Meeting a Character in Person

Readers make Blogging Fun

One of the best things about blogging is getting to know you readers through your comments. You are such an encouraging community for me. Writers spend a lot of time in "solitary confinement" while digging stories out of their heads. Of course, we're not totally alone. We have all those characters yanking on our imaginations trying to get our attention. 


Conflict Makes a Story

Sunday I wrote about how life can be messy even for fictional characters. I guess in stories, life has to be a little messy because if there's no problem, there's no story. Got to have conflict. Got to have something your characters are trying to defeat or achieve or perhaps simply survive. Once a writer decides what that conflict is going to be, then to make a story really good, the writer needs to keep making it harder and harder for the character to reach whatever goal is out there for him or her. You've got to throw some boulders in his way. That's true even if the story isn't suspense or mystery. In romance, the characters have to overcome whatever obstacles stand in the way of love. In my work in progress, I'm a little worried I have set up some obstacles too big for love to come calling. That's the trouble with writing books set in my Shaker village. The Shakers took many pains to eliminate romance from their society. 

An Encouraging Comment

But back to your encouraging comments. I got one of those Sunday from Lisa. I shared it on my Facebook page on Mailbag Tuesday, but one thing she said set off an idea for tonight's post. Here's her sentence. "We even said if we met one of your characters on the street, we think we would recognize them!"

That's a really nice compliment. It sounds fun to think about meeting my characters. I know I'd be ready to listen to some Jupiter stories from Wes the way Jocie does in the Heart of Hollyhill books. And it wouldn't be so bad to sit in Mount Pleasant Church and hear her dad preach a sermon or two or be there for a Christmas program with Miss Sally directing. Of course, I do sit in a little church on Sundays that is a whole lot like the Mount Pleasant Church. 

Meeting a Character in Real Life

But once, I did meet one of my characters - not on the street but in a restaurant - and I knew her at once. We were in one of those buffet restaurants (my husband's favorite eating places) and in walked Fern. If you've read my Rosey Corner books (Angel Sister and Small Town Girl) you know Fern. She's also hanging around for a big role in my third Rosey Corner book coming in July, Love Comes Home. But in case you haven't read one of the Rosey Corner books, here's the first time we actually see Fern in Angel Sister.

The skin on Fern's face was weathered and mottled with broken red veins on her high cheekbones, and her steel gray hair looked for all the world as if it was trying to escape from her scalp. The blue of her eyes had faded like old work jeans and had an unfocused, almost feral look. She wore a pair of overalls with big holes in the knees she'd probably stolen off somebody's clothesline years ago. Under the overalls was a dirty white slip. She didn't carry any extra weight, but she'd long ago lost her delicate look. She spent her days cutting cedars now to make her cedar houses instead of sipping tea and doing needlework. 

And so, I was in that restaurant eating lunch a couple of years ago when in walks Fern. She had on overalls over a flannel shirt instead of a slip. Her hair was that steel gray and she didn't look as if she cared whether it was combed or not. She was a little heavier than my fictional Fern and she didn't have the little axe Fern carried around with her. At least I don't think she did! 

The book had already been out a couple of years when I spotted this real life Fern, but it was an interesting experience to see somebody I'd created in my imagination have such a near double in real life. That was before I had a phone that took pictures so I couldn't even sneak a picture of her. I might have been afraid to anyway. My Fern in Rosey Corner is nobody to mess with. And that real life Fern looked the same. 

Invite a Character to Lunch?

So, have you read stories where you think you might like to meet the characters on the street or maybe invite them home for lunch to find out pieces of their stories that might not have been in the book?

Chances to Win Summer of Joy

In case you missed out on winning Summer of Joy in my recent giveaways, you've got some more chances this week. You can check out my guest post "Chasing the Writing Dream through Rejection Valley and Beyond" and leave a comment on Charity's Giveaway Lady blog for a chance to win. Deadline the April 9. Then if you're a Book Club Network participant, Revell Books is giving away 5 copies of Summer of Joy. You just have to answer one of my easy questions on the The Book Club Network page. Dealine to enter 03/31. I'll also be a guest post Thursday on Nora's blog Finding Hope through Fiction where I talk all about my small town inspiration for Hollyhill. Last I'm doing a interview about dreaming on Betty Owens' blog Thursday. 

As always, thanks for reading!! 

And the Winners Are

"Winning is only half of it. Having fun is the other half." (Bum Phillips)

Another book celebration comes to an end with winners picked and contacted. You all make my contests so much fun with your stories and comments. Thank you for taking the time to toss your names in my hat for the giveaway drawing. Some of you take part in every contest I post and I do appreciate that, because it wouldn't be much fun throwing a celebration party if nobody showed up. I always enjoyed reading the stories you share with me when I have a contest where I ask you to tell me a story for a change instead of the other way around. This time, most of you said you didn't have Valentine stories. That might prove that Valentine's Day is more important to the florists and the greeting card companies than to us average folks. But the stories I did hear from a few of you were fun and proved that it's not the size of the Valentines, but the love behind those Valentines that make the difference.

