Shaker Book No. 5 Almost Here

June is almost here. That means July can't be far behind and that means - drum roll, please - a new Shaker book. The Gifted is scheduled for release on July 1. My fifth Shaker book is set in my Shaker village of Harmony Hill in 1849 with a whole new set of characters. I did carry over one character from The Believer. Sister Lettie. In The Believer, she served the community's medical needs. Her father had been a doctor and taught her much about healing and the use of herbs and potions. She plays a major role in The Believer. Much older now, she has more of a cameo appearance in The Gifted, but I think readers will enjoy spending a little time with her again.

I'm hoping readers will enjoy getting to know my new characters too. In each of my Shaker books, I've done my best to tell the stories of very different heroines. First there was Gabrielle Hope with her gift of knowing in The Outsider. She started it all with the Shaker books. Then in The Believer, Elizabeth Duncan simply wants a safe haven for her and her siblings. Southern belle Charlotte Vance was definitely not the average Shaker in The Seeker. And last summer Lacey Bishop got to tell her story with a generous supply of common sense in The Blessed.  

Now in The Gifted, I introduce Jessamine Brady, who is an engaging mix of innocence and curiosity. Tristan Cooper, on the other hand, has just returned from the Mexican War and is wearily looking toward the future his mother is insisting he must have. Then there's Sister Sophrena who does her best to see that Jessamine keeps following the Shaker way even when the girl's wondering about the world outside the Shaker village completely exasperates her. The storms of life will keep them all spinning just as much as the Shaker believers spin and whirl in their worship dances.  

A new book is exciting for me and I hope for my readers. An eBlast went out today with hopes that readers will order The Gifted at their favorite bookseller's website or ask for it at their favorite bookstore. Bookstore owners like to make their reading customers happy by getting them the books they want to read. I'm hoping The Gifted will be one you will want to read.

There will be more exciting events coming up in June. I'll be sending out a newsletter soon telling about my Celebration Giveaway for The Gifted. A new book is a fun reason to celebrate.

Thanks for reading. Remember tomorrow is the last day to throw your name in my May Giveaway hat. Then stay tuned for more fun.  
 

What Happens Next?

At church this morning, I got a nice compliment from a friend. Well, actually a couple of nice comments. One, she said she'd finished my book, Angel Sister in the wee hours of the morning. True, she does have trouble sleeping sometimes, but at least I didn't put her to sleep. But before she told me that she looked over at me - we're pew sharers - and said "Where did she, that woman live? Their house was gone, wasn't it? And what about Lorena? Where did she live?" At first I didn't know what she was talking about. What woman? Then I realized she meant Fern in my story. But she was asking the questions like Fern and Lorena were neighbors down the road and they had kept on living after she read "The End." And that's a good thing for me.
~~
Of course the characters were very real to me and I still find myself thinking about their story, replaying it and living it over with them. And I did imagine what happened to them later after the story I wrote down was through. And no, I'm not telling what that was. First, who knows? I might still get the chance to write the "rest of their story." Second, once you as a reader have read the story and taken the characters into your minds and hearts, then you can have the fun of deciding what happens next.
~~
I visited a book club a year or so ago. The readers were discussing The Believer. It was so interesting to sit there hearing the conversation going on around me about what Ethan and Elizabeth did next. They were delving into motivations, possibilities, and consequences that I hadn't pulled out into the open in my own mind. I could see what they meant, but I hadn't really consciously thought about it in the way they were. Again, that's a good thing for a writer. Especially a writer like me who does a lot of story navigating by instinct.
~~
People will ask me what's the theme of my story. I rarely know what to say. Maybe a good answer would be life. Of course a need to forgive or get forgiveness often runs through my stories, but that's a major part of living life. Forgiveness, love, dreams, faith, sorrow, hope, joy - all part of life.
~~
Somebody once told me that I was a storyteller, and I think that is what I am. I'm telling a story and if in that story I can show how faith and hope and forgiveness makes a difference in my characters' lives, then that's a bonus. Some of you may think that's awful. That I should be thinking more about my theme, my message, but I believe that shows up in the life stories. That it will show up in anybody's story - fictional or actual. Our faith journeys are important and what's important to us needs to be important to our characters. I like being able to write about that part of my characters' lives. And I feel blessed when readers tell me that one of my stories has them taking a closer look at their own faith journey. But I don't plan it out. I just write the story and trust the Lord to do the rest.
~~
So I'm glad my friend wanted to know what was going to happen next to Lorena and Fern. My story ended but life stories don't. Even when someone passes on, so much of that person is left behind with his or her family. Their influence, their love, their story continues on. So Lorena is out there, living the rest of her story in my imagination and maybe in yours. One thing sure, every night before she goes to bed she says, "My name is Lorena Birdsong."
~~
What do you think? Do the characters you read about live on? Do you give them futures in your imagination?
~~
Thank you so much for reading. Talk to you again on Wednesday. I'll have drawn for a winner for the gift cards by then. But if you send me an e-mail right away you can still get your name in the hat.

Summer Time Blessings

Ah, summer, what power you have to make us suffer and like it. - Russel Baker

~~

I like seasons. I like spring and autumn and even a few weeks of winter as long as the snow doesn't linger and the ice is only in the ice bins in the fridge. Hate those ice storms. And I like summer. Even when it's hot the way it's been this year here in Kentucky. It's hot!! In Kentucky we usually say it's not the heat. It's the humidity. This year we're saying it's the heat and the humidity.

~~

But we are getting rain. So it's not like it was a few years back when all the fields turned so brown it hurt your eyes to look at them and you wondered what the poor old cows were finding to eat. And do you remember how the grass crunched under your feet when you walked outside? Nobody made much money mowing yards that year. This year the lawn mowing people are doing very well, thank you. It's hot and it's raining and the grass is growing.

