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| CUA Alumnae Take on the Genres The two authors featured in this issue are making their mark in the young-adult and mystery/romance genres. The Possibilities of Sainthood  “To Whom It May Concern (ideally the Pope if he’s available): As yet there is no Patron Saint of Figs and Fig Trees …” Antonia knows her saints well. When she was 7, her father gave her a diary with a saint listed for each day, five weeks before he was killed in a car accident. Since his death, she has filled eight diaries and she calls upon the saints many times a day. But when seeming miracles start happening all around her and Andy Rotellini takes a job in her family’s Italian grocery store … will her dreams come true? Author Donna Freitas (M.A. 1999, Ph.D. 2002) says that writing the book was like listening in as Antonia’s voice poured out on the page. That “burbling, joyful” voice touches lightly on heavy events, such as the death of her father, and conveys Antonia’s conflicting desires for sainthood and Andy’s amorous attention, while also giving an insider’s view into the trials of being a teen in a traditional Italian-American household. This is Freitas’ first work of fiction. An assistant professor of religion at Boston University and scholar of medieval women mystics, she is the co-author (with fellow CUA graduate Jason King) of Killing the Imposter God, a close theological study of Philip Pullman’s fantasy trilogy, His Dark Materials. She also wrote Sex and the Soul, a study of college students’ attitudes about sex and religion. Her young-adult novel came out of Freitas’ family life, she says; her mother and grandmother prayed to the saints “all the time.” Catholics, she adds, “literally have an army of men and women to turn to.” The Possibilities of Sainthood is published by Farrar Straus and Giroux. Reviewers have praised the book, and it was named to Booklist magazine’s Top 10 Religion Books for Youth. Mystery, History, Romance: George Washington Stepped Here  The mystery? A document reputedly written by George Washington has gone missing from the historic house/museum in Reisterstown, Md., right down the pike from Maxwell’s home in Ellicott City, Md. Without it, the museum’s raison d’être is cast into doubt. Mrs. McGregor, the head of the museum’s board of trustees, wants the document found quickly and discreetly — no one else knows it has been stolen and if it isn’t back in place before the Daughters of the American Patriots visit in a month, 1776 House will be forced to close. Who took the scrap of leather Washington purportedly wrote on and why? Where is it now? To get the answers and recover the document, Karen goes undercover, which involves not only donning authentic and unflattering Colonial garb but also lying to everyone at the museum about who she is and why — despite an obvious lack of historical knowledge — she wants to volunteer at 1776 House. Her undercover work puts in jeopardy not only the goodwill of her fellow volunteers but also her budding relationship with a good man. George Washington Stepped Here is published by Barbour Books of Uhrichsville, Ohio. Kate Dolan, aka K.D. Hays, graduated from CUA in 1987 with an interdisciplinary degree in English, history and drama. All three disciplines come into play in the Karen Maxwell mysteries. Dolan has also written three historical novels and two Regency romances under her real name. She chose to write the Karen Maxwell mysteries and up-coming children’s books under the pen name of K.D. Hays because, she says, “The style of writing is so different from my other books.” — C.C. |
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