While you didn't have to share a story to win, it turns out that some of the winners did share Valentine stories. Deanna was the first place winner and wins the charm bracelet I know Jocie would have loved and a signed set of the Hollyhill books which include Scent of Lilacs, Orchard of Hope, and Summer of Joy. Deanna shares what made Valentine's Day fun for her and every day a good day. 

"I was blessed to receive roses from my husband, he is terrible about getting things over on me but he picked them out, brought them home and hid them from me to surprise me this a.m. while I was getting ready to go to work. Little things that we do for each other every day, not just certain days make things special. Asking if we would like to have something while the other one is up, getting the other's toothbrush ready, knowing I like a certain thing, making sure to get it or make a nice meal, all things that help in a relationship." 

Thanks, Deanna. Sounds like you and your husband have figured out how to have a great relationship. 

Now for the rest of the winners. Judy B won second place and gets the ring dish with the cute bike on it and that set of Hollyhill books. Cynthia B can't say she's never won anything from me before. She gets a box of candy and her pick of one of my books. She picked Small Town Girl. Those are the winners of the Summer of Joy Celebration Giveaway, but I also promised to pick two winners here on my blog. Winning a copy of their choice of one of my books is Gayle P and Noelle. I do so appreciate everyone of you who took time to leave comments on my posts here and join in with my giveaway fun. I love hearing from you and reading your comments and the stories you share. 

Noelle shared a story of love about her grandmother. 

"A love story did you say? Well, I thought about it for quite awhile and decided at least for me, there has never been such a love as my Granny's! 

Granny lost her true love not once, not twice but trice. The first involved leaving her country/continent for another and she could not choose between those she loved so she remained home. The second sadly died shortly before Mum was born and left Granny alone in her twenties to raise a child without any means. 

The third left her a widow at age 56 and she thought love was over for ever. Whilst on the coast, she met a scuba diver who asked her to watch his gear whilst diving. Thus begins my story...

I was still little and never knew how much developed from this relationship but I can tell you that's when my Dad asked Granny to take care of my sibling and myself. I do remember this scuba diver's visit though as he invited us kids to go to the sweet shoppe. We felt we had won the lottery of course and when the shoppe owner saw our rather extensive list of sweets, she said: "Now be sure to say thank you to Grandpa" to which we piped up "Oh, that's not Grandpa, just Granny's boyfriend!"

Another era with etiquette to be observed and such a thing frowned upon...But with love shining in her eyes,Granny bounced back and gave us a hug, shrugging her shoulders and just smiled.

Imagine our Mum's face when the story was told, I can tell you no one forgot this story soon!

One more thing: Granny chose not to accept the scuba diver's invitation to remain by his side for life, instead she raised us!

Love is a many splendored thing, is it not?

Love does come in many sizes and shapes, Noelle. Thanks for sharing your story with us. Your granny must have been quite a woman. 

Again, thanks to all of you for joining in with my giveaway fun. I hope you had fun too. Now to start thinking up some fun prizes for a June contest to celebrate Love Comes Home. And maybe I can think up a better subject to get you all talking. Any ideas?

Double Fun

Almost two years ago I was rushing to get the book that became The Believer finished before these two little ones made their appearance in the world. And now here they are full of smiles for their grandma and their grandma is rushing to get yet another book finished, my fourth Shaker book, as yet nameless.

~~I've been brainstorming names for it and have a whole list but none of the names are settling down and sticking to the story. So we'll see on that. Right now I need to get the story written. I'm into my quota period. That means I'm ordering myself to write so many words or pages every weekday. I stayed with the schedule last week so we'll see how things go this week.

~~But aren't the boys cute? I am blessed with a whole baseball team of healthy grandkids. And cute ones, too.

~~I went with the Patriot Quartet to sing tonight. Well, they sang, and I listened. Got my ego boosted a little by one of the ladies there who had read a couple of my books and came back to the product table to buy all the other books I had with me. I told her I was going to take her on the road with me. That was fun, but you know a boosted ego today is likely to turn into a busted ego tomorrow. With writers it's an up and down rollercoaster ride. Tonight I was up on the top of the ride with the kind words about my book. Tomorrow I might be at the bottom with a new review that isn't as kind or maybe a letter from the publishing company saying one of my books is being taken out of print.

~~Actually I got one of those letters last week. My last Hollyhill book, Orchard of Hope is going out of print. But the good news about that is the publishing company has plans to repackage and reissue the three Hollyhill books in the next couple of years, possibly as a set. That's good news for me, but I guess it would be a higher point if the books had stayed in print because readers loved them that much. Every writer's dream.

~~So through the ups and downs I just have to hang on and not get too excited or worried about either one. Instead I need to keep pressing keyboard keys, keep putting words together and figuring out what happens next. You can be sure I'll tell you when what happens next is I write "The End." That's a few weeks away.

~~Hope you're having more ups than downs this week.