~~

I remember having hot summers like this when I was a kid. We didn't have air-conditioning. We didn't even dream of having air conditioning. That would have been crazy talk. We had fans and shade trees and creeks to cool off in on the hottest days the way my old dog is cooling off in the creek here. Now we have air conditioning and I have to wear sweaters in the house when it's ninety outside. Of course my husband is still sweating while I'm wearing sweaters. I think he'd like the thermostat set on sixty-five. Brrr!! I want to know it's summer even when I'm inside. We're not climate control compatible, but we compromise. He tries to keep his cool and I'm like Mr. Rogers putting on my sweater.

~~

But there are so many good things about summer. Kids are out of school so they can come visit Grammy and Pa. Fresh veggies out of the garden. Wading in the creek. Blackberries. Hummingbirds and butterflies. Ice cream. Family reunions. Vacations. Long days and walks at twilight. Lightning bugs. Swinging on grapevines. Sno cones and caramel apples at the fair. What do you like best about your summers?

~~

Of course a really good thing about the last three summers is the release of a new Shaker book for me. The Outsider came out in August 2008, The Believer is August 2009 and now The Seeker in July 2010. And the next one, The Blessed, may be out summer 2011. It's fun to have a book out in the summer time. Well, actually it's fun to have a book out any month of the year. That's what writers work toward - seeing their books out there in readers' hands. I've always thought about how neat it would be to go in a doctor's office waiting room or wherever and see somebody reading my book. Somebody I didn't know. So far that hasn't happened, but I do peer at the book title whenever I see somebody reading. Right now if you have a Kindle you can get a free download of The Outsider for the next few weeks. Free is a nice price! You just want to double check and make sure it's still free when you get ready to download since it is a limited offer. I think the offer is good for a couple more weeks.

~~

Also summer is the time when they announce the finalists for the ACFW (Amercian Christian Fiction Writers) Carol awards or what in years past were the Book of the Year awards. And guess what? The Believer was picked as a finalist in the long historical romance category. How neat is that? Last year Summer of Joy was picked as a finalist in the long contemporary category and now The Believer. Lots of great books on the list. When I find the official link I'll post it on Facebook or put the entire list on here Wednesday. Plus I'll be writing about a new giveaway.

~~

Thanks to those of you following my journal. Hope your summer is the best yet. Just remember this Swedish proverb. A life without love is like a year without summer.

Be Alert for Some Good News

Here's part of the beautiful staircase at the Shaker village near me. The double staircases have a big part in my next Shaker book, The Seeker.

~~But first I got some good news about my last book, The Believer, this week. Actually it was old news, but I didn't know about it until now, so it was new news to me. The Believer was on the Library Journal Christian Fiction Bestseller list in February. The list I received included titles most in demand by libraries and bookstores nationwide from Baker & Taylor six months prior to the week ending February 13, 2010. I love libraries and I love people who love books. So whether it was old news or new news, it was definitely welcome news.

~~I do that Google Alert stuff, but all I mostly get are notices that I've put up a new post out here on this blog. Not exactly what I had in mind when I signed up for the alerts. Sometimes I get an alert about something that's been out there on the internet for weeks. Not the kind of alert you want to depend on to keep you off the train tracks when a train's coming. Alert! I used to go to a dentist who liked to tack things up to the ceiling so that when he lowered the chair until the only view you had was up, you could read whatever witty saying was up there while he worked on your teeth. One of the sayings was "Be alert. The world needs more lerts." So what do you think a lert is? That person who is first in line when they're handing our free ice cream cones? The dog who lets you know the UPS guy is bringing you a box of books? The cat who hears you get the can opener out of the drawer? The mom who knows when it gets too quiet she'd better be a lert? Or maybe a lert is a cute little furry creature with sticky feet who runs around on a dentist's ceiling when the patient has too much happy gas.

~~Oh, I know what that lert is - she's the writer who figures out what readers are going to be reading two years from now. That's about how long ahead I'd have to guess at the market. From the time I type Chapter 1 until The End and then the publisher takes those words and makes them into a book takes about two years. But I gave up trying to guess the market years ago. I'm about as good at that as I am at picking Derby winners.

~~The Derby is a big event in this area. A lot of Derby parties and fancy hats and celebrity watching. Not by me. No party, no hat, no celebrity watching. I do like to watch the race. The actual race takes about five minutes with the replay. On television. They say every Kentuckian should attend the Derby at least once in their liefetime, but that's not something I care about doing. Oh, if you were up there on Millionaires' Row and you didn't have to wear a hat, it might be okay. But I think I'd rather see the balloon race in the pre-Derby festivities. Or it might be fun to be on the Belle of Louisville when they do their Derby week competition. They used to race with the Cincinnati Delta Queen, but then the Queen got retro-fitted or something and the Belle didn't. So now the crews have tug of wars and other like contest before they steam off to pick up some special cargo. The Queen has a handicap and has to go a little farther to get her assigned cargo. I researched steamboats for a book I wrote about Louisville set during the 1850's, and now it looks as if that story is going to make it into print in the next few years. More good news for me!! I hope you'll think so too.

~~And I hope you have a great weekend. But if you're planning to be at the Derby, you'd better make that hat a rain hat and bring an umbrella. The weather forecast isn't favorable to the horses who don't like a sloppy track.

