"A Book Worth Reading"

"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." 

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!  

Words - A Reason for Thanksgiving

Words 

"Words are only postage stamps delivering the object for you to unwrap." ~George Bernard Shaw

Since I let Wednesday slip away without posting last night, I'm writing this early on Thanksgiving morning. So of course, it is about being thankful. I have so many blessings to count, that I could write them down all day and then nobody would get to eat those mashed potatoes or macaroni and cheese I need to cook. The turkey is in the oven and I made the cranberry sauce and chess cake last night. Stay tuned for my very simple chess cake recipe - as long as you're not dieting. :)

But last night as I got ready to go to bed I was thinking about what I could have written if I hadn't forgotten it was Wednesday night and the thought came to me that I was thankful for words. I am so very thankful that I have been given, in some small measure at least, a gift for words. I like words. I like to put them together to make a story. I like reading the way other people put them together to make stories. I like hearing people speak those words to tell a story. I like the sound of words when you read a story aloud to a child whether the words are ones in the dictionary or some arrangement of letters that make up nonsensical words for fun. 

A Big Dream

I am so thankful that I have been able to live my childhood dream of being a writer. That was such a big dream for a little girl growing up on a tobacco farm who had never even met anyone who was a writer. It was such a big dream that even after I had several books published I had a hard time claiming the title of writer out loud. It was as if I thought it might vanish if I became too sure of it. Last Sunday at church we were being thankful for our beautiful fellowship hall that seemed an impossible dream for our little church when we first thought about building it. But now it's built and paid for and a blessing to our church. There's no dream too big for our Lord. 

So that's how it was with that little farm girl who did become a writer with the help of the Lord. Now all these many years of writing later, I can say, without hesitation, I am a writer. I have been blessed by the characters who have come to life in my imagination. And I have been blessed by the readers who have also let my characters come to life in their imaginations. Words are a writer's tool. And I am thankful for those tools. 

"Love. Fall in love and stay in love. Write only what you love, and love what you write. The key word is love. You have to get up in the morning and write something you love, something to live for." ~Ray Bradbury

A Simple Recipe Everybody Likes

Now here's that Chess Cake recipe:


1 C butter or margarine
2 C brown sugar, packed
1 C granulated sugar
4 eggs
2 C self-rising flour
1 C chopped pecans

Cream butter and sugars. Add eggs and flour and then the nuts. Bake in a 13 x 9 inch dish at 350 degrees until lightly brown - approximately 35 minutes. Slice into squares and enjoy. 

Now to Announce the Winner

Melanie Backus is the winner of Jan Watson's autographed novels, Skip Rock Shallows and Tattler's Branch. I'll be in touch, Melanie. Thanks to all of you who commented on Jan's post and on the ones since. A special thanks to those of you who have offered encouraging words and shared your own journeys down the hard path of caring for a loved one with dementia. I'm thankful for each of you. 

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Every Book Can be a Gift

Each day provides its own gifts. ~Marcus Aurelius



One of the daily or weekly gifts I receive are the comments you leave here and on my Facebook author's page. It's fun getting to know you and I really enjoy when you share stories from your lives. Take Joye's comment on my blizzard post Sunday about her dad having to crawl out the attic window to shovel out their door after a blizzard. She can tell us about snow. Others have also left bits about their lives and many of you leave encouraging words for me. You might be surprised to know how often writers need encouraging words. But then I suppose that's true for everybody no matter what work they do. We can all use a kind word and a smile.  I want everything I write whether it's a short Facebook comment, an e-mail, or a 100,000 word story to somehow be an encouragement to whoever reads them.

Cathy left me one of those kind and encouraging comments this week. In case you don't read the comments on posts, here is the part that had me smiling. "Just found a true treasure...one of your older books called "The Gifting". I absolutely LOVE this book. I think you should re-release it. Page 71..."Don't ruin a gifting by measuring it. Just enjoy."

So I am enjoying and remembering too. I don't remember writing those words on page 71, but I'm glad I did. It sounds like very good advice. I wrote that little book for young readers over twenty years ago, but the book lived up to its title for me. A gift. So I'm taking the liberty to change that quote at the beginning of my post a bit to say "Every book provides its own gift."   

You see when I wrote that book my father was dying with pancreatic cancer. During his illness, he became agitated and not himself and it was a very hard time for him and for all of us. The Gifting is about a young girl, Ginny and her recluse neighbor, Miss Nellie. I have to admit I'd forgotten my characters' names until I read the blurb on the cover. A lot of characters through the keyboard since then. But while I might not remember the names, I do remember the story and how thinking about those characters and what they might be going to do next helped me stop obsessively worrying about my dad and about Mom who was taking care of him. Worrying didn't help Dad or Mom either. So when the night pushed in on me and I couldn't sleep, I'd think about Ginny and Miss Nellie. The story was a gift to me.

Since then, I've been "gifted" with many other stories. Some of them have come at other hard times in my life. Right now is a hard time for me with my mother's struggle with dementia. Sometimes I wonder if I'll be able to get the next book written, but then the gift of a story will come. My last Shaker book, The Gifted, has a thread throughout about the blessing of gifts from the Lord and how we use those gifts. Like Jessamine in The Gifted, I think the Lord gave me a gift for words and intended for me to use that gift to tell stories. But at the same time that my books might turn out to be a gift to you, they can also be a gift to me while I'm writing them. But I do think I've probably used all the titles with gift in them that I can. But then you never know? I might be given another "gift" book. The Gift. His Gift. Her Gift. A Thousand Gifts. :)


Thanks for reading. And remember you can leave a comment here or on Jocie's Hollyhill blog to throw your name in the hat for the drawing for an autographed copy of Scent of Lilacs. Each comment on a new post gets you a new entry. I'll draw three winners on March 3 and let Jocie announce the winners on March 4. This drawing is open only to those of you who give me the gift of your comments here on my journals.

