Dr. Martha Lucas has an interesting story about how she was named. This and much more from her on being a baby in her Catholic Daughters of Catholic Mothers book about life as a Catholic woman in the 60s, 70, and beyond.
They named me after Saint Martha, the patron saint of housewives, servants, and cooks. Catholics turn to her when dealing with chronic stress and doubt. Martha was a worker, keeping everybody fed and dressed in clean clothes, while her sister Mary had chosen “the good portion.” What’s meant by this old saying is that Mary was concerned with more spiritual things. She was the sister who spent countless hours conversing with Jesus almost to the exclusion of practical and domestic matters that were more suitable burdens for Martha.
During my birth, my mother suffered through a very long and hard labor—I obviously didn’t want to come out. A priest even gave her the last rites. My mother and father decided that if she lived and the child lived, and it was a girl, the child would be named Martha. A boy would be named John Jr., which was already a given. Well, it was me… Martha Lucas. It’s the name they gave me and the name I’ve kept. Admittedly, I’ve changed it due to marriage even though the man to whom I am married now has the opinion, “why would you take my name? I don’t own you. You are not my property.”
I am the founder of ArmLin House, as well as the Chief Editor and Creative Director. For over thirty-five year, I’ve worked in technology, business development, marketing, writing, and publishing jobs. In the last 5 years I’ve returned to school and have become a graphic designer and social media video editor. In general, I have A LOT of experience in A LOT of industries and I love to help people, which is one of our main missions as a company. Learn more about me on my LinkedIn page.
Being a single working mom attending college is hard enough. Find out what happened to Dr. Martha when she was also ready to date.
Twenty somethings date. So I did. In my mind, I can’t apologize or punish myself enough for not being at home with my children every minute that I wasn’t at work or in school. Did you say Catholic guilt? Oh, I’m an expert at that. I was guilty then and I’m still guilty. I will never make it up to them for their worse than average childhood, but I keep trying. More fodder for therapy.
Some ten years after I got divorced, I met my current husband. I told my parents that I had had my first marriage annulled, so it was “okay” in the eyes of God for me to get married again. What a bunch of bull. And here’s one more crazy, bullshit thing. My husband and I slept in separate rooms while my parents were in town for our wedding. We pretended we were practicing celibacy for my parents. We were lying. One might say we did that so my parents wouldn’t be uncomfortable with us sleeping in the same bed in their presence. Or, you could say that I still wanted my parents to love me, to accept me, to think I was a good person. I was still trying to be someone they could be proud of.
As an adult, did you lie to your parents about your non-Catholic behavior?
I am the founder of ArmLin House, as well as the Chief Editor and Creative Director. For over thirty-five year, I’ve worked in technology, business development, marketing, writing, and publishing jobs. In the last 5 years I’ve returned to school and have become a graphic designer and social media video editor. In general, I have A LOT of experience in A LOT of industries and I love to help people, which is one of our main missions as a company. Learn more about me on my LinkedIn page.
Dr. Martha talks about shaming women about their appearance, a thing that seems timeless. Did your mother preach modesty or let you choose what you wore? Here's an excerpt from Catholic Daughters of Catholic Mothers and one of Dr. Martha's experiences on the topic from when she was growing up.
Modesty and shame. Strangely, I think they go together or at least have gone together in my life. My mother’s focus on modesty created a body image problem that still haunts me to this day. I can never be thin enough. Thank God that never translated into an eating disorder. It’s just a daily worry about being fat: criticizing my body, wondering if I can weigh less, and distressing about ballooning into a fat blimp in a flash. One day I have a waist and the next I’m 100 pounds overweight. Kind of like what I said about my mother previously, having a waist after she had my youngest brother and then, before my eyes, she was fat. That’s what I have told myself for more than 50 years. Intellectually, I know she didn’t become overweight overnight, but the story I’ve told myself is exactly that. It happened in the blink of an eye. And so, I believe it can happen to me. The scale will just keep going up, and I won’t be able to stop it. I must be vigilant. I was 10 years old when mom had a waist. After that, all I remember is the overweight body. The body hidden in tent dresses.
