3 Days Left to Enter My Honor Mom Giveaway

Only a few more days until I draw the two winners of my Honor Mom Giveaway. Contest is open to USA and Canada and entrants must be over 18. You can enter by sending an e-mail to annhgabhart(at)yahoo(dot)com or leaving a comment here on this post with a way to contact you. 

Two winners will be picked by random drawing and one winner will get a beautiful NKJ Study Bible and one of my books and the other winner will get a complete set of my Rosey Corner books: Angel Sister, Small Town Girl, and Love Comes Home. The last book, Love Comes Home, just won the Selah Book of the Year Award. I'm still floating a little off the ground about that. :) Then today I had a guy friend tell me he'd read Love Comes Home and then went back and read Small Town Girl. I told him he might as well go on and read Angel Sister too even if he did go backwards through the books. I was pleased that he said he was right in the story and it didn't hurt that he hadn't read them in order.

Many of you have sent in heart-warming stories about your mothers with your entries. That wasn't a requirement to enter, but it's always fun when you share your stories. You had so many great stories that I won't be able to share them all, but I think you will enjoy these I am sharing today.

Corsages for Mother's Day

First here's one from Bonnie with a memory of how it used to be at churches on Mother's Day as she also shares how her mother is on the dementia path now. One I know too well after walking it with my mother. Bonnie says:

"I can't recall a specific Mother's Day that stands out from the rest - however, one memory is of my mother and I always having a corsage to wear to church on Mother's Day, when I was young. A practice that doesn't seem as popular anymore. As my mother is now in the early stages of Alzheimer's, I'm even more aware of the fact that I might not have her much longer, mentally or physically, and the need to take advantage of the time I do. She has always been an optimistic person, and remains so, even in the face of her disease - confident of God's plan for her life." 

May the Lord bless both you and your mother as you treasure good moments together, Bonnie.

Just an Old Wives' Tale

Now here's a story from Anne about her mother who didn't mind telling the doctor she was an "old wife."

Hi--my favorite "mother" story took place when I was less than a week away from giving birth to my daughter in 1987. My mother had come to stay with me and be with me for the birth. On Monday of that week (my daughter was born on Thursday) Mom went with me to my doctor's appointment. She asked him about the possibility of the baby coming on the day of the full moon that week. He said "Oh, that's just an old wives' tale." To which she responded "Well, I'm an old wife." Sure enough, the full moon was Thursday.

Mom has been gone now for 22 years, but I've made sure our family doesn't forget her or this story.

Thanks, Anne, for sharing your story with us. Sometimes those old wives knew.

A Lesson Learned on Mother's Day

Last we hear this extra sweet story from Felicia on a day she got a wake-up call about Mother's Day when her daughters gave her gifts from the heart.

"I'll share my favorite Mother's Day story although it's one I learned a lesson in. I was pregnant with my 5th child and we didn't have a lot of money. Only my husband was working. I was hot and miserable because we lived in Florida and my due date was July 16th. I had a hard time sleeping mostly because we had a water bed!!! I had to have my husband turn the heat off on it; I was just too hot. And we can't afford air conditioning, cable or even a phone! So I am sleeping in and my two oldest daughters are banging on my door. They are excited and I am grumpy. And I yelled at them for waking me up!! But it's Mother's Day so I get my grumpy self out of bed and go out into the living room and see what they want.

They had bought me gifts. They had saved their allowance and then went to yard sales our neighbors had and bought me presents for Mother's Day. They even made me cards! I was humbled after that. In awe of their creativeness and felt really terrible for having snapped at them. For wallowing in self pity when I couldn't see I had the greatest life of all!

For me it was the best Mother's Day because I realized at that point that I wasn't being the best Mother I could be. Not just Mother but person. And after seeing the thoughtfulness of my daughters and how much time and preparation went into it, I was just so appreciative. And grateful for the wake up call that Mother's Day.I remind myself of this day whenever I have a bad one. I learned a valuable lesson from my 2 daughters who were 7 & 9 years old!

