Summer Celebrations and Winners

It's time to enjoy those great summer days with the kids and with my reading friends.

And the Winners Are

I usually make you wade though whatever I post here and get to the bottom of the page before I announce the winners, but this time I'm letting you know right off the bat. First place winner is Diana J In Maine. She says she never wins anything, but now she has. She gets the lovely Shaker box and chose The Innocent. 

I haven't heard from the second place winner yet, but it's John D. He wins the Bread and Bun Warmer decorated with the Shaker Tree of Life and his choice of one of my books. Then, most of the time when I do a giveaway, I pick a "just because" winner to win one of my books. So I did that this time and Peggy C. is my just because winner this time. If I don't hear from John or Peggy by Wednesday, I'll draw another name. 

Thanks to all of you who joined in with my giveaway fun. I loved your summer stories and I'll be sharing more soon. It was also fun reading some of your favorite things about summer. Tomatoes out of the garden, visits with grandparents, swimming, reading in a hammock, just enjoying the day. 

Here's what one of you said. Bjm probably spoke for a lot of us on this one about her grandmother.

"Many years ago when I was a young girl I would go stay with my Grandmother at her river cottage. My Grandma was and still is my very favorite person. She hunted, fished etc. I remember so many young people coming to see her every weekend. She was so well liked by them. I could go on and on about her and all the fun and quality time I had with my favorite person.The sad thing is I don't think I ever told her that."

Well, on second thought I couldn't say my aunt who was like a grandmother to me went hunting, but I do have great memories of time spent with her.   

 
Busy Summer Days

Summertime is such a busy time. Even though my children grew up years ago, married and have their own families, summer still seems to fill up with dozens of things to do. Vacations. Grandkid visits. Flowers to plant. Vegetables to gather and cook. Oscar to give a bath after he gets hot and sits down in the cow's pond. That happened today when the grandkids came out and we took a long walk. I forgot to guide Oscar around the pond. He was not a happy dog when he had to suffer through a hose down. Then halfway through, he gave a mighty shake. So guess who else got wet? 

Let's Talk Shakers

One of the reasons I have busy summers is that I've had a new book come out in July the last few years. Sometimes I have a deadline to finish writing a new book too. Both things are good - very good, but it keeps me hopping in June and July. With the new book, I have blogs to visit to try to get the word out about the new story. (You can watch for notice of some of these on my Facebook page this month to give you more chances to win a book.) Then I have my own  celebration contests like the one I just finished up to share the fun with you, my reading friends. 

And next Sunday I'll have my Hometown Book Launch at my town's library. I started having book talks to celebrate a new book when Scent of Lilacs came out in 2005. I've kept up the tradition with each new book since then. So if you're in the area, come on down to the library next Sunday afternoon and we'll talk new books and Shakers. You might win a door prizes and for sure you can snag some chocolate. I will be signing books after my talk and a Q & A session. We usually have fun.

That Announcement I Promised

I jumped the gun when I promised a surprise announcement this post. I'm going to have to wait until later in the week for that. But soon. Maybe I'll give away another book or something to make the wait worth it.

As always, thanks for reading. 

Mothers, Feed Sack Dresses and Sparklers

"My mother taught me about the power of inspiration and courage, and she did it with a strength and a passion that I wish could be bottled." ~Cathy Fiorina

I know you were expecting more birthday stories to go along with my birthday giveaway. (Remember you can check out details here.) So the mother quote may have surprised you. But without our mothers, we couldn't have a birthday. Mothers and birthdays have an undeniable connection. Plus, our mothers may be the first to give us wonderful birthday celebrations.

One of the fun parts of these contests I have is hearing from you, my reading friends. Some of you have shared stories with me over and over in different contests, and I'm so grateful for that. The stories make me a winner every time I have one of these giveaways and I do hope you enjoy sharing your stories too. 

Sometimes a friend will share something more the way Ola did here when she sent me the above picture of her on her 7th birthday in a dress made by her mother. It's so pretty and you can see how Ola loved it. When I asked Ola if I could use her picture, she wrote me a little more about her mother. So many of you have shared about your mothers after I shared about mine in my newsletter. A good mother is a blessing and a gift and Ola had one of those good mothers. Here's what she told me about her.

"No, I don't mind if you share. That's one of my favorite pics of me. I wish I had one of the dresses my mama made me now. I would really love to have one made of feedsacks that she made. She was an amazing woman to raise 7 kids mostly by herself. She raised a big garden and canned it to feed us. She sewed, knitted, crocheted, quilted and made all sorts of dolls to sell. She went back to school and graduated from high school when she was 67 years old. She's been gone 10 years now and I still miss her but see her all around me."