There’s a sense of shame in all things body related. But it’s more than just shameful if I wear too short a skirt, or too low-cut a blouse, or too sexy a dress, or no bra in public. The not wearing a bra thing. You know why that will never happen, me being in public without a bra? Because when I was about 16 years old in the days of burning bras, I went to work one day without a bra. It just so happened that Mom came to the mall that day, saw me without a bra on, and made me ask my boss for a break so I could go buy a bra. Yep. That was her response. Not “Martha! Don’t ever go out again without wearing a bra. And by the way, you’re grounded for a week.” Nope. It’s always black or white… good or bad. She made me buy a bra and put it on before I went back to work. And I still think about that episode of our life together. God, I hope I never made my girls feel that way, embarrassed and terrible about not wearing a piece of underwear. And the why of it. Why do I have to wear a bra? Because men, disgusting men, will see me as a sex object? Will going braless make me want to have sex? Are nipples a body part to be hidden? Will people think I’m a slut? Mom never explained why all those thoughts are in my mind when I don’t wear a bra. God forbid our handyman should show up one day when I’m casual at home without a bra on. What would he think? “That’s ridiculous,” my intellectual brain says, but my rat brain says, “Don’t do it.”
How did your mother talk to you about your body if she talked to you about it all?
I am the founder of ArmLin House, as well as the Chief Editor and Creative Director. For over thirty-five year, I’ve worked in technology, business development, marketing, writing, and publishing jobs. In the last 5 years I’ve returned to school and have become a graphic designer and social media video editor. In general, I have A LOT of experience in A LOT of industries and I love to help people, which is one of our main missions as a company. Learn more about me on my LinkedIn page.
Dr. Martha learned the importance of taking time for self from her experiences as a child. She knows what it's like to spend too much time worrying and what it does to the body mind and spirit. In this excerpt she shares her story and one way you can relieve stress.
Martha's Rat Brain
Trauma is a strong, scary word. But honestly, my childhood experience drives my animal brain to think that if one of our appliances breaks, we’re going to go bankrupt. My go to emotion is fear and the worst possible outcome. All those years of sitting on the steps, waiting for my dad to come home safe, thinking of the absolute worst thing that could happen to most kids, a parent dying, has left its mark. I was a worried, scared, helpless, poor kid. And that’s the message that my amygdala, my animal brain, transmits throughout my body all the time. Sometimes I wonder how I would be different if I had been nurtured through that worry. How would I be different if my mother had soothed me somehow that Dad would be home, not to worry? Hugged me. But that never happened. For one thing, I snuck out of my room after she went to bed. As far as I know, she had no idea that I sat on the steps every night. She had no idea that I worried, waited for him to come up the stairs, and then could go to bed. I must have been flat out exhausted as a kid.
According to both modern medicine and Chinese medicine—my career is a combination of both—our lungs hold grief. They don’t work well if we’re holding on to grief. And we need a healthy breathing cycle in order to have a strong immune system. No wonder I had asthma. My twenty-plus years of practicing Chinese medicine has also shown me that I’ve inherited my father’s fear. DNA is energy; we inherit the energies of our parents, our grands, our great grands, on and on. We are helpless not to inherit it. Dad’s father ran off and his mother committed suicide when he was five, leaving him abandoned, alone. So, there’s that inherited part of my rat brain, even older than my sitting on the stairs, hoping he’d come home alive.
That’s my legacy; yours is hopefully different.
Breathe. One of my favorite breathing methods, the one that I suggest to my patients, is to breathe deeply from the belly up. Yes, belly up. Your belly will expand when you breathe deeply. Bring your breath up and then start the exhale from the top of your chest down to the belly. It’s circular. Bottom up… top down. It gets you into your body and out of your animal brain.
