Our next Catholic writer doesn’t just explore fantasy in a fictional setting but sets out to explore the natural world that God created in all its splendor. She loves to pitch a tent and sleep in the great outdoors. These experiences make it into her writing. As you read each author interview, you’ll notice their likes and interests give them their unique voice in creative writing. Everyone’s faith is particular to them as they respond to God in the way God made them and also universal as each person goal is to love God. So now it’s time to…
Meet Camper and Catholic Writer Erin Lewis
1) Tell something interesting about yourself.
I am a wife and homeschooling mother to four daughters, and I have a loose goal of visiting as many of our National Parks as possible. So far, I have been to 27 of them, with plans to see at least two more this year. My favorites so far are Death Valley, Bryce Canyon, and Theodore Roosevelt.
Bryce Amphitheater from Sunrise Point -Tuxyso / Wikimedia Commons
2) What makes a good Catholic writer?
I think there are several aspects, and it largely depends on what one writes. Since I write fiction, I would say a good Catholic fiction writer focuses on showing the humanity of the characters and doesn’t shy away from hard truths. Even in the midst of sin—and I would say especially in its midst—we can show the ache for the transcendent in the human heart. Deep down, everyone is searching for something to fill in that fallen nature that all humans share, and ultimately, whether we know it or not, that missing piece is God and the eternal happiness at the end of our earthly journeys.
3) What do you like about being a Catholic/Christian Writer?
I like that my faith seamlessly enters my novels. Because of that universal longing for God, it’s something all fictional characters share, regardless of their circumstances. Family and socio-economic backgrounds, intelligence, knowledge of the faith or not—all of them have the common ground of needing God, and of failing when they try to go about life in their own stubborn ways.
4) What is the Main focus of your particular writing or what do you like to write about?
I tend to write stories that handle darker, grittier topics, and as such, I market my novels to ages 18+. I like to explore the ways humans can twist the truth of God that is written onto their hearts and the winding paths some may take to find the Truth. Vocations always enter into my stories so far, whether that is the priesthood/religious life or marriage. I like to take unlikely protagonists on a journey toward redemption and life’s purpose. My youngest brother was ordained to the priesthood about a decade ago, and I think that provided a subtle nudge toward the ultimate destiny of one of my already existing characters.
5) How does your Catholic Faith influence your writing?
I think my faith automatically infuses my writing with hope. I am always writing from a Catholic worldview, whether any of my characters share that faith or not. Therefore, as characters make mistakes, a certain unease naturally underlies the plot without my having to point it out. Sin is portrayed but not glorified. As some of my characters come through rough situations such as prison sentences, abuse, prostitution, and addiction, I hope to show that hope is not lost for anyone, no matter how low they have sunk.
6) What’s your favorite article/post/book/story you have written?
As far as my current published works go, I think my favorite is the first novel in my Chalice Series, Firetender. It takes two characters who initially came to me when I was in high school and shapes their story as informed by the life experiences and knowledge I have gained since then. Because these characters, Dallas and Channing, lived on about fifty pages of notebook paper and within my head for almost 25 years, I had a longtime understanding of them, and those years of rumination in the back of my mind eventually became the Chalice Series.
This is the blurb for Firetender:
Sometimes true strength only comes with surrender.
Hot-headed Dallas Malone has spent most of his life putting up emotional walls around himself, softened only by his best friend Channing, whom he protects with the fierceness of a big brother. When the two are faced with sudden homelessness, Dallas’s impulsive decisions leave them fleeing from law enforcement and land him in prison. His mistakes threaten to ravish Dallas like a wildfire, unless he can learn to allow something more powerful than himself into his life.
7) What is your favorite topic/subject to write about?
My favorite subject is the exploration of human experience and how that can intersect with God’s plan for those characters’ lives. More minor favorites that usually end up in my novels: 1990s-early 2000s settings, road trips, references to music and pop culture of the era, the experiences of a Gen X childhood, and camping/exploration of the natural world.
8) Favorite Scripture Verse
9) What are you currently working on?
I am working on a second series, the Fallen Angel series. My goal this year is to either find a publisher for or to independently publish the first book, Up in Flames, which is a fast-paced, dual point-of-view crime/suspense novel that I have revised and put through a critique group and beta readers. I tend to revise extensively before I feel “done” with a novel, and this one is at that point. It brings characters from the Chalice series into a new setting, where they encounter characters from the Fallen Angel books. The Fallen Angel series is a darker look at the descent from innocence into the hopelessness of addiction and prostitution, woven throughout with subtle Garden of Eden, human dignity, and angelic presence themes. The novel Fallen Angel portrays a tragic fall, and its sequel, Risen Angel, shows the struggle to climb out of sin and into the light. I’ve been writing this series since 2022, and I currently have Fallen Angel open to beta reads until the end of April, with the details on my Substack.