The Beauty of Nature

"Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts." --Rachel Carson

What a great time of the year to feast on the beauty of the world around us! I'm enjoying the sunshine and the crisp autumn air. It makes for some great walking weather. And I like bringing some of the beauty of nature home with me. In the spring and summer I pick a few wildflower blooms - if the plants are plentiful - to put in a vase on my desk. In the fall, I like bringing home a colorful leaf or two to brighten up my office. I like taking nature pictures and I'm thankful for a digital camera that lets me snap to my heart's content without having to think about wasting film.

But sometimes the very best way to bring home the beauty is in your memory. When I first started walking in the woods as a young teen, I remember stopping and taking mental pictures of different trees or creeks or beautiful places so that I would always have them in my memory bank. I'd read a story about a man who was a prisoner of war and had kept his sanity by building a house in his mind, imagining each board and each nail as he put the house together. When he got home, he built that house. Now it may seem a stretch from that to taking mental pictures of a beautiful oak tree flaming in the sun, but I was an impressionable youngster with an imagination that sometimes took me down dreary lanes of what ifs. I planned to store up my beauty images in case I someday found myself deprived of the opportunity to view beauty.

Thank goodness those dreary what ifs haven't happened. I've lived a blessed life, but I still have those images of beauty in my memory bank and I've added lots more. And not just nature shots, but personal images as well. The first sight of my babies. The first time I saw my husband to be. My daughter singing in a Junior Miss contest. My son receiving a scholarship. My other son telling me he was engaged. So many images of the joy of life and some of the sadness too with the nature ones intermingled to keep me grounded.

I like using nature in my books. In my first published book I used the fleeting shadow of a bird passing over the character to hint at trouble coming. In my Hollyhill books, I had locust blooms and lilacs, a tornado and a snowstorm that were important to the story lines. In The Outsider the weather was a major obstacle to the men fighting in the War of 1812. I didn't make that weather up. It was in the history accounts, but my characters had to deal with the heat and then the bitter cold and snow. In The Believer I have Hannah who loves the woods. At the book club I visited last week, some of the readers said that Hannah was one of their favorite characters. So maybe all those mental images I've been snapping of this or that nature scene are coming in handy after all. A writer has to use what she's given along with what she can imagine.

The Kentucky Book Fair is this Saturday. Come by and see me if you're there. I'm in the back row sitting at the same table as Jan Watson. We both love talking to readers. Of course those 200 other writers do, too. So if you come, plan to spend a couple of hours enjoying books. I'll be on a panel called "Fiction Writers Unite!" with Jan and Karen Robards and Mary Ann Taylor-Hall at 12:30 p.m. That should be fun. Last but not least, keep me in your thoughts and prayers on Friday morning as I'm going to be talking to three classes of high school kids. I'm looking forward to their questions. That's always my favorite part of any talk I do about writing. I'll try to remember their most interesting questions to share with you next week.

--Hope you have plenty of beauty in your lives this week.

Weeds or Wildflowers?

Hey everybody! Look at this. I actually uploaded a picture. At least I think I have. Guess the truth will be in the pudding as the old saying goes when I try to publish this post. What's with this truth is in the pudding saying anyway? Do people say that because some pie maker bragged about their delicious custard and then some doubting eater said he wouldn't believe it was good until he tasted it? Maybe I need to go out on the net and look up the roots of that saying. Or could be I have the saying all wrong. Sometimes I do that. Mix up my old sayings with a bit of this one stuck in with that one. Sometimes the twisted result actually almost makes sense.

But back to my picture. That's me in the middle flanked by my agent, Wendy Lawton, on the left and my editor, Lonnie DuPont on the right. It was taken in front of my new mantel in my new room that turned out to be a great place to entertain guests when they were visiting here a couple of weeks ago. You can't see it but right on the other side of the room there's a table and chairs with windows all around where we ate and enjoyed the view while we were chatting non-stop. Wendy was entranced by the ironweeds that my husband had tried to get bushhogged the week before they came so things wouldn't look so wooly and weedy, but ran out of time. That was just as well since Wendy loved them so much she walked down to the fence to take pictures. To her they looked like wildflowers, not weeds. To Darrell, they're weeds that not even the cows will eat. Guess that's why they're called ironweeds - too tough for the cows to chew.

We have an artistic flower arranger at our post office and she's always got a beautiful vase of flowers on the counter. Makes standing in line at the post office not so bad. Last week it was ironweeds and black-eyed Susans. Very, very pretty. I keep thinking I'll take my scissors when I go walking and cut me some of the purple blooms, but so far I haven't. But it is funny how we can admire some unfamiliar (to us) flower when we visit a new area that the people there think of as nothing but a pesky weed. Of course my grandson loves the ironweeds. He likes to knock their stalks down with a stick - the taller and bigger the ironweed the better.

Actually I usually admire the weed flowers. I'm a fan of dandelions with their bright sun spots of spring-is-coming hope in March and April. Daisies growing out in the field cheer me up with their bright flowers. And this year we had a hayfield of Queen Anne's lace that smelled delicious. Whether the cows will like Queen Anne's lace flavored hay remains to be seen. How about you? Do you have a favorite flowering weed?