A Visit to Red Scooter

I had the treat of getting to go to a book club meeting last week. One of the members contacted me and since the meeting was in a neighboring town, Taylorsville, I was able to make the drive to share their book talk. The picture is of a few of the ladies in the club. I always take my camera and I always forget to get it out until about half the people have gone home. But those still there posed with me. The club meets at The Red Scooter, an antique mall with lots of booths of neat items for sale. Not just antiques, but aprons and purses and used books and gourds and jewelry. I could go on and on. And of course, scooters. I'm not sure any of the scooters were for sale, but they were displayed all around. The owner of the store, Beverly Bentley-Ingram, said she and her brother were brainstorming a name for her business and when he suggested The Red Scooter, she knew that was it. One of the scooters is actually her red scooter that she had as a child. Beverly is the pretty lady in the black with a scarf around her neck. They also do an apron contest in May for Mother's Day. It sounded like the ladies there were always ready to do something fun.

~~And the nicest thing they thought was fun was reading my book, The Believer. They had lots of questions about the Shakers and comments about the characters in my book. It's always a fun thing for me as a writer to hear readers talking about my characters as though they are people they know. As though they could think about them continuing on living their fictional lives after the last page was read and the book was closed. That's a good thing. I've felt that about other writers' characters. I've felt that about my own characters. Sometimes those characters keep living on in my head trying to push in front of the characters I'm trying to get to know for my new story. It's like they're jumping up and down shouting "What about me? You're not going to just forget about me now, are you?" You know with all those past characters jumping around up there in my head, it's no wonder I forget things now and again. You know like how to turn the delay timer on the oven. By the way, I did actually get those dishes scrubbed clean and ready to char something new in them. =o)

~~It's not long now until The Seeker will be out. Actually that happens at the same time my work in progress is supposed to be finished. Uh-0h. I'd better get to work. Hope all of you have something fun planned for your week.

Spring Fever

~~We had a beautiful day here in Kentucky country today. The sun was shining; the mercury was rising in the thermometers; the flowers were blooming; fishing worms were getting drowned; and sweaters were getting shucked. Spring is here and so now it must be time for a good case of Spring Fever.

~~Do you have it? What is it? A time for lazing in the first warm sunshine of the year? A time for throwing off all responsibilities and going hiking or fishing? What does Spring fever make you want to do or are you like Mark Twain says in the following quote?

"It's Spring fever...You don't quite know what it is you DO want, but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so!" ~Mark Twain

Maybe it's not just Spring fever that makes you feel that way. I feel that way a lot when I'm writing, when I'm trying to tell my characters' stories. I want to write a good story. No, I want to write a story better than good. I want to write something that will come to life in a reader's imagination. Something that will sing. Something that will be totally made up but oh so true at the same time. And I've always wanted to write so much that it does sometimes make my heart ache. So maybe I have writing fever.

~~Trouble is the fever - just aching to write a good story - doesn't produce the words. That takes fingers on the keys. I'm trying to meet a quota of pages a day. Words would be better because you can cheat a little with pages. Five or six lines in and you can convince yourself you've done a page when actually you've got about twenty lines to go. But when the fever is on and then Spring fever comes knocking too with all that warm sunshine, sometimes I just melt down like butter in a hot skillet.

~~I met with a lovely book club in Taylorsville, KY last night. It was fun hearing the ladies talk about what they liked about my book, The Believer. Everybody loves Hannah in that book and Issachar - a couple of supporting characters who really make a difference in the story. And Hannah would definitely have Spring fever and run off to the woods to climb some trees.

~~What does Spring fever make you want to do? Whatever it is, if you're in this part of the country the next two days are going to be really good days to treat that "fever."

The Beauty of Nature

"Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts." --Rachel Carson

What a great time of the year to feast on the beauty of the world around us! I'm enjoying the sunshine and the crisp autumn air. It makes for some great walking weather. And I like bringing some of the beauty of nature home with me. In the spring and summer I pick a few wildflower blooms - if the plants are plentiful - to put in a vase on my desk. In the fall, I like bringing home a colorful leaf or two to brighten up my office. I like taking nature pictures and I'm thankful for a digital camera that lets me snap to my heart's content without having to think about wasting film.

But sometimes the very best way to bring home the beauty is in your memory. When I first started walking in the woods as a young teen, I remember stopping and taking mental pictures of different trees or creeks or beautiful places so that I would always have them in my memory bank. I'd read a story about a man who was a prisoner of war and had kept his sanity by building a house in his mind, imagining each board and each nail as he put the house together. When he got home, he built that house. Now it may seem a stretch from that to taking mental pictures of a beautiful oak tree flaming in the sun, but I was an impressionable youngster with an imagination that sometimes took me down dreary lanes of what ifs. I planned to store up my beauty images in case I someday found myself deprived of the opportunity to view beauty.

Thank goodness those dreary what ifs haven't happened. I've lived a blessed life, but I still have those images of beauty in my memory bank and I've added lots more. And not just nature shots, but personal images as well. The first sight of my babies. The first time I saw my husband to be. My daughter singing in a Junior Miss contest. My son receiving a scholarship. My other son telling me he was engaged. So many images of the joy of life and some of the sadness too with the nature ones intermingled to keep me grounded.

I like using nature in my books. In my first published book I used the fleeting shadow of a bird passing over the character to hint at trouble coming. In my Hollyhill books, I had locust blooms and lilacs, a tornado and a snowstorm that were important to the story lines. In The Outsider the weather was a major obstacle to the men fighting in the War of 1812. I didn't make that weather up. It was in the history accounts, but my characters had to deal with the heat and then the bitter cold and snow. In The Believer I have Hannah who loves the woods. At the book club I visited last week, some of the readers said that Hannah was one of their favorite characters. So maybe all those mental images I've been snapping of this or that nature scene are coming in handy after all. A writer has to use what she's given along with what she can imagine.

