Books Are Still In Demand

Books are a uniquely portable magic. ~Stephen King

 

That's obviously a magic a lot of readers are still looking for as they came out to the Kentucky Book Fair in large numbers yesterday to find some of those magical stories. And most of them did carry a book made of paper out the door with them. I did have a few are your books on Kindle questions, but I also had a great time signing books for readers to carry away with them. Some were buying them as Christmas gifts. Sometimes for themselves. Books are great gifts to buy for yourself.

I had a great time sharing a table with fellow Anderson Countian, Jennifer Johnson. Jennifer and I are here posing for a picture, but we both have some to learn about publicity photos. :) Note that neither one of us thought about making sure our hands weren't covering up the titles of our books. I took another photo with Virginia Smith and Allie Pleiter that was posted on Facebook. They carefully held their books so that their hands weren't covering up the titles or the cover. So live and learn. This was Jennifer's first Kentucky Book Fair even though she's been writing and publishing for a number of years. She enjoyed meeting readers and talking to her students and former students when they stopped by her table. She teaches seventh grade and actually has one of my granddaughters in her class this year. She was a great table companion. You can check out her books at her website.

 

 

I love Book Fair. I love meeting readers and talking to other book lovers like me. I like seeing the kids carrying around new books like they've been given a prize. I like how there are so many different kinds of books at the Book Fair. There were histories and mysteries. Travel books, calendars and kids' books. Inspirational fiction like mine and Jennifer's. Then you could take home some spooky stories by my buddies, Roberta Simpson Brown and Lonnie Brown, and ghost stories by storyteller and friend, Thomas Freese.

 

Thomas is also an artist with wood. Check out the neat pins he's wearing. Here's a close up of them for you. I love the mini-tombstone that reads, "I told you my feet were killing me." Thomas is always smiling and someday I'm going to get to hear him tell those stories in person. Here's his website link if you want to check out more about him. 

 

 

But back to the fair. Santa Claus was there and so was bestselling author, Sue Grafton. Coaches Rick Pitino and Joe B. Hall showed up to sign books. And of course there were UK books for the Big Blue fans. Dave Shuffett was there with his golden retriever. My grandkids, along with a few hundred others, got to give the sweet dog a pat. And then Woody, the dachshund writer who has a little help from his friend, Leigh Ann Florence, was signing books with his paw. I got to take a photo with Woody and it's on my Facebook page. I posted one of me with Santa too. I could have given him a long list from all the books I'd have liked to take home from the Fair.

 

So, from all appearances yesterday, it seems that books and readers are still doing fine in the state of Kentucky at the Book Fair.

"I don't believe in the kind of magic in my books. But I do believe something very magical can happen when you read a good book." ~J.K. Rowling 

Jan Watson was at the Fair yesterday too. Remember, you can be in a drawing to win autographed copies of her latest releases, Skip Rock Shallows and Tattler's Branch by leaving a comment on a post here before November 27. Those are the books Jan had at the Fair yesterday and the people who carried them home are in for some good reads.

 

Meet Jan Watson and Win Her Books

My Friend, Jan 

"Watson's success lies in her ability to create characters that are endearing and timeless. . . ." Romantic Times Magazine.

 

One of the best things about writing in the inspirational market has been the friends I’ve made of other inspirational writers. One of those friends is Jan Watson who also lives here in Kentucky and writes historical Kentucky novels. So sit back and let me tell you a little about my friend, Jan

Jan Watson was a registered nurse and peri-natal loss counselor before she retired and began a second career as a writer. She got a great start by winning the 2004 Christian Writers Guild Operation First Novel contest for her first novel, Troublesome Creek.  She's won many awards since then including being voted 2012 Best Kentucky Author by the readers of Kentucky Living Magazine. Her books are set in the Appalachian Mountains and have a great mix of history, romance and suspense. Jan says that while she has always loved books, she never had the dream to write a book of her own the way so many writers, including yours truly, did. But then she remembered a story her grandmother told her once about a terrible flash flood that swept away a baby whose body was never found. Thoughts of this baby stayed with Jan for fifty years before she decided to save her, if only in a fictional story. 

