What Do You Like about June?

                       

"Spring being a tough act to follow, God created June." ~Al Bernstein  What do you like about June? Summer starting? School out? Swimming pools filling up? Flowers blooming? Gardens growing? Family vacations? Bible School? So many things to love about June - that sweet time between spring and the hot days of July and August.  For me, the last few years, June has been a time to celebrate a new book out for readers. This year follows right along with Love Comes Home available in stores and on-line. Reviews are beginning to show up on some of the on-line book sites and in some of the book review magazines. That can be fun but also a little scary. I wrote the story and made it the best I could. Editors at the publishing company helped me polish and improve and gave the book a beautiful cover. And now I have to wait and see if readers are excited about going back to Rosey Corner to see what happened next.  One kind Amazon reviewer, Robin, wrote words I was glad to read about Love Comes Home. "I love visiting Rosey Corner. It has become like home. A sweet vacationing spot. These characters seem like family." That's what I want a reader to feel when they go with me to Rosey Corner or to Hollyhill or even my Harmony Hill Shaker village. Come take a trip with me back into storyland.  June also means I get to celebrate those new books by giving some things away. Some of you have already entered my Celebration Giveaway. If you haven't, you have until the end of June to enter to win one of these prizes along with one of my autographed books. The details are here. Plus I'm picking five winners here on my blog only contest to win a copy of one of my books (winners' choices). The way to get your name in that hat is to leave a comment on a blog post here in June with a way to contact you. Each new comment on a different post gets an additional entry. Or since some of you have had trouble commenting here, you can message me on my Facebook page or by e-mail, annhgabhart(at)yahoo(dot)com, and say you want to enter the blog giveaway.  I love hearing from you and finding out what's going on in your world. So what do you love about June? P.S. I'm having my Hometown Book Launch this Sunday, June 29, at 2:30 p.m. at my hometown library here in Lawrenceburg, KY. Come on out and help me celebrate if you are in the area. We'll talk books and there will even be door prizes. Not quite like the ones above, but still fun. P.P.S. I'm never going away, am I? :) But wanted to remind you about the Goodreads giveaway for Love Comes Home. Still time to enter there if you are a Goodreads member. Now I'm going away - I promise. At least until next time. Keep reading!

Life Can Be Messy

When life is too easy for us, we must beware or we may not be ready to meet the blows which sooner or later come to everyone, rich or poor. (Eleanor Roosevelt)

For the rainbow to appear in the sky, there has to be rain. Storms come in all our lives. Little dashes of rain sometimes and then at other times big floods of sorrow and trouble. We like to think about everything going along smoothly, but most all of us have stepped in a few mud holes as we traversed the roads of our lives.


For He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. ~Matthew 5:45 (NKJ)

Life can be messy. Even for believers. Even when you pray diligently and fervently. Accidents still happen. Betrayals still come our way. We still make mistakes. We give in to temptations or our loved ones do. We say something that injures. We do something we shouldn't. We're human. We might wish we were perfect, but we're not. 

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. ~Romans 3:23 (NKJ)

What has me thinking about all this is a review I saw for one of my Heart of Hollyhill books. Can't remember for sure which title now, but the reader was upset about things that happened in the story. The person wasn't specific about what bothered her, but whatever it was she didn't think such things should be in a Christian book. I don't know what offended the reader. I'm not really worried about that or upset that the person didn't like my story. This isn't about an unhappy reviewer. Her comment just got me to thinking about how life can be messy. 

The characters in my stories are generally Christians or are seeking the Lord. But they aren't perfect. They often have messy lives. Just like the real people around me. We get old. We get sick. We see our kids and grandkids make mistakes. We lose our jobs. We slip on ice and end up on crutches. We back our cars into trees or other people back into us. We stub our toes on the roots of temptation. We shoot for the winning goal and miss. We mess up. And if we don't do the messing up, those we love do. That can hurt just as much or even more.

So I'll probably keep writing stories with some things that might offend the gentler reader. And while I never want to upset a reader, I do want to write a story about people who aren't perfect and who sometimes step in a few mud holes while living their stories.

How about you? Have you ever been so disappointed by a book you were reading that you didn't finish the book and/or wrote a bad review? Editors and publishers do generally make sure the books they publish in the Christian market meet certain moral standards. Do you think those standards are getting too loose as my unhappy reader did?  

I'm going to be a guest on The Bookclub Network this week and my publisher is giving away some copies of Summer of Joy. If you're a member of the Bookclub Network, check it out on Tuesday. Easy to join up to take part in the fun each week.

