I Didn't Win

I didn't win the award for best Christian Fiction novel of 2009. :( Actually I didn't expect to win, but then when they were announcing the winners at the banquet last Thursday night about five minutes before they were ready to announce the fiction winner, I got to thinking, you know, it would be nice to win. And what if I do? I better think about what I might say up there on the stage. I had already told a couple of people who had asked if I had an acceptance speech all written out that I was just going to say "I'm speechless." Which would have certainly been true. Amazed, too. But then I didn't have to be speechless or amazed because Susan Meissner's book, The Shape of Mercy was the winner. She gave a nice speech and obviously wasn't "speechless." And I was a little disappointed. Especially the next day when her book had that beautiful gold medallion already added to the copies on display.

I talked with Susan and she's a wonderful writer and person. I had no trouble being happy for her. I grabbed a copy of her book, unsigned unfortunately, but maybe I'll put it in one of my book giveaways this summer. I'm going to draw for the winner of my current contest tonight. I'll be sending out a newsletter to my friends and readers - and that's not and/or. If you are reading my books, I think we're friends. Anyway I'll be letting everyone know who the lucky winner is in the newsletter first and then I'll post it here on Wednesday night. I mean somebody needs to be a winner this weekend since I didn't quite make it.

Still as I told my church family this morning when they were assuring me that I was a winner to them, I did feel like a winner just being in the top five. Plus seeing The Outsider on April's Christian Book Association bestseller list is another winning moment. Having so many friends pulling for me was definitely the best winning moment.

Darrell and I had fun in Dallas. I got to meet a lot of great writers, and even better, now I can put faces with some of the people I work with at Baker Publishing. It was a good two or three days. Those pilots had no trouble at all navigating the skies. That must have been all of your prayers giving us smooth air. And no telling how many other blessings the pilots got just because you guys were all praying for them coming and going. I know I was mightily blessed. I even looked not too bad in the outfit I bought last week. My hair wasn't perfect, but you can't have everything. I did manage to wear heels and keep my earrings on for the whole evening. That was the first time I've worn earrings since my oldest son got married some 16 years ago. I even wore them to church this morning just to prove to everybody that I had earrings. Some of them didn't recognize me. ;)

I'm off now to hear the Patriots sing in Mercer County tonight. They'll be in Pennsylvania next Friday night and then in northeastern Kentucky at Mayfield and Ashland on Sunday. I'm staying home. I need to get back to work on that stubborn third Shaker novel. One of the writers I met said she loved to write on her laptop in the car. I'm sure someone else was driving her to important appointments and booksignings. Me, I'd just get car sick. But I do love to write. Even when the words aren't coming easy. Writing is what I do.

Hope you are having a good weekend. The weather is gorgeous here in Kentucky today and if you don't want to go outside, you've got ballgames to watch. I love the tournament, but I've missed most of it this year. So did my team, unfortunately. UK fans are not happy campers, but maybe a beautiful spring day like today will get us smiling again.

Thanks again for your good wishes and prayers. Wish I could have won for you.

Texas Here I Come

Hi everybody. Tomorrow's the big day. I'm getting on that airplane and flying to Texas. I've already asked my church family for prayers for the airplane and the pilot. I'm n-n-not really a n-n-n-ervous flyer. Honest. I mean I've already been on two airplane trips. That makes me practically an experienced traveler, doesn't it? But prayers always help. No matter how you're traveling or what you're doing. I don't think there's a greater gift you can give a person than to say a prayer for them. And you've always heard it's more blessed to give than receive, so here's your chance to be blessed and my chance and that pilot's chance to be blessed by your prayers.

