Mystery Photo Contest - New Chance to Win

You know I just remembered last week that I've celebrated every Hollyhill book with a giveaway involving a mystery photo. So I can't let the re-release of Summer of Joy slide by without some of the same kind of fun. So here's mystery photo number 1. I'll post another one or maybe two on Sunday. If you want to be in the running for the prize of one of my Heart of Hollyhill books and a book by another Christian author (How about a choice between a Dani Pettrey book or a Julie Klassen book?), just leave a guess or a comment saying you have no idea. Either will work as an entry. Each new mystery photo I post will give you the chance to guess again and get another entry into giveaway.

Last time I did this, you guys were great at guessing. So since some of you are so smart, it will be more fun for everybody if you guess first and read the comments second. No fair changing your guess then! :) We'll play this mystery photo game for a couple of weeks, so the deadline for entries (comments on one of my blog posts) will be March 18. You have to be eighteen to enter, and please do remember to leave a way to contact you. I had several entries in my last blog contest that didn't leave a way to send them a message.

I've heard from all my winners (Jocie still hasn't heard from the winner on the Heart of Hollyhill blog) and will be sending out the prizes by the end of the week. I also got a couple of great ideas for what I can ask for my Love Comes Home Celebration coming up in June. But first I'll have to come up with prizes.

I'm going to do a Book Talk at the Casey County Public Library Thursday, March 6. If you're in the area, come on out and we'll talk books together. I love libraries. I owe a lot of my writing success to libraries. First, the books I was able to check out when I was a kid fed my love of stories. I would have never been able to read so much without those weekly trips to the library. Second, when I started writing, the library was a gold mine of resources both about writing and about the historical events I wrapped my stories around. There was no internet then. If you wanted to know something, you went to the library and looked it up. And I was blessed with the most helpful librarian ever, Ann McWilliams. She even made me appreciate my name more. Said she liked being plain Ann, and so I thought maybe I should too.

Libraries are no longer just books and card catalogs. Now there are banks of computers and movies and audio books and kids programs. I like that a library can supply so many resources for a community. At the same time, I don't visit the library as often as I used to. I have a huge stack of books waiting for me to have time to read them. I do some of my research on the computer and some from books I own. But I know the library is there when and if I come up with a different idea. Then I'll go search through the card catalog that is now on computer and carry home a pile of books.

Do you like libraries? Do you visit yours now or did you when you were a kid? 

Thanks for reading. Don't forget to guess the mystery photo and watch for another one on Sunday.

Booksignings at High Noon

I'm off to a booksigning at noon at the Grand Opening of a Sam's Club in a neighboring town. People will be there looking for bargains, but we'll see if they're looking for bargains in reading. Most of the people I meet looking for bargains in reading tell me they've been shopping at yard sales. I had a lady the other day tell me she'd never read any of my books, but she'd just bought one of my books to read. I was feeling pretty good until she said she got it at a yard sale. No royalties in my pocket on that one. ;-) But that's okay. I'm always glad to hear that people are reading my books no matter where they pick one of them up. In fact, I tell people they can find the books in their library or at least I hope they can. And maybe if they can't, they'll ask their librarians to order the book for them. I have always been a library lover and user so I would never complain when somebody tells me they read my book after checking it out from the library.

It's been one of those weeks when if you had time to breathe you felt maybe you weren't getting everything done on time. I'm still playing with my edits for Angel Sister. The zapped computer is at the shop getting an expensive overhaul - if it's not completely fried. The granddaughters had a good time in their overnight stay. Mom is having her ups and downs so we, her daughters, are too. My daughter and son-in-law are due in tomorrow for a visit. The house is a wreck, but what else is new? Edits come first but I'm going to have to ask for a couple days extension. I've not had to do that before, so maybe they'll be understanding when I come begging for another weekend to work. I've got the edits done, but I need to recheck them.

But right now I'm off to Sam's to have fun signing books. I'll let you know how it goes. It should be fun seeing the new Sam's store. Maybe I'll have time to go shopping. Hope you have a great rest of the week.