New Books and Reviews

In about a month I'll be celebrating a new book out for readers. Small Town Girl is scheduled for release on July 1, but usually I get to enjoy that new book smell when I open up a box the UPS man brings to my door a few days before July. It's always exciting to actually hold that new book in my hands. That's the reward for about a year's worth of work on this particular story and a lifetime of work trying to write well enough to be published and find readers.

One of the exciting things about having a new book come out are the reviews. These days you can find reviews all over the internet. Everybody has an opinion and in the book business, a lot of them post those opinions out there somewhere for the world to read.

I just read my first review of Small Town Girl. My publisher sent me a review from Publishers' Weekly. I held my breath while I read it, hoping for good. It wasn't bad. No wow, that's the greatest story ever remarks, but all in all a favorable review. See what you think.

Gabhart continues the story of the Merritt family, first introduced in Angel Sister. Kate’s the middle sister—the sensible one, the fixer of other people’s problems. She encounters her own problems when older sister Evie marries their pastor, and his childhood friend, Jay Tanner, comes to Kentucky to stand as best man . On the surface, Jay and Kate have nothing in common. She’s a third generation Rosey Corner resident; he’s a drifter. Kate stands strong in tense situations; Jay is prone to pack up and leave when things get tough. She’s a woman of faith; he’s not sure what he believes. Still, the attraction is immediate. While the ending is predictable, Gabhart plants enough roadblocks to make the story interesting. In dealing with Jay’s spirituality, she raises legitimate issues of faith and shows understanding of those who do not easily accept a Christian religious message. And while Kate is the undisputed protagonist, young Lorena Birdsong, an abandoned child unofficially adopted by the Merritts, certainly has her share of scene-stealing moments. Agent: Wendy Lawton, Books and Such Literary Agency. (July)

Would any line in that review encourage or discourage you from reading the book? What blurb would you pull out to convince someone that they should give this story a try?

Back in 2005, when Scent of Lilacs first came out and was my first book in the internet age, I hunted down reviews for it and read them all. There weren't that many. I floated up in the air when reading the good reviews and then got knocked back to the ground when a reviewer had a complaint about the story. Thankfully there weren't many unfavorable reviews for that book early on. Too many bad reviews might have been too discouraging for me while I was trying to get started in this Christian fiction genre. 

By the way Scent of Lilacs has since been reissued and gotten lots of reviews. It's also been nominated for fiction book of the month on The Book Club Network. If you take part in the book fun on that site, I hope you'll consider voting for my book. Lots of great books were nominated this month, so I won't be discouraged if I don't win. I've learned not to let bad reviews discourage me. I might stew about them a little, but then I move on to the next story. Or I remember some of the kind comments you have made here. You're the readers I'm trying to keep happy.

Thanks for reading. I do so appreciate each and every one of you who follow my on-line journal. I'm planning a visit from Sue Harrison next week. You won't want to miss that!

Owls - Real and the Reading Kind

Do you like my owl? Over on my back to nature part of the farm, we have a cliff. An owl couple decided the rock ledge partway around the cliff is a good place to raise little owls. This is at least the fourth year we've seen the owls nesting there. Usually we see the young owlets already hatched, but I'm thinking the way this owl just looked at us and stayed put that she was sitting on her eggs. She didn't even worry about the dogs, or maybe she did worry and that's why she stayed put. I had some of the grandkids with me that day and they were glad to see some wildlife.

Now talking about an owl of a different sort - I got one of the nicest reviews ever from Books4Betty on a website called Night Owl Reviews. Here's the first bit of her review.

A NIGHT OWL BOOK REVIEW



Angel Sister, the beautifully molded and eloquently crafted novel by author Ann H. Gabhart is worthy of more than five-stars. If I could give this a “priceless” or “epic” or “must read” I would, and I will.




After the first couple of pages, I was hooked completely and drawn into this powerful novel about a family; not just a family, but a family from the Depression Era. The dry, and hot, backdrop of a Kentucky summer is wonderfully and majestically written. I felt like I needed to fan myself because of the heat permeating from the pages. The summer days, long and so full of hot moisture is a surprising character in this novel. From morning until late in the evening, Gabhart does an amazing job with using the Kentucky landscape as her canvas. She beautifully painted in each aspect. I could see, smell, and feel every summery stroke.



