It Starts with Two

It starts with two. A man and a woman meet and some spark ignites in their hearts. They maybe dance around one another for a little while until they decide to become lifetime partners. Then they get married and have children. That's the way it was for my mother and father-in-law. My mother-in-law didn't get married until she was 26. She said she had plenty of offers but she wasn't about to get married during the worst years of the Depression. Besides she had to wait for the right man to come along - a tall, handsome man named Truman who'd been batching for a while. He was 29. I don't know how they met. I should have asked. Maybe at a church. Maybe through mutual friends. But they did meet and married and didn't waste any time having a family. Five kids in ten years. Then those five kids grew up and each met somebody who made a spark ignite, got married and started their families. Those children carried on the family tradition until now after 60 some years the family has grown to 68 (I think, but there are 2 babies on the way) counting spouses who become part of the family when that spark gets serious. About half of those came to our house for a reunion Sunday and here we are minus the picture taker. You can't have a real reunion without making everybody line up for a picture, can you? Some of the men groan and the kids act up, but you need a picture to remember this moment in the life of the family.

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For fun and to honor Truman and Christine who wore hats to church, we all wore hats to church Sunday. I'm not a hat wearer, but my daughter-in-law went shopping and found me a hat. I wore it but maybe I should have looked in the mirror when I put it on. With the whole clan coming to my house I didn't have much time for mirrors. In the good old days, hats were a necessity for going to church. Every woman wore a hat, but then one day some person who must have been a lot like me said hats weren't necessary any more and a lot of hatmakers went out of business. But I've used hats in my books. When you're writing historical fiction, things like what a character wears to church or wherever can help set the time period. In my Hollyhill books, I have one of the characters wearing a red hat to church to show the change in her spirit. Of course with my Shaker books, all the Shaker women characters are wearing bonnets. (My last two main characters didn't like wearing the bonnets. Maybe I made them too much like me.) Not much variety of clothes in a Shaker village since they dressed in like clothing. They did wear various colors and were the first makers of those beautiful Dorothy cloaks.
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I'm off this morning to get my grandbaby twins for a little stay here while the rest of the family take a break that combines fun and business. I'll be taking them home Sunday before I have my hometown book launch at the local library on Sunday afternoon. That's always a fun time when I get to talk about my new book and give away some books and hear what my hometown reading friends have to say. If you're in the area, come on down. You can check out the details on my schedule on the website.
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And now to Sunday's winners of autographed books. This is the two winner week. I was so busy Sunday I forgot to draw for the winners until Monday. The winners are Juanita and Donna V. I'll be sending you an e-mail to get your addresses. One more drawing next Sunday. If you've sent me an e-mail, your name's still in the hat. There we go with hats again. Maybe next time I'll talk about the different hats a writer has to wear. Hope you're somewhere cool. It's hot here in Kentucky!! Might flirt with 100 degrees tomorrow.