The Kentucky Book Fair is this Saturday. Come by and see me if you're there. I'm in the back row sitting at the same table as Jan Watson. We both love talking to readers. Of course those 200 other writers do, too. So if you come, plan to spend a couple of hours enjoying books. I'll be on a panel called "Fiction Writers Unite!" with Jan and Karen Robards and Mary Ann Taylor-Hall at 12:30 p.m. That should be fun. Last but not least, keep me in your thoughts and prayers on Friday morning as I'm going to be talking to three classes of high school kids. I'm looking forward to their questions. That's always my favorite part of any talk I do about writing. I'll try to remember their most interesting questions to share with you next week.

--Hope you have plenty of beauty in your lives this week.

Celebrating at Shaker Village

-- One of the nice things about getting older - and there are some nice things - is that if you want to celebrate a week after your actual birthday that's just as much fun as celebrating on the actual day. My sister and I have birthdays a week apart. A few years apart originally, but now we often celebrate both our birthdays on the same day. We used to do them separately, but then we got older and busier. My sister was just saying the other day that she thought she was going to have to re-retire. There just wasn't time to do all she wanted to do and keep the part time jobs she's held down since her first retirement. Me, I don't want to retire. I just want to work faster and better. That means I want the words to flow out of my brain onto my computer screen like water out of a water hose turned on full blast. But I have to admit that sometimes it seems like my creative hose has a few kinks that shut off the creative juices. So I'll just keep muddling along, digging stories out of my head one word and one sentence at a time. That's how even the most famous writers do it. One letter at a time. It's just how those letters and words are put together that make the difference.
--Anyway, I went to Shaker Village for lunch with my sisters and my mom Tuesday to celebrate two of us getting to start out a new year of life. I hadn't been to Shaker Village to eat at the restaurant for years and now I've been there twice in the last couple of months. Last time I was there I gave the workers a copy of my new book, The Believer. It was fun to hear from one of the workers Tuesday that a couple of them had already read the book and found it hard to put down. Those words are always music to a writer's ears. And it was good to hear that a couple of the people who worked there and so are immersed in Shaker history each day thought the story hit the mark.
--I did get the good news that The Believer was on a couple of bestseller lists, both the CBA (Christian Book Association) and ECPA (Evangelical Christian Publisher Association). Number 20 on the CBA list and number 15 on the ECPA fiction list and number 49 on the top 50 book list. What a blessing and a great birthday present besides!
--I've been trying to settle back into a working routine after the NQC and then my houseful of company for the renunion Sunday. And trying to get over a sinus infection. I finally gave up and went to the doctor yesterday. In between coughing and sneezing, I've been enjoying reworking one of my old novels set in Louisville during the 1850's, but meanwhile, my new Shaker character is beginning to talk to me. So I'm anxious to get going and figure out her story. I'm sure Lacey is going to give me an ear full.
--The picture above is the Shaker meeting house at Pleasant Hill, the Shaker community I used as a model for my Harmony Hill Shaker Village. Note the two front doors. The one on the west is for the women and the east for the men. I think. I knew I should have written that down. Maybe I did. I just have to remember where. Anyway this is where the Shakers labored their songs and went forth to exercise their dances to bring down glory. The Ministry, the Shaker men and women who made the rules for the village, lived upstairs and spent their time in prayer and studying Shaker writings. And making sure the brothers and sisters in the village were living the Shaker way. The building had peepholes built in for the purpose of watching. It was a strange way to live.
--Thanks for dropping by. Talk to you next Sunday. No birthdays to celebrate then, but there's always something to celebrate. Maybe sunshine after all the rain.

Families - Real and Imagined

- You remember last summer when I kept you up to date on these two guys' impending arrival. Well, here's Matt (left) and John at about 11 months old. Aren't they cute?

- I'm so excited about finally figuring out how to post pictures that I'm wanting to share. I've already been sharing over on Facebook. How many of you are social networking there? It's a nice way to keep up with far flung family members and check in on old schoolmates.

- When we start counting our blessings, family and friends are generally right there at the top. I have a great family including some sisters that I count as friends. I think sisters can make the best friends because they know you and they love you anyway. At least most of the time. I dedicated my new book, The Believer, to my sisters both by birth and by marriage. Since I was writing about a society, the Shakers, who valued that sisterly tie, I decided to celebrate my own sisterly ties. Thank goodness we don't have to wear bonnets or caps. I've always hated wearing scarves and hats.

- Family is important to my fictional characters too. When you think about a lot of the conflict in stories - and a story has to have conflict - it centers around the relationships between family members. So it's important that I know about my characters' families. Were they loved as children? Did their parents love one another? Did they have sisters and brothers? Were they the youngest, oldest, or one of the ones in the middle? There are so many questions to ask about your characters to make them real enough in your mind so you can tell their story. I'm going to start rounding up my new characters before long and deciding when they were born, how they lived. And then to really help my main character come to life, I'll probably let her tell me about herself in a journal.

- Next week I'm giving away a couple of books for my birthday. As I said on Facebook, a kind of reverse birthday present. But you readers are a gift to me, so this is sort of like a boomerang gift back to you. Leave a comment here or on Facebook. I have a fan page now. Not sure I know what I'm doing, but if you keep hitting buttons, something happens. Sometimes something not so good. Darrell's e-mail is down on his computer now. I hit one wrong button somewhere. Now I've got to beg somebody for technical help. I'll start with my son and work up to those guys on the phone in India or wherever. Wish me luck.

- I hope all the buttons you punch this week will be right buttons.