I am the founder of ArmLin House, as well as the Chief Editor and Creative Director. For over thirty-five year, I’ve worked in technology, business development, marketing, writing, and publishing jobs. In the last 5 years I’ve returned to school and have become a graphic designer and social media video editor. In general, I have A LOT of experience in A LOT of industries and I love to help people, which is one of our main missions as a company. Learn more about me on my LinkedIn page.
You've come a long way, babe. That's what Dr. Martha shows in the chapter about her divorce in Catholic Daughters of Catholic Mothers. In this excerpt she shows her willingness to challenge the beliefs of the day and set her life on a nontraditional path.
My D I V O R C E
Naturally, I was taught that marriage is for life. If you got divorced, you weren’t allowed to remarry unless the first marriage was annulled. You could be divorced in the “eyes of the state” but not in the “eyes of God.” It’s because God joins the couple in marriage. Yes, God is there at your wedding, securing your vows. The vows are between the couple and God Himself. I’d say, “or Herself” but we’re talking back in the 70s, so I’ll go with the feeling of that day: God is male.
Anyway, I got divorced when the kids were about 2, 3, and 6. We had a regular dad goes to work and mom (me) stays home life, but I wanted what I called “freedom.” Their father was a good guy, hard worker, but I wanted to finish college and not just be a stay-at-home mom. I wanted to help stop the nuclear power plant, Marble Hill from being built across the river from where we lived.
The kids and I moved out of the house, and visitation was set up. I enrolled at the University of Louisville and got a job with a group called The Senate of Religious. One day I was telling my boss, Sister Mary Claire, that the kids and I needed a place to live. Lo and behold, she knew of an empty rectory—of all places—that the pastor of the parish would rent to us for very low rent. He was willing to do that because there was a group of retired ladies who played Bingo in the large front parlor once a month. He wanted the rectory to have some life in it, some cleanliness in it, so it was ours. But what a spot! It was a mess! My brother John—God love him—came down for a few weeks to clean up the place for us. He literally hosed down the first floor. Really, he took a garden hose and washed it from ceilings to floor. We put a roach bomb in the kitchen and came home to a sheet of roaches covering every appliance. Ugh. But it had an enormous kitchen, living room, three bedrooms, multiple bathrooms, and even an office where I could study.
I am the founder of ArmLin House, as well as the Chief Editor and Creative Director. For over thirty-five year, I’ve worked in technology, business development, marketing, writing, and publishing jobs. In the last 5 years I’ve returned to school and have become a graphic designer and social media video editor. In general, I have A LOT of experience in A LOT of industries and I love to help people, which is one of our main missions as a company. Learn more about me on my LinkedIn page.
ArmLin House Productions welcomes Miranda Tanner to our team of children's book authors. As you'll see, she's unapologetically herself and her imaginations is incredibly vivid. When asked to describe herself, she says, "Friendly, fun & spontaneous. Sprinkle of mom, Pixiedust."
In Miranda's book series, a chemical spill flows through a town and turns animals and inanimate objects into unique monsters with vibrant personalities. After humans force them to relocate, these spunky creatures build a community, make forever friends, and find their authentic selves, all the while experiencing life through valuable lessons about acceptance, manners, kindness towards others, and more...
When asked how the ideas for this series came to mind, she says, "My son Wyatt used to ask me to watch or read things to him about silly monsters. He was never satisfied. So one day I asked him what kind of monsters he wanted to see, and I started drawing. He named several of them: Ugh, Pierre, Boo, Flaps, and Vee are just a few. Then one day I decided to start writing about them in poetry--I journal through poetry. Then it just kept going. And now my son Maverick is into it, and he's my assistant."
Probably the best way to introduce Miranda is with her poem about herself mixed in with a few of her mutant monsters.
Norfa, the sassafras monster with crass.
Miranda Tanner is an artist, a writer, and avid gardener.
Lover of cheese, proficient wanderer.
She collects earrings & Halloween costumes.
In spring she gets excited when the flowers bloom.
Her favorite color is green,
She loves movies that make her scream.
She dislikes being told what to do,
And prefers to wear comfortable shoes.