A New Book Cover - Coming 2011

What do you think about the cover of my next book, Angel Sister, scheduled for release in February 2011? I really like it. The little girl is a perfect Lorena and doesn't it just look like she's gazing up at her "angel sister?" I had been holding off sharing the new book cover since The Seeker has just hit the market and started landing in readers' hands. I didn't want to overwhelm everybody, but then Fiction Finder posted Angel Sister's cover on their Facebook page yesterday. So I thought I'd better get with it and let my reading friends see it first from me and share some of my excitement over another beautiful book cover.
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As you can tell, this is not a book set in my Shaker village of Harmony Hill. It's set in 1936 and is the story of the Merritt family. My mom and her three sisters used to tell stories about when they were growing up and usually ended up laughing until they cried. They had to have lived in a community with the weirdest assortment of characters you might ever want to meet. So I took all those stories I'd heard so many times, got Mom to tell me a few more, and then read some WW I history (there's a flashback romance to WW I) and put it all in the fiction blender in my head and after changing the characters into people whose stories I could tell came up with Angel Sister.
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It is without a doubt a story of my heart and I'm hoping readers will too even if it is different from my Shaker books. Don't worry I'm still working on a couple of those for the future too. But you know, that's one thing about my books. Even the Shaker books. They're different. That's good, isn't it? You don't want me to tell the same story over and over again only changing the characters' names. You want different, don't you? I certainly do. In writing stories and in reading them, too.
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But back to the book now, The Seeker. The Corinth Parable Bookstore in Frankfort, KY is hosting a book launch for me this Friday, July 2 at 7 p.m. I'll be talking a little about writing The Seeker and then those who are there will have time to talk and ask questions - my favorite part of any talk. If you're in the area, come out and join in.
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And now for this week's winner of an autographed copy of The Seeker. It's Samy of Pennyslvania. I'll be getting the book off to you sometime next week, Samy. The rest of you still have a few more chances to win if you sent me an e-mail from my website or made a comment here. And if you haven't thrown your name in the hat, you still can.
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Hope you have a great week and thank you for reading. And if you get a minute, let me know what you think of the cover for Angel Sister. Last but not least, if you're reading this, Happy Birthday, Johnny!! Today's my oldest son's birthday. Can you still claim 39 when your kid has to stretch the truth to say he's that age? But I remember my first sight of him as a little baby. He was screaming in outrage, but he was still beautiful. And so loved. My life was forever changed.

From My Hand to Yours

From my hand to yours - I have my first winner in my giveaway. Charmaine, you're the winner on an autographed copy of The Seeker!! Thanks for commenting here on my blog and entering my giveaway. I'll be e-mailing you to get a mailing address. Somebody else will win next week and the next and the next. So keep sending in those entries and you might win a copy too.

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A new book is so much fun. And a little nerve racking too, because you're never sure how readers are going to respond. Will they like the story? You sit on pins and needles and wait for the official reviews. That is, the ones in magazines and at on-line book review sites. And the unofficial reviews. Those are the ones from friends and family. You want everybody to love your book. But that doesn't always happen. Once on my last Hollyhill books, I got a terrible review from a reviewer who had loved my first Hollyhill books. But then other reviewers liked the book she hated. So you never know. But I'm not wanting to think about unhappy reviews. I want to think about all the readers loving my new story. And I think people will enjoy the Civil War setting and my two main characters, Charlotte and Adam. That's the thing, most of the time. If readers like your characters, then the story works.

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Of course sometimes readers are supposed to hate your characters. Last night I got a reinforcement of that when a reader came up to me and said she was scared to death while she was reading The Believer. I couldn't figure out what in the story would have scared her, but then she said, "When that Colton showed up, I just had to close the book and do something else for a while." Now while that's not usually what a writer wants to hear - close the book - in this case it wasn't all bad. It meant I had made my bad guy real to her. Of course, I think I'd still rather hear "I couldn't put it down." That's always music to a writer's ear. A lot better than the one where people tell you, "Oh, I used to love to read, but I don't have time to read anymore." That one's sad for me and for them. Reading is so much fun!!

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I've only seen a couple of reviews so far for The Seeker. Both favorable. Four stars for Romantic Times Book Reviews where they call the book "an amazing read." Amazing as in good, I'm hoping. And then the Booklist review says "Gabhart's absorbing coming-of-age Christian historical novel deftly juxtaposes Adam's and Charlottee's internal faith journeys against a backdrop of unusual settings." I'm not sure who is coming of age in the story, but the review is still nice. So now I'm sitting back and waiting for your reviews. For those of you who read my book to let me know what you think. Well, the sitting back part's not true. Actually I'm frantically working to finish Shaker book 4. Mr. Deadline is stomping my way. And I'll be teaching at the Kentucky Christian Writers Conference Friday and Saturday about coming up with great characters and revising to make your story better. So I need to figure out how to talk about doing those things. And it's summer with a million other things going on. You know what I mean. You're there too, I'm sure.

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And don't forget, it's not too late to pitch your name in the hat if you want to get in on my book giveaways. Just leave a comment or send me an e-mail from my website. It's always great to hear from readers and friends.