10) Name a favorite saint or Catholic or some other figure who inspires you in your life.
I tend to come across saints who become patrons for my novels and characters as I am writing. St. Cyprian became a favorite as I was writing Firetender, because he was a convert in the early Church who wrote about being aimless until he found Christ, which was a perfect tie-in to my restless protagonist, Dallas.
In the Fallen Angel series, I have found many parallels with St. Michael the Archangel as well as St. Therese, to the point that as I started writing Up in Flames from my notes, the female protagonist’s name came out as Theresa, despite my original intent to give her a different name. For my day-to-day life, I try to look to Mary and her perfect motherhood as a model for me as a mother.
11) Who is your favorite living writer?
Hard to choose just one, so I will instead give a shoutout to the Catholic Writers Guild and its many talented and hardworking authors. So many authors of both fiction and non-fiction are members, and I would recommend checking out their website, which includes a list of books that have been given the CWG Seal of Approval for both professional quality writing and for having been vetted as not going against Catholic teachings. The list of those books can be found here: Seal of Approval – Catholic Writers Guild
12) If you could have lunch with any deceased writer who would it be, what would you eat and what would you talk about?
Having lived in Georgia my whole life, I will choose Flannery O’Connor. My Catholic high school library was named for her, and we read her short stories in literature classes. Recently, my family visited her home at Andalusia in Milledgeville. I would love to pick her brain on how to handle the balance between portraying very flawed characters and the presence of grace in their lives. And since we learned that her regular meal at the local restaurant in Milledgeville was fried shrimp and peppermint chiffon pie, well, we’d have to eat that, of course!
13) Name a favorite movie/tv show or music you find worth sharing with others.
I am not a huge TV/movie watcher, but I found Triumph of the Heart, the movie about St. Maximillian Kolbe, to be extremely well-done. As for music, I am a product of what I grew up with, and I often find myself reflecting on where God is to be found even in the secular and often hopeless alternative music of my teenage years.
14) Can you see one of your books being made into a movie or tv series?
That’s a tough one. While it would be really cool to see one of my novels being played out by real people, I am not sure I would be happy with an actor becoming the face people see when they think of my character. I specifically don’t use people’s faces on my book covers: all of them are photos from behind or that otherwise don’t show the face for that very reason of not wanting to attach a specific person to the character. However, I have music playlists for most of my books, and some of them I can very specifically imagine running like a film with these songs being used in particular scenes.
15) Favorite Historical event.
I am fascinated by the geographical and natural history of our country, as well as the odder and darker moments we have endured and what can be learned from those. I like to read about the variety of land formations out west that are so different from what I know here in the eastern US: the arches and hoodoos of Utah, the volcanic activity beneath Wyoming and Idaho, the badlands and the petrified wood we have seen in our travels. As for those darker historical moments, I like to see where history intersects with setting. The idea of visiting the location of a shipwreck such as the Edmond Fitzgerald in Lake Superior or the remote cabin where Charles Manson was captured intrigue me, as do feats of human innovation such as the building of Hoover Dam or the Panama Canal. So I don’t have one “favorite” event. Just give me a location and some historical tidbits about it, and I’m hooked.
This interview was published on March 20, 2026
The day these events took place
1852 – Harriet Beecher Stowe‘s Uncle Tom’s Cabin is published.
1896 – With the approval of Emperor Guangxu, the Qing dynasty post office is opened, marking the beginning of a postal service in China.
George Lowe, (January 15, 1924 – March 20, 2013) dies. He was a New Zealand-born mountaineer, explorer, film director and educator. He was the last surviving member of the 1953 British Mount Everest Expedition, during which his friend Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay became the first known people to summit the world’s highest peak.
Mount Everest. The route the British took started up the Khumbu Icefall − seen spilling out of the Western Cwm (hidden from view) − Lhotse Face and reached the South Col (snowy depression, extreme right), finishing up the south-east ridge (right-hand skyline)
16) What else do you want people to know about anything.
My Chalice series novels can be found on Amazon in both paperback and Kindle formats. For more information on my books, including writing updates, behind-the-scenes details, and a free annotated first four chapters of Firetender, subscribe to my Substack at Shining Light into the Dark | Erin Lewis | Substack and I can also be found on Instagram and at Erin Lewis, Author – Home
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