Walks over running.
Tea over coffee.
Sushi over steak.
She loves to make mistakes,
And learn different lessons,
in life there are many more questions.
Her favorite plant is ivy.
She especially loves a great tamale.
She lives life for fun, especially enjoys the sun.
Judge, the loudest town jewel.
Barkles, looks like a cat and barks like a dog.
Mardi Gras is her culture
Bright colors are her infrastructure.
She never meets a stranger,
Always ready for the danger.
Pleased to meet you, my new friend.
Thanks for reading until the end.
Be on the lookout this spring for The Mutant Monsters of Marsden in Genesis. It's our first official release of a children's book, and we're honored and looking forward to sharing this FUN, colorful, and uniquely creative book by Miranda Tanner with readers.
I am the founder of ArmLin House, as well as the Chief Editor and Creative Director. For over thirty-five year, I’ve worked in technology, business development, marketing, writing, and publishing jobs. In the last 5 years I’ve returned to school and have become a graphic designer and social media video editor. In general, I have A LOT of experience in A LOT of industries and I love to help people, which is one of our main missions as a company. Learn more about me on my LinkedIn page.
The missing fonts issue in InDesign, which I originally encountered while placing text from an external document file, is a well known problem, or possibly it works as designed, although poorly if you ask me. Regardless, and as annoying as it is, there is a quick fix. I mainly use a Window's machine, so the instructions below are for that operating system.
The Problem of Missing Fonts in InDesign
Per my opening complaint, does the Missing Fonts dialog box below look familiar? Has It happened to you after an attempt to place an external document file into InDesign? Well, when it happened to me, I spent way too much time trying to figure out why the manuscript file (.RTF or .DOCX) was somehow missing a font (Adobe Caslon) I knew existed, was installed, and had been used previously without issue in MS Word and InDesign.
Notice how the message says that the font used in the .RTF file “are currently unavailable on your computer.” Well, my first impulse was to question my better judgement and double check that Adobe Caslon was indeed installed on my Windows machine. And of course it was. I also double checked to make sure the font was still installed and available on InDesign and all my other Adobe apps. Again, of course it was.
So, I assumed that choosing the “Replace Fonts…” button was the next step to fixing this issue. Below is the next dialog to open, and it appears to be set up to find and replace fonts, right? But the window is really confusing considering it says, “4 Fonts in Document” seem to be the issue, and the document I was importing only had one font, Adobe Caslon. My Spidey Sense said try the “Replace With” section. Change it to Adobe Caslon. That should work. Well...Nope. It only seemed to make things worse.
I won’t go through the plethora of issues I encountered while thinking the Find/Replace Font dialog box is meant to map and assign the right font from the import file into the desired font in InDesign. If you’ve encountered the same issue, you already share my pain. I will say that the main issue is that you will spend way too much time trying to make sure all the font families and font styles are correct after the import in InDesign…a step you shouldn’t have to do. Let’s just move on to how to fix this issue and import an external file with the correct font to begin with.
How to Change the Default Font in InDesign
Turns out there’s one simple thing you can do to make sure external files import and "place" with the desired font. Change the default font for the Basic Paragraph style. This must be done prior to creating an InDesign document. Note that any new default font will apply to new documents created after making this change, not to previously created InDesign files.
Follow these steps to change the default font in InDesign.
1. Open InDesign or close all open documents. This will bring you back to the Home page, where recent documents are listed with options to open or create a new file.
2. Go to the top menu bar and choose TYPE > PARAGRAPH to open the workspace without any open documents. You’ll see the toolbars and panels, and the Paragraph Styles panel will also open.
NOTE: With no documents open, any changes made to InDesign settings apply to all future documents. You are basically changing the default settings, whereas changes made in a document only apply to that document.
3. Activate the Type Tool in the Toolbar.
4. Go to the Paragraph Styles panel and double-click on the [Basic Paragraph] paragraph style. This opens the Paragraph Style Options.