Going Back in Time

~~Here's a picture I took on my day up in Amish country. The hitching areas were full with no room to spare because the piles of snow had covered up some of the "buggy parking" area. There's just something about seeing people riding around in buggies that makes a person think about a more peaceful lifestyle even if that might not be true. I don't know much about the Amish lifestyle. My research has been on the Shakers who embraced the simple life but they also were ready to invent any kind of labor saving device to make their work more efficient. So if there were still big active Shaker communities today, you would probably see them plowing with tractors instead of horses. The Shakers believed working with their hands was a way of worship, but they also believed that if they could work faster then they could do even more work and produce more for their community.

~~I've been doing extra research on the Shakers to try to shake loose some new ideas for my work in progress. With every book I read, I discover new things and sometimes contradictory things to what I have read in previous books. Makes me glad I'm writing fiction. Even though I want to be historically accurate and do my best to present the flavor and atmosphere of the times I'm writing about, my characters are fictional and not out of a history book. It's hard to get everything exactly as it was. And with the Shakers, they - like most other religious groups - changed over the years. By the late nineteenth century many things that were taboo earlier were accepted. Such as pet cats and dogs. You see late century photos of Shaker men and women standing side by side, even with a hand on an arm or shoulder of the opposite sex. They still used the separate stairways and doors, but the rules had surely softened from the Ministry's earlier worries regarding even incidental contact between the brothers and sisters which was the reason for the men's and women's separate stairways and doors. Even some of their beliefs changed over the years in regard to their founder and leader, Mother Ann. But I'm not writing about modern Shakers so I have to bury myself in those history books and try to think how it might have been then. That's what all writers of historical fiction are trying to do. The readers have to decide how successful we are with our stories.

~~Last on this Wednesday, but certainly not least, I pulled a winner out of the hat for my book giveaway of two of my books, winner's choice, and Laura Frantz's The Frontiersman's Daughter, a book about the early settlers in Kentucky. Drum roll please. The winner is Stephanie from Tennessee. So, congratulations, Stephanie. I'll be in touch.

~~Hope all of you see some of the spring type weather that's being forecast for us this weekend. Sunshine more than welcome.

Happy Birthday to Me!

To celebrate my birthday yesterday I thought I'd show you a girl who really enjoys her birthdays. This is Jillian at her birthday party in June. Somehow us older folks don't know how to celebrate with such abandon the way a three-year-old can. But I'm still thankful for every birthday and glad to celebrate. I've just stopped counting them up. That's how my kids have gotten older than me, I guess. You know it's not your own age so much as how your kids - who are supposed to stay young - are getting older. If they're that age, then it almost forces me as their mom to admit that the years are piling up. But so are the blessings. You can't have grandbabies without adding a few years on and grandbabies are worth those extra years.

--I did my book drawing where I'm giving a lucky reader a couple of books to celebrate me getting to start a new year with the chance to write a new book. And the winner is --- (drum roll, please) Alla of Kentucky. I'll be in touch, Alla, about which books you want. For the rest of you, I'll be doing another giveaway soon. Check here or on my website for details in a few weeks.

The worst thing I got for my birthday is a cold. Yuck! I've got the fashionable Rudolf red nose look right now. I took a pill but it must have lost its oomphf. I don't know how to spell that but you get the idea. We've been going to the Quartet Convention in Louisville all week. I love meeting and greeting people, but I doubt they'll want to meet and greet me today. I'll take my hand sanitizer along and keep my distance, so maybe I won't give everybody anything. It's not the flu. Just an aggravating head and sinus thing.

--But the NQC is always fun. I meet a lot of readers and lovers of gospel music from all over the country and Canada too. Some of them come back every year to the Patriots' booth to see if I have a new book. And the last few years I have been blessed to have a new book out. A lot of people are meeting a writer for the first time. One person told me last night that she'd never met a "real live author." I told her sometimes I wasn't so lively. I can't remember if she bought a book or not after that. :-)

--The Patriots sang their new release "American Christian" in a Showcase on Monday afternoon and everybody in the place (maybe 2000 or so) stood up to cheer. It's a great patriotic song about standing for what you believe. And then people keep coming by the booth to get the CD with "that song" on it. So that's been a spirit booster for the guys. I posted a picture of their booth on my Facebook page so you can go out and check that out to see how much they're waving the flag. That's one of the lines in the song "I'm a flag-waving American Christian." When they took the Patriot name they decided they would stand for God and country. So this song is perfect for them.

