Welcome Joan Wester Anderson to A Nun’s Life blog. Joan is a best-selling author and lecturer. According to her website, Joan “began her writing career in 1973 with a series of family humor articles for local newspapers and Catholic publications, and was a monthly columnist for two national magazines during the 1980s. She has published more than one thousand articles and short stories in a variety of publications.” Joan has been interviewed far and wide including by Oprah, Good Morning America, 20/20, NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw, and Mother Angelica.

Joan is here at A Nun’s Life to chat with you about “angels and wonders” (also the title of her new book). I and a few others already have few questions for Joan to begin. Remember, this conversation is for you, so ask away!

Here’s how this works …

1) Ask your question(s) for Joan by writing a comment in the comment box below this post or any post today (all of the posts today will be part of the conversation with Joan).

2) Joan will be scanning all of these posts and comments and will respond to people’s questions. She’ll send me an email so that I can re-post the questions along with her responses in a new post. The most recent questions with responses will appear at the top of the blog. Joan’s responses will be in blue text.

3) If the questioner, Joan, or anyone else would like to further a particular conversation, they can click on that post and comment there.

4) Loyola Press, the publisher of Joan’s books (there are many), is raffling off a free autographed copy of her book Angels and Wonders – you are automatically entered in this drawing when you post a comment or question for Joan.

5) If you’d like to purchase a copy of Angels and Wonders, the publisher Loyola Press is offering you a 30% discount on the book. You can order at www.loyolabooks.com or by calling Loyola Press toll-free at 800-621-1008. Please use the code 2765 to save 30% on Angels and Wonders. This offer is good through October 5, 2008.

My gratitude goes to Joan Wester Anderson for joining us, to Loyola Press for sponsoring this, and to you readers and guests of A Nun’s Life for joining in!

Welcome, Joan Wester Anderson!

Joan: Hi, everyone! I hope this is the place where I write my comments (not too blog-savvy as yet!). I thought I would perhaps explain why and how I got interested in angels, and began writing books about them. It might help you get to know me, and vice versa.

I had five children and a handyman special house when I began writing for magazines. It was a way to add a second income and stay home with the kids at the same time. The “second income” was very modest and at times I wondered what a nice girl like me was doing in a place like this. I also wrote seven books through the years, on various topics, kids, humor etc. I never gave a thought to angels; in fact, I never even taught my kids the guardian angel prayer. Angels just weren’t on my radar. If you had Jesus, what else did you need?

Then to make a very awesome story short, my son Tim graduated from college and took a job in CT. (We live in suburban Chicago). That first Christmas he planned to drive home along with a couple friends. As Christmas approached, the weather became extremely dangerous, way below zero, storms etc. The boys broke down in the middle of the night in an Indiana cornfield, no lights, no people and the temperature 35 degrees below zero.

Suddenly there were lights streaming into the car. Headlights resting on their back bumper. It was a tow truck. They hadn’t seen it coming. It wasn’t there—and then it was. The driver was all bundled up; they couldn’t see his face, but he hitched them up, took them back to a house in Fort Wayne where they had previously dropped one of the boys, and when they got out of the car, the truck was gone and there were no tire tracks leading away from where they stood.

My son is an engineer, picky about details. His friend saw everything (or nothing) too. The story was so unbelievable that I didn’t know what to do with it. (This is a common reaction when an angel touches you). Finally, after some years of pondering, I started telling the story and people started telling me THEIR stories! I realized with my writer’s sense that this was the best untold story I’d ever heard. So I started interviewing etc, and a small publisher took a chance on the book, Where Angels Walk, it was published in 1992 as what I considered to be my last book, and it became a New York Times bestseller and has sold over a million copies. It is still in print some sixteen years later, along with many sequels. Little did I know that during the years when I struggled at home, God was training me for this job.

I am pleased to announce that I will be hosting author and speaker
Joan Wester Anderson for a day-long visit at ANunsLife.org!

This Thursday, October 2 — which happens to be the Feast of the Guardian Angels in the Catholic tradition – Joan will visit this blog and discuss her new book Angels and Wonders: True Stories of Heaven on Earth. Joan is the author of numerous books on angels. You can learn more at her website JoanWAnderson.com.

How this works is that Joan will be checking in at my blog from around 8 a.m. Central Time to about 8 p.m. in the evening. Both she and I will be in and out but will try to get to all your questions and comments throughout the day. I’ll create a special post for that day and start the conversation off with Joan by asking a few questions. She’ll respond via the comment section which is open for anyone to write in any questions/comments for Joan. She’s here to engage with you so please come and visit throughout the day. I am so looking forward to getting to know Joan and coming to a deeper understanding of “heaven on earth”.

Read the Introduction of Angels and Wonders courtesy of Loyola Press.

Loyola Press is also raffling an autographed copy of Angels and Wonders. Everyone who joins the Thursday online discussion by writing in (via the comments section) is automatically entered into the raffle. Readers of ANunsLife.org will also be given a special discount code to order the book. Thanks, Loyola Press!

Please join the conversation this Thursday, October 2, and bring your questions and ideas for Joan Wester Anderson.