Love your story, Felicia. All us moms understand your grumpiness. Pregnant and suffering in the heat! We'd be grumpy too. Then our hearts, like yours, are melted by the sweetness of your daughters. Thanks for sharing with us. 

Hope you all enjoyed the stories tonight. I'll let you know who wins on Sunday or maybe early Monday morning. A former pastor is coming to visit this weekend. So time for blogging may be limited.

As always, thanks for reading.

A Giveaway to Honor Mom

                    

Mothers hold their children's hands for a short while, but their hearts forever. ~Author Unknown

Missing Mom

I'm missing my mother today on my first ever Mother's Day without her. As most of you know, Mom went home to be with the Lord in July last year. She had walked a tough path of dementia the last few years of her life. But today I'm missing her smile. Mom enjoyed life. She loved her family and took joy in her grandchildren and great grandchildren. She had so much love in her heart as most mothers do. So I hunted up a couple of pictures showing her with lots of smiles. 

Honor Mom Giveaway Contest

To honor Mom's memory this month, I'm having an Honor Mom Giveway Contest. I sent out the details of the giveaway in a newsletter yesterday. (If you didn't get it, but would like to, you can let me know and I'll add you to my e-mail newsletter list.) 

1st Prize

1st prize in the contest is a beautiful New King James study Bible. What mother wouldn't like that or wouldn't like for you to win that? That winner will also get his or her choice of one of my autographed books. 

2nd Prize

2nd prize is an autographed set of my Rosey Corner books, Angel Sister, Small Town Girl, and Love Comes Home. I picked those as a prize since Mom and all the stories she told me about growing up during the Great Depression were the inspiration for Angel Sister. Some of you may already have the books or have already read the stories, but I'm sure you have a reading friend who might enjoy the stories too should you win. 


To Enter

To enter you can send me an e-mail at annhgabhart(at)hughes(dot)net or leave a comment here on one of my blog posts in May with a way to contact you should you be a lucky winner. The deadline for entries is midnight EST on May 30, 2015. The contest is open to USA and Canada. (Sorry, international readers, but that Bible is heavy.) Also, you must be 18 to enter. 

If you want, you can share a favorite Mother's Day memory with me. That's not necessary to enter, but we always have fun sharing stories here. 

A Mother's Day Story

Some of you have already entered and shared some stories. This one from Janet made me reach for the tissue box.

"My first Mother's Day without Mama was 2 years ago. As you said, you knew your Mom loved you even though she couldn't say it.

My Mother who also had Dementia fell 2 days before she died. I went into the ER room and told the doctor she was my Mom. As soon as my mother heard my voice, she said, "Is that Janet"? I had not heard Mama say my name in 3 years. She knew I was her daughter but she didn't know my 2 sisters. She only knew them as very nice ladies who were taking care of her.

My favorite Mother's Day memory is being with her at the church she went to. She would see me sitting in the pew and her face would just light up. Oh, how I miss that!

I better go blow my nose and wipe my eyes. It's hard to type and cry at the same time."

Thank you for sharing that with us, Janet. That had to be a heart gift to you to have your mother speak your name.

Thanks, everyone, for reading. 

  

Generations of Love

"It's true, Christmas can feel like a lot of work, particularly for mothers. But when you look back on all the Christmases in your life, you'll find you've created family traditions and lasting memories. Those memories, good and bad, are really what help to keep a family together over the long haul." (Caroline Kennedy)

Family - generations of love. Grandmother to mother to grandchild. As you might imagine, I'm missing Mom as the Christmas season approaches and remembering those family traditions and memories she helped create in my life. I'm sure many of you have experienced like feelings after you've lost loved ones. I am grateful for all the good memories I have and for the pictures that awake many of those memories. 