Troublesome Creek and More

After she began to toy with writing a book about that baby, the first three sentences of what became Troublesome Creek came to her as she waited in a drive-thru line at McDonalds: “Girl! You’d better get to the house. If your mam catches you in that creek again she’ll skin you alive.” When the words wouldn’t stop coming after that and she was scribbling them down on any and every scrap of paper she could find, she knew she was going to write that story. Turns out, that story became more stories as she kept following her characters down their life paths. Her first series about that baby and her family include Troublesome Creek, Willow Springs, and Torrent Falls. I’m sure you’re noting the water connection in all the titles. 

Jan’s Loyal Writing Companion

Jan and I are both dog lovers. That gives us even more to talk about than writing. Her husband brought Maggie, a Jack Russell, home to her when the puppy was a few weeks old. Several months later, they realized Maggie was deaf, but that didn’t seem to slow her down much. Jan says Maggie understands doggy sign language, but if she doesn’t want to mind, she just turns her head and pretends not to see Jan.

Jan sometimes writes with Maggie sleeping on a pillow on her lap. But she says the best thing about Maggie is that she reminds her there’s fun to be had every day and that it’s best not to take life too seriously.

Jan’s Newest Series

In Skip Rock Shallows, Jan begins the story of Lilly Corbett, Copper’s daughter. Copper is the baby rescued from the flood in Troublesome Creek. But now we’re getting to know Lilly after she graduates from medical school and takes an internship in the coal camp of Skip Rock, Kentucky. Lilly is drawn to the stubborn, superstitious people she encounters in Skip Rock–a town where people live hard and die harder and where women know their place. You can follow Lilly down some romantic pathways in this Appalachian town as she begins to earn the residents’ trust.

Tattler’s Branch follows up Skip Rock Shallows. Lilly, married now, loves her life in Skip Rock and the people who are like family to her. With her husband away for a few months at a mining job, Lilly has her hands full with her patients and a younger sister visiting for the summer. Then an abandoned baby plunges Lilly into a struggle between what is right and what is safe. She must discover the strength of her country neighbors, her God, and herself.

Check out more about Jan’s books at her website, http://www.janwatson.net/

  

Win Jan’s Books

I have autographed copies of Skip Rock Shallows and Tattler’s Branch to give away to one lucky person. To throw your name in the hat, just leave a comment here with a way to contact you please. The giveaway is open to residents of the United States and Canada, but you must be eighteen or over to enter. Deadline to enter is midnight EST, November 27.

And if you don’t want to wait that long to read one of Jan’s books and you have an e-reader, Tattler’s Branch, is available right now through Saturday, 11/16, for the great download price of $2.99. Check it out at your favorite e-book distributor. Here’s the Amazon link.

Kentucky Book Fair Saturday, November 16

If you’re in the area, you can come meet both Jan and me at the Kentucky Book Fair at the Frankfort Convention Center this Saturday, November 16, from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. We’ll be signing our books there along with about 150 other writers including inspirational fiction writers, Virginia Smith, Jennifer Johnson, Allie Pleiter, Shelley Shepard Gray, and others. Of course, I hope you’ll come by my table way in the back to say hello.The fair is a great place to pick up some unique gifts for the booklovers on your Christmas list.

As a preview to the fair, Virginia Smith and I will be talking about our books and writing at the Frankfort Senior Citizen Center, 202 Medical Heights, Frankfort, KY, at 10 a.m. on Friday, November 15. The event is open to the public, senior citizens and younger citizens too. So come on out and get a jump start on the fair.

Life's Simple Pleasures

 

Finding fun in simple ways makes the happiest days. (Unknown author)

Are you happy? I hear you. Some of you are out there saying nobody can be happy all the time, and of course, you're very right. But do you seek and find an underlying happiness that brings joy to life in many little ways? Like the fun of jumping into a pile of crunchy leaves with an abandon that doesn't worry about getting leaf crumbles down your shirt or landing on a spider or... Well, you get the idea. Maybe even more fun is being the grandmother raking up the leaves for the happy fun of watching the grandkids enjoy toys that only nature can make. I didn't jump in the leaves. I do realize that me landing on the ground in a pile of leaves is no longer one of life's simple pleasures. It would be a jarring ouch. I don't land as soft as the little grandkids. But I do get a lot of simple fun just walking through a layer of fallen leaves and seeing them stir around my feet, hearing their rustling crunch, and catching the scent of autumn. Simple pleasures.