There's a little over a week to go before I draw for the winner of my book giveaway. An autographed book would make a great Christmas present if you already have a copy. So send me an e-mail from my website or comment here and I'll add your name to the pot. The winner will get a copy of The Believer and their choice of one of my other books.

I got a comment on my last blog entry asking about my Hollyhill books and whether the story would go on. I had so much fun writing about Jocie and her family and friends and there is still a lot to tell because the reader was right. Jocie's story is only just beginning. So who knows? That may happen. The other thing that may happen is that I may start a Hollyhill blog. Perhaps Wes's Hollyhill Book of the Strange. I'll have to give that some thought and see if I can find some more minutes in my day. But first I have to finish the edits on my next summer's book, The Seeker. Gonna do that tomorrow, God willing and the creek don't rise or the computer go down.

Thanks for reading. Hope you have a great Labor Day tomorrow. Enjoy.

The Dancing Room

Another Sunday. Another day to enjoy life. I had a lot of life to enjoy around here on Saturday with both sets of grandbabies (nine of them, but sometimes it seems like a dozen or more) here to give the new room a test run. Since I don't have any new furniture and only an entertainment center and side table and rocking chair out there, there was plenty of room for the grandkids to play. I sort of like the wide open spaces and they liked playing on that new hardwood floor. It looks great. And it looked even better with circles of grandkids playing with each other on it. Katie, my three and a half year old granddaughter, told me she wanted to go out and play in the "dancing room."

Maybe that's what Darrell and I should do tonight to celebrate his birthday. Dance in our new "dancing" room. Only trouble is neither one of us is much of a dancer. Even as a teenager when the twist and such dances were all the craze, I never had the nerve to actually try doing any of them anywhere except in the privacy of my own room. Too self-conscious at the time. Too awkward now. So we'll probably just celebrate without fanfare by thinking about how cute all our grandkids are while enjoying the peace and quiet now that they've gone home. I used to always make him a pecan pie, but now he's continually on some kind of diet. So it's not fair to cook something to tempt him off it. Guess I can wash some celery sticks for him. Or make him something sugar-free. Won't be good, but I could make it.

Anyway with my WV son and his family here Thursday to leave the twin boys and go on to Kings Island on Friday and my close-by son and his family coming over on Saturday to help celebrate Dad's birthday early, I ran out of writing time to find those elusive two words. I told everybody I was just going to say they (my characters) rode off into the sunset and lived happily ever after. The reader won't know how they got up on those horses to ride off or even when the sun started going down, but the story will be finished. Then my younger son said he hated books where it seemed like the writer did just that. Just ended without letting the reader in on what happened. But then he also said he hated just as much the writer who wrote an extra fifty pages after the characters should have ridden off into the sunset. I really don't want to be guilty of either thing. I want to nail the ending. Make it perfect.

Some of you know Darrell is in a gospel quartet, The Patriot Quartet, and you know it's that ending on a Southern Gospel song that really packs an emotional punch for the listeners. If a group can nail the ending, then the audience will sit up and notice. So I'm thinking the ending of a book is some the same. It has to be done right. It has to be emotionally satisfying. It has to come at the right time and make the reader nod and say, yes, that's what happened. And that's what I'm trying to do. What I've been trying to do for at least a week. Get to that perfect ending and nail it.

I think I've nailed a few endings in my stories in the past. I liked the way Summer of Joy ended with Wes and Jocie talking since their relationship had been such a fun part of all the Hollyhill books. The Outsider had a very dramatic ending. The Believer has an emotional ending that I hope will be satisfying to readers. And that's what I'm trying to find with this new book, The Seeker. The right ending. Tomorrow for sure. Even if I have to stay up all night. And then I'll have to do some fast editing. Gee, how did May and June zoom by so fast? Don't you think we need to put some speed limits on these summer days?

Hope all your days are speeding by with happiness in every mile. Talk to you Wednesday.

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all of you mothers out there and to all of you who had a mama. I'll wager that gets you all. Except maybe for Wes in my Hollyhill books. Remember he always claimed to be from Jupiter and Jupiterians probably come from magic beans that old Mr. Jupiter throws on the ground and out pops a Jupiterian, each in various states of maturity. That's so things won't get boring. At least that would be how Wes would explain it to Jocie in Hollyhill. He liked coming up with crazy Jupiterian scenarios.

Back to earth, I hope you had a good mama who loved you without boundaries. Who loved you so much she made you act right and wash behind your ears and pick up your stuff and weed the garden or mow the lawn. I'm sure you can think of at least one thing you hated to do but that your mama made you do anyway and now you can see it was because she loved you and wanted you to grow up to be a responsible, strong adult able to do the things you should. That's why we have mamas. (And Daddies too, of course, but their day is in June.)