I am excited about being at the Christian Book Expo. This is something I've never done before. I've been to book fairs and such, but never to a big event celebrating writers and books. I can't wait to meet all those famous writers that up until now have merely been names on books. Max Lucado is one of them. If any of you want to read a devotional book that helps you feel as if you're basking in the love of the Lord, try one of his. No frowns in his books as he encourages us to live the Lord's way. I'll have to buy something from him to get his autograph if he's signing books at the Expo. Of course the line will probably be two miles long, so I might not be willing to wait that long. As for when I sign my book, I'm just hoping there will be somebody, anybody in line.

I did get some good news about The Outsider. I guess I should say additional good news since the Book Award nomination was definitely already good news. Anyway, The Outsider is number thirteen on the CBA (Christian Book Association) Fiction Bestseller list for April. Reader response to that story just keeps astounding me.

How do you like my picture here on the blog? That's the same one the CBE lifted off my website to post on their website alongside all the professional photos. One of my Sunday School kids took the snapshot of me when we were hiking down at Panther Rock. Me and the kids always have a great time down at the creek, so if I look like I'm having fun, then that's because I was. Plus it looks as if I had somehow managed to stay away from all the splashing - at least up until then.

Susie, my webmaster, has been helping me with posting pictures and my book cover on the blog since my dial up connection usually times out before I can get the process figured out. Or maybe it's my brain that times out.

Hope that doesn't happen in Texas. I'll be sure to let you know how things come out when I get home this weekend. And thanks for the blessing of those prayers.

What Can You Buy With $5?

Another Wednesday. No tornado warnings this week although the weathermen are predicting snow this weekend. Spring will come. Eventually. I know it will. Those of you in the south are probably already enjoying the flowers and sunshine. I guess the longer we wait, the more we'll appreciate spring here in Kentucky.

I've been trying to figure out how to put a banner about the Christian Book Expo on this, but I have to admit to being technically challenged at times. I copied the code their e-mail told me to copy but when I tried to paste it on here somewhere, it kept telling me I had some wrong code. I think not having the faintest idea of where to paste the code might have been my first problem. But if you're in the Dallas area and would like to meet some fantastic Christian writers in person to learn about a lot of new Christian books, go to the Christian Book Expo site, http://www.christianbookexpo.com/ and you can read all about it. You can also get a $5 discount on your tickets to get into the Expo by entering the discount code cbe5off. Wish I'd gotten that e-mail last week. I just bought Darrell's ticket on-line without a discount code in sight. Oh well, $5 isn't all that much.

But what can you do these days with $5? Buy a meal at a fast food restaurant if you're not too hungry. Buy a Bible for the Gideons to give to someone. Buy a box of Girl Scout cookies with a little left over. Maybe get a couple of pairs of socks. A bag of very cheap dogfood. Mail ten letters with some change. Download some tunes - that is, if you aren't technically challenged like me. Oh, I know a good one. Add a couple more fives and buy a book. Get a ticket to a matinee movie. Sorry, not enough for popcorn, too. Buy a singing greeting card. Those batteries last forever, but only if the tune is really annoying.

What are your suggestions for the $5 I might have saved, but didn't? Of course there's always that true advice on how to double your money - fold it and put it in your pocket.

I'm trying to keep my nose to the grindstone here as I get my book going. Or maybe I should say fingers to the keyboard. I keep telling myself to get going on the story. I feel like I'm running behind, not getting things rolling fast enough. Maybe I need to sit down at my desk in the morning and yell "Scene 1 (or 206). Action!" That's what I need. Action. Along with character development, great motivation, plot thickening, and snappy dialogue to go along with the easy to read and engaging prose. That's all I need. Just a few little things. But none of them on sale for $5.

Hope you're having a fun week and if you do make it to Dallas for the Christian Book Expo please come see me at the Baker Publishing Group Booth between 5 and 5:45 p.m. on Friday. I wish I had signed up for a time at the ACFW Booth, but I didn't know I was going to Dallas when the opportunity to sign up for that was available. But I'll have fun seeing all the other writers there.

Here's a quote to close out the day and to help me realize how rich I am without that $5 I didn't save.