The plaque above names over some other simple pleasures - all gifts of nature. Watching the sun set. The wind across a field of wheat or grass. The waves against the sand. The glitter of the stars when the city lights are far away. Sometimes we just need to get back to the basics of nature. 

At times nature can slam us with disasters the way the hurricane did last week and bring hard times that have no joy in them. So if you're suffering from the aftereffects of that, you might not be feeling too generous toward Mother Nature, but I hope there are still little blessings finding a way into your days. 

The real joy of life is in its play. Play is anything we do for the joy and love of doing it, apart from any profit, compulsion, or sense of duty. It is the real joy of living.  ~Walter Rauschbusch

May life bring you joy this week. And go kick around a few leaves before you get out the rakes or the leaf blowers. We'll have to do something with our leaves this weekend - probably mulch them with the mower. But my husband did leave them for the kids to play in at least one time because a kid and a leaf pile is definitely one of life's simple pleasures.

I'm going to have a writer's simple (or not so simple) pleasure this weekend and get to meet and talk with readers and other writers at the Kentucky Book Fair in Frankfort on Saturday. Over 150 authors and their books. A great place to do some Christmas shopping. If you're in the area and decide to come, please stop by my table and say hello. And then I can say, in person, thanks for reading!    

Signing Books in Cincinnati

I love book fairs. That's because I love talking books with other writers and readers. The only bad thing about book fairs is that I want to carry a heavy load of books home with me when I go. Of course it's fun seeing readers adding my books to their armloads as they walk around looking at the offerings too. Usually readers have so many choices that they have no trouble finding something that sounds like just the book for them. Sometimes that's my book. 

I went to the Books by the Banks last year and it was fun, but the crowd seemed to be lacking. Saturday that wasn't the case. People were still coming in to look at the books an hour before the event was scheduled to end. That's when a reader has to find the best books fast. A lot of kids were being introduced to the wonderful world of stories. This fair has events for young readers all day long. They got stories read to them. They danced. They had their faces painted and had balloon hats. The best part they had fun with books and authors. 
The fair had some famous names. Dennis Lehane was there with his mysteries or suspense novels. His books Shutter Island and Mystic River were both made into movies. A long line waited to have Judy Collins sign her memoir, Sweet Judy Blue Eyes: My Life in Music. Another interesting writer I met was Mary Ann Winkowski who was the inspiration for the t.v. show The Ghost Whisperer. She had a cookbook, Beyond Delicious: The Ghost Whisperer's Cookbook: More than 100 Recipes from the Dearly Departed. Now that's a title that almost demands you pick the book up and give it a look. 

Of course there were over a hundred authors there, so I could go on and on with the names. Robin Yocum shared a table with me and that's him in the photo above. He was a former crime reporter at a daily newspaper and had written true crime books. He was at Books by the Banks Saturday with his first novel, Favorite Sons. It was a mystery/suspense and sounded like a great story. I always enjoy getting to know the writers around me at book festivals. And as at every fair, I met some aspiring writers who hoped to someday be sitting on the other side of a stack of books at a book fair.

Next up is the Kentucky Book Fair on November 12. That's always a great event as people are beginning to think Christmas and an autographed book makes a fun gift whether you're gifting yourself or a family member or friend. I've signed books and talked to readers at the Book Fair for a lot of years, but it's always fun. Monday I recorded a promo show for the upcoming book fair that aired on the Frankfort, KY cable channel last night. I did a program last year too. That time I got a copy of the show on DVD, but I never had the nerve to watch it. I really didn't want to see how I looked and sounded, but I guess it wasn't too bad or they wouldn't have asked me back this time. 


So have you ever gone to a book fair? As a writer or a reader? What do you like about book fairs? Do you like to talk to the writers about their books? 


Thanks for reading. And if you're in the Frankfort area on Saturday, November 12, I hope you'll hunt up my table and tell me hello. You'll be able to meet lots of writers there. Almost 200 of them. But won't any of them enjoy talking to you more than me. 

