If You Had Your Life to Live Over

"If I had my life to live over, I would start barefoot earlier in the spring and stay that way later in the fall. I would go to more dances. I would ride more merry-go-rounds. I would pick more daisies." (Nadine Stair)

Have you ever thought about what you might do differently if you had your life to live over? Or maybe what you want to do in the days you have left? 

One time at a writers' retreat we were challenged to dream big and set goals for ourselves. What did we want to happen in the year ahead in our writing careers? I came up with a couple of big dreams. Neither thing happened that year or since. They are still dreams. 

Then, when I think about having over twenty-five of my books published, that would have been a really big dream for me when I started writing many years ago. But now sometimes I look back and wonder if I could have done this or that differently. Perhaps written more books or better books. At the same time, I feel blessed that I have been able to write some stories that have kept people reading. To have created some characters readers have invited into their hearts. 

We lost one of our church people this week. He had a good long life, but his family will miss him. Attending a funeral can make a person think about her own numbered days and wonder. Am I taking advantage of the blessings the Lord has showered down on me? What would I go back in time and do differently if I could? Would I lie in the grass and not worry about chiggers while I celebrated spring? Would I plant more flowers and eat more strawberries straight from the vine? Would I make more time away from my keyboard for family and friends? Would I take more time to listen and use less time talking? Would I cherish the moments and not rush the days? 

Regrets are useless. We can't go back. We can only live forward. Perhaps the thing we all need to do most is look around and enjoy the journey. 

What would you do differently if you could live your life over?

Dream Big

The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short but in setting our aim too low and achieving our mark. ~Michelangelo

At this time of the year, everybody talks about making New Years' resolutions. Here are some you might hear or even make yourself. Lose weight. Eat healthier foods. Exercise more. Read through the Bible. Finally write that book you've always wanted to write. Go back to school. Spend more time with your family. Do a kindness every day. So many good things we can resolve. But what about dreaming? What about thinking about what we want to happen in the year ahead? Do we aim too low with our goals? 

Years ago when I was just a kid who didn't know any better, I aimed high. I played on my aunt's old Underwood typewriter and dreamed of being a writer. I had no idea how to go about making that happen. I just knew I wanted to write down stories. I wanted to see those stories in print. And I had the amazing dream that somebody might someday pay me money for my words. Me, a farm girl who had never met the first writer. Me, a girl who had chores like stacking wood on the back porch for our wood stove and feeding the chickens. Me, a girl who only had a very few books she could call her very own. (I love libraries.) What were the odds that girl would ever figure out how to write a story, much less a book? Slim to none. Yet, there's that shelf of books with my name on the fronts under that old typewriter. Having that happen once was a big dream for me. Having it happen over and over again was a very big dream. 

 Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world. ~Harriet Tubman



In October I went to a writers' retreat where we were all encouraged to dream big. What did I want to accomplish in my writing life in the year to come? What did I want to do in my personal or spiritual life in the months ahead? Was I afraid to challenge myself with big dreams? What big dreams could I dream? I think I had a hard time coming up with what the leaders of the retreat considered "big" dreams because my published books were already big dreams coming true for me. But I could dream more books. I could dream more readers. I could dream about bestseller lists or award ceremonies or maybe movies made from my books. Those could be my big dreams, and I do dream about some of those things. I do want more people to read my books because I love sharing my stories. But at the end of the day, I can't get away from the truth that I'm already living my big dream of writing stories and having them out there for readers, and that somebody is paying for my words. Simply, without a doubt, amazing! 

I'll keep challenging myself to keep dreaming. I'll challenge myself to make each new book better in some way than the last! I'll dream of tomorrow's book and aim high. And I'll try never to forget how blessed I am to be living that long ago dream.



 God's gifts put man's best dreams to shame. ~Elizabeth Barrett Browning

How about you? Are you dreaming big for 2013? I hope so. Thanks so much for reading, and don't forget - you are in my dreams!

