The Curio Shoppe, Fatima ~ My New Place of Employment!

  

 

A big hello to all my followers!

 If you haven't heard the news by now, I am happy to announce that a friend and I have just opened a new shop in Fatima, Portugal ....

 The Curio Shoppe!

We have a wide range of things on offer, such as handcrafts from local artisans, 100% beeswax candles, unique gifts, gourmet products, many things made in Portugal, and of course, religious articles and souvenirs of Fatima.

I hope to also offer my books in the shoppe in the near future, as soon as I can find a cost effective way to get them printed in Portugal.  

Here is our address and contact details, where to follow us, and some photos. 

If you are ever on a pilgrimage to Fatima, or just touring around Portugal, come drop on by!

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The Curio Shoppe

R. Dr. Júlio Ferreira Constantino

2495-447, Fatima - Portugal 

 Tel.  (+351) 961159988

 E-mail:      curioshoppefatima@gmail.com

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Where to Follow - click the links

 

* Google Maps / Business listings 

 * Trip Advisor

* Facebook

* Instagram

* Pinterest

*  X (formerly Twitter) 

  Hope to see you soon! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Past Blog Posts - TABLE of CONTENTS - click here.

Now Available! ~ "Jesus Christ According to the Old Testament" by Fr. Marin de Boylesve

 

 

 

 

My latest translation / publication is now available!

 

 The first English translation of

"JESUS CHRIST According to the OLD TESTAMENT" 

 by Fr. Marin de Boylesve, (1813-1892).

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Originally published at a dark time when France was teetering on the brink of losing its predominance in Europe to Germany, and when the red shirt Risorgimento was underway with Rome under attack, ushering in the loss of the papal states and the bleak period of 'Prisoner Popes' under Bl. Pius IX, “Jesus Christ According to the Old Testament” by Fr. Marin de Boylesve  is a rallying cry of encouragement for the faithful of his time besieged by the ongoing ravages of the anti-religious revolutions, a publication which remains just as relevant and encouraging for us today in our own tumultuous times.

    Examining sacred and ancient history as recorded in the Old Testament, Fr de Boylesve demonstrates where all revolutions truly spring from, that revolutions may promise but never bring true freedom and civilized progress, and that it is only through obedience to God, to His Christ and to His rule that true peace, freedom, and civilization be found.

    The author demonstrates the Universal Kingship of Jesus of Nazareth: that He is truly the promised Messiah of the ancient prophecies, the Christ, that is, the Anointed One, and as God's anointed One, He is King of kings and Lord of Lords, the Lion of the tribe of Judah – the Son of God Whose Kingdom shall have no end. Those who remain true to Christ and His Church, the victory is already assured, and, also imparts a word of warning to persecutors: “Woe to that nation, woe to that king who refuses to submit to Him,” cries Fr de Boylesve, for it has been declared through the prophet Isaiah, “The nation that shall not serve Thee shall perish.”

No matter how dark the times may seem, the loyal followers of the Christ are on the victorious side of history and eternity. 

 Jesus Christ, the King of kings, will bring an end to all disorders.

Published for the first time in English, this new edition features a biography of the author, thirty-nine illustrations, as well as prayers to Christ the King and prayers for the Triumph of the Catholic Faith, this book is a must-have for your spiritual reading.

About the Author: Fr. Marin de Boylesve is best remembered in France for spreading devotion to the Sacred Heart with his writings thereby promoting the cause for the construction of the Sacre Coeur Basilica in Paris.

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 Book Details:

 Batalha Publishers

Publication date - August 1, 2024

5.5 x 8.5 inches

Paperback, 258 pages

ISBN: 978-989-53726-5-2

(Table of Contents further down.)

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WHERE TO ORDER- click on the links.

 

* Amazon (USA + ships internationally).

* Barnes and Noble (USA + international shipping)

* Books-a-Million (USA only)

* Amazon UK (+ Ireland)

* Waterstones UK (+Ireland)

* Foyles UK (+Ireland and some other world destinations.)