A Book Lover's Lunch

I went to lunch with some book lovers today. My favorite kind of people to be around. Maybe because I'm a book lover too. My love affair with books started as soon as I learned to read and found some books that said something besides, "Look, Jill, look." Or "Run, Jack, run." Or maybe it was Jan and Jack in those reading books. Very boring. The only fun thing in those books was Spot the dog. I was such a dog lover even then that I didn't mind reading, "Jump, Spot, jump." I wanted him to jump right out of the book and be my dog. But that's another story I'll tell another day - my dog hunger.

I remember one of the first books I read was about a horse called Penny. Then of course I read Black Beauty and Tom Sawyer and Little Women. I pretty much read any book I picked up. I would even read this one old book at my aunt's house with morality stories. The only one I remember now was something about the kid not cleaning his plate. I was a picky eater back then, so guess that's why that one sticks in my head. But I always wanted to be reading. A good book was a treasure, a treat, a reward. I still feel that way, and I try to write my books to make others feel that way. Each new book is a gift to my readers. "Here, try this story," I'm saying. "Jump in and live with my people a while."

So I got to have lunch today with a couple of other writers. Jan Watson's new book, Sweetwater Run, was released in August the same time as my book, The Believer. She's very popular with her readers because her characters spring so fully to life in their imaginations and because she's just extra fun to be around. Then I got to meet Kathy Thiessen who has published a cookbook called, Somewhere in Thyme. Now isn't that a great title? She was sweet enough to give me a copy and the friends with her said it would make me want to cook. So I tried to give it back. No, just kidding. It's a beautiful book and I'm enjoying all the great illustrations that Kathy took herself. She's not only a talented cook, but a talented photographer with an eye for beauty.

The other ladies there were members of a bookclub. I love bookclubs. I wish I could talk to a different bookclub every week in person or on the phone. It's so much fun to talk to people who love books, and maybe the most fun when you get to answer questions about your own book. Sometimes people expect wiser answers about why you let this character do this or that, but quite frankly sometimes the answer is just because that was what happened. When those characters come to life in your head, they can lead you down some odd paths as they show you their stories. Jan said people keep jumping into her stories in minor roles and then end up telling her "Hey, you've got to tell them my story."

That's happened to me a few times too. Aunt Love in The Scent of Lilacs was that way. I didn't really know her story until she sat down and told it to Wes and Jocie. But it had to be told to make the book work. Little sister Hannah might have been my surprise character in The Believer. I enjoyed getting to know her while I was writing.

Hope you are reading a book with characters you're having fun getting to know this week. And thanks for reading. I said I was going to only write two or three paragraphs, but I guess I had some thoughts that jumped up and said I had to tell them too. I'll work on being more concise next time.

Celebrating The Believer

I celebrated my new book, The Believer, with friends at my local library Saturday. A new book is a good reason for a writer to celebrate because for most of us it doesn't happen all that often. Some writers put out two or three books a year, but many of us writers feel fortunate to see one new book hit the bookstore shelves in a year's time. Generally speaking, publishing a book is not a fast process. If the topic is particularly timely, a book might be rushed through the process to get it on the market to catch the height of the public's interest. But most fiction books take a year and sometimes longer to reach the market. That's a long time to a writer who is so anxious for the story to be out there for people to read.

I've said this before but a book is not really complete until a reader picks it up and starts reading the writer's words so the story can spring to life in his or her imagination. Readers are always asking me what happened to this or that character. Were they happy? Did life treat them well after the story ended? Won't I write more about them so they'll be able to read what happened after the final scene in whatever book they read?

I'm always pleased to hear that my characters came to life for them and that they worry about them and want them to be happy even after they lay the book down. I feel the same way. About characters in other writers' books as well as those who people my own stories. I get very attached to my characters. I missed Jocie and her family and friends for months after I wrote Summer of Joy and knew the publishers weren't interested in more Hollyhill books. I would try to think about my new characters and Jocie and Wes would pop up in my thoughts chatting away, laughing over some new Jupiter story. I had to keep pushing them back until I finally got to know my new people well enough that they were coming to life in my head.

And so when you finally have brought those characters to life in your head and you've got their story down in words and some editor somewhere has said yes and you've gone through all the hoops of getting a manuscript turned into a real book with a title and cover and back cover blurb and chapter headings, etc. and it starts showing up on bookstore shelves, then it for sure is time to celebrate. That's what I did yesterday with my reading friends and family in my hometown as I shared with them how I came to write this new Shaker book. We talked about using history in fiction and I shared with them some of my New Year's journal entries across the years that revealed some of the ups and downs in my writing career.

Last New Year's I put those same journal entries here on my blog in hopes that some of my blogging friends might be encouraged as they chased after their goals and dreams when they read how often I've faced discouragement while chasing after my dream of writing books that find their way into readers' hands. I've published nineteen books, but there would be many more out there if everything I'd written was on a bookshelf somewhere. But perseverance trumps discouragement. And once that perseverance has helped you accomplish your goals, then it's celebration time.

Thanks to everyone who came and those of you who had already read my books or have plans to. I dedicated this book to my sisters and my sisters-in-law and four of them were there to celebrate with me. That meant a lot to me. Next summer I hope to have another celebration when The Seeker is published. Meanwhile I'll keep celebrating readers bringing my characters' story in The Believer to life as they read my words.

Oh, yes, one more thing. I'm doing a new book giveaway. Another copy of my new book, The Believer along with a choice of one of my other books. Since this is so soon after the other giveaway, those of you who won in July and August won't be eligible to win this time. So if you aren't already a winner this summer, send me an e-mail or comment here on my blog and I'll put you in the drawing that I'll do on my birthday in September. Might as well have some fun while I'm getting older.

Thanks for being a reading friend. And a special thanks to my blog followers. I appreciate you all.