Somehow we never took a generation picture with my mother. Don't know how I missed out on that opportunity with the hundreds, even thousands of pictures I've taken over the years since my first grandchild was born. We weren't able to do the five generation pictures that are sometimes printed in our hometown paper here because my grandparents were gone before I had grandchildren, but we could have done a four generation one. Now that picture will have to be only in my heart. 

As those of you who read Sunday's post or get my newsletter know, I'm having a Christmas giveaway contest with the above figurine as the first prize along with one of my books. You have to win a book, you know. LOL. I like writing about families in my stories. I like exploring the relationships in my fictional families and I like sometimes letting those families reach out and pull people into their family circle that aren't actually related by anything but the love in their hearts. That is especially true in my Heart of Hollyhill series with the great bond between Jocie and Wes. (Scent of Lilacs is still a free download if any of you haven't grabbed it yet.) It's true in my Rosey Corner books too with how Lorena finds a forever place in the Merritt family. In the first Rosey Corner book, Angel Sister, generations play an important part in the storyline. 

All that to explain that's why I picked this particular prize - to celebrate families. You can read all the details of the contest on my website here. Entering is easy. An e-mail or a comment here as long as you be sure to leave a way to contact you. For fun, you can tell me something you especially like about Christmas. I've been reading your messages already. Not got them all read yet since I had some of those grandkids visiting this weekend and have been playing catch-up ever since. But here's one of the messages from Jan that seems to sum it all up. 

"My favorite thing about Christmas is the family catching up and being together during this wonderful season. The memories that are made and the tales that are told. The window dressing of Christmas trees and lights and the beautiful music just makes it more fun but it's all about the miracle of God sending his son to earth for our sins."

Family. Memories. Stories. Beautiful lights and music to celebrate the greatest gift - the birth of Jesus.  Yes, Jan, that is Christmas. 

Thanks for reading. 

Countdown to Rosey Corner #3

Are you ready to go back to Rosey Corner and see what's going on with the Merritt sisters? I hope so because my new Rosey Corner book, Love Comes Home, will be releasing soon. (Available for pre-sale now on Amazon and other sites.) 

In fact, reviews are already popping up. The first one right off the bat was a nice one that had my editors sending me congrats. I told my family maybe I just wouldn't read any more. You know, sort of like stopping playing ball after you hit a homerun. A starred review in Publishers' Weekly is sort of like a writer's home run. Here is an excerpt: 

In a return to Rosey Corner, Ky., Gabhart revisits the inspiring beloved characters introduced in her historical Angel Sister and continued in Small Town Girl. ....This beautifully written story has a timely resonance, uplifting and filled with hope even as it addresses painful topics. Masterful storytelling blends with a written love story about sisters everywhere, resulting in a novel tailor made for book clubs that can be treasured and shared with all who appreciate the beauty of love and family and the value of struggle. 

Now that's nice. Like getting a hug from a reviewer. Then to top that off, the next day a review came in from RT Magazine. And of course, I did read it. Another hug.

“Gabhart gives readers a fantastic gift of another visit to Rosey Corner and the Merritt sisters, who are more like a real family than a family in a book. The author captures readers' attention and absorbs them into the concerns of a town that is seeing the return of its sons after WW II. You'll want to share the Rosey Corner series with friends and family, and this installment will leave your mouth watering for homemade brown sugar pie - and the recipe is included.”

And I do include the recipe for Jay's favorite pie at the end. That brown sugar pie made its first appearance in Angel Sister. 

Of course, the very best reviews are the ones I get from you, my reading friends. I always enjoy hearing what you think. 

