How to Make An Author's Day

When I woke up Tuesday morning and checked my email, I found this message:

Dear Ms. Mann,

I got up early this morning to finish reading your fine book Supremacy and Survival. My wife and I found this book recently in the gift shop at the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament in Alabama (the shrine established by EWTN's Mother Angelica.) While we were there I bought 5 different books. I read The Autobiography of a Hunted Priest by John Gerard, S.J. first and followed that up with your book. I am Catholic, 63 years old and really never knew anything at all about the persecution/martyrdom of many Catholics in old England. When I was a kid my father used to talk about St. Edmund Campion , but it never really sank in. I never heard any of this despite 12 years in Catholic schools. I don't think any of my 5 sons learned of any of this either, despite 12 years of Catholic school education.

I want to thank you for an excellent text covering the English Reformation and its aftermath. Yours and Father Gerard's book really were fascinating eye-openers and I hope to do more reading in these areas. Both these books were very hard to put down---real page-turners you might say. I plan to spend time going over your blog articles. I hope you write other books on these subjects in the future. You write succinctly and with great clarity. It makes me feel greater pride in being a Catholic. Spreading this information could lead to more religious vocations, I think.

God bless you and your efforts. Sincerely, Martin P. Harpen, M.D., Suffolk, VA

Dr. Harpen gave me permission to post his email (I added the italics).

What a way to start the day!