Catholic News Service reviews “Battlefield Angels”

I knew that the Catholic News Service had requested a copy of Battlefield Angels to review, but I didn’t know if they would actually review it or when it would be published. I stumbled across this review quite by accident this past weekend when I looking through some Gettysburg news.

It is a respectable review for my first book-length non-fiction. The reviewer seemed to like the things that I was worried about so I’m pretty happy with that.  She wrote, “Rada describes women religious who selflessly performed life-saving work in often miserable conditions and thereby gained the admiration and respect of countless contemporaries. In so doing, Rada offers an appealing narrative and an entry point into the wealth of sources kept by the sisters.”

Now she took issue with the fact that I didn’t explore some broader issues about the role of women in society and opportunities that becoming a sister offered and also the role of Catholics in society. My read on it was that she was hoping that it would be more scholarly in its presentation and explore these themes.

That wasn’t quite what I was aiming for. I wanted to tell a story about the work that these sister-nurses did and the fruits that it bore. I think I accomplished that. The reviewer noted, “Rada writes poignantly of the initial distrust accorded to the sisters by a population imbued with anti-Catholic sentiments and the eventual respect that they won from both citizens and soldiers for their work.”

So, all in all, I’m pleased. Read the entire review for yourself here.

Managing chaos

Working as a freelance writer can be like trying to herd cats, as the saying goes. In this case, the cats are the projects and other jobs you have to do because you do it all as a freelancer. Right now, I’ve got 8 articles I’m working, 2 more that I need to do some planning for, a manuscript I’m formatting, a manuscript I’m editing and a manuscript that I’m writing. This also doesn’t include the forum posts, invoicing, queries and job estimates that I need to do. Instead of freelance writer, the job should be freelance writer-editor-designer-marketer-CPA-purchaser-CEO.

Most days, I find myself working my way through my to-do list doing a little bit of everything. This keeps all my project up-to-date, but it takes longer to get them finished. This means my to-do list gets longer as more things go on the list than come off of it.

My solution to this came about more from instinct than any great insight on my part. As a deadline draws near, I focus more on that project and at some point, I’ll drop a lot of other work for the day and just  finish a project that is probably 75 percent done.

I feel such a nice sense of relief to be able to cross it off my to-do list, which in actuality is really no shorter. But it feels like it is because it’s one less project I’ve got bouncing around in my head trying to get my attention.