I got my first copy of Love Comes Home Friday. The official release date is July 1. So that gives me a month to celebrate in lots of different ways. First off, just in case you haven't already visited Rosey Corner and you have an e-reader, the publisher is reducing the price to $1.99 or lower for the e-book versions of Angel Sister and Small Town Girl. The price won't last long, but if you want to check them out, here are some links:

Angel Sister - Christianbook.com

Small Town Girl - Christianbook.com

Angel Sister - Amazon

Small Town Girl - Amazon

Angel Sister - B&N Nook

Small Town Girl - B&N

For those you who want that paper book, Christianbook.com, has the paper copy of Small Town Girl for a super low price right now. Plus, you can still get that e-book version of Scent of Lilacs free at all the above internet sites too. Here's Amazon's link. 306 reader reviews and counting. Most of them reader hugs. :)

If you get my newsletter, keep an eye out for it. I'll have details of my Love Comes Home Giveaway Celebration. Still pondering about what kind of stories I might ask you to share with me. If you don't get the newsletter, you can sign up for it here. Or come on back here Wednesday for all the details and a special blog giveaway too. I'll do my best to think of something fun. 

Thanks for reading. 

Note: If you are leaving a comment to be entered in my giveaway, please leave a way to contact you. You can leave your e-mail as (name)at(emailserver)dot(etc) if you are concerned about leaving the e-mail address as it is normally written for mail. Without a way to contact you, I won't be able to reach you should you be the lucky winner. Thanks. 

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!! 

The Hard Choices of Dementia

When I was a little girl I always wanted to look like my mother. I thought she was the prettiest woman ever. And I wanted to be like her too. Strong. Determined. Smart. Patient. Loving. She was ready to do whatever necessary to take care of her family. She loved us, her three daughters. 

Mom grew up during the Great Depression years. She had three sisters, no brothers. She and her sisters were always close. They loved their mother and father. My grandfather was a blacksmith and served in World War I as a cook. He died when I was five. I only have a couple of memories of him. I'm not one of those people who can remember when I was two. I do well to remember when I was twenty. LOL. But Mom always had a great memory of how things were when she was a little girl. Those memories were the inspiration for my first Rosey Corner book, Angel Sister. While the story is completely fiction, I owe the inspiration for the background and the characters to Mom's stories of her childhood years. 

Mom's only a few weeks from being ninety-four. She always said she wanted to live to be a hundred. But she never planned to lose her memory to dementia. We never thought she would lose her memory to anything. We thought we'd have our mom with us as our mom until she moved up to heaven. It hasn't happened that way. When she reached her late eighties signs began to show up that all was not right. She began to think things had happened that had not happened. Always things that made her unhappy. Still, she managed for a few more years with us dropping by to help with the little things. Then she fell and although nothing was broken, it was a traumatic experience because she was unable to get up and lay there for we don't know how long before my sister stopped by. 

We didn't think she would pull through that. She got better, but her mind continually got worse. We started staying with her around the clock after that fall although at first we could make quick trips to the store or wherever. Then her mind got even worse. We couldn't leave her alone. She started wanting to "go home." Home was not this house where she'd lived for over twenty-five years. Home was most often her childhood home. Her parents hadn't told her she could stay so long and they were going to be upset. At times she also thought about her home with my father who has been gone for almost thirty years. She had to fix supper for him and the "children." Nobody was watching the "children." She had things to do and she really needed to go home. And because she has always been a determined "I can do it" type person, she would get up and try to go out the door. If nobody would take her home, she'd just walk. After all, the "home" she was seeking was just over the hill. 

And so, the lies began. At first it was difficult for me and my sister to lie to our mother, but it is cruel to tell a dementia sufferer that their loved ones are dead. It doesn't stay in their brain and is a fresh pain every time. Besides, Mom would sometimes look at you as though you were the one without good sense since she'd just seen her mother or father or husband that very morning. So a lot of time her mother and father were "out of town" perhaps visiting "out of state relatives." Nevermind, that they had no out of state relatives. Dad was doing various farm jobs. Perhaps in the hay in the summer or stripping tobacco in the winter or feeding the cows. Whatever came to mind. And "tomorrow" became the promise that never happened. Tomorrow we'd see about going home. Tomorrow we'd talk about it. Tomorrow we'd do whatever we had to do. And that is what happened. We did whatever we had to do.