By the time I finished reading her review, I was ready to go out and buy the book myself. LOL. Here's the link if you want to read the entire review to see if you might feel the same way - I hope, I hope. Don't worry. If you haven't read Angel Sister and do plan to someday, the reviewer was careful not to give away any spoilers.  
http://www.nightowlreviews.com/nor/Reviews/Books4betty-reviews-Angel-Sister-by-Ann-H-Gabhart.aspx

I have gotten several really enthusiastic reviews of Angel Sister, and a few not so enthusiastic, but none as bad as one I got for Summer of Joy several years ago. That reviewer had liked my first two Hollyhill books, but thought Summer of Joy so bad that she suggested it couldn't have possibly been written by the same author. Ouch! I didn't know whether to crawl under my desk and hide or stand up and claim every word as my own - good, bad or otherwise. Of course I did stand up and claim the words. I actually liked a lot of the words in Summer of Joy. I really liked the doctor's office scene with Adrienne. Thought everybody would. But if there's one thing I've discovered in my years of living is that there are very few things that "everybody" likes. Very, very few. Even chocolate. Or dogs. And certainly books. What's that old saying? Variety is the spice of life. Wouldn't be much fun if everybody liked exactly the same thing. 

Another thing I've learned is that the bad comments linger longer, much longer in a writer's mind than the good comments. That's kind of sad, but true. And not only true for writers. That's in your children's heads, your friends' heads, and your co-workers' heads just to mention a few. So it's good to consider our words carefully as advised by James in the Bible and leave a lot of happy echoes.

So tell me. Are you a nightowl? Do you sit up late at night or rise early in the morning or try to insanely do both? I try to do both and that's why I fall asleep at my keyboard sometimes. Lots of words still to write. 

Thanks so much for reading. And a special thank you to those of you who have signed on as followers of my this and that journal. I also appreciate those of you who check out what I've written here when I post the link on Facebook or Twitter.  Hope you all have a blessed Easter and get to see some youngsters decked out in their Easter finery.  

The News of the Day - Publishing, Editing and Reviews

Hi, guys. Wednesday rolls around quickly for somebody like me who's always a couple days behind on chores - both writing and household. Never enough days in the week to do all I want to do. Of course that might be because number one I'm not as organized as I should be and number two because I want to be at my desk writing or at least pretending to be writing all the time. Except of course when the grandbabies come to visit.

I want to be writing, but sometimes - like now - when I'm between books, I do a million other things that make me think I'm working, that almost satisfy that itch to be writing, but don't do a thing to get a new story started on my computer screen. You know, stuff like blogging or Facebook or sending out cards about The Believer or editing already written novels. I suppose the editing is not really writing time wasted. Editing is a necessary part of the process of getting that book ready to go out and find readers. That's what I've been doing this week. I got my editor's suggestions of ways to improve my upcoming book, The Seeker. I agreed with most of them and so I'm trying to do a few tweaks here and there to improve the story.

Since I had to race to find The End before my deadline in July, I didn't rework this book as much as I usually do. So I'm sure I'll see lots of places I can improve my writing. I don't want any of my scenes to be so rough that they might bump readers right out of the story and make them realize they're reading and not really living that story as they'd thought they were before they hit the pothole I'd left in my writing.

A lot of people are really surprised when they find out it usually takes at least a year after a publishing company gets a writer's finished novel before it actually makes it out onto a bookstore shelf. They think once it's written that the process is almost over, but really it's just getting started at the publisher's end. First your editor gives advice on improving the story. Other people are working on a cover that will catch readers' eyes. The marketing people are working on a plan to pitch this particular book to the most likely readers. Some of that's going on right now for The Seeker - a whole year before the book will be released. Later a copy editor will be going over the manuscript with a fine tooth comb to check for all the little hard to read or plain wrong things the writer missed. Here's where you hope you have a sharp-eyed editor who won't let your mess-ups such as changing a character's name mid-book get by. I've done that, but so far I've always caught it myself. That's why I keep a list of every character I name in a book no matter how minor the character might be so I can go back and see if it was Roy or Ray in that earlier scene. But eventually with a lot of people's help and input the book does get published - a couple of years or more after the author fired up her computer and began filling up page one with words.

And that's where I am with The Believer. Published. Hearing about people spotting it in stores. Beginning to get feedback from readers. Seeing reviews. I wish I could be like one writer I heard speak and not read reviews - ever. But I can't. My problem and I think it's a problem most writers - most people - share is that one or two negative words can sort of spoil the whole review even if the majority of the comments are favorable. That's like when somebody is talking to you and telling you what a great job you may have done on something and then they throw in that "but." That's when you groan because you know they're about to lower the boom and tell you something you don't want to hear. You end up forgetting all the good words before that but.

Of course constructive criticism can help us all if we're open to it, but I don't think of reviews as constructive criticism. They are simply somebody's opinions. And it's better for me as a writer not to get too excited about great reviews or too down about not so great reviews. The same book can get both according to the mood of the reader and what the reader likes in a story. I wrote the best story I could at the time. I liked it. I liked my characters, Elizabeth and Ethan, and the readers I'm hearing from say they like them too. And now I have to make my new story the best I can.