The Gift of Time

Time is free, but it's priceless. You can't own it, but you can use it. You can't keep it, but you can spend it. Once you've lost it you can never get it back. (Harvey MacKay)

That's a great quote for a day when we were gifted with an extra hour. Of course most of us slept through our gift as we got back that hour we lost last spring to Daylight Savings Time. Some people love DST. Some people say they'd rather be more in tune with nature and live by sun time. But gaining the hour got me to thinking about time and how our lives are so regulated by this or that clock. Then as I was looking through my pictures to come up with a clock or watch, I saw these trees. And they seemed timeless to me. Some of them have been growing in that place in California before California came to be. I was thinking time might strip away some of their limbs or turn their bark a ghostly gray, but the trees aren't worried about the minutes and hours ticking past the way we are. No wristwatches on their branches.
~~
But then I stopped in my thought tracks and realized that trees do tell time. They mark their age by the rings of growth and show the change of the seasons with their leaves. The sea too as it pounds into the rocky shoreline is measuring time with its waves. Tides in and out can be predicted with the same precise timing as the sun rising and setting. Time is at the very center of nature.
~~
"To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven." Ecclesiastes 3:1. That has to be one of the most well known verses in the Bible. Time is part of our lives whether we ease along in life stretching out the hours and enjoying the ride or if we rush and run and think we must use every minute frantically getting something - anything - done. I'm afraid I've been in the rush and do time lane too much. I don't know that I want to stop doing. I just want to note the moments as they pass. Enjoy the time. Unwrap the gift of time I've been given.
~~
I put a poem in our church bulletin today that I'm sure many of you have probably already seen in some pass along e-mails in the last few years. It is supposedly a poem written by a terminally ill girl. Now whether that is true or not, I don't know. No name or source was given in the little pamphlet where I found the poem. But these are the last few lines.
~~
When you worry and hurry through your day,
It is like an unopened gift...thrown away.
Life is not a race; do take it slower.
Hear the music before the song is over.

~~
Hear the music and savor the minutes. Oh yeah, if you're in the area you can savor some of those minutes next Saturday enjoying a great day at the Kentucky Book Fair in Frankfort. There will be over two hundred authors there - including yours truly - and it's a great day to do some Christmas shopping. An autographed book makes a fun gift. Come by and say hi if you come. I'll be smiling and doing my best to enjoy the moments. It won't be hard surrounded by all those authors and books. You can check out the author lists and books at www.kybookfair.org.

Book Fair Smiles

--Smile! That's what all us writers did a lot of on Saturday at the Kentucky Book Fair. That's because there are always a lot of reading friends and other writers to smile back at us. Here I am with my tablemate and fellow historical Christian novel writer, Jan Watson. Jan is very popular with her readers. They all love her and her characters. She didn't start writing until she retired from nursing and now she has four published books with more on the way. Her new novel is Sweetwater Run. I'm actually reading it now and enjoying the story. After yesterday, I'm sure a lot of other people are reading her story today too after getting her to sign a copy for them.

--I also got to meet Laura Frantz and Gin Petty and Jim Tomlinson. There there were a few stolen minutes to talk with Virginia Smith and Allie Pleiter and Karen Angelucci and Melissa Burton, to mention a few. It's fun to compare notes with other writers. But there wasn't much time for visiting between authors. We were all too busy smiling at our reading friends.

--A lot of those reading friends came by my table and were kind enough to say they had read my books. Some of them took another of my books home with them and some new reading friends decided to give my books a try. I hope to see them back next year to say they were glad they did. Actually one teenager did come by the table to let me know that she was glad she'd given one of my books a try last year. I remembered her. She told me last year she wanted to be an editor. You get a lot of aspiring writers coming to talk to you at a Book Fair, but not that many aspiring editors. So I remembered her.

--I remembered a lot of other faces too, but I am afflicted with mental blocks on names when people ask me to sign a book. Even when I've known them all my life - maybe especially when I've known them all my life. I think it's all those made up character names up there in my head shoving all the real names aside. At least that sounds like a good excuse. So if you're one of the people I had to ask your name when I should have known it, I hope you'll forgive me for giving you a look like a deer in the headlights. I did know you. I just got your name mixed up with one of my character's names. I sometimes forget their names, too. That's why I keep a running character list of whatever I'm working on. Oh dear! I bought a book once on improving my memory. Maybe it's time I read it.

--I did have a good time signing books and talking on the fiction panel. Darrell sat at my book table while I was gone to do the panel talk and had fun filling in for me. I wish I'd had time to walk around and see everybody else's books, but the day was busy and before I knew it the day was gone.

