Marianna Bartold
My newest book is "Fatima: The Signs and Secrets" (available in both paperback and Kindle). The very first of my Kindle books is "Guadalupe: Secrets of the Image," released in May 2013. For five years, "Secrets of the Catholic City" was my column in the monthly journal, "Catholic Family News," until I decided to take a break in the spring of 2014. It was then that I prepared my Fatima book for publication, and also set about digitally republishing what I call the "Catholic classics" under the publishing name of KIC (the acronym for Keeping It Catholic). If you're interested, just look up KIC under the Kindle search, and you'll see all the books I've so far republished (and there will always be more to add, so please check weekly!).
I also have a blog, "Keeping It Catholic-the Blog!" for which I write as I have time. A wife and homeschooling mother, I was the founding publisher of "The Catholic Family's Magnificat Magazine," later becoming the first home education editor of "Sursum Corda" (which later merged with "Latin Mass" magazine). My contributors included Fr. John Hardon, S.J. (now Servant of God), Dr. Mary Kay Clark, and Laura Berquist, all authors in their own right. During those years, I was an occasional contributor to papers like "The Wanderer" and "Catholic Family News," as well as a speaker at Catholic homeschooling conferences. Finally, I'm also the author of the "Keeping It Catholic Home Education Guides," "The Return of the King Study Guide," "The Age of Mary Study Guides," and editor of "The Keepsake Collection." (Some of these works will eventually become available on Kindle.)
I grew up in metro-Detroit and I have always been interested in writing. I remember that, when in third grade, my very first "article" (a five sentence paragraph on how our class grew zinnias) was published in the school newspaper. Most of all, I remember my mom's words as she held that modest, mimeographed school newspaper in her hands: "Maybe you'll grow up to be a writer."
And so I did, continuing to write for my school papers right through graduation. Although I didn't realize it until I was married with children and began publishing my own magazine, I already was a writer. Personal circumstances didn't allow me to continue publishing, but the urge to write stayed with me. Although it took me some time to finally grasp it, I finally realized that I am also and truly a writer.
As the years passed, however, the focus of my writing changed. I've always been interested in life, have always sought to understand, and always have sought to be understood. Perhaps that is why people like me feel urged to write. I've written poems, I've written feature and news articles, but only recently did I realize I've never once written a story with made-up characters and made-up lives. I don't know why. Perhaps my life is too real to conjure fantasies. While I always hope for better outcomes, I simply cannot make up stories. I wish I could. Although I am a person of deep feeling, I am also realistic.
Besides my family, my interests include study of almost everything-from astronomy to flowers to history to music to the way things work. I love beauty and have somehow always known it isn't skin deep. Most of all, I'm interested in people, "real" people. However, I do appreciate the stage and morally good plays. So keen was my interest that I had enough stage, prop, and acting experience to be inducted, at the age of 15, as a thespian. Vocal music was my special love, so I sang my way through school, too, with all the choirs.
Yet, for every time, there is a season. In 1990, when I first became a formally homeschooling mother, I didn't know it would be the penultimate experience that changed all of our lives. I would have to tell my life story to explain how that happened, but the experience solidified many things, including the conviction that I am a Catholic and a writer. That's why the theme of my first two books were on Catholic home education. Since then, all but one of our four living children graduated with high honors from college (the youngest is still in high school and doing very well, thanks be to God).
In-between life at home and bringing the Catholic classics to Kindle, I have laid plans for a few more books on topics of high interest to me-perhaps another book on Fatima, the Third Secret, and prophecy. And I just may write the book that my mom always asked me to write, the one she called "Our Story."