So have a great rest of the week. I'll be in Frankfort Saturday 10 till 2 or maybe 4 at the Paul Sawyier Library for a Book Fair. If you're in the area, come by to see me. And then I'm looking forward to a visit from my agent and editor. I'm going to show them how far out in the boonies I live. They'll think they've come to the end of nowhere when they get here. Oh yeah, and my blog tour is next week. I'll tell you more about it Sunday.

VBS and Finding Time to Get It All Done

Hi again, everybody. Are you like me and not finding enough hours in the day to do everything that needs doing? Truth is, I've been letting a lot of things that need doing slip by not done. I'm going to have to get going on cleaning my house soon or well, I guess it'll just get more in need of a dedicated housekeeper. I'm not dedicated to housecleaning. But I used to do a better job when all the kids were home. I had more of a routine then. Saturdays I cleaned. Now Saturdays are always busy with some other activity. Darrell's singing and I get to go along or Darrell's singing and I think wow, I don't want to waste a perfect day to write on doing chores. Maybe the grandkids have slept over or are coming to visit or I'm going to visit them. Or I want to go somewhere with my sisters or help Mom out. Or the wildflowers at Panther Rock were in bloom and a person has to stop to smell the roses, doesn't she? There is always something. That's for sure and when those kind of choices come up, I don't pick washing windows. Maybe I should, but I don't.

And now next week I have the best excuse ever -- Vacation Bible School. Talk about a gobbler upper of time. That can do it. First you've got to come up with lessons or study the lessons in the books you have. Second, you have to do crafts and plan activities that will keep the kids interested. Have you noticed that's harder to do than it used to be? I've been teaching Bible School for many years. Many years! And the kids aren't as easy to settle in to Bible study as they used to be. Of course, at our little church we don't have any electronic stuff to show movies or slides or whatever. We depend on the Bible and have an old fashioned Bible School that fits our little church best. The new programs are great, but we don't have the room at our church or the volunteers to lead that sort of program. So we just go back to the Bible School style of old and most of our kids have the most fun ever. So next week promises to be a whirlwind of activity. I'm hoping I can keep somewhat to my goal of getting a set number of pages of my new book written every week, but I might not have the proper time. Especially since I have to take Mom to the doctor one day and my dog to the vet the next day. Plus we bought a new fridge and that means I have to empty out the old fridge and get the spot ready for the new fridge. I'll take me half a day to take all the grandkids' photos and art work off the old fridge. :) The new fridge is not going to be as art display friendly, but we'll have to work out something. The side maybe.

Darrell and I took one of those Saturdays off the way I was talking about earlier and went to a play "As It Is in Heaven" at Shaker Village at Pleasant Hill. It was not as good as I'd hoped. I've been doing a lot of Shaker research and there were several things that were just wrong according to the books I've been reading. They had the Shaker girl having a pet cat. That was not allowed. The little girls couldn't even have dolls. The Shakers did have a few cats late in the life of Shakerism in the late 1800's and early 1900's after the rules of conduct had relaxed quite a bit. But the play was set in 1837. No pets then. However the actresses did a great job and I liked hearing the Shaker songs they sang. They were definitely authentic songs. I hope to go back to Shaker Village for a full day of sightseeing and absorbing the atmosphere soon. The Shakers were interesting people, but not very easily understood in their time or even now. They had a lot of contradictory ways.

My new book, The Outsider, about the Shaker girl and the frontier doctor will be out in August. Publisher's Weekly reviewed it. Not a great review. I always hope for a great review, but I don't always get what I hope for. I met one writer who said she never read reviews. I'm beginning to thing that might be a good idea. The review wasn't really that bad, just not great. Oh well. Maybe the next one will be better and I know me. I won't be able to keep from reading it, good or bad.

I do appreciate all of you who may have put a review out somewhere for me. Terri put one on Amazon.com last week and I really appreciate that. I also really appreciate every time you recommend one of my books to a friend. Word of mouth reviews are the best kind. If they're good, that is.

The ACFW Southeast zone newsletter had me as their featured zone author this month. It was a fun interview and I enjoyed talking about my writing to all the other writers in the group. Every day I get a digest of messages where the members of the loop tell about what's going on in their writing lives and that's always fun to read about. You can visit the ACFW (Amercian Christian Fiction Writers) on the internet and if you're a writer of Christian fiction you can sign up and enjoy all the perks. (For a membership fee, of course. But part of the site is open to anybody who wants to click on.) I haven't been taking advantage of all the information out there on the site because, well, I have to get my new book done before my daughter-in-law has those twins this summer.

Yeah, I know. We're right back to that not enough time for everything bit. Hope you have the time to do all the things you most want to do. I love teaching Bible stories at Bible School so I'll be sure to make time for that this week. Ann