*Amazon (Canada)

* McNally Robinson (Canada)

 

~~  You can also use the book details to order from you local bookstore!

 

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More About the Book - TABLE OF CONTENTS

 About the Author … … … … … 9

 About this Edition … … … … … 21

 The Reign of Christ … … … … 23

 God … … … … … … … … … 24

 The Angels … … … … … … 27

 The World … … … … … … 30

 Man … … … … … … … … … 33

 The God-Man … … … … … … 34

 Lucifer … … … … … … … … … 37

 Michael … … … … … … … … … 40

 The Serpent … … … … … … 45

 The Two Camps … … … … … 51

 Babel … … … … … … … … … 57

 Civilization … … … … … … … 61

 The Great Nation … … … … 71

 He Will Supplant … … … … 82

 The Lion of Judah … … … … 86

 Pharaoh … … … … … … … … … 98

 Moses … … … … … … … … … 100

 How the Pharaohs End Up … … … … 105

 How Revolutions End Up … … … … 121

 The Star of Jacob … … … … … … … 126

 A Prophet Like Moses … … … … … … 131

 King by Divine Right … … … … … … 136

 The Sacrifice … … … … … … … … … 138

 The Triumph … … … … … … … … … 145

 The Hebrews and the Greeks … 153

 Royalty … … … … … … … … … … … … 156

 Institutions and Mankind … … … … 157

 Divine Intervention … … … … … … 158

 David … … … … … … … … … … … … 161

 Once Again – Civilization … … … … 163

 The Just One … … … … … … … … … 167

 Emmanuel … … … … … … … … … 171

 The Revolution and the Church … 177

 The Saviour … … … … … … … … … … 183

 The Patient One … … … … … … … … 191

 To Serve or Perish … … … … … … 194

 He is Alone … … … … … … … … … 199

 All is Lost … … … … … … … … … 204

 In the Time of Nebuchadnezzar … 208

 The Four Metals … … … … … … … 212

 The Four Animals … … … … … … 215

 The Messiah … … … … … … … … … 220

 The Agreement between the Prophets ...  223

 He Must Reign … … … … … … … … 235

APPENDIX

 A Prayer to Christ the King … … … 239

  A Short Prayer to Christ the King … … … … 239

 Prayer for the Conversion of Sinners

            and the Liberty and Exaltation

            of the Church … … … … … 240

 Consecration of the Human Race

                to the Sacred Heart

                by Pope Leo XIII … … … … … 240

 Prayers Revealed to Olive Danzé:

                Sr. Marie of Christ the King

1. Prayer to Merciful Jesus … … … … … … 242

2. Prayer to Christ the King,

   Prince of Peace, Master of Nations … 243

3. A Prayer Said by Sr Marie of the Cross … 244

 Prayer for the Triumph

of the Catholic Faith … … … … … 245

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***  If you like this, you will love my other books!

Visit my Site! Click here.

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"Books, Babble and Blarney" Past Posts - TABLE OF CONTENTS

 

 

My "Rainbow" Writing Hack - A Simple Trick to Get Past the "Blip-ity Blank"

 

 

 

I am sure this happens to a lot of you writers out there.

You just get a great idea for a blog post, or, you have an idea for a book. You eagerly fire up your computer and open the word processor to begin jotting down the first ideas, or, to get the rough draft started however so rough, when almost imperceptibly at first, as you stare at the blank page, your motivation to begin flexing those fingers and have them dance across the keys ebbs, then digressively drains away with each successive blinking of the that vertical blip called the cursor.

It is aptly called that, certainly seems like a 'curser'. You feel like every good idea and just got sucked right out of you, like some vampiric curse is draining you of your author-powers when a moment ago you were all revved up and ready to reveal your imagination and thoughts into the visible realm via the written word.

Now, trying to nail down that very first sentence let alone the first paragraph becomes an energy- sapping ordeal, your inspiring thoughts seem morphed into the strange sensation felt during those debilitating nightmares when you try to run, but your legs move with a lumbering stumble as though your were wading through a field of wet cement bogged up to your knees.

Then the doubts set in.