Modern Blog Tours and Old Shaker Buildings

It's been an interesting week so far for me with my new book, The Believer, making a blog tour. That's where lots of bloggers agree to read and then post reviews of a new book. Most of the reviewers have been kind. While one or two haven't embraced the Shaker background, others have been fascinated and have enjoyed learning about the Shakers. And while I've researched and read and tried to keep in my head lots of Shaker traditions, etc., I'm still learning too.

Wendy, Lonnie and I went to the Shaker Village near here on Monday to eat lunch and get a bit of the Shaker atmosphere. And then we talked and chatted so much, we really didn't have a lot of time to look around. But we were fortunate enough to hear a young woman with a beautiful voice give a demonstration of many of the Shaker songs while she gave a brief history of how they worshiped. We also got to take a good look at the Meeting House that figures prominently in all my books. I even climbed up in the attic. It was very hot up there, but seeing the huge beams and rafters was worth a little sweat.

The architecture is amazing. The Shakers cut and prepared those huge beams and rafters about three miles from where the Meeting House now stands. They assembled them there and then marked each beam or rafter with Roman numerals and took the building apart. They hauled the finished logs to the Meeting House's present location and put them back together by numbers the way some log houses are done today. But this was in 1825.

They had to figure out a way to support the wide expanse of roof without support beams in the middle of the floor where they labored their dances. If they'd had support beams in the middle of the floor the way most buildings that size did then, a lot of Shakers would have been banging into those posts when they were taken over by the spirit and began their free spirited whirls and shaking dances. Also the acoustics are amazing. The lady telling us about the songs said you could get on opposite sides of the room and whisper and the sound would carry clearly.

Anyway I enjoyed walking the paths and being in the Meeting House and feeling my characters peeking over my shoulder to see if I'd gotten it right. While I may have taken a bit of poetic license here and there, most of the historical background of my books is very authentic. I took a bunch of pictures and will try to do a page on my website soon so you can share in seeing what I'm seeing when I'm imagining my characters and where they are living and working. I have a few photos of buildings on my gallery of photos on the website now, but I hope to add more soon.
One reason we didn't get to see as much as we would have liked is that we went on the riverboat ride down the river. It was hot and humid, but a breeze blowing off the river kept us from completely melting. We did enjoy seeing the palisades and the birds and turtles. Wendy was a little worried about the winding road down to Shaker Landing, but we made it fine. She might have had reason to worry since a policeman had pulled us over before we got there to warn me that I might have "axle" trouble. Not exactly what you want to hear. Speeding might have been better. More expensive, but less worrisome - especially for my passengers. But we didn't have any trouble. Other than Wendy wanting to bash me on the head after she mentioned the scraped looking lines in the middle of the winding road, and I told her that was probably where somebody's wheel had fallen off. Next time she'll want to drive her car.

But back to the blogging tour - I did a guest blog at http://mybookaddictionandmore.wordpress.com/ if any of you are interested in going out to read it. I asked "Do you dare?" Then I talked about having the courage to write. If you make a comment, you'll get to be in a drawing to win my book.

I'm off tomorrow to talk to about eighty fifth-graders. That should be interesting. I used to do a lot of school visits, but haven't done one for years. But I love talking to kids and seeing their fresh faces. That is as long as the teachers are there to keep them sitting still.

And then Saturday is my local book event for The Believer at the Anderson Public Library here in town at 1 p.m. If you're in the area, come on down and we'll talk. I'll be giving away some doorprizes and a few books. And I'm trying to think of something interesting to say. Maybe I will before then.

As always, thanks for reading. Hope you have a great rest of the week.

Sunday Down on the Farm with Friends

It's been a busy Sunday. My editor and agent came to visit me and we must be kindred spirits because we talked non-stop all day long. I've been looking forward to their visit for several weeks. I even cleaned up my desk! Now that was really something. I should do it more often because I really don't like working at a messy desk, but paper just seems to accumulate. Any of you guys have that problem? I think it must breed and reproduce and grow. Quickly. Especially for a writer like me who is always hanging on to this or that quote or note or letter or whatever. I like having stuff written down on paper and not just in my head. That's because I'm not as young as I used to be. Sometimes when I try to record stuff just in my head, I must use invisible ink because it often as not disappears and I don't get what needs to be remembered remembered. At least not when it should be remembered.

So the desk is moderately straightened. A lot of stuff went into File 13. That's the round file or trash can for you people who have never worked in an office setting. I need to file a lot of other stuff there, but I'm always worried that I'll end up wanting to chase down the garbage truck to retrieve that very important note I pitched that I should have hung on to.

Anyway, I'm sure my guests were suitably impressed with my almost neat working space. I do have a great office with windows looking out over the outside world. I love windows and have always wanted a window by my desk although I worked for years in my kitchen without a window close by. Now I am blessed with four windows. But my agent made a wise comment after she admired my view of the birdfeeders in the tree and the hayfield where deer sometimes come sneaking along to steal my apples and eat my rosebushes. She said that I probably don't see any of it once I get into my story. And she's right. Once a writer gets into her scene, then her setting, her stage if you will, suddenly replaces everything else. I remember once writing a scene where my character was in a terrible rainstorm and when I came up for air it was odd seeing the sunshine. I felt like my hair should be wet from all the rain.

We all went to hear Darrell and the guys (the Patriot Quartet) sing tonight and they enjoyed hearing Darrell hit those low-down notes. They will have his head so swelled he won't be able to get through the door. He does do a great job singing and the quartet sounded fabulous tonight. I hadn't planned to have my new book on the product table tonight because I'm doing my book event at the Anderson Public Library next Saturday. I was planning to wait until then to have my book available. But they announced it and people wanted it. So I had some in the car and no writer wants to disappoint an eager reader. It was great seeing so many wonderful friends and laughing and talking with them. Not to mention signing a few books. Some of them even said they might still come to my library event next Saturday. It's at one p.m. if you are in the area and would like to come hear me talking about writing The Believer. There will be door prizes and Q & A time and maybe we'll do some sort of fun writing game. We came up with a character at my last event at the library. That's always a fun exercise with a group. But this time we may talk about how we can find a story in history - ours or our nation's.