Looking Ahead to Writing Goals in 2012

"Never believe in mirrors or newspapers." (John Osborne - British playwright and producer 1929-1994)

Last Wednesday I looked back at 2011. I think it's good to take stock of where you've been but it's even better to look ahead to where you're going. A writer can hang onto the last story too long sometimes and not reach out for the new story. With writing, the thing is that it's usually at least a year before you get to actually see your story in book form. So by the time one story is all wrapped up in a great cover and ready to hit the stores for readers, then a productive writer has another story ready to start the publishing process. And some really productive writers have several stories ready to go. I read about one writer not long ago who has nine new books coming out in 2012. I can't even imagine doing all the editing, etc. that would be required on that many books in one year, much less write that many new books.

But I do have two books coming out in 2012. For me, that's a lot. First up is Words Spoken True. It releases February 1, and I'm thinking I might get a copy hot off the presses any time now. I read my first review of the book this week. RT Book Review Magazine gave it 4 stars and said "Gabhart’s ability to transport readers into the world of newspaper writing in the 1850’s is amazing. Her latest conveys the power of the written word, family secrets and the knowledge that the choices we want to make are not always the ones that happen in the end." 

I always feel a sigh of relief when the first review I see on a book is positive. That doesn't mean the next one will be, but at least somebody thought the story was okay. Now I have to wait to see what my readers think. I actually dedicated this book to my readers who have followed my story trail through my small town of Hollyhill to my Shaker village of Harmony Hill back to a little community called Rosey Corner and now to Louisville. I've so appreciated my readers who have been willing to give my different stories a chance.

 Some of you will be happy to know I am going back to Harmony Hill for another story. I'm actually doing edits on The Gifted right now. I wanted to come up with a different heroine for this Shaker book and I think I succeeded with Jessamine Brady. The book won't be out until July, but it, like Words Spoken True, is already available for pre-sale on some internet bookselling sites. 

So that's what's already in the pipeline for me in 2012. I've got those stories written. Words Spoken True is edited and ready. The Gifted will go through a couple of edits and then it'll be ready for readers too. That's the easy part of my writing road in 2012. But I want to write more stories so that I can look ahead to more books ready in 2013.

My writing road is sort of bumpy right now since I have to spend so many hours sitting with my mother. I am trying to work out a new writing schedule, but so far it hasn't been easy. It would be great if I could sit down in front of my computer and have the story flow like water out of a primed pump, but it's not usually that easy for me. But I keep writing and the story usually trickles out if I keep pumping hard enough. That's what I'm looking forward to in 2012. Pumping hard and keeping my fingers on the keyboard to write two new stories that will speak to my heart first and then perhaps to readers' hearts on down the road. 

What are you looking forward to in 2012? I hope you have some exciting things awaiting you and that you are pushing toward your  goals. Thanks for reading. I appreciate each and every one of you who reads my journal here and those of you who follow it every week. I always enjoy your comments too. Thanks so much. 

Desk Clean - Awaiting the Clutter of a New Story

If a cluttered desk is the sign of a cluttered mind, what is the significance of a clean desk? (Dr. Laurence J. Peter)

I had a goal last weekend of cleaning off my desk. I put it off as long as I could Saturday. Even washed windows instead of tackling the piles of accumulated papers, book catalogs, notes and cards, to do lists, etc. on my desk while I was meeting some writing deadlines the last couple of months. Now I have more deadlines out there whispering "You'd better get started." But I needed to undo some of the clutter first. Give myself a fresh start. 

While I don't pretend to compare my books with Pearl Buck, I do understand where she is in the following quote. 

In a mood of faith and hope my work goes on. A ream of fresh paper lies on my desk waiting for the next book. I am a writer and I take up my pen to write. (Pearl S. Buck)


At a beginning. You can almost see that stack of paper awaiting the stroke of her pen. I understand the ream of paper. I know the feeling 500 fresh sheets of paper used to bring me. So many possibilities as I rolled that first blank sheet into my typewriter. Now I look at the blank computer screen. It doesn't evoke quite the same picture or feeling, but at the same time an almost unlimited space is out there that I can fill up with my stories. 

So I sifted through the piles on my desk and stuffed some things here and others there and found my desk. And my need to begin again. Perhaps my cluttered desk did signal a cluttered mind, but I don't know that I want a "clean" mind. A writer needs some clutter. I may need to push it aside so I can catch a clear vision of my story, but I will have to reach back into that clutter to pull out emotions and experiences and things lurking back there in my subconscious that right now, I have no idea are even there. But I have that "mood of faith and hope" that the right words, the right story will surface once I'm brave enough to type Chapter 1. 


