Another Guessing Game, Another Book to Give Away

The Winner of the First Book is...

And my first blog book giveaway winner is Alla.  I'll be in touch via e-mail, Alla. 

Flower #2

You all were too good at the first game. You're either lucky guessers or you paid attention on my Facebook page. If that's it, you'd play a mean game of Concentration. Wasn't there a game like that on television where they had to match something on a big board? There used to be so many games on daytime television. Some of them are still around. Price is Right. Jeopardy. Wheel of Fortune. I used to like Password. I think that's the right name. More recently, that crazy game A Minute to Win It was sort of fun. I watched it some with Mom when I was staying with her. She liked it. Which old television game shows do you remember?


But back to my flower game. Yes, indeed, flower #2 was the new flower that bloomed too late to make my parade of yellow flowers on my Facebook page. It's a moss rose or at least, that's what I always called it. Those little flowers are so cute and tough too. They can take the heat.

And Now on to the Next Game

This post we're doing something a little different. It's still a yellow flower, but do you recognize which one? Any comment will get you an entry (even an "I don't know"), but the right answer gets you two chances to win. Remember to guess before you read the comments. One winner, named in the Sunday post, will win the choice of one of my books, autographed to the winner or to one of the winner's family or friends. So if you already have ALL my books (and I really thank you if you do!), keep in mind that books make great gifts for any occasion or a just for fun occasion. 

Newsletter Shaker Gift Giveaway

I'm sending out a newsletter in the next couple of days with a Shaker gift giveaway to celebrate The Innocent. So if you'd like to be on my newsletter list and you aren't already, be sure to sign up pronto. 

Thanks for reading 

A Flower Guessing Game for a Chance to Win a Book

Flower 1

Flower 2                                                                                  Flower 3

The Innocent is Ready for Readers

The Innocent is going out to readers. The internet sites are shipping the paper copy of the book already. It's about three weeks before the official release date, but if the book is out there, that date doesn't mean much. I haven't seen it on a store shelf but where I live, don't many stores have bookshelves. Just our local WalMart Store, but they don't always carry my books. Local connections don't mean much in the corporate world. 


First Review Spotted

But I did just see the first review of The Innocent online and I was happy to see that the reviewer highlighted the spiritual thread in the story. Here's a bit of the review from Jeanette's Thoughts "Keep praying. When you feel like giving up...keep praying. When you are hopeless and scared...keep praying. This book had such a powerful message. Keep praying." 

Pray Anyway

My character, Carlyn, did find out that no matter the circumstances in her life, prayer could help. Perhaps I zeroed in on that theme in this book because I was writing it during those last hard months of caretaking for my mother who suffered from dementia before she passed away. Prayer got us through some tough days. Not only my prayers, but many of you and also my Facebook friends lifted Mom and me up in prayer then and also later when I was diagnosed with breast cancer. Now I have a niece going through cancer treatment and she has prayer warriors making her difficult path of treatments easier. Prayer is powerful.

So it was good seeing that the reviewer appreciated the prayers or need for prayers through my new Shaker story.

Yellow Flower Contest - Maybe Win a Book

I did finally figure out a contest to use my yellow flower pictures. For those of you who don't join the conversation on my Facebook Page, let me explain. For thirty days in May I spotted and posted a different yellow flower every day. Then the thirty-first day came and I hunted but couldn't find a new yellow flower. Since then a few more yellow flowers have popped up for me to spot. The game is to guess which photo of the three above is a new yellow flower that wasn't posted on my FB page. Flower 1, flower 2 or flower 3.

Every guess gets an entry, but if you guess the correct new flower (the one that wasn't posted on my FB page during the thirty day run), you'll get two entries. One winner, chosen by random drawing, will win his or her choice of one of my books. That includes the new one, The Innocent, if that's the one the winner wants. Your comments have to be on here by 6 p.m. Wednesday, June 17 when I'll draw and post the winner on my next blog post. Then I'll put up a new set of flower pictures to play again with the winner posted on the next Sunday. Two winners this week and two winners next. Open to all readers over eighteen. 

