As most of you know, I’m not just a parody writer. I also write serious SFF and am a founder of the Catholic Writers Guild. Some wonderful writers I’m proud to call friends are featured in this YA anthology, so I am taking part in their book tour. If you are Catholic or Christian or just enjoy some clean YA with strong values, check it out.

Summary:

Secrets: Visible and Invisible is a collection of short stories by seven CatholicTeenBooks.com authors. As described by Mark Hart of Life Teen International, who provides the foreword, “Each story reveals something different about the human heart and our constant (though, often veiled) desire for truth and virtue.”

• In a dystopian future, an innocent picnic turns deadly!
• Elijah knows nothing of the elderly stranger’s secret past–until her disappearance changes everything.
• A mysterious, ever-changing painting alarms a group of teens.
• The cannonball took Dario’s legs . . . Will he lose his soul too?
• The arrival of a mysterious girl challenges everything about Jason’s life.
• An unlicensed driver. His dad’s truck. What could possibly go wrong?
• An old tale of murder and forbidden love leads to a modern day treasure hunt.

For nothing is hid that shall not be made manifest, nor anything secret that shall not be known and come to light. (Luke 8:17 RSV-CE)

Excerpt from the Forwrd by Mark Hart:

We call Him Savior, Teacher, Wonder Worker, and Lord. He is the Alpha and the Omega, the Bread of Life and the Light of the World. He is the Messiah, the Promised One, the Divine Physician…the Good Shepherd.

Jesus Christ is all of these titles and an endless list of more. Yet, there is one title that I’ve rarely – if ever – heard used to describe Jesus of Nazareth, and I feel it is a glaringly myopic omission on our part.

Almost never have I heard Jesus Christ described as “Master Storyteller,” though He most certainly was.

Consider this: Jesus Christ could have chosen to teach us in a variety of ways. Certainly, the Second Person of the Trinity could have spoken with such high-minded profundity that even the most educated Pharisees would have been reduced to intellectual rubble. Of course, Christ could have preached sermons with theological depth so unmistakable that the great St. Thomas Aquinas would have seemed a blithering moron or babbling toddler in comparison. No, the fact that the God of the universe – the Son of Man – chose to employ storytelling (parables) as His primary teaching tool tells us a great deal. Everyone loves a good story and storytellers have filled the world with history and mystery from the dawn of time. It is in stories, perhaps more than anywhere else in creation, that we come face-to-face with our fallen nature, our quest for virtue and our sometimes-hidden potential for greatness.

There is power not only in the story but within those hearts brave enough to bare their souls upon the written page. To be clear, the words shared reveal more about the author’s heart than mind. Look no further than the Bible. God is not only the Creator and Father, He is the “Author of Life” (Acts 3:15). When we lose sight of this fact, we lose the essence of the Gospel and, in truth, our place in God’s story of redemption. He is the author of all of our stories.

As Pope Francis reminds us,

“So this love story began, a story that has gone on for so long, and is not yet ended. We, the women and men of the Church, we are in the middle of a love story: each of us is a link in this chain of love. And if we do not understand this, we have understood nothing of what the Church is.”^[1]

There’s a reason that the Bible has been translated into every conceivable language (even Klingon for you Star Trek fans out there). There’s a reason that, when Johannes Gutenberg—a Catholic—invented the printing press, his first print job was the Holy Bible. Stories bring us together and share truth in relatable and disarming ways.

^[1] Homily remarks, April 24, 2013, Vatican City, Catholic News Agency, http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/church-is-a-love-story-pope-francis-says/

Buy Amazon Kindle: https://www.amazon.com/Secrets-Visible-Invisible-Corinna-Turner-ebook/dp/B07F63ZN5Z

Amazon Paperback: https://www.amazon.com/Secrets-Visible-Invisible-Corinna-Turner/dp/0997971827/