And it's not always that easy to be one of those mamas. In the bulletin today I used something I'd once gotten in one of those internet pass-along messages. This one was supposed to be what second graders answered to questions about why God made Moms. One of the questions was "What are Mamas made of?" The second grader answered, "Clouds and angel hair and everything nice in the world and one dab of mean." There are times that moms need that one dab of mean. At least in so far as proper discipline goes. So I hope you had a mom with the right balance of all the things that make a great mom and I hope you are managing the same balancing act if you're a mom now. One thing sure, a mom never retires from loving her children. And then if you're truly blessed, the grandkids come along and your love keeps growing and spreading.

You know, you might run out of energy. I do that plenty. But it seems the more you dip into your well of love, the deeper it gets. Sort of like that story in the Old Testament where the widow had no money to pay her creditors and they were going to take her children as slaves in payment of the debt. When Elisha asked her what she had, she told him all she had was one small bottle of oil. The prophet told her to collect pots and pitchers and every type of container she could find or borrow from her neighbors and go inside her house, shut the doors and windows and pour the oil from her bottle into those containers. The oil kept pouring and filled every pot she had and didn't stop pouring out until there were no more containers to fill. Then the oil stopped pouring. When she went back to the prophet to tell him what had happened, he told her to sell the oil and pay her debts. The woman was rewarded in direct proportion to how many containers she gathered in faith. I've never heard a preacher use that Bible story for a Mother's Day sermon, but I think it would be a good one. A mother's love combined with faith and trust in the Lord's providence can be powerful.

My sisters and I went to eat lunch with my mom who is eighty-nine. She wasn't feeling real great today, but she went outside with us and sat in the sun while we planted all the flowers we bought her for Mother's Day. She likes flowers and birds and crossword puzzles. She used to travel a lot. Went all over - to England and Scotland and Hawaii and Alaska and Austria, to name a few destinations. If there was group organizing a trip, she was ready to jump on board. She can't travel now. She gets too tired. She's winding down and knows it. But at the same time she still takes joy in the beautiful things in life and in us, her daughters, and her grandchildren and great grandchildren. I've written a book with the setting and a few characters based loosely on stories she's told me about growing up in the thirties. Revell has it and will be publishing it after the Shaker books are published, probably in a couple of years. I'm hoping readers will like the story when they get a chance to read it. Before that though there will be a few more Shaker books beginning with The Believer in around three months now. And when I get my books, I'll take Mom a copy and she'll put it with my other books in a prominent place in her living room. One thing about most moms, they don't mind bragging about their kids.

So if you're a mom, go ahead and brag about your kids. It's your day and you've got a right to be proud. And don't forget to enjoy your mom if you're lucky enough to still have her with you. If she's gone on to be with the Lord, remember some of the best times and the everyday times and the "I know I was loved" times and savor those memories.

"God could not be everywhere, and therefore he made mothers."-- Jewish proverb


"Grown don't mean nothing to a mother. A child is a child. They get bigger, older, but grown. In my heart it don't mean a thing." -- Toni Morrison

Characters and the Things They Do

Hi everybody. I'm a little early this weekend, but Sunday promises to be busy. Besides catching up my blog is a good excuse not to be peeling apples the way I should be doing. That wind last weekend blew bushels off my trees. I sneaked over to my neighbor's house and left a box full on her porch. I'm thinking about finding somebody else to give another bushel to. Then I can get back to figuring out how I'm going to get the rest of them picked and canned or given away. They're nice apples and we've been eating them fast as we can. Us and the deer. My mama deer has started to feel so at home out in my yard now that she just looks irritated if I come outside before she's through eating. She'll run away if I insist, but she doesn't really want to. That bodes ill for her when hunting season starts. Not from me, but from some hunter in the area.

But in spite of the deer's appetite - and my dog, Dub, eats them too - there are still a lot of apples left. I'm hoping no more near hurricane force winds come along to knock them off before I can get some of them picked.

I talked to a bookclub in Washington state last night. They were just getting started with their bookclub and were having their second meeting. I have always wanted to be part of a bookclub, but now I'm not sure I'd have time to get the books read before the meetings. Still what could be more fun than reading a book and then talking about it with other readers? My sisters and Mom and I do that sometimes. We don't always agree on which books are best, but it's fun talking about the different ones we read. My oldest sister has been keeping a list of the books she's read for years. I started doing that a few years ago, but I wish I had done it forever the way she has just so I could keep up with what I've read. Lately I haven't read enough fiction. A lot of history, but not so much fiction for the fun of it.

Stephen King says if you don't read, you shouldn't try to write. And I can't argue with that. I tell the young wanna-be writers I meet that the best thing they can do to prepare themselves to write is read. I don't think they believe me, but I know it was true for me. I'm thankful for the years when I was a teen and had extra reading time to let the words of other writers bury themselves in my brain while I absorbed how they managed to put together those words to make a story that entranced me. I am going to carve out more reading time somehow. I need those fresh words of other writers to keep my own writing fresh.