It's a new historical. And so this last quote speaks to me.


The act of writing requires a constant plunging back into the shadow of the past where time hovers ghostlike.  (Ralph Ellison) 


That's what I'm doing now at the beginning. Reaching back into the past. Finding out things. Stirring them into the murky soup of story making and hoping for a boiling plot of true events peopled by my fictional characters.


But whatever I write in the weeks ahead, at least I did meet my goal and find the top of my desk last Saturday. New goal - write! What goals do you set for yourself? And what's your desk look like?


As always, thanks for reading. 

A Blank Book

Happy New Year, everybody! Hope 2009 is treating you fine so far and that it will be a year packed full of good things and great joy.

We are four days into the year. Have you broken any of your New Year's resolutions yet? I sent out my occasional newsletter yesterday. (If you'd like to be on my list to get my five or six newsletters a year, you can sign up by clicking on Ann's newsletter on the homepage of my website.) Anyway, in the newsletter I say I like coming up with goals at the beginning of a year, but I don't do the resolution thing as well. Perhaps because I've always broken most of the resolutions I've made way before I should. A resolution makes me think "You can't do this anymore" like eat yummy desserts or play a computer game of solitaire when I should be writing. On the other hand, a goal makes me think "You can do this." I can write a better book. I can have it finished by deadline time. I can laugh at least once a day. I can read more books.

That's one of my goals this year - to read more. As I said in my newsletter, a writer needs to read. Reading feeds a writer's writing engine. Trouble is, a writer who wants to set her characters back in a historical time needs to do a lot of research. I like reading history, but I also want to read more books solely for pleasure, to stir up my own creative juices by reading others' words. Sometimes I wish I could somehow just absorb the historical information I need. Actually that’s sort of what has to happen so I can realistically write about a historical event. I have to put myself in the history with my characters and feel the wind and hear the thunder of the storms they are experiencing. That’s why I like reading diaries and letters of people who lived in whatever time period I’m researching. The letter writers might not have every fact of history right, but they know how the wind feels on their faces.

Many of my goals have to do with my writing. Most of my writing life I haven’t written to deadlines other than the ones I’ve set for myself. To get this or that story done by some arbitrary time I have decided on. It always helped to keep me focused on working to the end of my story even though I rarely finished my story as quickly as I hoped I would. Then last year I had a real deadline for a contracted book and learned I could keep my nose to the grindstone and force out so many pages each and every time I sat down at the computer. I love to write but at the same time it’s often very difficult to make my fingers start poking the keyboard and pulling the words out of my head. It’s easier to research one more fact, sharpen a dozen pencils, answer a few e-mails, steep another cup of tea, anything except digging out a new scene. I have another deadline not all that many months away, so I’m going to have to set some new goals and be disciplined at my work again.

I hope you are busy setting goals for the coming year. I think it helps to write them down, but of course, I'm a journal writer and that's what journal writers do. Set things down on paper. Dreams and goals. Good times and bad. In case you are in the goal setting or resolution making mode, here are some quotations you might enjoy.

• You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream. - Les Brown
• Man is a goal seeking animal. His life only has meaning if he is reaching out and striving for his goals. - Aristotle
• May all your troubles last as long as your New Year's resolutions! - Joey Adams (It appears Mr. Adams has my opinion of resolutions.)
• Making resolutions is a cleansing ritual of self assessment and repentance that demands personal honesty and, ultimately, reinforces humility. Breaking them is part of the cycle. -Eric Zorn
• We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year's Day.- Edith Lovejoy Pierce

That last one is my favorite. A blank book. Now all I have to do is fill up the pages and take advantage of the opportunities that await me.

A couple of opportunites are coming up next week as I'm going to be talking to two bookclubs. One in New York and the other in Kentucky. I love bookclubs. Anybody who enjoys reading enough to join a club to talk about books has to be my kind of person.

Hope all of you set goals that will make your life better and that with the Lord's help you move toward those goals. As Paul says in Philippians 3:14 (Br. Fred preached on this passage today) "I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." May we all press toward the mark.