--I also did my talk at the Forks of the Elkhorn Baptist Church yesterday. It was the PrimeTimers group. A great bunch of folks and I appreciate them asking me to come talk about my writing. I'll try to post a picture later on.

--Out of time today. I've got to go walk Dub before we head back to Louisville. Poor old dog is still having to wear that torture collar. Yesterday morning I had him chained on the back porch to an old gas grill we had on the porch when he decided he was going for a walk. He pulled that big old grill off the porch and freed himself. I had to chase him down. So now he'll have to go in the basement while we're gone.

--Hope you have a beautiful week and play you some toe-tapping good gospel music. Bound to cheer you up.

Launching The Believer at Shaker Village

My book launch for The Believer at Shaker Village went great. We had breakfast in the Wash House. While the building is now used for meetings, etc., I kept thinking about how it had once been a work place for the Shakers as the sisters washed the clothes. The Shakers were very forward thinking and were among the first in the area to have running water. They usually ran pipes downhill from a holding tank or sometimes a pool. They even came up with some of the first washing machines. They worked hard, but they also used every innovation they could come up with to make their work faster and easier. Efficiency was much sought but never at the expense of quality.

For sure I had a quality bunch of people there to help me get my new book off the ground and we had a yummy breakfast before I got to get up and tell them my road to being a published writer. I’ve told it so often that I sometimes get tired of hearing it myself, but most people are interested in how a writer got started. For me, it’s an inborn thing. I have an undeniable urge and even more than that, a need to write. That’s why I didn’t hang up my typewriter when I was a young mother with two babies under two years of age and more than I could get done living out here on a farm. That’s why I didn’t give up when I went five years without anybody showing interest in publishing any of my stories. I couldn’t give it up. I had to keep trying. It seems necessary to string words together to tell a story.

And so each time I launch a book, I celebrate the wonder of seeing another story in book form. It's good to hold the book, to be able to open it up and read my words on the pages telling about the characters who came to life in my imagination. It's a conclusion in one way - the finish of a couple of years of work. In another way it's a beginning as now the book will be out there for people to read the words - my words - and use their imaginations to bring my characters to life in their minds. I do so hope readers like my new characters and their story, and having a book launch is a way to get the book out there into some readers' hands.

After I talked about my writing roots, I talked a little more about the ups and downs of my writing journey. And I finished up talking about my Shaker books and reading a few excerpts from The Believer. At the end we had a Q & A time. That’s always my favorite part whenever I give a talk. Sometimes the questions are about the Shakers. Sometimes the questions are about writing or how I write. I never know where the questions might take us but it’s usually interesting.

If any of you have any questions, we could always have a Q & A time on the blog here. Of course I won’t promise to know the answer to every question. There's plenty I don't know such as what sort of book will be popular two years down the road. A how-to writing article I read once said to do that - to figure out what people are going to want to read two years from now when the book you're writing will be published, but I’m not good with trends. Of course some people probably thought I jumped on what some in the industry call the "bonnet fiction" popularity trend with my Shaker book, The Outsider, but actually I researched and wrote that book twenty years ago. See that time I wasn’t behind the trend. I was way ahead of it.

I do appreciate everyone who came to the book launch and Steve, Bonnie and Mickey from the Corinth Christian Bookstore for hosting the event and making all the arrangements. It’s great to have reading friends who support you by showing up when you're trying to get a new book off the ground. I’ll be doing another book event here in Anderson County next month. I may change the date on that one, so check my website in a few days.