What I'm really wanting to write about tonight is one of the questions a bookclub member asked me last night. She wanted to know why one of the characters in my book, The Outsider, had done what she did. Why I let what happened to the character happen. That's a good question. I'm sure if you've read very many books, you've read a story where the character did something you didn't like. I certainly have. I've read books where I wanted to tear out the last chapter because I wanted a different ending. But as long as the author can make me believe that yes, that is what happened whether I like it or not, I'm okay with it. And that's what I try to do with my stories. The Outsider is set in 1812. Life was different then. Fevers were deadly. Women had few options for independent living. Most religions had strict moral codes. War was as much a struggle against the elements as against the enemy. I wanted to keep my characters within the history of the era.

But the real truth of why any of my characters do whatever they do is because that's just what they do. When I'm writing, the characters' lives unfold in my mind. At times I point them in this or that direction, but once I get them going along my story road, sometimes I'm simply along for the ride. I might have a general idea of where they're headed. Especially my historical books like The Outsider where I must fit my story into a history timeline. But I didn't have that with my Hollyhill books. Story ideas developed through Jocie and the other characters as I wrote. I didn't plan Wes saying he was from Jupiter until he said so. I didn't plan Aunt Love's story until I was writing it. So far my characters have come to life enough in my head that I've been able to do that. That's not to say I don't do a little guiding as I go along to keep from getting completely off track with my story. I suppose it's a delicate balance letting your characters tell you their stories and letting them take over your story. And you know, after I wrote that sentence, I'm not sure which way is best. What do you think?

Of course, every writer has his or her own method and way to write. What works for one might not work for another. And if I had wanted to, I could have told Wes that saying he was from Jupiter was just too crazy, but the story wouldn't have been as much fun and you wouldn't have gotten to know Wes nearly as well if I'd done that. And what happens in The Outsider fits the time and the history and the characters. I hope I was able to make any of you who may have read it believe that. That's the real trick - to make up a story that readers believe.

I'm available to talk to bookclubs anytime, so if you pick one of my books to read and would like me to give your club a call during your meeting, just contact me from my website, http://www.annhgabhart.com/.

Hope you have a great Sunday. I might tell another Quartet Convention story on Wednesday.

Creating Characters with my Friends

Hi, everybody. Well, I had my book event at the local library today and some friends and family were sweet enough to show up and listen to me talk about my writing and how I come up with characters. That was sort of a warm-up for my talk in West Virginia in October when I'm speaking on "Writing about Shakers ... and Other Odd Characters." I think I'll need to do some more practicing before then.

I did enjoy the talk today. I used to be painfully shy when I was a child, but I outgrew it. Now I love to talk to people one on one and I like to speak. I still sometimes get a few butterflies, but then I just go out and have fun sharing about my writing and trying to get a chuckle out of my listeners now and again. I can understand why stand-up comedians stay in the business. It's fun being able to make people laugh.

Of course the people at my event today were friends who looked kindly upon me and I knew they weren't going to boo and hiss no matter what I said. My favorite part of any talk is the question and answer time. I used to go to a lot of schools and the kids would come up with the most fun questions. Adults sometimes have to be jump started to get them to ask questions. But today we got started talking about the Shakers. I think some of the people listening probably knew more of the history than I did. So that's when I shut up and listened. That's the best way to learn new things.

After I talked we did a fun exercise of creating a character together by brainstorming a bit. It wasn't long before we had a young woman named Peggy (nickname for Margaret - somebody explain to me how that makes sense) who was 25 in 1941 and her fiance had gone to France in WW II and been killed. She had red hair and was Irish American. Her parents came over from Ireland and settled in New York where she was born, but then they moved to Tyrone here in Anderson County. Some wanted her to be expecting. Others thought that was going too far for 1941. And so we were able to see how all of us could have taken the same 25 year old woman named Peggy and come up with a totally different person who could live a totally different story. As I tell people who tell me they have a wonderful idea for this or that story. It's not the idea so much. Although having a good idea is great. But it's how the writer develops the idea.

I read once that there are only about ten original plot lines. Don't ask me what they are. I don't think anybody wants to tell!!! But that writers have used those basic plot lines in thousands and thousands of ways to write entertaining and different stories. So maybe someday I'll write a story about Peggy. Of course I might have to change her age and where she lived and even her name. I never liked the name Peggy that much and my characters, at least the main characters have to have a name I can like. But I do plan to write a book about WW II after I finish my Shaker books.

The work on my new Shaker book is progressing. But next week won't see much working time for me. It's National Quartet Convention time in Louisville, Kentucky, and the Patriot Quartet have a booth there in the exhibition hall. It's fun meeting all the other singers and gospel music lovers, but it doesn't leave much time for home stuff. So if you come to the Quartet Convention come by and say hi.

And oh yeah, I went out surfing on the net to see what was happening with my book, The Outsider, and came across a bestseller list for Christian fiction. What do you know - my book was on the list! It was number 20 out of 20, but it was still on the list. That was neat. I've never been on any kind of bestseller list before, at least to my knowledge. And half the credit surely goes to the beautiful girl on the cover. Even if you haven't read the book yet, you can take my word for it that she is just the perfect Gabrielle. It's a very eye-catching cover. Now if I could just get my local Wal-Mart or Kroger store to stock some of the books. That's the closest thing we have to a bookstore around here.