So I hope some of you will play my flower guessing game. Thanks for reading.

Another Mystery Picture to Guess

Here's the new mystery picture. We'll see if I can be a tad trickier this time than last time. I was trying to be tricky last time, but obviously I missed the mark on that. I had no idea that all of you were country girls like me who knew your wood.
 
 
Here is the picture nearly all of you figured out. And then the rest of the picture. I was imagining you seeing canyons and who knows what else. But most of you saw exactly what it was. A slice of tree trunk. Still, it's pretty neat, don't you think? I spotted it on my walk last week. A little bit of a tree sawed down and deserted. No fire made with it. 

When I was a kid, one of my chores was to carry in loads of wood and stack it on the back porch for the woodstove. Helped develop my muscles. Even after I married, we burned wood for heat until a few years ago when my husband developed allergies. Nothing like the warmth of wood heat. Sitting by a fire, reading a book, drinking a cup of tea. Simple pleasures.

I've got all of you who made a guess on the last picture entered in the giveaway for one of my books and another grab bag book. Remember, I'm picking three winners on February 1, 2015. You have to be 18 to enter and a USA or Canadian resident to win the paper books. But if you live in other countries and want to play the guessing game, I'll send you an e-book if you win. If you guessed on the last picture and then guess again on this new picture, you get another entry. Each guess on a new picture earns an entry for you.

So what do you think it is? I do hope I have a few of you at least momentarily puzzled with this one. LOL. We'll see. You all are hard to fool. Remember, it's more fun to guess first and then check out the other guesses. The most important thing to remember is that it's all for fun. Wrong guesses get an entry the same as right guesses. But you do need to leave a way to contact you. If you don't want to leave your e-mail here, you can send your guess via my e-mail, annhgabhart(at)yahoo(dot)com or leave a message on my Facebook page.

Okay. Time to guess!!

New Mystery Picture Contest to Win Some Books

Are you ready for a new mystery picture contest? Like to win a new book or two? Then you've come to the right place. Between now and the end of January, it's time to guess the pictures. 

So what do you think it is?

Make a guess and on February 1, I'll draw for three winners from those of you who comment on the mystery photos in the next couple of weeks. Remember, the guess doesn't have to be right. Just a guess. You do have to leave a way to contact you. You can leave your e-mail or message me on my Facebook page. You don't have to like my Facebook page to enter. That's just a way I might be able to contact you if you don't want to leave your e-mail here. If you have trouble leaving a comment here, you can always send your mystery photo guess via an e-mail at annhgabhart(at)yahoo(dot)com.

The prizes are books. Bet you were really surprised by that. :) But if you play the game, you might win your choice of one of my autographed books plus a grab bag book by a different Christian author. The contest is open to United States and Canada only for print books, but if you want to play and you live overseas, I'll send you an e-book copy of one of my books (your choice) if you are one of the lucky winners. You must be 18 to play and the winner will be chosen by random drawing after the Jan. 31 deadline. Each guess on a different mystery pictures in the next couple of weeks gets you another entry. Remember, it's more fun if you guess first and look at everybody else's guesses later. I'll let you know what this picture is on Wednesday and post a new picture. 

Last time we had fun with this. Some of you were great guessers and figured out the mystery pictures most of the time. Others of you were more like me when I see a mystery photo and made guesses a bit off the mark. That's okay. We're just playing and wrong guesses are as good as right guesses to get your name in my drawing hat.

In celebration of Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Monday, here are some his inspiring quotes.

• Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men.  

• The time is always right to do what is right.

• Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

• The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.

As always, thanks for reading and I'll look forward to your guesses on the picture.

Another Seed to Guess

Then God said, "Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind, whose seed is in itself, on the earth"; and it was so. (Genesis 1:11 NKJ)

Just as I thought, most all of you guessed last week's "seed." They were black walnuts. A few of you had interesting other guesses such as pears, pawpaws, hedge apples, fig, guava, and quince. But no, they were black walnuts. Here's another picture of them after they've fallen off the tree and are on the ground for the picking. The green hull comes off and inside the nut shell is black and very hard. It takes a real knock with a hammer or rock to break them. 