Right now might not be a good time for me to try to get anything changed on my website because I’m in the internet doghouse again. My grandson came to visit and thought he wasn’t downloading anything on my computer, but he must have. I’ve exceeded my daily limit – again, and it doesn’t look as if I’m going to be able to post this until I get out of the doghouse. This new satellite internet service isn't as good as I'd hoped it would be.

I did get some remarkable news last week. Summer of Joy is a finalist for the American Christian Fiction Writers Book of the Year in the contemporary novel category. How about that! I’ve already shared the news with those of you who visit me on Facebook. Come on over and we’ll be friends there too.

I did draw for my fourth July winner. And it’s Carrie of Kentucky. I’ll be sending her an e-mail to let her know she’s a winner if I can ever get out of the internet doghouse.

Hope all of you stay out of the doghouse this week. I love dogs, but this is getting ridiculous. I’m almost ready to go back to dinosaur dial-up.

Another Winner!

Hey, everybody! It's a July Sunday - even if it does feel more like a September Sunday. We had record lows here on Friday night. Very pleasant today. I could have probably picked beans without working up too much of a sweat, but the beans had to wait for tomorrow. Anyway it is Sunday and it is July so we have a new winner of an autographed copy of my about to be released book, The Believer. And the winner is another Stephanie. The last winner was Stefanie from Kentucky. I'm not sure where this week's winning Stephanie is from, but I'll be contacting her for a mailing address to send her the book. There's still another Sunday in July and then I'll be drawing for a winner the first weekend of August, so send me a message from my website and I'll add your name to the pot. Who knows? You might win. Nearly everyone who has won a book in my giveaways has said, "I never win anything!" But that time they did.

We started Bible School at my little country church this week. Now that I've got a better hookup to the internet, I'll try to start posting some pictures here on the blog and I thought tonight that a picture of the church might be something you'd like to see. Especially those of you who read some of the Hollyhill books since I based my Mt. Pleasant Church in the books on Goshen's building. Or at least the way it looked back in the sixties. And yes, I do remember those olden days before some of you discovered America. That's what our pastor says happened when you were born. Besides, you missed out. The Sixties were some interesting years. Just think about the music. We went from Elvis to the Beatles and beyond.

Of course my mom has even more to remember and celebrate. She grew up during the Depression, got married right before WW II started, enjoyed the peaceful Fifties and has been on a roller coaster ride ever since. So much has changed in her lifetime. So much has changed in mine. But isn't that what they say is the one thing you can count on? Change. At least about everything but the Lord who is the same today and yesterday and all the tomorrows. The Bible tells us so.

And that's what we're teaching at Bible School this week. The B-i-b-l-e. I'm guessing a lot of you sang that song at Bible School when you were kids. I've certainly sung it a lot since I've taught Bible School at Goshen every year since 1967. I sometimes think I should retire, but I enjoy being around the kids too much. If you want a fresh outlook on life just go find some kids and don't talk. Just listen.

I did get that wireless stuff hooked up finally here in the house. My son figured out why I was pulling my hair out. I had the wrong kind of network cards. As I said on Facebook, I was trying to make a goose be a swan. It wasn't going to work no matter how many times I tried. So I went out to the store. Got the right stuff and had it up and running in half an hour or less. Easy as pie. Only one problem, the satellite company put me in the internet corner for 24 hours because I exceeded my download quota. I'd forgotten I even had a quota. Worse, I didn't know I'd downloaded anything. Updates perhaps for Windows or so their site suggested. But finally they let me out of the corner and I'm trying to behave and not exceed my allowed allotment. That way I won't have to try to break out of internet jail or sit and stew for a day while the internet moves slower than dial-up ever did.

I won't have much time for internetting or facebooking this week with VBS going on. I've plenty of writing publicity odds and ends to take care of. The Believer will be on Chapter-A-Week in August. I'll post the link here on Wednesday. Then it might be good to think about what I'm going to say on Saturday morning at my booklaunch at Shaker Village. (If any of you are local, you can check out details on my website if you think you might like to be there Saturday morning. It will be fun to launch the book at the Shaker Village I based Harmony Hill on.) And I'm beginning to want to be back immersed in a new story. Can't stay away from writing playing with grandkids and painting walls and canning beans too long. Believe me, the playing with the grandkids was the most fun in that list.