Still it's not very far to Frankfort where the great people at Corinth Christian Bookstore carry my books and are very supportive. Plus they have a beautiful store and bend over backwards to help people find what they need. Hope you have a great Christian bookstore near you. There's just something different about walking into a store where everything inside has something to do with the Lord. It's not exactly like being in church, but it's not far from it.

A special thanks to everybody who has entered my book giveaway so far and who have said they enjoyed my newsletter. If you would like to add your name to my e-mail list for an occasional newsletter - say every two or three months - just go my website and send me an e-mail. That's how you can enter my contest too. I'll be drawing for the winner of a complete autographed set of my Hollyhill books, The Scent of Lilacs, Orchard of Hope and Summer of Joy.

Last of all, but certainly not least, I've enjoyed hearing from you after you got the newsletter and also the comments people have posted here. That's the best thing about doing a newsletter is hearing from some of my friends.

May your cup so overflow with blessings this week that you end up drinking from your saucer of life. With joy.

Life Begins and Life Ends

Hi, everybody. Hope you are having as beautiful a Sunday as we are here. The weather is extra nice for the middle of August although the grass is beginning to turn brown in spots because of lack of rain. Are we ever satisfied with the weather? In the winter, it's too cold. In the summer it's too hot. In the spring, it's too rainy. In the fall, it's not rainy enough. Still I love the seasons of the year even though there are times I'd like to hold onto the pretty days of spring a bit longer or delay the beginning of winter a few weeks.

I came home on Thursday night from babysitting the older girls while the twins were being born. The babies are so cute and seemed very content. I never really heard either one of them cry. It didn't even bother them coming home to three very excited big sisters and a small poodle dog, not to mention grandma and grandpa wanting to get a look at them and hold them for a few minutes. Not the poodle. He just wanted to be in the mix. They took it all in stride without a whimper. I'm going to try to post a picture of them on my website in the next week or so. I'll let you know when. Mother's doing fine and father's doing the best he can to cover all the bases until she's back to full throttle. Thank goodness their school where they attend won't start for a couple of weeks to give everybody a little time to adjust to having two new family members.

I came from a happening of great joy to one of sadness as my last maternal aunt passed away suddenly last week. She had a stroke on Tuesday and died on Wednesday morning. My mom had three sisters. The oldest and youngest sister had already passed on and now Margaret who was three years younger than Mom. I loved hearing them talk about growing up in the thirties during the Depression. They said they never felt poor. They didn't have any money, but they always had food on the table and loving parents. They had a big garden and their father had beehives. They enjoyed playing ball and hide and seek with all the other kids in the neighborhood so never lacked entertainment. And they loved to laugh. When all four of them got together, there was always laughter. What a great way to be remembered! As laughing because life is good.

Not that everything was always easy for them. Margaret married before she got out of school and right before WW II started. Her husband had to go to service. She lost her first baby, and then boarded a train at the tender age of nineteen to ride all the way to California to spend a couple of weeks with her husband before he was sent overseas. She had never been away from home, had never been on a train. But that's the way my mom and her sisters were. Ready for any challenge. Sometimes though the hardest challenges await us when we get older. Mom is facing a lot of those challenges now. One of those is being the last sister in her family still living. They didn't have any brothers. But as always, she's hanging in there, taking it one day at a time.

We'll miss Margaret. She was the sister who didn't mince words. Last time we went to lunch a few weeks ago, they had both been to get perms. I had a major hairstyle change a week or so before that. Cut it all off. I haven't had my hair this short since I was in fifth grade. Anyway when they were talking about their hair, I asked Margaret how she liked mine. She looked at me and told it like she saw it. "I think you need to fix it." I haven't figured out how to do that yet. Actually most people say they think my new style is good, but not everyone. My five-year-old granddaughter who I was babysitting last week looked at me and said she didn't like my hair. But then she tried to make me feel better by saying, "Don't worry, grandma. It'll grow back." I didn't have the heart to tell her I wasn't planning to let that happen for a while. Oh well, maybe she'll get used to her grandma's new look.

Now that the babies are here, it's back to work for me, although I may go back to help out a few days here and there. I am anxious to get back to my book. And I have some special events coming up. My book launch at the local library here in Lawrenceburg is only three weeks away. I plan to talk about "Writing about Shakers .. and other odd characters." That's going to be my topic at the Book Festival in West Virginia in October. So this will be a good warmup speech to see how it goes. The Lawrenceburg event will be very casual with lots of discussion with those who come. It should be fun. Then Ginny Smith and I will be doing a signing at Joseph-Beth's in Lexinton on October 16. That's a Thursday evening. We'll be talking as well as signing. If you know Ginny and/or me, you know that's a given. Ginny has a new Love Inspired book out and she'll also have several of her other books there too. Ginny is so prolific that she has books out with three different publishing companies, all at the same time.

