authors once more, for allowing me to host them here at A Pius Man.

Have a good day.