To listen to the interview: go here and click on the player in the upper right corner of the screen.
Thursday at 3:00 pm Central.
This week on Living Inspired I’m excited to be bringing you four phenomenal guests! Mother Dolores, the nun who kissed Elvis and Alexandra Kuykendall.
Sign up below for your chance to win a copy of Mother Dolores’ memoir, The Ear of the Heart or Alexandra Kuykendall’s memoir, The Artist’s Daughter.
**Due to shipping cost, giveaway open to US only.**
More about Mother Dolores and The Ear of the Heart (Ignatius Press, 2013): Dolores Hart stunned Hollywood in 1963, when after ten highly successful feature films, she chose to enter a contemplative monastery. Now, fifty years later, Mother Dolores gives this fascinating account of her life, with co-author and life-long friend, Richard DeNeut.
Dolores was a bright and beautiful college student when she made her film debut with Elvis Presley in Paramount’s 1957 Loving You. She acted in nine more movies with other big stars such as Montgomery Clift, Anthony Quinn and Myrna Loy. She also gave a Tony-nominated performance in the Broadway play The Pleasure of His Company and appeared in two television shows, including The Virginian. A new chapter in her life occurred while playing Saint Clare in the movie Francis of Assisi, which was filmed on location in Italy.
Born Dolores Hicks to a complicated and colorful Chicago family, Mother Hart has traveled a charmed yet challenging road in her journey toward God, serenity and, yes, love. She entered the Abbey of Regina Laudis in Bethlehem, Conn., at the peak of her career, not in order to leave the glamorous world of acting she had dreamed of since childhood, but in order to answer a mysterious summons she heard with the “ear of the heart”. While contracted for another film and engaged to be married, she gave up everything to become a bride of Christ. Lavishly illustrated with 64 pages of photos.
“Listen and attend with the ear of your heart.”
Saint Benedict
“Mother Dolores Hart is a remarkable woman with a remarkable story-one of love, devotion and faith.”
—Maria Shriver, bestselling author of Just Who Will You Be?
“Read now for some lively insights from the girl who kissed Elvis in the movies to the Mother Superior who gets the last laugh in real life.”
—Paula Prentiss, actress
Purchase your copy of Ear of the Heart.
More about Alexandra Kuykendall: Alexandra Kuykendall is on staff at MOPS International (Mothers of Preschoolers) where she encourages mothers of young children to keep growing as they take on their new mothering identity. She is a regular contributor and consulting editor to MomSense magazine, Connections magazine, and the MOPS blog. A frequent speaker for MOPS, Alexandra has been featured on Good Morning America. As the mother of four young children, she continues to refine her mothering identity. She lives in Denver, Colorado, with her husband, Derek, and their daughters. Connect with Alexandra at http://alexandrakuykendall.com/
More about The Artist’s Daughter (Revell, 2013): It takes a lifetime to know what—and who—defines you.
When Alexandra Kuykendall became a mother, she knew she had to go back to the beginning. To that hot July afternoon in Barcelona when she met her father for the first time. The only daughter of a single, world-traveling mother and an absent artist father, Alexandra embarks on a soul-searching trip into the past to make sense of the layers of her life—both the memories she experienced and the ones she wished for.
The Artist’s Daughter will take you on a journey of discovery through childhood, marriage, and motherhood. Through short vignettes full of both wonder and heartache, Alexandra seeks answers to three life-defining questions: Am I lovable? Am I loved? Am I loving? If you long to better understand the path your life has taken, where it is heading, and who is guiding you, this revealing and refreshing story will push you toward those answers as it changes your heart.
“For every person who has wondered what love, family, and grace really mean, and for those of us who have longed to know that no matter our story, grace is the ending.”
—Shauna Niequist, author of Cold Tangerines, Bittersweet, and Bread & Wine
“The Artist’s Daughter brings to life the power of a story and at the same time challenges us all to dig in and discover the one we were created to tell.”
—Matthew West, award-winning musician
“A refreshing perspective on motherhood, forgiveness, faith, and belonging. I adore this book.”
—Emily P. Freeman, author of Grace for the Good Girl and Graceful
“Any mother who has felt lost in her new identity will find a friend in this book. It is the real deal—the hard, beautiful, and holy view of motherhood.”
—Lisa-Jo Baker, social media manager for DaySpring, and blogger at lisajobaker.com