Hope you're having a great week. I'll tell you about the grandkids and me trekking down to Panter Rock another time. Smile - everybody will wonder what you're up to.

Each Child a Favorite Blessing

I just got home from my babysitting weekend in WV. The babies are so cute, both the twins and their big sisters. The twins turned eleven months old while I was there. Neither of them have started walking yet, but they crawl everywhere super speed. Especially when they see an open door where they think they might escape to the outdoors. Or get something yummy out of the fridge. I'd open the refrigerator door and they both made a bee line for the bottom shelf on the door holding the jars of sauces and dressings. I'd pull one twin back and by the time I reached for the second one, the other one was already back grabbing for the jars. I had to learn to be quick. But they didn't cry except when they were hungry or sleepy and so this grandma isn't complaining. It was fun seeing them crawl everywhere.


And the girls and I had a good time playing all sorts of imagining games and reading books. They had one book about three little bear cubs wondering if their parents loved their siblings better than them. The book was very sweet in pointing out how each bear cub was special in his own right. In a family of five children that's something that's bound to come up at times. That wondering whether this or that sister or brother is more favored. In fact the six year old said she wondered about that sometimes after we finished reading the story. I told her the love of moms and dads is like a candle that can light many little candles and still burn just as bright on each of them, but I'm not sure she knew what the heck I was talking about. So I just told her she was very loved by all. Then the next day she told me that all my grandbabies couldn't be my favorites, but I told her that yes, somehow they are. Each and every one.


But most of us who grew up in a family with brothers or sisters probably thought at one time or other that our parents favored this or that sibling the most. And probably at one time or another they did, but then we no doubt got our moments when we were the favored child as well. For sure I always knew I was loved and treasured by my mother and father. And that's what my grandbabies are too - loved and treasured by their parents and their grandparents, too. What a blessing for a child. One I would wish for every child.


This is week two in my book giveaway and I actually remembered to draw the winner today for an autographed copy of my new book, The Believer. Can you believe that? And the winner is Stefanie from right here in Kentucky. If you haven't entered the giveaway yet, you can still get in on the fun by sending me an e-mail from my website. I'm going to be drawing for three more winners.


I still haven't gotten a copy of the book myself, but I think one is on the way. I had a postcard from Fed Ex that they couldn't find me. Something always happens with those delivery guys. Just because I live back in the sticks on this little obscure lane and then they always write the address down wrong. I mean what's their problem! So maybe next week I'll get to see what the new book looks like.


I'm anxious to get back to full time writing work instead of having to do all this painting. I need to put a second coat on the living room but after that I may throw away my paint rollers. Except the back hall really needs painting too and there's the trim in the kitchen and... Oh well, some of these days I'll maybe get half of what needs doing done. Of course the greenbeans are coming on in the garden and the corn is beginning to make ears. Always something. And it's always been that way all the time I've been writing through the years. And yet I have managed to keep writing and I will now too. Writing is what I do.


Hope you're getting to do what you want to do this week. Talk to you again on Wednesday.

Happy Wednesday - Dub made bail!

I bailed my big old chocolate Lab out of doggie jail on Monday. Somebody had picked him up on Thursday and turned him into the animal shelter, but I couldn't get any answer at the shelter until Monday because of the holiday weekend. Poor old dog had to sit in that cage all weekend. I have his tags, but had neglected to put them on his collar. You can believe they're on there now. As soon as I drove up to the shelter I could hear Dub barking. He must have recognized the car and was he ever glad to see me. I'm hoping he'll stay down on the farm now. The neighbor bailed his dogs out too though it gets expensive after a few days in doggie jail. So very glad to have the old dog stretched out on the porch again even if he does need a bath.