When I was a kid, we picked them up and put them in a low place on our rocky driveway. After the car had run over them a few times to mash off the green outer shell, we picked up the black nuts and let them dry for a while. Then Mom would break them with a hammer. She had a special nut cracking rock that I still have around here somewhere. It took patience to get the nut meat out of the shells with a nut picker, but those black walnuts were delicious in chocolate candy or divinity. Just thinking about how good that was makes me consider saving a few of the walnuts from the squirrels so I can make some Christmas candy like Mom did.

Another walnut memory was from when my kids were young. We'd go out in the fields and pick up the walnuts to sell. We'd have gunny sacks full and the kids would be counting their money before we finally got their dad to take the walnuts to the local feed store where the buyers set up machines to hull the walnuts. The kids never got as much as they dreamed they might get because the nuts weren't weighed until after the green hull was off. So even though we had picked up sacks and sacks of them, the pounds they were paid for was probably less than half that. Still, it wasn't a bad way to spend a beautiful fall day - out in the woods picking up walnuts with the kids. A little hard on the back sometimes. This year we are having a bountiful crop. My mother-in-law used to say that meant we were in for a hard winter, but industrious squirrels won't have to worry about going hungry. I watched one of them bury one of the walnuts in the yard last week to store it for later.

This week's picture is posted up top. Got a guess on them? Another one that might be extra easy for us country girl types. Remember you get an entry in the giveaway for the choice of one of my books and a grab bag book by another author every time you make a guess on one of the seed pictures. Just please let me know a way to contact you in case you are one of the two winners I'll pick on October 31. You don't have to get the guess right. Just make a guess or be like one of my Facebook friends and admit you are not a nature person and haven't the foggiest. :) That will get you entered in the drawing too. As always, thanks for reading.

"Anybody can count the number of seeds in an apple, but only God can count the number of apples in a seed." (Robert H. Schuller)

Guessing Games, Imagination, and Shaker Book Winners

"Imagination has rules, but we can only guess what they are." ~Mason Cooley

I love games that take imagination. Guessing games can be fun too. So thank all of you who have played along with my mystery photos to enter my giveaway for Orchard of Hope. I'll be drawing for the two winners on Saturday, November 2, so you can get in an extra entry by commenting on this post or one of the other mystery photo posts before Saturday. Each guess or comment on a new post gets you another entry. Do you know what this one is? Remember, it's more fun if you make your guess before you read everybody else's.

I'm not quite as mysterious as I'd hoped to be with these photos.
I thought the one last Wednesday would be a real puzzler and what did all of you say? Flower. And all of you were right! However, only a few of you knew what KIND of flower. It is a passion flower. They are strange little blooms. One of Mom's sitters brought it show Mom one night this summer. I'm totally amazed by the bloom from its strange little skinny petals to its merry-go-round center.The amazing gifts of nature.

I really didn't plan to do any more mystery pictures, but since I'm not drawing for the winners of Orchard of Hope until Saturday, I said why not. You may be bored with the game, but I'm determined to stump some of you!! I probably won't. You guys are just too smart and good at figuring things out.  

I did finally contact the winners of the Shaker books which was the bonus prize I offered during the Christian Fiction Scavenger Hunt. I hope if you took part in that you had fun and maybe won a prize on one of the posts. My winners are Pam of CA and Katie of FL who both chose The Believer. The third winner was Linda of CA who picked The Gifted. I do appreciate all of you telling me what you liked about the scavenger hunt and leaving comments on Lyn's guest post here on the 18th. I read every comment, but was unable to answer every one after the 400 plus message started giving my computer a headache. :) Computers with headaches are not nice to be around. 

The past is an old armchair in the attic, the present an ominous ticking sound, and the future is anybody's guess.
James Thurber
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/guess_3.html#p1cagsRWU1e0j5AW.99

"I guess I'm just quite observant and I pay attention to a lot of things. Human behavior really fascinates me." ~Ellie Goulding

So let's see how observant you are. And I promise. This is the last mystery photo for a while.