5. Click on Basic Character Formats and change the Font Family field to the same family in the import file.
6. Click OK.
7. Go to the top-left and make sure the font listed in the Controls Panel reads the same as the font changed in the Paragraph Styles Option. If not, change it to match.
8. Go to the top-left of the Menu Bar and click on the Home icon to return to the Welcome page with the list of recent files.
9. Use the New File button to create a new document.
10. Once the new document is open in the workspace, open the Paragraph Styles panel and open the [Basic Paragraph] style. Go to the Basic Character Formats and you’ll see that the default font is what you changed it to.
11. Use File > Place to import your .RTF or .DOCX file with the desired font, and you won’t have missing font issues.
This will save you quite a bit of time in your book formatting ventures. Then again, you will still need to set up a character style for the italics, which you may already know how to do in a way that only takes a minute or less. If you don’t know how to do this, come on back. It’s a checklist for another day.
I am the founder of ArmLin House, as well as the Chief Editor and Creative Director. For over thirty-five year, I’ve worked in technology, business development, marketing, writing, and publishing jobs. In the last 5 years I’ve returned to school and have become a graphic designer and social media video editor. In general, I have A LOT of experience in A LOT of industries and I love to help people, which is one of our main missions as a company. Learn more about me on my LinkedIn page.
From the very beginning of self-publishing, formatting books has been one of my favorite things to do...like a hobby. I first learned the eBook process by writing the HTML and XML that encompass a book you can read on an eReader. After working in tech jobs for the early part of my career, it was a given that I'd delve deep into the guts of an eBook before learning any other method or tool to build a book. I had also published various types of manuals in the Air Force and a corporate environment, so paper books were a cinch to jump back into.
Some may tell you it's easy to use a word processor or other tools to format books, but it's not. I run into formatting issue after formatting issue in self-published books. I'm not quite sure how do-it-yourself authors don't see the extra spaces, strange characters, giant white spaces, inconsistencies, and more when they quality check their book before publishing. Or maybe they're not bothering to quality check their product. You can bet your reader notices, and a poorly formatted book is more than enough for someone to throw your book aside and reach for one of a million other books out there.
I still run into crazy strange things that happen while formatting books. I keep it all documented, every last freaky thing I run into. For example, I once found an issue where MS Word had put invisible ASCII characters into the manuscript that you could see in the eBook but not in Word. Until I opened the manuscript in a coding app like Notepad++ or Komodo Edit, I could not see or find the characters.
Consider that the average time frame for an author to write their first book is 10 years. MS Word alone does the weirdest things to your manuscript over that length of time. Sure, you could strip your manuscript down to a text file, but guess how long it will take you to build it back with all the formatting. Do you really want to re-highlight and re-italicize all the needed text again. Oh, and stripping the manuscript won't get rid of the ASCII character issue I had found.
Yes...there are ways around the mess, and I've made it my mission to figure out how to clean it up the most efficiently.That's why I'm open to helping you with any book formatting issues you encounter, no matter the method you choose. I've created a form for your questions under the Services menu. Just click on Book Formatting Questions, and I'll do my best to answer or provide instructions on how to fix your problem. I'm even looking forward to you challenging me with new issues.
Not everyone can afford to pay someone to format their book, which is why the process should be fun, not frustrating. But like a puzzle, all it takes is one piece missing to send you on a frantic and time consuming search for the piece. And each missing piece is a flaw in your book you can't afford readers to see.
I am the founder of ArmLin House, as well as the Chief Editor and Creative Director. For over thirty-five year, I’ve worked in technology, business development, marketing, writing, and publishing jobs. In the last 5 years I’ve returned to school and have become a graphic designer and social media video editor. In general, I have A LOT of experience in A LOT of industries and I love to help people, which is one of our main missions as a company. Learn more about me on my LinkedIn page.
Dr. Martha Lucas holds a Ph.D. in Research Psychology as well as a degree in Chinese Medicine. She has more than 20 years of teaching and speaking experience. While Lucas loves practicing Chinese medicine and writing, her absolute favorite role in life is that of grandmother.
