A Flower a Day Keeps the Winter Wearies Away

A New Flower to Name

Are you ready for another flower? I've been searching through my flower book hoping I can find the right name for this one. I may have to make up a name myself, but I think I have it narrowed down. When identifying flowers, sometimes the pictures in the flower books vary a little from my pictures, but what doesn't vary as much are the leaves. 

More than you might want to know about Jack in the Pulpit

But back to last post's flower. Many of you were right on with the name of it. Jack in the Pulpit or Indian Turnip. Ever since I was a kid, I've admired these interesting flowers. I think the name caught my fancy too, although a couple of you came up with an interesting name of your own, calling it a cobra. I'm sort of glad whoever first named the flower had maybe just come from church (one that didn't handle snakes!) and gave it a friendlier name. However, the cobra name fits when you look at the flower. Most of the ones in my area have the purple flowers but we have some of these green ones too. 

So far, I have never found the red berries in the fall, but I'm still hoping that I will someday. The flowers are a little hard to spot in the spring as they blend in with the surrounding colors, but I've learned to look for the leaf first. For some reason, I can see it before the flower. And now after reading about the flower I'll know if I'm looking at a Jack in the Pulpit or a Jill in the Pulpit by how many leaves it has. One leaf usually means a male flower, thus Jack. Of course, when these flowers were named back however many, many years ago, nobody probably thought about Jills in a pulpit. Unless you were a Shaker and then you didn't think about a pulpit because that wasn't part of a Shaker meetinghouse. It would have gotten in the way of the worship dances. If you want to know more about the Jack in the Pulpit and how it grows, here's a neat blog post from Hilton Pond Center.


Angel Sister E-Book on Sale in April


For those of you who might have an e-book reader or who have downloaded the Kindle app on your iPad or computer and haven't totally filled it up with books to read, my first Rosey Corner book, Angel Sister, is on sale for $1.99 or less this month. This book is one that's close to my heart since it has so many of my mom's memories threaded throughout the setting of the story. Plus, this cover makes me smile every time I see it. Love Lorena on the front and her face as she looks up at Kate, her "angel sister." I also smile every time I get a message from a reader telling me they've taken a trip to Rosey Corner and enjoyed the visit. So now, if you haven't taken that trip, you can "get a ticket" for a couple of bucks. Here are some links.
Amazon
Christianbook.com
Barnes & Noble
Kobo 

Looking Forward to Your Flower Names

Remember, each time you name a new flower (or leave any kind of comment), you get a new entry in the drawing for a couple of books. If this is your first time to enter, be sure to leave a way to contact you in case you're one of the three lucky winners. The contest is open to those over 18. Print books for USA or Canadian winners, but if you're an international winner, you win an e-book version. Deadline is April 18, 2015 at midnight EST.

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!

Ready, Set, Type!

And so 2013 has begun. Tomorrow starts the first full week. Most everybody has gone back to work and the kids are hitting the books again. Guess it's time for this writer to start making a book again. Time to think about new characters or about how the old characters have changed as the years have passed since I'm going back to Rosey Corner. Time to think about how to make this book better than the books before. How to make it a story readers will not only want to read, but a story they will like so much that they tell their friends to read it too.

Word of mouth is still the very best advertisement a book can get. Haven't you sometimes told someone that they should read this or that book? I certainly have. I've had plenty of people tell me the same. Read this. It's great. That's the kind of book I want to write. That's the kind of book I'm guessing every writer wants to write.

I need to get busy figuring out my new story, or I'll be staring at a deadline and wondering how in the world I let so much time slip past without getting the story going soon enough.

Alas, there are always reasons not to write. At least for me. Some really good reasons. My hours taking care of Mom. The grandkids. They do grow up so fast. Getting the church bulletin ready. Laundry. Cleaning. Cooking. Walking to clear my head and help me think about the new ideas. Taking pictures of the snow and icicles. (I had to get that picture in here somewhere.) Sometimes the reasons not to start typing Chapter 1 are things that need doing writing wise. History books need reading. How can I possibly write anything until I know more about the time period? Maybe I should do some research on the internet. And while I'm signed in, I might as well check Facebook to see if anybody left a comment. Or there might be a new e-mail. From my publisher. They might need something. 

They do! They need me to write a book. I need me to write a book. I want to tell a story - a new story. It won't be easy. It never is. At least not every day. Some days the words will come hard, but they always have eventually come. And if all goes well, if all goes the way it has in the past, I'll get to tell a new story in 2013. That's what I do. So, ready, set, type!

What are you "ready, set, go"for in 2013?

Nancy of FL did finally get in touch and claim her 1st prize - the bookends, the autographed book, The Bridge, by Karen Kingsbury and she picked my book, Orchard of Hope. Thanks again to everyone who entered and joined in my Christmas fun. You're the best. Plus I see I hit 100 in followers. That deserves something special. I'll come up with a new giveway soon. Maybe one especially for you reading friends who take the time to read my on-line journal. Thanks so much.