'Will this sound good?' 'Is this just good in my head, but will be boring to everyone else'? 'Wow, this story could take a thousand directions. Maybe I need to think about this...'

The dreaded bane of a writer next makes its presence felt – procrastination.

 

 'Maybe I need to do more research', you ask yourself, (the internet begins to beckon....) 

 

 Worse yet, impostor syndrome. 'Gasp! Am I really a writer at all?'

Before you realize it, the ideas just don't want to come out, or, you are now unsure if it was such a good idea, and struggle to put things into a visible, legible form. You had a whole outline in your head, and here you are, staring at a blank page – for hours!

And / or, you got lured into 'doing more research', your hours spent Googling diddly-squat having fallen prey to the pretext your were being productive as long as you were researching, but basically, doing anything to escape the white brick wall you were banging your head against, hoping you just might get your elusive writer's mojo back.

The horror!

Why does this happen?

Frankly, I don't know. I wish I did. I've wasted so much time sitting staring at a screen because of this curse.   But, it must be something that 'clicks off' in our brains the minute we sit down to a blank, white page, especially when writing on a computer. That's my guess, anyway.

This may not seem related, I once read an article theorizing why we tend to forget what tasks we go to do the minute we enter another room, or, go up or down the stairs. I wish I could find the article, but the gist of what I remember is, our brains are set to remember actions in specific 'patterns', and the theory was that for some strange reason, 3D shapes could affect these patterns. When we go through the rectangle frame of a door, or rise up to another level of the house, or down, we could be hitting a certain type of visually activated 'reset' switch in the brain, which then resets short-term memory. I guess it is like when our computer gets jammed and simply turning the thing on and off resets it and clears the cache. Maybe our brain gets bogged down with mundane tasks, does a bit of a stall and then resets when it goes through the door frame? Interesting concept.

I've also read articles on how colours can affect mood, productivity and spending habits, you probably have as well trying to build a website people will engage with, design an appealing book cover, or effective advertising, packaging, etc. The interesting thing I read is that certain paper colours can help you retain information you are reading, crème and yellow paper works best for this if I remember correctly. I always wondered why I liked legal pads for doodling, and crème colour book pages over white paper when reading ....

A thought then came to me – perhaps I am getting mentally closed off by just the blank white background? Starting a new blank page, even when already well into a story just seemed to halt progress on getting words out and down, some times seemed worse than others. Psychologically the plain, rectangular white block in front of me could be suggesting the 'emptiness' of 'nothing', or, the strange impression everything I write is starting from 'scratch', even when I have already progressed pages into a draft. So, it was possible the colour was also 'resetting' the brain to feel like this.

Intrigued with the idea of the brain resetting itself, and, wondering if colours could influence this during the writing process, I thought why not try experimenting with changing the page colour? 

 I was going into a particularly dark area of my second novel Vocation of a Gadfly when I thought of it, so, why not pick something that was matching the 'feel' of the scenes I was trying to describe and see what happens?

At that point I chose a dark grey. Yes, dark grey. 

 

But, isn't the colour more depressing? Won't it make things worse? Hey, the scene I was working on features an half-abandoned, gruesomely nefarious insane asylum after all. No harm in experimenting ....

I didn't think it would help much if at all, it was just a change of page background, but words were coming out, the colour helped keep me in the 'feel' of things, it made it harder for the dreaded 'procrastinating screen stare' to settle. When the mood changed in the story, I did it again, switched the page background to a different colour. Creme, light yellow, tan, even light pink and sky blue, depending where the plot went. When my document program didn't have a preset colour that was 'just right' I used the 'colour picker' and played around with the rainbow of colours until I got a shade that matched the mood of the scene, or, was depicted the mood I was aiming for.

Could something so simple do the trick? Huh. I guess so. I certainly got my draft finished with less 'screen stare' getting in the way!

Now, I am sharing my little 'rainbow' draft hack with you.

If you haven't already stumbled upon this idea yourself, try it, you may be surprised. I was.

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 PAST BLOG POSTS, click here.

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If you like my blog, you will LOVE my books!

Visit my site, click here.