In Catholic Daughters of Catholic Mothers, Dr. Lucas candidly recounts memories of her Catholic daughter's childhood. The book beginning with her parents choosing which saint to name her after and continuing through her Catholic grade school education, taught by nuns, the founders of America’s parochial schools. This memoir portrays strict discipline and rules of a system where independent thinking was discouraged. Everything was forbidden, everyone was a sinner, and every bad action could result in “going to Hell.”
How would you describe yourself and your life in seven words?
I love my family and my work.
Besides being a writer, what other types of jobs and careers have you held?
My careers have included Practitioner of Chinese medicine, Research Psychologist, Professor, Administrative Assistant, and even a waitress at Krispy Kreme.
I'm particularly proud of my Pulse Diagnosis Biofeedback and Balancing course that I teach worldwide. And my course that focuses on treating fertility challenges in men and women, which was born while treating one of my daughters who has an autoimmune condition.
How did you juggle life, learning, and career with motherhood while your children were growing up?
Probably not very well when my children were young, and I was a single mother working part-time and pursuing my Ph.D. I am blessed that all of my children are fine and they have good lives, but they do remember (and like to remind me) about living what they called “the ghetto life” of being home alone while I worked or was at school.
Maybe this is why I am so committed to being available to my grandchildren. While I love practicing Chinese medicine and writing, my absolute favorite role in life is that of grandmother. I adores my grandchildren and spends as much time as I can with them.
How did the idea for your book come to you?
Over the years, just thinking about being a Catholic daughter has shaped my life. In my adulthood, I started to question church authority while grappling with my own identity. I found myself becoming what I call an “ambiguous” Catholic. It influenced me to help other women move through the emotional issues that religious influences during childhood can create.
What was your favorite scene or section to write?
I really enjoyed writing the chapter on Confession, mainly because it seems so ludicrous--almost funny if it wasn’t so wrong and sad--to have 7-year-olds feeling like they have to make up sins in order to please the priest in their confessions. What 7-year-old has sin?
This book also has a guided journal, the questions based on my experiences and desires to help others discover their truth. It allows readers to explore their Catholic mother-daughter ties and reflect on important life lessons. And the questions will help anyone, even if they aren’t a Catholic daughter of a Catholic mother.
What other projects are you working on that you would like to tell us about?
I’m writing an anti-aging guide book about how to age as well as possible. I'm also writing a book about feeling the unconditional love of a grandchild and the sadness that happens when they grow up and that unconditional love seems to go away.
I teach Chinese Medicine courses worldwide including a Mei Zen Cosmetic Acupuncture System for face and neck, which is one of the best ways to keep our skin looking younger. In order to enhance the aging process even further, I have created My Zen Skin Care, a natural skin care line that uses Chinese herbs and essential oils with active cosmeceuticals to benefit your skin.
Thanks to Dr. Lucas for taking the time to tell us about herself. Use the links below to learn more about her life and career.
I am the founder of ArmLin House, as well as the Chief Editor and Creative Director. For over thirty-five year, I’ve worked in technology, business development, marketing, writing, and publishing jobs. In the last 5 years I’ve returned to school and have become a graphic designer and social media video editor. In general, I have A LOT of experience in A LOT of industries and I love to help people, which is one of our main missions as a company. Learn more about me on my LinkedIn page.
Welcome to ArmLin House. We are a new publisher and production company. Our mission is to help you create your media or manage its production for you. What does this mean? You can hire us to help you bring your media to market such as editing and formatting a self-published books. Or submit your book to us for publishing the traditional way.
Books are not all we produce. We can also assist you with YouTube channels, training videos, websites, social media images, and more... We can produce whatever you need to promote your story, your product, or your service. Whatever you need to get noticed.
We specialize in nonfiction book publishing and are looking for instructional, self-improvement, and memoirs in particular. We also produce media for children.
Come back soon and frequently as we improve our website for more news and instructions on how to submit your requests to work with us. We can't wait to read your pitch.