And now tomorrow we're going to do what we have to do again. We're moving Mom into an Alzheimers' Home. It's a beautiful place with a caring staff. It's our way of trying to give her some more time out of the nursing home since her funds are getting low and we may need to sell the house to keep financing her care. We are naturally concerned. So much can happen. We want Mom to be happy. She's not happy here most of the time. She may not be happy there. She may not be happy anywhere until she moves on "home" to be with her mother and father and sisters. It's a difficult choice. It may not work for her. Then I don't know what we'll do. 

If there's ever a time when a person has to take it one day at a time, then dealing with dementia is that time. Sometimes it's one hour at a time. I know many of you are dealing with the same illness, and it is an illness, a cancer of sorts of the mind. So may we all take it one prayer at a time. 

Let's Talk Titles - Titling Time Again

Only weeks away from the release of Small Town Girl, my second Rosey Corner book. It follows up the characters in Angel Sister five years later. And now it's time to title the Rosey Corner book I'm writing now. My working title has been Home to Rosey Corner. I like it but I haven't had any illusions about that title sticking. I've again moved my characters four years into their future. Each of these books will be stories that can stand alone, but it will be more fun if you read them all - especially for me!! :)

The third Rosey Corner book won't be released until the summer of 2014. A long time from now, but that's the way the book business is. You're always working on the book ahead. I feel blessed to have a book ahead to be working on, to be considering a new title for. So let's talk titles.

I'm the kind of writer who would rather wait until I've written the end to the story before I decide on a title. For many years, that's the way I worked when I was writing without contracts. I'd write the book and then try to place the completed manuscript with a publisher. That made coming up with titles easier for me, but it is great these days having the promise of publication in hand while I'm writing the book. That is, if I can deliver a story the editors like. I'm hoping I can do that yet again with my Rosey Corner characters. 

Many of the titles of my young adult books are the ones I came up with or slightly tweaked versions of my titles. Secrets to Tell, Bridge to Courage, A Chance Hero, For Sheila, Wish Come True - to name some of them. That's been true for some of my Christian fiction books too. Scent of Lilacs was my title. So was Orchard of Hope. Summer of Joy was not. I had suggested Sunflowers of Joy, but Summer of Joy is better. And now they are being advertised as the Heart of Hollyhill series. I like that too. 

The Outsider was not my title, but once it was suggested by the publishers, I liked it. It fit the story nicely and suggested titles for my other Shaker books. The Believer, The Seeker, The Blessed, and The Gifted were all titles I suggested, following the pattern of The Outsider to tie the book titles together. You can see the tie-in on the Hollyhill books too. 

If you pay attention, you'll notice that kind of kinship in titles on most series books. Of course, the writer with a great tie-in with titles is the mystery writer, Sue Grafton, starting with her A is for Alibi. She very successfully is working her way through the alphabet and is up to W is for Wasted that releases in September this year. I used to read Ross MacDonald mysteries and often his books had a color in the titles.  
 
The Rosey Corner books don't have quite as obvious relationship titles, but they do have the echo of small town and family. The new title proposed is Love Comes Home. To my ear, that has the same feel as my working title, Home to Rosey Corner. What do you think?

So we'll see. My editor once told me I wrote to the title. I certainly did in The Seeker, The Blessed, and The Gifted. Those themes were threads throughout the stories. Maybe I will again with this book. Love's a good theme to have in a story and home is a place we all want to go. 

What words do you like to see in titles? Do some words encourage you to pick up a book quicker than other words? What is the best title for a book that you've ever seen?   

Remember to drop back by on Sunday or Monday when I'll be visiting with Sue Harrison, author of the Alaskan novel series beginning with Mother Earth Father Sky. Here's what Publishers Weekly said about the third book in the series, Brother Wind. "Engrossing, dramatic adventure...an emotionally compelling conclusion to a monumental saga." I think you'll enjoy visiting with Sue and hearing how she came to write these bestselling books.