I have to apologize to all of you who entered my book giveaway. I said I'd announce the first winner of an autographed copy of The Believer last Sunday, but I guess all the fireworks and missing dog addled my brain. However I have now drawn for the first week's winner and that is (drumroll please) Jeneen. I'll be contacting Jeneen to get her address to send the book when I get my copies. I haven't received a copy yet, but I learned last time with The Outsider not to get too anxious. With that book, I saw copies in the store before I had any in hand. Not a bad thing. I like seeing copies in stores and in other people's hands as they read. I'll draw for the next winner Sunday - if my brain isn't too addled from playing with grandbabies this weekend. I'm going to WV to babysit that set of grandkids. We'll have fun and Grandma will be busy.

I'm still doing those yucky housecleaning chores. Painted all day Monday and Tuesday till eleven in the night. Had to take a break on Monday to go bail out the dog and on Tuesday to go to the dentist. I almost looked forward to that since I figured lying back in a dentist chair would give me a few minutes rest. Of course they stand you on your head these days and then try to carry on a conversation with you. There you are practically standing on your head with blood rushing down (or would that be up) into your head along with having two hands poking around in your mouth. It's "aah, ogg, splutter" when you try to answer. Anyway came home and had to pick up the paint roller again. I'm definitely developing muscles in that arm. Sore muscles.

But today, I decided I'd better take a break if I was going to be able to keep up with the grandkids the rest of the week. The hometown grandkids came out to pick zuchinni and peppers out of their part of the garden. They're so cute out there among the rows of veggie plants that I need to take my camera out there and snap some photos to add to the hundred or two I already have on my camera. Do any of the rest of you have that problem? Just adding to your memory card and putting off downloading or printing them? I'll have to take my sleeping bag to Wal-Mart when I decide to get the pictures printed off.

Just a few more weeks until I'll be doing my booklaunch at Shaker Village. Corinth Bookstore in Frankfort is selling the tickets and say they're getting some calls. Hope those of you in the area can come join in the fun. The tickets are for the breakfast. You can check out the details on my webpage in the schedule part on the Home page. Also thanks to any of you who may have befriended me on Facebook and Goodreads. It's good to have new friends and to get reacquainted with some old friends.

Hope you're enjoying lots of great photo ops this summer.

Rainy Day Friends

Thanks to all of you who have sent kind words to me after I didn't win the big prize for my book, The Outsider. Reading your e-mails has been like winning lots of little prizes of friendship. And what better prizes can a person win! So thank you for being a blessing.

You know, there are so many times when we can bless the people around us just by smiling or doing a favor or speaking that encouraging word. Unfortunately there are also times when we pass up those moments, when we're cranky and ill tempered with the people we love the most. Maybe because we know they'll forgive us, and because hardly any of us can be happy and nice all the time. There's one lady at my church who comes very close. She has sweetness and kindness cornered. She's my role model. My Barnabas. You know Barnabas in the Bible. He was the one who was always ready to help somebody. To be a friend.

So here are some friendship quotes on this rainy day Wednesday when you might need a little sunshine. I hope you have a whole bouquet of friends and plenty of reason to smile.

• You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you.~ Dale Carnegie
• To know someone here or there with whom you can feel there is understanding in spite of distances or thoughts expressed. That can make life a garden.~ Goethe
• Am I not destroying my enemies when I make friends of them?~ Abraham Lincoln
• Friends are the sunshine of life. ~ John Hay
• Friends are the angels who lift us to our feet when our wings have trouble remembering how to fly. - Anonymous

I almost forgot to let you know the winner of my latest book giveaway. It's Martha from Wisconsin. She won the book Hidden by Shelley Shepard Gray and chose my book, Angels at the Crossroads because that was the only book of mine she hadn't already read. That was definitely an encouraging word for me from Martha. So, Martha, if you're reading this, the books are in the mail. Hope you enjoy them.

I'll be starting a new giveaway in a few weeks. I'm planning to give away a couple of copies of my new book, The Believer, every month this summer. I'll be posting details on when to sign up in a couple of weeks.

Thanks to all of you who entered the giveaway. Wish I could send you all a book, but maybe next time it'll be your name that I draw out of the hat. Have a great rest of the week.