--A few young people from Western Hills High School came by to say hello. I had the opportunity to go to their school Friday morning and talk to three of their English classes. That was fun and on my Face Book page I promised to do a blog on some of their questions. So stay tuned next week for that.

--Thanks again if you came by to see me at the Fair and thanks to all of you who not only read my books but also my newsletter and my blog. It's great to have reading friends.

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.

A Photo Shoot Adventure

--This is the view from the deck around the cabin we stayed in last week with Darrell's siblings and spouses. There's just something about looking out at beautiful mountains or any beautiful scenery that renews the spirits. That's one of the reasons I like to walk every day. So I can be out there and see what's going on in nature. And that's also why I like having windows around my desk. I like seeing the trees and knowing the weather and watching the deer sneak up to get a mouthful of rose bush. Although I have to say I wish they wouldn't eat my rose bushes. You'd think with all these dogs around here - mine and the neighbors - that one of those dogs could chase off a deer or two. I think they must be wimps. Or maybe they're too lazy to get up and bark. Or could be the dogs and deer are all big buddies.

--Anyway after we had fun in the mountains, we traveled back to Blackey, Kentucky where I enjoyed talking books with the ladies of the Blackey Library Book Club on Thursday night. I posted a picture of some of the book ladies on my Facebook Fan page. You can go check it out if you want. On the way we made a wrong turn onto Interstate 40. That's the road that's closed across the North Carolina border because of a rock slide. We thought our exit was before the road was blocked but we'd gotten mixed up and should have gotten on the road going the other direction. But it was worth it to get on that big four-lane highway that is usually buzzing with cars and trucks and see no other car in sight in either lane. It felt weird. Very weird.

--Then Saturday I was at the Fleming County Library Book Fair. I was fortunate enough to share a table with Paul Prather who has published a book of his newspaper columns. He's been sharing his life and thoughts with us in the Lexington Herald for some time and it was great getting to not only meet him but talk to him as well. I also got to talk to Jan Watson, another great writer friend. Both of them and about a hundred more authors will be at the Kentucky Book Fair in Frankfort this Saturday. I'll be taking part in a panel "Fiction Writers Unite!" with Jan Watson, Karen Robards, and Mary Taylor-Hall at 12:30 that day. That should be fun. If you come to the book fair, be sure to hunt me up to say hi.

--I did something different today. I got somebody to come out and take photos of me. Usually I'm the one behind the camera. I'm not as good in front of it. Jennifer Duvall (Portraits by Jenn Duvall) was kind enough and game enough to come out to the farm and ride with me in the old farm truck back in the field to one of my favorite nature places, Panther Rock. But she was wondering what she had gotten herself into when we pulled into the field and cows stampeded toward our truck. Darrell has been feeding the cows grain and so whenever they hear the truck they all come running to be first in line for the good stuff. They surrounded us and I had to very carefully ease the truck through the herd. Once we got through the milling cows, I stepped on the gas to try to stay ahead of the herd and make it through the gate without any cows making an escape. Jenn probably thought she was home free then since we were in the hayfield with the cows left behind, but my dogs, Oscar and Dub, didn't want to be left behind. They had to come along on the photo shoot. I had to keep throwing sticks for Oscar to fetch so that he wouldn't be sitting in front of me in every picture. What with all the animal interaction and the slippery leaf-covered muddy paths, Jenn may think twice before she agrees to photograph me - or anyone - on location again if it involves old farm trucks, cows and dogs that like to lick. Actually she was a real sport although she did keep saying that if stuff like this kept happening to her, she was going to start a blog of photo shooting adventures. So I thought I'd beat her to it.

--Hope you have some adventures that make you smile this week.

Live in the Sunshine

--Live in the sunshine - that's a phrase out of a song the Patriot Quartet sang last night at their homecoming that so caught my imagination I put it on my Facebook page and now I'm putting it here. What great advice! Live in the sunshine of hope and joy and leave behind the shadows of doubts and fear.

