Half Stitched: The Musical, based on Wanda E. Brunstetter’s novel The Half-Stitched Amish Quilting Club, premieres August 24 at the Blue Gate Theatre in Shepshewana, Indiana, the setting for the book, which tells the story of an unlikely group of quilters—among them a biker, a preacher’s wife, a struggling couple--who bond while taking a quilting class from Amish widow Emma Yoder. The musical is scheduled to run through December 8. Barbour Publishing is hosting a contest to win a weekend getaway for two to the premiere, which will include accommodations and lunch with Brunstetter. For more information and to enter the contest, go to www.amishquiltingclub.com. Brunstetter is the author of 60 books with more than 6 million copies sold.

The Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on June 4 sent a "Notification" to Yale Divinity School Professor Emerita Margaret Farley about her book, Just Love: A Framework for Christian Sexual Ethics (Continuum, 2006). The Vatican charges that Farley’s book "affirms positions that are in direct contradiction with Catholic teaching in the field of sexual morality." The move by the Vatican is another in its recent criticism of women religious in the U.S. Farley is a prominent Catholic theologian and member of the Sisters of Mercy, a congregation of women religious, who served for almost 40 years on the YDS faculty before retiring in 2007. Farley was awarded the 2008 Louisville Grawemeyer Award in Religion. Responding to the notification, Farley stated that Just Love was not intended to express "current official Catholic teaching" but rather to help people "think through their questions about human sexuality." She noted that that the Vatican does not specifically address her positions on issues such as homosexuality, divorce, marriage, and masturbation and "misrepresents (perhaps unwittingly) the aims of my work and the nature of it as a proposal that might be in service of, not against, the church and its faithful people." Read Farley's full statement.

Kirkdale Press, the new publishing company launched by Logos Bible Software, is accepting manuscripts and reviewing them for possible digital publication. Authors can submit queries for both fiction and nonfiction. Kirkdale titles will feature tagged Bible references that allow users to click and read Scripture passages within the e-book. When read via the Vyrso ereader app, Kirkdale titles can be integrated with the Bible study tools and resources of Logos 4, giving readers the ability to search through thousands of e-books in seconds. Kirkdale books are also available through Kindle, Nook and other e-readers.

Thomas Nelson is sponsoring two Father’s Day-tied contests around the release of Mark Merrill’s new book, All Pro Dad: Seven Essentials to Be a Hero to Your Kids (June). The grand prize is a trip to Tampa for lunch with Merrill and Super Bowl-winning coach Tony Dungy, who co-founded with him All Pro Dad, a program of Family First, a national non-profit organization based in Tampa, Fla., and headed by Merrill. Almost 60 NFL players, coaches, and alumni are involved in the program, which encourages men to be good fathers. Participants can enter the All Pro Dad Father's Day Wishlist Giveaway once per day through June 15. Daily prizes include a football autographed by Tony Dungy, and an All Pro Dad golf shirt by Russell Athletic. In the iMOM Pin it to Win it Father’s Day Pinterest contest, participants follow hhgregg on Pinterest, create an All Pro Dad pin board with a picture of the All Pro Dad book as the cover, and fill the board with things that celebrating the father in their lives. One Weber grill, provided by hhgregg, will be awarded on June 17th, and 17 copies of All Pro Dad book and “Get in the Game” All Pro Dad t-shirts will be awarded each day through June 17.

The Christian Small Publisher Association (CSPA) will host its fifth annual seminar for publishers and anyone interested in becoming a publisher at the International Christian Retail Show (ICRS) in Orlando.Publishers’ Institute: Thriving in a Changing Industry” will be held on Sunday, July 15 from 1:00-3:30 p.m. at the Orange County Convention Center; the cost to attend is $20. Among the topics covered will be digital publishing, sales and distribution for self-published authors and small publishing companies, and tips on successful book promotion. For more information and to register, go to www.christianpublishers.net. Registration will also be available at the event.

Master Books author Julie Cave has been selected for recognition by the 2012 Family Fiction Readers Choice Awards, placing 5th in the New Author of the Year category. Her book Pieces of Light placed 6th in the Novel of the Year category, and she won 10th place in the Author of the Year category. More than 3,500 readers voted for their favorite Christian fiction authors in various categories. Cave is the author of the Dinah Harris Mysteries trilogy, which includes Deadly Disclosures, The Shadowed Mind, and Pieces of Light. The trilogy is now available in a boxed set.

Mission Books, an imprint of eChristian Publishing, has re-released two classic novels by Frank G. Slaughter, The Galileans and The Crown and the Cross. Slaughter, whose books featured characters and stories from the Bible, first published in 1941. He became one of the bestselling novelists of all time, with 56 books that sold a total of 60 million copies. The Galileans, a novel about Mary Magdalene, was published in 1953 by Doubleday; The Crown and the Cross, a retelling of the life of Jesus, was published in 1959. Up to ten additional Slaughter novels will be released in the next few years by Mission Books. This fall come The Road to Bithynia, a story of Luke, and David: Warrior and King.

WaterBrook Multnomah’s To Heaven and Back by Mary C. Neal (May) will debut at #3 on the June 17 New York Times “Advice & Misc.” bestseller list. Originally self-published, the book is a memoir of death, a journey to heaven, and a return to life. It also has taken spots on the USA Today Wall Street Journal lists. WaterBrook Multnomah has two other titles on this week’s Times lists: Fearless: The Undaunted Courage and Ultimate Sacrifice of Navy SEAL Team SIX Operator Adam Brown by Eric Blehm (May) and Radical(Multnomah Books, 2010)by David Platt, which has been on the “Advice & Misc.” list for more than 90 weeks and has more than 1 million copies in print. Fearless is at #11 on this week’s Publishers Weekly’s hardcover nonfiction list and at #85 on the USA Today Best Selling Books list.