"If you want to feel rich, just count the things you have that money can't buy."

Hope you have plenty of reasons to feel rich. And by the way, it doesn't cost you a thing to enter my book give-away. Just send me an e-mail from my website, http://www.annhgabhart.com/. I'm doing the drawing the day after I get back from Dallas on March 22, so you've still got a few weeks to get your name in the hat.

The First Valentine

Hi, everybody. Hope you're not too stuffed with chocolate candy after Valentine's Day yesterday. Our preacher was telling us the origin of Valentine's Day in church today. Br. Fred says that back many moons ago, around 268 A.D. in the Roman Empire, it was decided that men should not marry before they entered the Roman army. But a priest named Valentine performed so many of the prohibited weddings that the Caesar had him imprisoned. Then legend has it that Valentine wrote his faithful congregation a letter from prison expressing his love for them and signed it "Your Valentine."

Not everybody agrees with this bit of Valentine history, so you can go out and do your research and make up your own mind, but I like the story. The day wasn't officially established until the end of the 5th century when Pope Celasius declared February 14 as Valentine's Day. However it was the 19th century before it became the custom to send flowers, candy and cards to the one you loved. I'm sort of glad they started sending the cards. I've always thought the Valentine's Day parties at elementary schools were the best. I still have a box of Valentines somewhere that my oldest son got when he was in third or fourth grade. It's a day when everybody can feel loved and popular.

Since we're talking about popular, I've heard from two people this week who say they have come back to overstuffed e-mail boxes. One, who was out of electricity and thus off line for eight days, said she had over 500 messages waiting in her inbox. Another who had been on a vacation came home to over 200 messages. Wow! Now that's a couple of popular girls. The neat thing was they both took time to read my newsletter I sent out a couple of weeks ago. I'm honored.

And now since we're talking about being honored, I just went out to get some information off the website for the Christian Book Expo where I'll be attending the Evangelical Christian Publishers' Association award banquet for Christian Book of 2009. In case you haven't been reading my other entries, The Outsider was chosen as one of the five finalists in fiction. (Yeah, yeah, I know. Any reason to repeat that, right? But I am excited.) Anyway when I get out there to the website, www.christianbookexpo.com, there's my picture right up there with all those famous authors on one of the pages, events I think. Imagine that!

But the really funny thing is that it's a picture one of my Sunday school kids took of me last year when we were hiking out here on the farm at Panther Rock. The kids love to go down there with me and I always take one picture like a portrait of them in the place of their choice to give to them later. So last year one of them wanted to take a picture of me. It's not a bad picture. I have my everyday clothes on and I've been hiking for a couple of miles with a bunch of teenagers who love to splash in the creek. So I'm not beauty parlor neat for sure. But I posted it on my website and I guess the Expo people must have lifted it from there. I can't wait to tell my Sunday School kid that his picture is out there on the web. He'll feel like a famous photographer. And I guess it's a good lesson for me. Be careful what you put out on the internet.

Of course I already knew that. Especially with e-mails. When you're writing a letter by hand, you have time to think about it while you're stuffing it in an envelope and putting it in the mailbox. If you've said some unwise things, your better judgement might kick in in time. Alas, with e-mails, they disappear in an eyeblink as soon as you hit that send button. Even while you're yelling, "Wait! Wait! Come back." So if you misspell words, if you sound off, if you moan and groan, you might want to take a deep breath and read it over again before you send it. I don't sound off (much) or moan and groan (only in my private journal) but I have sent out some misspelled words. And I hate that. Sometimes they are only typos, but there's no calling them back after you hit that send button. Thank goodness with the blog, it lets me edit if I see a mess up after I've hit the publish button.

What I really need to remember is that everybody messes up and the best part is that most readers of e-mails and blogs and newsletters forgive you for being human. Hope all your mess-ups this week are minor and something you can laugh about. One thing we can all count on is forgiveness if we seek it from the Lord.