Leaving Happy Tracks

"The footprints you leave behind will influence others. There is no person who at some time, somewhere, somehow, does not lead another." ~Unknown

Freshly fallen snow seems to shout an invitation to get out and see what wildlife tracks might be found. But you can't search for tracks without your own footsteps giving evidence that a two-legged animal has been this way. When I look back at the trail I leave in the snow, I sometimes think of a song popular some years back about leaving a lot of happy tracks everywhere we go. The song is talking about more than the physical trail we leave behind as we walk through life but also all those people we touch on the journey with our actions and our words. 

"A bad word whispered will echo a hundred miles." ~Chinese Proverb

Words are an audible track that can show up behind us for years and years, especially if the spoken words, or written words too, were unkind or thoughtless. Sometimes the dark smudge of such a footprint can be unintended, words misunderstood. At times we might not realize we're stepping on someone's feelings with a heavy tread.  

I've got a few words echoing around in my head like that. Some of them that might not have even meant to be bad or at least personal, but for this or that reason the words stabbed me in a tender spot and got stuck in my thoughts. A casual acquaintance once made what seemed an offhand remark about my Shaker books. It wasn't even his own words, but he repeated something he'd heard someone else say. I've been writing a long time, so my skin is pretty thick about that sort of thing. I know everybody isn't going to like my every written word. Yet, for some reason what this man said burrowed down under my skin and has made a continual worry spot for me as it pokes at my writer confidence. I don't think he intended that to happen, but I'm not absolutely sure of it. 

Then there is the time when it was my words that injured. A beautiful young family joined our church - a bright spot for our little country church. The mother was an enthusiastic worker. I thought I was cheering her on in every way, but then she looked at me one day and said I was against everything she wanted to do. I was astounded and crushed that my words had been discouraging to her when I had intended support and encouragement. I begged her forgiveness, but it was too late. My words, however unintentional they had been, had left the wrong tracks in her mind. That's been years ago, but it still makes me sad to think about it. And it makes me try to be much more aware of not only what I'm saying but what the other person is hearing. Often it is not the same thing. 

Now with the internet and so many words flying across the social media networks, there is even more chance that wrong words will wound or words might be misunderstood. Those word trails don't disappear with the next breath either. They linger in the internet world. So I try to consider my words before I open my mouth or hit send. I want to leave happy tracks.

"Some people come into our lives and quickly go. Some stay for a while and leave footprints on our hearts. And we are never, ever the same."  ~Unknown

Hope every footprint on your heart sparkles with happiness. 

Fan Letters

"Hands down, the biggest thrill is to get a letter from a kid saying, I loved your book. Will you write me another one?" (Kate DiCamillo) 


Have you ever written an author a fan letter? When I first started writing back before the internet made communication instant and easy, I would get a few letters from readers sent to the publisher and then forwarded on to me. I got the most letters while I was writing my young adult fiction. A few times, a teacher would read one of my books to her class and then every child in her class wrote me a letter telling what he or she liked about the book. Such fun to read those letters and imagine the children listening to my stories and being introduced to the fun of reading. 

Now that I'm writing inspirational fiction for adults, I still get the occasional old fashioned letter from a reader, but more often I get e-mails from readers who contact me from my website. And I enjoy every one of those e-mails. Well, almost every one of them. Sometimes a reader takes me to task for some part of my book they didn't like or a mistake or mess-up I made. It's good to have readers to keep me straight. So even those e-mails can make me smile.

But my smile is a little broader when the readers are telling me they "couldn't put my book down." Or one man said I'd helped him discover the fun of reading again. Another reader told me that she did put my book down in order to go look up a Bible story my character mentioned. Fun fan letters or e-mails to get.

Back when I was writing the young adult fiction, I once had a young reading friend who wrote me like a pen pal. I wonder about her sometimes now that she's grown up. One thing I certainly never expected with the books I'm currently writing was to get a fan letter from a ten-year-old boy, but I did. Not a letter through the mail or an e-mail either. This kid was at one of the churches where my husband's group was singing a few weeks ago. I didn't get to be there because I have to sit with Mom on most Sundays now. But Chandler told my husband that he'd read every one of my Shaker books and then he found some paper to write me a note that Darrell forgot to give me. I stumbled across the note last week and of course, it made me smile and wish I'd been there to meet my young fan. 

Words can encourage or they can wound. Letters or e-mails from readers are usually encouraging to me. Chandler's note certainly was. I'm encouraged any time someone writes me and tells me he or she has read my books and are praying for me. One reader said she prayed for every author when she opened up his or her book. What a powerful gift to give someone she'd never actually met in person!

So thank all of you for your encouragement and for reading my words. And if you've ever sent me an e-mail or made a comment here, I promise to do my best to answer you. One thing you can know for sure. If you've ever written an author to tell that writer  you liked his or her book, you made someone smile. No doubt about it.