Thanks for sharing about your mother, Ola. She does sound like an amazing woman and I'm sure she raised some amazing children. You also brought back memories of those feed sacks or flour sacks. I don't remember if I had dresses made from them, but I do remember others talking about those cotton sacks. The feed sacks I remember were gunny sacks and the flour companies switched over to paper bags. But here's a pattern I found on this blog, The Country Farmhome, all about those feed sack dresses and some interesting photos and history. Any of you remember these?

Sometimes our mothers have parties for us and sometimes we have parties for them. Here's Stefanie's story about how she tried to make her mother's birthday special, but sometimes great ideas need to be fine tuned a bit. Even so, mothers know how to take it in stride with a smile. 

"My birthday story is about my Mom. She was born on July 10 and loved the 4th of July. Well, one year I decided to put sparklers on her cake. Let's just say that there were quite a few burning in place of candles. We could not eat the cake because the metal sparklers had left a gritty, black soot on the frosting and the cake itself tasted like the sparklers smelled!!! But Mom, being who she was, loved it anyway!!! She has been gone 16 years and I miss her like it was today. Love you, Mom."

 

Thanks for sharing with us, Stefanie and warning us off those sparklers in place of candles. 

Hope if you haven't thrown your name into my drawing hat for the giveaway for gift cards and books, that you will. You can find out more about the prizes and how to enter on this post. As always, thanks for reading.

Celebrating Love Comes Home with Giveaways

It's always so much fun to celebrate a new release with a giveaway contest because I get to hear from so many of my reading friends - you. Thank all of you who have entered already, but here are the details for those of you who haven't seen my newsletter. If you want to be on my e-mail list and among the first to hear book news or about contests, you can sign up here Ann's Newsletter.

No big prizes, but I hope you'll think they're fun. First prize winner will get the choice of the Marcasite Filagree and Garnet 18" Heart Pendant or the "Forget-me-not" Willow Tree figurine along with the winner's choice of one of my books. The necklace has a small heart in the larger heart. Once you read my new book, Love Comes Home, you'll know why I chose these prizes. The second place winner will get whichever prize is left along with a choice of one of my books. Then because I'm one of those "never win" people, if you tell me that you never win in contest drawings, your name will go into a special extra drawing for the Praying the Names of God Journal and the choice of one of my books. Hardly anybody has told me they never win yet, so the chances in that drawing are very good that you might end up in the winner's circle. 

You have to be 18 to enter and you can enter by sending me an e-mail at annhgabhart(at)yahoo(dot)com or by leaving a comment on one of the posts here in June. I'll draw for the winners on July 1. To make things more fun, you can tell me a story about a family homecoming or special family memory. The stories aren't necessary to win. Just fun. Many of you have already entered the contest with a comment on the last post. I thank you for that. And some of you have shared stories. I've enjoyed reading them, and I'll be posting some of them here on One Writer's Journal later this month. 

Now, for the blog only contest. You friends here are so kind to read my this and that posts and to leave me encouraging comments that I've got to have a giveaway just for you. Those of you who entered the other contest by leaving a comment on the previous posts will have to come back and comment again to be entered in the blog contest. In fact, every time you leave a comment on a new post for the rest of June, you'll have a new entry and chance to win. Remember to leave your e-mail or a way to contact you when you enter.

You think I should throw in some mystery picture posts for you to try to guess before the end of the month? I just posted a picture of a snake that looks purple on my Facebook Page, but I think it was really just a black snake with the sun making it look purple. There's been quite a discussion about what kind of "purple" snake it is. Still a mystery, but not one any of us are doing much good figuring out. 

So what can I give away? I know. How about a copy of my new book? An autographed paper copy if you live in the USA or Canada and an e-book copy if you live overseas? That's original, isn't it? LOL. I'll draw the five winners early July 1.  

Also, remember if you're on Goodreads you can sign up there too to win one of five copies Revell Books is giving away. It's fun giving books away. For my giveaway, if you'd rather have a different title (one of mine, of course) that can be arranged. Remember, if you enter, you have to leave a way for me to be able to contact you in the event you are one of the winners. 

Thanks to any of you who downloaded Angel Sister or Small Town Girl while they were at a special price. Angel Sister was in the top 100 of Kindle titles today. Hope that means a lot of new readers are headed to Rosey Corner to meet my characters. 

If you've read any of the Rosey Corner books, which character is your favorite?