Me, I'm just trying to hang in there with one publishing company and meet my deadline on this new book. As I said last week, I lack one scene being to the end. Then I have to go back and read it to see if I've got a story that will work. I'm hoping that the hero and heroine will be people readers (and I) can care about. I'm hoping the story will be tied together well and will be exciting, but I really won't know until I read it. My editor compared writing a book to giving birth. And it is sort of that way. You carry it around in your head and then you push it out word by word until finally the whole book is outside your head on paper. Then you have to look to be sure all the toes and fingers are there. On babies, the toes and fingers are always precious no matter how they look. Not always the same with books. Sometimes there are too many toes or fingers or they may need a little reshaping to make them look right. That's what I'm getting ready to do, the editing and reshaping and making better. At least that's the hope and intent when I rewrite.

I'm going to start a new give-away next month, so be sure to check my website and/or here. I'm considering a full set of my Hollyhill books. I've been hearing from some readers of The Outsider who have never read any of my other books, so thought it might be fun to introduce them to Hollyhill. And for those of you who have read the Hollyhill books, they would make a great gift to someone this Christmas or whenever.

And last, but not least, thanks to the Book Club in Wooster, Ohio for reading my book Orchard of Hope. I enjoyed talked to you by phone. Any of the rest of you in bookclubs, I would be glad to come to your bookclub if you are in the area and if not, I'd love to talk to you by phone if you decide to read one of my books. The Outsider has already been chosed by some clubs.

Have a great week. See you Wednesday.

An Old-fashioned Frolic

Hi everybody. Have you ever been invited to a frolic? My father used to tell us a story about when he was a little boy and his granddaddy invited him to come over for a frolic. His young mind thought up all sorts of interesting and fun things his granddaddy might have planned, but when he got there, his granddaddy told him it was "a bean planting frolic." Somehow planting beans didn't sound like all that much of a frolic to my dad. But it made a good story and my sisters and I still talk about having "frolics" to this day many, many years later.

Well, we had a frolic Saturday at my mom's house. She has a summer room with windows all around on the back of her house. It's a great place for her plants and to sit and enjoy the birds. My mom has a green thumb and can grow anything, plus she loves watching the birds at her feeders. The only problem was that water somehow seeped under her door and ruined her rug. So me and my sisters decided the time had come for a flooring frolic. We tore up the old carpet and laid down vinyl squares. That sounds a lot easier typing it than it was actually doing it. The tearing up wasn't bad, but getting the glued down padding off the concrete floor proved challenging. Thank goodness the floor was nice and level when we finished and we almost did have fun putting down the new floor - except for the wear and tear on our not so young anymore knees and the fact that we didn't have very good scissors to cut the squares to fit. You'd think one of us would have thought to bring our good scissors. But we got it done and it looks great. We even joked around and said we should start a Three Sisters Contractors business, but I opted out on that pretty fast. I told them they'd better plan on Two Sisters. I've got a book to write. Actually I hope I have a lot of books to write.

I've been working hard on a new book about the Shakers to follow up The Outsider that will soon be on the store shelves. The early buzz and reviews have been good for the August 1 release, and I'm hoping that lots of readers will enjoy the story. The book is a different type of story than my Hollyhill Series, but then I've written a lot of different type stories and enjoyed writing them all. I did have fun writing about Jocie and her family in Hollyhill and I hope someday to maybe move along with Jocie and see what happens in Hollyhill down the road a few years. We'll see. Meantime I have already written another family drama type story that I'm hoping will make it out to my readers in the next year or so. Book publishing is sometimes slow business. It takes about a year to plan and write a book although I'm trying to be faster on the next two. Then the editor takes a while reading and deciding. After that it's a long process of editing and designing and publishing. Sometimes books make it out to the shelves in a year after a publisher buys it from the author and sometimes it takes longer. That can be hard on a writer who has so much of herself invested in the book. You want to see your words set in type. You want to see it with a great cover. (And I do love the cover of my coming book, The Outsider. They got Gabrielle just right in the picture. Thanks to the beautiful model who posed for the picture. If you want, you can see it at my website or at various booksellers out on the internet like amazon.com or christianbook.com.) You want to see your book on a store shelf. But even better, even more than all that, you want to see your book in a reader's hands. I thank all of you who have e-mailed me that you liked Jocie's stories. That means so much to a writer. That's like seeing you with my book in your hands.

Hope you are all having a great Memorial Day weekend. The weather is beautiful here this weekend. Great for picnics and fishing or whatever. Darrell and I took a long hike. Not unusual for me, but really unusual for him. But it was his idea. We trooped through the hayfields and woods and briars and brambles. The blackberries are blooming big time. So as long as we have some more showers along we should have some good pickings later on.

May the memories you have on this day of your loved ones who have passed on bring you smiles and that echo of love that never dies or fades away in your heart. And may we remember our soldiers and honor those who have fallen in service to our country.

Till next time.
Ann