I'm taking my guests to Shaker Village tomorrow. I'm hoping we won't have to dodge showers there. But even if we do, I know we'll find a spot under the roof and keep having a good time. I hope all of you can look forward to some good times next week and that you know joy in your hearts.

A Weekend on the Singing Trail

Just got home from a weekend with Darrell and the guys as they went to California - California, Kentucky that is. I had no idea there was a California, Kentucky until Darrell started singing with the Patriot Quartet. That's where the lead singer grew up. It's up in Northern Kentucky close to Alexandria. Actually we were at Beech Grove and Silver Springs this weekend.

In Kentucky we like to give every broad place in the road a name and then start up a couple of churches on opposite sides of the road. Makes for a lot of good places for the guys to sing and fun place names for me to try to remember. Here in my county we have Stringtown, Birdie, Rutherford, Alton, Glensboro, Avenstoke, Sinai, Ripyville - just to name a few. There are a lot of very interesting place names in the state. I used Grundy in my Hollyhill books just because I liked thinking about somebody from Grundy. The newspaper has been running a series of articles where they go out to a neat sounding community name and try to dig up the roots of the name. Sometimes they have a challenge just digging up the community because the one general store, church and perhaps one-room schoolhouse have long disappeared from the memory of most of the people who live in the area now. But they still have their dot on the map. What names of towns make you smile? Maybe you grew up in a community with an unusual name.

Anyway the quartet had a good singing weekend. They sang right here at home on Friday night outside for a church who had rented out lots for the 127 Yard sale and were giving everybody a free supper and entertainment. The Yard Sale had loads of cars all along the roads and most of us homebodies are glad they've all gone home. It makes driving very interesting when people slam on their brakes to make a sudden yard sale turn or decide your yard is the best place to park or turn around whether you're actually having a yard sale or not. I'm too far off the beaten path to have that problem, but I've heard others complaining.

Saturday the guys went north to sing at Beech Grove - again outside for a camp meeting gathering of churches in the area. This morning they were at the Silver Springs Church and boy, can those people cook. That's one of the advantages of riding along with the quartet. I get to eat those delicious church dinners right along with them without cooking a thing. Tonight the guys sang at Crestwood in Frankfort. Had a great reception to their new release "American Christian" everywhere they sang. Hope if you hear it on the radio you'll enjoy it too.

Some kind people have already bought my new book, The Believer, and read it. And the sweet comments have warmed this writer's heart. Thank you. Don't forget. If you're in the area and want to hear some writer stories, come on out to the Anderson County Public Library on Saturday, August 22 at 1 p.m. I'm going to be celebrating the new book with a booktalk, maybe a reading, lots of back and forth discussion time and some door prizes. For those of you who aren't in the area, I'll post a new giveaway on that weekend so you can join in the giveaway fun.

Thanks for reading. And being reading friends.

Celebrating Release Day

My new book, The Believer, was officially released by the publishers for sale yesterday. Actually it was already out in stores, or so I've been told. I haven't personally seen it on any store shelves yet, but then the only shelves I've been seeing are the ones where I've been setting my newly canned jars of green beans. Trust me. Bookstore shelves are more exciting. But last week was too hectic to go bookstore hopping although I do have to admit I love to browse in bookstores whether I have a new book releasing or not. Bookstores are about the only place I truly like to shop which is why my family has to like getting books as presents. Although antique malls can be fun if you have a friend along. And if they have a book section. :-)

I haven't gotten much feedback yet from the new story. I don't think the readers in my family realize how needy writers can be when we have a new book out. We need to hear positive things that we can hope are not just made up to stroke our egos. But we want to know if our story was okay. Plus a few things that maybe made it okay. Well, actually we want to hear things like "It was great." Or "I couldn't put it down." Or "I stayed up way too late to find out what happened." You know, that sort of thing. Sounds like I'm begging for ego stroking comments, doesn't it?

But it is fun having a new book out, and it is fun hearing readers' reactions. Of course it's more fun when they are good reactions, but writers can't always expect that. In fact this one writers' bunch I know even have a contest to pick the most terrible review when they have a meeting . So they all bring their bad reviews and compete to see who has the worst one. I guess the idea is that it's better to laugh about them than to cry about them. One thing sure, once the book is out there in readers' hands, there's nothing you can do to change what you wrote. Plus even if you changed things to suit one reader then another reader would probably think that change messed things up.

A writer has to trust her inner ear and tell the story as best she can. Then she has to turn it loose. Let it go out into the world and find readers. If those readers find fault or even if she herself looks over her words once they are between the covers of a book and finds fault, she just has to file that away as experience and hope to do better on the next story. That's what I try to do, but I still hope for good reviews and good comments. Everybody, no matter what they do, can use some encouraging words.

I drew for my final book winner for this giveaway yesterday on release day and it's Linda. I'll be sending her an e-mail to let her know she's a winner. And a newsletter will go out this week. If you're not signed up for my occasional newsletter and want to be, just click on the newsletter link on my webpage. Thanks to everyone who entered the giveaway. I'll have to think up something new to give away next month.

Hope you hear nothing but encouraging words this week. And nobody says, "The beans need picking." A bountiful harvest is a blessing, but there are only so many hours in a day. I've promised myself I'm getting back to writing next week even if all the closets aren't cleaned out and I still need to paint the back hall. I've got to remember that writing is what I do. Housekeeping chores are secondary.

