Meet Me in St Louis

One of the fun things about writing in the Christian market is the writer friends you get to meet. Here I am with Laura Frantz. Laura published her first book, The Frontiersman's Daughter, a few years ago. She lives in Washington state but she has Ky roots and is published by the same company as I am. So she e-mailed me with some questions about the publishing process. She learned well and has published several books since then that have proven very popular with readers and are always up for awards. 

Her latest, Love's Reckoning, is up for a Christy this year. The Christy is a prestigious Christian book award and I've dreamed of one of my books maybe someday being a finalist. So far that hasn't happened, but I'm happy for Laura and the others who are up for the awards. Guess I need to let Laura teach me a thing or two now about writing award winning books. :)

So I'm going to be meeting writing friends here in St Louis. And making new friends too. Do you think anyone will send me flowers? Actually Laura surprised me with flowers after I'd answered her questions about what next on the publishing process for that first book. So I'm still on theme with my flower stories. And you can still jump in and throw your name in my hat for my Small Town Girl Celebration Giveaway. Fun prizes. You can check out details on my website, www.annhgabhart.com.

  

I'm doing this on my iPhone so if weird words show up, it's all the phone's fault. 

Sunday Down on the Farm with Friends

It's been a busy Sunday. My editor and agent came to visit me and we must be kindred spirits because we talked non-stop all day long. I've been looking forward to their visit for several weeks. I even cleaned up my desk! Now that was really something. I should do it more often because I really don't like working at a messy desk, but paper just seems to accumulate. Any of you guys have that problem? I think it must breed and reproduce and grow. Quickly. Especially for a writer like me who is always hanging on to this or that quote or note or letter or whatever. I like having stuff written down on paper and not just in my head. That's because I'm not as young as I used to be. Sometimes when I try to record stuff just in my head, I must use invisible ink because it often as not disappears and I don't get what needs to be remembered remembered. At least not when it should be remembered.

So the desk is moderately straightened. A lot of stuff went into File 13. That's the round file or trash can for you people who have never worked in an office setting. I need to file a lot of other stuff there, but I'm always worried that I'll end up wanting to chase down the garbage truck to retrieve that very important note I pitched that I should have hung on to.

Anyway, I'm sure my guests were suitably impressed with my almost neat working space. I do have a great office with windows looking out over the outside world. I love windows and have always wanted a window by my desk although I worked for years in my kitchen without a window close by. Now I am blessed with four windows. But my agent made a wise comment after she admired my view of the birdfeeders in the tree and the hayfield where deer sometimes come sneaking along to steal my apples and eat my rosebushes. She said that I probably don't see any of it once I get into my story. And she's right. Once a writer gets into her scene, then her setting, her stage if you will, suddenly replaces everything else. I remember once writing a scene where my character was in a terrible rainstorm and when I came up for air it was odd seeing the sunshine. I felt like my hair should be wet from all the rain.

We all went to hear Darrell and the guys (the Patriot Quartet) sing tonight and they enjoyed hearing Darrell hit those low-down notes. They will have his head so swelled he won't be able to get through the door. He does do a great job singing and the quartet sounded fabulous tonight. I hadn't planned to have my new book on the product table tonight because I'm doing my book event at the Anderson Public Library next Saturday. I was planning to wait until then to have my book available. But they announced it and people wanted it. So I had some in the car and no writer wants to disappoint an eager reader. It was great seeing so many wonderful friends and laughing and talking with them. Not to mention signing a few books. Some of them even said they might still come to my library event next Saturday. It's at one p.m. if you are in the area and would like to come hear me talking about writing The Believer. There will be door prizes and Q & A time and maybe we'll do some sort of fun writing game. We came up with a character at my last event at the library. That's always a fun exercise with a group. But this time we may talk about how we can find a story in history - ours or our nation's.

I'm taking my guests to Shaker Village tomorrow. I'm hoping we won't have to dodge showers there. But even if we do, I know we'll find a spot under the roof and keep having a good time. I hope all of you can look forward to some good times next week and that you know joy in your hearts.

Creating Characters with my Friends

Hi, everybody. Well, I had my book event at the local library today and some friends and family were sweet enough to show up and listen to me talk about my writing and how I come up with characters. That was sort of a warm-up for my talk in West Virginia in October when I'm speaking on "Writing about Shakers ... and Other Odd Characters." I think I'll need to do some more practicing before then.

I did enjoy the talk today. I used to be painfully shy when I was a child, but I outgrew it. Now I love to talk to people one on one and I like to speak. I still sometimes get a few butterflies, but then I just go out and have fun sharing about my writing and trying to get a chuckle out of my listeners now and again. I can understand why stand-up comedians stay in the business. It's fun being able to make people laugh.

Of course the people at my event today were friends who looked kindly upon me and I knew they weren't going to boo and hiss no matter what I said. My favorite part of any talk is the question and answer time. I used to go to a lot of schools and the kids would come up with the most fun questions. Adults sometimes have to be jump started to get them to ask questions. But today we got started talking about the Shakers. I think some of the people listening probably knew more of the history than I did. So that's when I shut up and listened. That's the best way to learn new things.

