From Catholic Adventurer to StE
Welcome to Stoking the Embers (StE) a new name and brand for the content you know and love.
Hello brethren. God bless and be with you all. I have an important announcement to share and you really need to know this so you don’t get confused later.
“Catholic Adventurer” is now Stoking the Embers (StE)
New Name, Fresh Direction, and two New publications, too!
Coaching Catechetics and The Quiet Ember
The only thing that changes for you readers/listeners is the content will be better.
Hi there. I’m T.J. Haines. You’ve known me as The Catholic Adventurer. Now that we’ve gotten the introductions out of the way, I’d like to tell you where we’re going.
As I’ve been saying recently, it has come time to say “see you later” as my direction in life has shifted and even matured a bit (professionally and spiritually). But I had no intention of going away for good. I just had to reassess whether and how “The Catholic Adventurer” fit into God’s will for me, and I decided that it didn’t. So it was time to step away from the brand and its work (Regular posting, frequent social-networking, marketing, etc.) in order to focus on God’s will for me instead.
In that announcement I said that I wasn’t going away, just stepping back, and that I’d likely put “The Catholic Adventurer” to bed, going forward. That day has come. And so it’s time for “The Catholic Adventurer” to finally go away—the brand, but not the man.
New Name
This publication is now called Stoking the Embers. It’s the same kind of Catholic content I’ve been publishing since 2017, so nothing really changes for you. It’s the same mission, but I won’t be working on it with the intensity that a mission demands. I have to put God’s will ahead of everything, and publishing here can only be a hobby. If you’re a subscriber, then what you’ve subscribed to is still what you’ll get from Stoking the Embers in the future, but the content will be more focused, not as sporadic as it had come to be, and it’ll be richer since I’ll be able to concentrate my talents into fewer posts.
Why the name change?
I really needed to shake myself free from the Frankenstein that the CA brand had become. It transitioned and morphed four times since 2017, and became a bit of a confused salad bowl of content types, rhetorical tone, various podcasts and sections; and I have felt strongly over the past year that I really want and need a new, clean start, free from past conventions of the brand. Now is my opportunity to do that.
New Substack: “The Quiet Ember”
I’ve started a new Substack called “The Quiet Ember”. It’s my personal Substack—it’s “me” on a digital page. It’s where I share the real me, which isn’t really dissimilar to “The Catholic Adventurer” you’ve come to know already, but with a little more of who I am. It’s a journal of my life journey as much as my faith journey. Some of it won’t be Catholic content, per se, but it all comes from a Catholic mind/heart. I promise it’ll be fun, because I intend to have fun with it. It’ll be deep, and also light; it’ll be spontaneous, reflective, meditative, and sometimes a party. It won’t solve the world’s problems—or yours—but it’ll be a really nice place to visit and find respite in this crazy world. Promise!
The first post there is something I posted to the CA Substack in the past. It’s probably the most beautiful thing I’ve ever crafted, and I’m very proud of it; so I wanted to make it the first post to the new publication. It’s called “A New Renaissance: The Haunting Bookshop
Coaching Catechetics
I’ve also launched new newsletter called “Coaching Catechetics” but I’m still torn between hosting it on Substack, and hosting it on a different newsletter service. Stay tuned for developments on that. But, for now, here’s that newsletter on Substack. It may be a placeholder, and it may be permanent. Either way, subscribing to it will keep you in the loop of its new posts, and its new home, should I ever decide to move it elsewhere. Even if I move it elsewhere in the future, I’ll probably maintain its presence here on Substack as well.
One Last Name Change
I’ve resisted using my real name throughout these years. Catholic Adventurer was just supposed to be a brand—a blog written by a nameless, faceless figure. It was never supposed to become an identity because it wasn’t supposed to be about me. But once I started podcasting, I magically became “The Catholic Adventurer” (an identity) and that has always bothered me. Anonymity has its privileges, to be sure. But I feel the Lord is calling me to have greater trust in His providence and protection over me and my family, and I feel like He wants a person, not a brand name, to connect to the people He’s asking me to serve, both in “real life” and on the Interwebs.
So, in closing let me formally introduce myself. My name is Tim. My friends and family call me TJ. Now when you see the new name of my around Substack Notes or socials you won’t wonder why this mysterious name is showing up in your feed.
I still don’t want to be famous/recognized/etc. I’m not special or important. I’m just a servant, and a slave of the Holy Virgin Mary. Stay focused on the Lord, and forget about His servants.
God bless and be with you guys.