--Today was a great day to think about living in the sunshine. I love being out in the woods on a beautiful day in October. The picture is one I took when I went on my long walk down the creek last week. Today we went tree sightseeing in the car - my mom and my sister and me. We looped around through the countryside and came back up the road where Dad owned a lot of farmland when I was young. We remembered wheat in this field and tobacco in that field and strawberries in another. The strawberries, by far, were the best memory. But the countryside has changed a lot since my sister and I were kids riding the school bus around that road every day fall, winter and spring. We kept wondering if that was where so and so's house used to be and was this or that house there back then and where exactly on the cliffside was that spring that ran with such cool clear water to fill up our water jugs. Things we thought we'd never forget are foggy shadows on the edge of remembrance.

--So many years ago. And yet even then I knew I wanted to write stories down. I wanted to string words together and pile page upon page until the story was told. I could never have imagined how many books I might write. I might not even be able to imagine that now. I'm hoping several more in the years ahead.

--Writing isn't easy. You sometimes hope it will be or imagine it will be or want it to be, but many days the words have to be coaxed out of the black ooze of the mind where stories hide. Or tugged out laboriously one at a time. And yet no matter how difficult the task sometimes is, that's what I want to do. What I have always wanted to do. Write.

--I'm in the beginning stages of my new story now. I'm getting acquainted with my characters. Wondering where they went to school or church. What their parents and siblings were like. What work they did or do. And on and on. So much to learn about these new people I've just met and want to know. So it's good to take long walks with them and listen to what they have to tell me about themselves. October is a good month for that.

--These next few weeks are busy. We're going to be taking a few days to enjoy visiting with family in the mountains. Then I have several book events coming up. The Kentucky Book Fair is just a couple of weeks away on Saturday, November 7. That's always a fun day when so many writers and readers show up to celebrate reading. I enjoy talking to the reading friends I've made there over the years. I'll be doing a panel on "Fiction Writers Unite!" at 12:30 that day with Karen Robards, Jan Watson and Mary Ann Taylor-Hall with Jim Tomlinson moderating. That should be fun. It's always interesting to hear how other writers come up with their stories. So if you're in the area come on down to the Frankfort Civic Center and meet a hundred plus writers who would love to sign one of their books for you. An autographed book makes a unique and special Christmas present. I'm looking forward to doing some Christmas shopping myself and to meeting some writers in person that up until now I've only met via internet like Laura Frantz whose book about Kentucky, A Frontiersman's Daughter, has gotten great reviews and is sure to be a reader favorite at the fair.

--Hope you have an absolutely wonderful last week of October and live in the sunshine.

"Are You Famous?"

The Kentucky Book Fair was yesterday. It's a great event because a lot of readers show up to talk to the many writers (over 120 authors) and buy books. People do their Christmas shopping and come in with lists they have written after searching through the Book Fair catalogue. My book actually made some of those lists and I'm grateful for every reader who came by to say hello. Some had already read my books. Some were trying my books for the first time. I had fun talking to all of them, old friends and new. And the amazing thing is that I don't think I forgot any names that I was supposed to remember. A lot of people signed up for my drawing for a free copy of The Scent of Lilacs, and the winner was Ruth. I'll get her book in the mail the first of the week.

I did have one interesting conversation. A young man maybe twenty, maybe a little older or younger, came up to me and asked, "Are you famous?" Of course I said, "Hardly." I certainly don't feel anything close to famous as I think about famous. Who is famous? Movie stars. Athletes. Coaches - the line for Rick Pitino's signature on his book was pretty long. Preachers can be famous. And some bestselling authors might surely make the list. I suppose the sole criteria of fame is being well known in a general, all-encompassing way. A person might be well known in his or her home town and not be known in the town down the road. So would he or she still be famous? You know what? I think that's a question that has to be answered by everybody else and not by yourself. If you're famous, you might not know it, but everybody else would.

Maybe the better question is "Do you want to be famous?" I've never worried much about acquiring fame, but I would like my books to be widely read. Most all writers do. That's why we work so hard getting our words published and out in front of readers. It's what we do.

Anyway I enjoyed talking to readers and other writers. I sat next to Janna McMahan whose book Coming Home is getting great reviews. She sold out her books before the day was over and got the reward of leaving early. I didn't sell out, but I did have a lot of great people carry one or more of my books home with them. If some of those books end up under Christmas trees, then I will certainly feel honored.