After I talked we did a fun exercise of creating a character together by brainstorming a bit. It wasn't long before we had a young woman named Peggy (nickname for Margaret - somebody explain to me how that makes sense) who was 25 in 1941 and her fiance had gone to France in WW II and been killed. She had red hair and was Irish American. Her parents came over from Ireland and settled in New York where she was born, but then they moved to Tyrone here in Anderson County. Some wanted her to be expecting. Others thought that was going too far for 1941. And so we were able to see how all of us could have taken the same 25 year old woman named Peggy and come up with a totally different person who could live a totally different story. As I tell people who tell me they have a wonderful idea for this or that story. It's not the idea so much. Although having a good idea is great. But it's how the writer develops the idea.

I read once that there are only about ten original plot lines. Don't ask me what they are. I don't think anybody wants to tell!!! But that writers have used those basic plot lines in thousands and thousands of ways to write entertaining and different stories. So maybe someday I'll write a story about Peggy. Of course I might have to change her age and where she lived and even her name. I never liked the name Peggy that much and my characters, at least the main characters have to have a name I can like. But I do plan to write a book about WW II after I finish my Shaker books.

The work on my new Shaker book is progressing. But next week won't see much working time for me. It's National Quartet Convention time in Louisville, Kentucky, and the Patriot Quartet have a booth there in the exhibition hall. It's fun meeting all the other singers and gospel music lovers, but it doesn't leave much time for home stuff. So if you come to the Quartet Convention come by and say hi.

And oh yeah, I went out surfing on the net to see what was happening with my book, The Outsider, and came across a bestseller list for Christian fiction. What do you know - my book was on the list! It was number 20 out of 20, but it was still on the list. That was neat. I've never been on any kind of bestseller list before, at least to my knowledge. And half the credit surely goes to the beautiful girl on the cover. Even if you haven't read the book yet, you can take my word for it that she is just the perfect Gabrielle. It's a very eye-catching cover. Now if I could just get my local Wal-Mart or Kroger store to stock some of the books. That's the closest thing we have to a bookstore around here.

Still it's not very far to Frankfort where the great people at Corinth Christian Bookstore carry my books and are very supportive. Plus they have a beautiful store and bend over backwards to help people find what they need. Hope you have a great Christian bookstore near you. There's just something different about walking into a store where everything inside has something to do with the Lord. It's not exactly like being in church, but it's not far from it.

A special thanks to everybody who has entered my book giveaway so far and who have said they enjoyed my newsletter. If you would like to add your name to my e-mail list for an occasional newsletter - say every two or three months - just go my website and send me an e-mail. That's how you can enter my contest too. I'll be drawing for the winner of a complete autographed set of my Hollyhill books, The Scent of Lilacs, Orchard of Hope and Summer of Joy.

Last of all, but certainly not least, I've enjoyed hearing from you after you got the newsletter and also the comments people have posted here. That's the best thing about doing a newsletter is hearing from some of my friends.

May your cup so overflow with blessings this week that you end up drinking from your saucer of life. With joy.

The Frog Takes a Hayride

I just got home from my grandson's birthday party. He'll be nine tomorrow and he had a fishing party. I don't fish, but it's fun watching the grandkids fish. Austin - that's my grandson - he hooked a big one, but it broke his line and got away. After that he lost interest and began hunting other game. And soon he was the proud possessor of a nice green frog. He wasn't a bit worried about getting warts. No, wait - that's toad frogs. This was a regular pond frog who found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time. He ended up in a plastic cup with a little water to keep him hydrated and an occasional fly when the kids were able to catch one. He wasn't a particularly happy frog although he did eat the flies. We went on a hayride from the fishing pond to a picnic spot some three or four miles away. The frog went too. The frog made it through the hotdog roasting, but then somebody uncovered the plastic glass and the frog made a mighty hop and landed on one of the great aunt's chest. We weren't sure who was the most startled, the frog or the aunt. It must have been the frog because from there he made another mighty leap right into the hotdog roasting fire. He didn't stay there long. That's for sure. He hopped right out of there and ended up back in my grandson's hands. The frog was liberated eventually to a stream that was running alongside the picnic spot. One thing sure, not every frog can be so well traveled or have stories to tell about the time it jumped out of the drinking cup and into the fire.

Not much else is going on in the neighborhood this week. I'm still editing my new book. Changing a word here and there and then sometimes going back and changing it back the way it was to begin with. Thank goodness this book isn't too long and I don't have to think about cutting out pages and pages. I like to trim the excess, but when you start cutting pages it feels more like slashing the vital parts. Even so, there are times when I just can't seem to make a sentence read the way I want so then I decide maybe I don't need that sentence at all. I just hit the delete key. That's one way to fix awkward wording. Works every time. ;-)

The twins are doing well. I hope to have some photos of them and the other grandkids posted on my website soon. I'm adding a gallery of photos. Some will be of me and others at special events and some of me way back when. That should be good for a smile or two.

My book event for The Outsider at the Anderson County Public Library is next week. I'm hoping I'll have lots of friends and readers show up to hear me talk about "Writing about Shakers and Other Odd Characters." We'll have a Q & A time and discussion time as well as door prizes. The library staff have been great. They've put my posters up and made a big announcement board as well as displayed all my books on a table at the library. I've published 18 books now and they have all of them but one. I'm going to hunt that one up and fix that. So if you live in the area, come on down to the library next Sunday afternoon. We'll have fun talking about writing.

Till next time, remember to abide in the precious present. That's what all the kids at Austin's party were doing tonight. And they were having fun. They may be covered with chigger bites tomorrow and too tired to get out of bed, but tonight they were having fun.

Hope you have a great Labor Day weekend.