"If instead of a gem, or even a flower, we should cast the gift of a loving thought into the heart of a friend, that would be giving as the angels give." ~George MacDonald
Sometimes an encouraging word can be a special gift. I got one of those today from a reader who was reading my book, Scent of Lilacs. She said she was enjoying the story and then she thanked me for writing "a book worth reading." What a very nice thing to tell an author!
Of course, I hope all my books are worth reading. I want to write them so that those of you who read them can get to know and love my characters the way I do while I'm writing their stories. With my Heart of Hollyhill books, I had fun going back to the Sixties and populating my fictional town of Hollyhill with characters who might walk down the streets of any small town in the USA. I stayed with those characters through three books and never got tired of them, Scent of Lilacs, Orchard of Hope, and now coming back to stores very soon in its bright new cover, Summer of Joy.
But there are special gifts that are things too. Not long ago I received that kind of gift from my daughter-in-law. She got e-copies of all my covers even the old ones from years ago before there were e-copies of anything and made me the framed poster, pictured above, to hang in my office. Isn't it great? And such a thoughtful gift of her time and effort as she came up with a perfect gift for me. A writer has a special place in her heart for the cover art of her published books. Those covers are something bright and real with the promise of the story inside. The cover of Summer of Joy in the poster is not the new cover, but it's good to have that first cover remembered too. I'm so fortunate to have loving daughters-in-law who have blessed me with some beautiful grandchildren and who also encourage me in my writing career.
One Week to Get Your Entries In
The deadline for my Summer of Joy Celebration Giveaway is Friday, February 28th at midnight EST. You can enter by sending me an e-mail from my website or here by leaving a comment. Comments on my posts here also enter you in a special additional drawing for a copy of your choice of one of my recent books. I don't have extra copies of those long ago books. The contest rules and description of prizes for the Celebration Giveaway are on my News & Events Website Page. Here's two of the prizes, a cute little ring dish and a charm bracelet with encouraging words all around. Plus those books that I do hope you will think are "worth reading."
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I also have that extra contest for people who say they "never win." I've gotten very few entries in that so maybe most of you are already winners. But one of you who tells me you never win is going to get a book and a box of chocolates.
Remember, if you leave a comment here, you have to include a way for me to get in touch. A couple of you have commented without your contact information or even a name. If you don't want to leave that information in a comment here, feel free to e-mail me at annhgabhart(at)yahoo(dot)com or message me on my Facebook page. I know sometimes the comment feature on blogs can be a pain. Besides, you might enjoy joining in the conversation on my FB page. Some of my friends there enjoy my weekly features of Friday smiles, Throwback Thursdays, Shaker Wednesday, and Sunday Morning coming down.
A Book Worth Reading
That's what we all want when we're reading, don't we? A story that keeps us turning pages to find out what happens next. A story that we can be glad we read when we do turn that last page. A book that doesn't disappoint. Not every reader who picks up my books agree that my stories are worth reading, but I'm glad for those of you who do. And I will keep looking for the right words to fill the pages to make the stories you can enjoy.
Thanks for reading!
One of the most exciting parts of getting a book published is seeing the cover that the publisher's art department creates to represent your story. I really like the cover for my new book releasing in February. The girl looks like Adriane in the book and I love the city backdrop. The story is set in 1855 Louisville and I think the cover shows the historical setting well. What do you think?
Book covers have trends. For several years, the popular chick lit books all had feet or legs of the character model. Many historicals in the inspirational field showed the model in whatever pose but only from the shoulders down. No face. Some readers prefer that. They want to come up with the character's looks on their own and not be distracted by an actual photograph that might have a model who doesn't look the way they envision a character in the book. Lately a lot of books have had the head of one of the characters - sometimes both male and female characters - sort of super-imposed on the background. Then along came those books that hardly had pictures on them at all and only the title shown in a dramatic way. So many ways to make a book cover.
How that cover comes about is a question I get at a lot of the talks about writing that I do. People will ask who did I get to do the cover or did I do the cover. They are very curious about the process. Most publishers work hard to present a book with a great cover. That's because the cover is the first enticement to a reader when a book is there on the store shelf with dozens of other books. A great title helps too, and of course, many readers pick by the writer's name if they've read and liked previous books by her or him. But readers enjoy finding new writers, new books. That's when that first impression is so important.
I tried to post this on my Facebook author page today, but Facebook is not liking me lately. So I said whatever, I'll just share it with my journaling friends. Okay, take a good look at the picture to the left. Then scroll down and take a good look at my cover. The first picture here on the left is one I took at the Shaker village of Pleasant Hill last summer. The cover below is my new Shaker novel, The Blessed. Doesn't it look like my picture is the background of the cover? It's not but gee, it looks like it even to the open gate and the trees. Of course my photo is missing Lacey. But even though you can't see her there, she was in my imagination then as I was finishing up her story.
You may be wondering about the one door in the building because I am always writing about the buildings having two doors, one for the sisters and one for the brothers. But the buildings with only one door were generally workshops used exclusively by either the sisters or the brethren and therefore didn't require two doors. The Shakers were efficient people and didn't believe in wasted effort or materials and supplies.
What do you think about covers of books? Do they influence you when you are shopping for something to read? What makes you pick up one book over another? I admit I'm more likely to pick up a book with a cover that catches my eye.
My publisher, Revell a division of Baker Publishing Group, does a fantastic job of coming up with eye appealing covers. The cover for my book, Angel Sister, was wonderful and I know cute little Lorena on the cover made that book practically jump off the shelves into a reader's hands. They might not have decided to buy the book, but she got them to look at it. That's the purpose of a well-done cover. Get the reader to give it a second look.
Titles are important too. A title can awaken a reader's curiosity about what's inside the cover. The Blessed fits my book very well. I don't know whether it's one that will whet a reader's appetite, but it works with the story. Lacey was always thinking about the Beatitudes and repeating them in her head to get her through some hard times. Plus she wanted to feel blessed. She wanted to have joy in her heart and be ready to do her "dandelion dance" to welcome spring. But sometimes joy can seem out of reach when life throws a person some curves.
Thanks for reading and don't forget you can still get in on my giveaway since I haven't received my copies of The Blessed. I think they've gotten lost in the mail since I'm hearing about other people receiving copies. But that was also in the mail, so who knows? But I'm going to give some books away to celebrate when they do come. You can check out my website, www.annhgabhart.com for how to enter.
Also for those of you who read Suzanne Woods Fisher's wonderful interview here, you can catch her interviewing me tomorrow (Thursday June 9) at 4 p.m. CST on Amish Wisdom. That's 5 p.m. Eastern standard time. Last summer when I was on Suzanne's show talking about The Seeker, a lot of people said they couldn't get the program to come up. One of the feeds messed up that day. So give it a try again tomorrow. I'll be talking about Lacey's story, The Blessed.