It was one young woman's birthday and her husband had surprised her with the gift of one of my books and a trip to the Book Fair. She was so excited and having so much fun. Her husband surely got bonus points for being so thoughtful and knowing what would please her. And he wasn't the only thoughtful hubby. Another lady told me her husband had taken her out to breakfast and then suggested going to the Book Fair. She was having fun too. So take note. Maybe Book Fairs are the new romantic locations. At least for all those people who love books the way I do.

My writing friends, Virginia Smith and Jan Watson, were a few seats down the row from me with their piles of books. Both also had many people coming to take their books home with them. Ginny has a new title from Love Inspired, A Taste of Murder, and Jan had her popular Troublesome Creek series about her character, Copper there. Both have more new books coming out next year. Ginny and Jan are fun people to know and between us we must have smiled and talked to every person in Frankfort yesterday. Our smiling muscles got a work out.

And I still had plenty to smile about again this afternoon as our church gathered for our annual Thanksgiving dinner. When I was driving back to church this evening, I was thinking about my special reasons for thanksgiving. When we first started having our Thanksgiving dinner a few years ago in the basement of our church, we would stand in a circle and hold hands while we each named a special blessing. One of our blessings now is that our church has a beautiful new fellowship hall and we don't have to have our dinners in the too small church basement anymore. Another is that we had too many people come tonight to let everyone speak a blessing one by one. The dressing and gravy would have gotten cold.

Even so, I always think about blessings of the year when we gather for the dinner. I have so many to count. My family. New twin grandbabies and another grandbaby (the other son and his wife) on the way. My church family. Friends. My Lord. A great place to live. A farm where I can walk with my dog. More books than I have time to read. And also many writing blessings. Two new books in 2008, Summer of Joy and The Outsider, and one, The Believer, scheduled for 2009. New readers. Old readers. Any and all readers! People who say they read my blog. I guess I could go on and on. I hope and pray that you can too.

And I'm still going to do that "too busy" blog sometime. When I have time.

Shocks and Surprises

Wednesday certainly rolls around quickly. In a couple of weeks we'll be talking Turkey day. I like Thanksgiving. When I was a kid my aunt cooked some of my favorite foods, things like cornsticks and turkey (well sometimes chicken) and dressing. Plus she put salt in those cute little salt wells at everybody's plate. That in of itself made the meal special. She was my aunt in name, but my "granny" in heart. Every kid needs a granny who loves them no matter what.

I went to a Circle meeting with my Mom today. That's a group of women in her church who get together once a month for Bible study and fellowship. Their lesson was on the scene in the Bible where the women went to the tomb after Jesus was crucified and were surprised and shocked to find it empty. The study leader asked us to recall a time when we were shocked by some event in our life. Most of us remembered tragedies - a sudden death or the illness of a son or daughter that shocked us. But one woman remembered being shocked when her baby was born with red hair when both she and her husband had dark hair.

That made us laugh, but it also started me thinking about times when I could say I was shocked that weren't necessarily sad or tragic times. I could say when I sold my first book, but that wasn't really a shock. More a dream come true or a goal achieved. I wrote the book with that end in mind so I can't really say that it was a total shock. A total blessing for sure. So I still haven't come up with anything that I've actually done, but I can think of some things that might qualify. Winning a contest perhaps. Your son having twins. I guess I do know about that one. How about a long lost friend or relative showing up at your door unexpected? Maybe your child volunteering to rake the leaves. Okay, so that might be just a little shock. What do you think? Have you experienced something happy in your life that would qualify?

One last thing on this blog Wednesday - I was thumbing through The Reader's Digest and came across an article about great inspirations. Martina McBride was talking about being inspired by the writings and speeches of Maya Angelou and how Ms. Angelou had once told her that sometimes we're afraid to push ourselves and really reach as far as we can because we're afraid that when we succeed, the world will ask more of us. I understood what she was talking about. As a writer I sometimes wonder if I hold back, afraid to spill it all out in one book for then what will be left for the next one. But the well refills. That's what we need to remember. The well refills from the creative springs inside us. So may you always have the courage to be the best that you can be at whatever you do.

Okay, two last things. If you're in the area, come see me Saturday at the Kentucky Book Fair at the Convention Center in Frankfort, Kentucky. It's a great place to get some unique Christmas gifts and meet a lot of writers and readers. Oh yeah, and who better to give a gift to than yourself? Especially when it's the gift of a good book. I'll be on the back row with some other inspirational writers, and I'd love to talk to you.