Celebrating Love Comes Home with Giveaways

It's always so much fun to celebrate a new release with a giveaway contest because I get to hear from so many of my reading friends - you. Thank all of you who have entered already, but here are the details for those of you who haven't seen my newsletter. If you want to be on my e-mail list and among the first to hear book news or about contests, you can sign up here Ann's Newsletter.

No big prizes, but I hope you'll think they're fun. First prize winner will get the choice of the Marcasite Filagree and Garnet 18" Heart Pendant or the "Forget-me-not" Willow Tree figurine along with the winner's choice of one of my books. The necklace has a small heart in the larger heart. Once you read my new book, Love Comes Home, you'll know why I chose these prizes. The second place winner will get whichever prize is left along with a choice of one of my books. Then because I'm one of those "never win" people, if you tell me that you never win in contest drawings, your name will go into a special extra drawing for the Praying the Names of God Journal and the choice of one of my books. Hardly anybody has told me they never win yet, so the chances in that drawing are very good that you might end up in the winner's circle. 

You have to be 18 to enter and you can enter by sending me an e-mail at annhgabhart(at)yahoo(dot)com or by leaving a comment on one of the posts here in June. I'll draw for the winners on July 1. To make things more fun, you can tell me a story about a family homecoming or special family memory. The stories aren't necessary to win. Just fun. Many of you have already entered the contest with a comment on the last post. I thank you for that. And some of you have shared stories. I've enjoyed reading them, and I'll be posting some of them here on One Writer's Journal later this month. 

Now, for the blog only contest. You friends here are so kind to read my this and that posts and to leave me encouraging comments that I've got to have a giveaway just for you. Those of you who entered the other contest by leaving a comment on the previous posts will have to come back and comment again to be entered in the blog contest. In fact, every time you leave a comment on a new post for the rest of June, you'll have a new entry and chance to win. Remember to leave your e-mail or a way to contact you when you enter.

You think I should throw in some mystery picture posts for you to try to guess before the end of the month? I just posted a picture of a snake that looks purple on my Facebook Page, but I think it was really just a black snake with the sun making it look purple. There's been quite a discussion about what kind of "purple" snake it is. Still a mystery, but not one any of us are doing much good figuring out. 

So what can I give away? I know. How about a copy of my new book? An autographed paper copy if you live in the USA or Canada and an e-book copy if you live overseas? That's original, isn't it? LOL. I'll draw the five winners early July 1.  

Also, remember if you're on Goodreads you can sign up there too to win one of five copies Revell Books is giving away. It's fun giving books away. For my giveaway, if you'd rather have a different title (one of mine, of course) that can be arranged. Remember, if you enter, you have to leave a way for me to be able to contact you in the event you are one of the winners. 

Thanks to any of you who downloaded Angel Sister or Small Town Girl while they were at a special price. Angel Sister was in the top 100 of Kindle titles today. Hope that means a lot of new readers are headed to Rosey Corner to meet my characters. 

If you've read any of the Rosey Corner books, which character is your favorite?

Sneak Peek at Love Comes Home

I usually hold off on putting the cover of my books out here on the net until closer to time for them to actually be on the shelf, but I'm giving you a sneak peek at Love Comes Home since I've been working on edits for it all week. The release date isn't until summer, July 1, 2014 to be exact. So do you like it? What do you think?

I think you're going to like visiting Rosey Corner again. At least I hope so. The Merritt sisters have a lot going on in their lives. While I've struggled with untangling some knotty writing in a paragraph here and there, I have enjoyed going back to Rosey Corner myself to live the story with my characters again as I'm editing. I got to hear some more of Aunt Hattie's prayers and homespun wisdom. I got to witness Graham doing some more matchmaking. I got to walk in the woods with Fern and that is always interesting! I teared up when the boys were welcomed home from the war by their loved ones. I went with Lorena to find out the "rest of her story." And more. Lots more. The book is already available for pre-sale on Amazon.

But while I was enjoying the story again, I was also reading the editor's comments on how to make my writing better. The surprising thing was I never thought the editor was off-base with her suggestions on how to make the story read better. Sometimes a writer can struggle with edits, and not see the need for the suggested changes. But this time when my editor noted a little muddy writing, I could see that I hadn't been clear enough. When she said I'd used the same words too often or too close together in a paragraph, she was right. Sometimes "echo" words are okay. Sometimes they're not. (Note my "I got to" echoes in the paragraph above.) Perhaps I was okay with her comments because she didn't ask for a lot of changes.There was one place where I had to shift the scene a bit, but the rest were fairly easy changes. Of course, there was that one knotty paragraph that I spent hours on and I'm still not sure I've got it right. I'll have to go back and read it again before I hit the send button to turn it in to the editor. 

These were the first copy edits where I could make as many changes as I thought were needed. So whenever my reader's eye stumbled over a phrase or sentence, I worked it over to try to make the reading smoother. The intent of careful editing is to make the words disappear so the story can play like a movie in the reader's mind. A clunky sentence or a bad transition between scenes can jerk a reader away from the "movie" and make her remember she's reading words. That's not good! I want to keep the magic of the story alive in the reader's imagination. I'll get another chance to edit, but then the book will be almost ready to go and any editing changes will need to be minor.  

So now how would you like a sneak peek at a new Rosey Corner character? Clay Weber. I'm hoping you said yes, because here's a bit of a scene from Clay's point of view as he thinks about finding a way to capture the affections of the girl he loves even though she shows no sign of wanting his love. 

    He [Clay] might not be the handsomest guy in the room. But he knew how to stick to something and get it done if it was worth doing.

    Working a farm taught a man that. Every year that a man plowed a field, more rocks rose up out of the dirt to be hauled away. Weeds kept sprouting no matter how many calluses a man got plying his hoe. Horses went lame. Machinery broke down. Cows went dry and hawks swooped out of the sky to steal the chickens. The ground didn’t give up its yield without a man watering it with plenty of sweat. But just because something was hard didn’t mean it wasn’t worth doing.

So there you have a sneak peek at the cover and Clay. Now I'll push Love Comes Home back in line to wait its turn since I do have the re-release of my third Hollyhill book, Summer of Joy, coming out in March. I'll reveal that cover on Jocie's blog, Hollyhill Book of the Strange later this week. I'm gearing up to celebrate the last story in the Heart of Hollyhill series. In fact, there's a Goodreads giveaway opening up on it Tuesday, Feb. 4. Here's the Goodreads' giveaway link. And I'll be doing my own giveaway soon too. Stay tuned for that. 

Thanks for reading and I'd love to hear what you think about the cover of Love Comes Home.