Thanks for reading.

A Few Days with the Grandkids

School starts here in Anderson County next Tuesday. The parents I've heard talking are groaning about the early start and the teachers are groaning louder. August is sometimes the very best month for summer activities and now schoolwork is going to be on the agenda instead of swimming pools and picnics and vacations at the lake. My grandkids here in Anderson County came out on Tuesday to get one more day in at the farm with Grammy and Pa before the school bells started ringing. Then the WV grandkids and parents came down that night and the older kids and parents went to Kings Island yesterday while we kept the twin boys happy. And spoiled. They'll celebrate their first birthday in about two weeks, but neither has decided to walk yet. At least without holding on.

I'm never in all that much of a hurry for the walking because I think crawling babies are cute. And they say it's good for eye coordination and might be good training for reading later on. (I think I read that somewhere once and didn't just make it up.) Anyway if it is true, I'm all for developing strong readers. All my grandkids enjoy books and being read to. Of course the twins mostly want to chew the pages right now, but that's their way of enjoying the books.

Everybody's gone home now after we had a big breakfast this morning. At least there was food and it disappeared, so I guess people ate it. I was too busy responding to various grandma emergencies with this or that favorite grandchild. I had nine favorites this morning plus one little neighbor friend girl who's certainly sweet enough to add in with the grandkids. But now it's back to normal except I'm dog sitting for a neighbor. A cute little ball of fluff dog that loves to sit in my lap and follows me around and looks mournfully at me while I'm rushing about doing chores.

At least she used to be a cute little ball of fluff. Her owners must have decided she was hot and gave her a haircut that would certainly qualify for hiding under the car like that little dog I told you about a couple of weeks ago that was embarrassed after getting a clip. But Cubster doesn't seem to be bothered. I guess she hasn't looked in a mirror. Sometimes that's the best way. If you haven't seen your hair sticking out in all the wrong directions, then you can imagine it looks great. And the truth is, if you think you look okay, most of the people you meet will think you look okay too. Maybe you can tell by this that I didn't not only not have time to do my blog until everybody went home, I didn't hardly have time to comb my hair either. But that was okay. Grandkids look with their heart instead of their eyes.

I'm drawing for my last winner of my new book, The Believer, on Saturday for the current give away. I'm sure I'll be posting some new giveaways soon. It's not too late to get your name in the pot if you haven't already. Just go to my website, http://www.annhgabhart.com/ and send me an e-mail from the Contact Ann link. If you've already sent an e-mail and haven't won one of the July Sunday drawings, your name is still in the pot. I plan to get the books in the mail tomorrow to Jeneen, Stefanie, Stephanie and Carrie who have already won.

I haven't gotten any comments much from my reading family yet, but several are reading the book. They'll all probably say they enjoyed it whether they did or not, but it's easy to tell if they really mean it. Maybe I'll do like the hair and believe them without looking in my mirror of doubt.

I hope some of you find the book and enjoy Elizabeth and Ethan's story. The reviewer for Romantic Times Book Review Magazine gave it four stars. Last year The Outsider was a "Top Pick" which was a great spirit booster, but a four star review is very good.

Sorry I was late with my entry this week. By the time I got those babies settled last night, I forgot it was Wednesday.

Hope you have a great rest of the week.

Cookies and Kool Aid

We're still going strong at Bible School. At least the kids are. They can get a lot more mileage out of those cookies and Kool Aid than us older folks can. I usually teach the teenagers, but this year the teens must have had other things going and nobody showed up for my class. So I've been helping with the Beginners. That's ages two to five. Very challenging when a couple of them keep crying for their mamas and daddies. I think those two aren't really ready for Bible School, but the pastor's wife and I are giving it our best try. And without the cookies and popcorn I don't know if we'd make it.

But I really do love Bible School and getting to know the kids better and hearing what they tell you. In one class the teacher was impressing on the children how they could pray and God would always be listening. This little girl pipes up and says, "I prayed I wouldn't have to stay at the babysitter's and I did. I don't think He was listening that day." That makes us smile, but you know a lot of us might have felt something the same at this or that time. But as Br. Fred often says, there are more than one way for the Lord to answer our prayers. There's yes. There's no. There's wait. There's not yet. There's trust Me. The Lord sees the whole picture and we sometimes only see the part right in front of our eyes.

Just take my Shaker book, The Outsider. I came up with the original idea over thirty years ago. Wrote the book. Had it rejected over and over as too religious. Got a really nice letter from Harlequins, but it was still a thanks, but no thanks letter. Then all these years later I dug it out of my closet, rewrote it for the inspirational market and Revell published it. Best of all readers read it. So maybe the answer that I thought was no way back then was really wait. Not yet. This story's time will come.

The Believer didn't have such a wait time. Now I can only hope the time is right for Elizabeth's and Ethan's story. I think you're going to like them as characters and that you will like reading their story. Some of you have already pre-ordered the book and I certainly appreciate that. In fact so many people did that when I called Baker Books to order more copies for myself, they didn't have any. I couldn't complain about that although I did ask the lady I was talking to if they'd printed any copies. She assured me they had and that they would be printing some more. That was good news.

And thank goodness, she did some switching around and found some copies for me. It might not be good to try a book event or signing without books. I'm planning a local book event at the Anderson County Library on Saturday afternoon, August 22. I'll have door prizes and other fun things that day. But first I'll be having the book's coming out party at Shaker Village in Mercer County this coming Saturday morning. I'm looking forward to that. There will be a traditional Shaker breakfast. Well, the food anyway will be traditional. We'll be breaking their traditions by talking. The Shakers didn't allow talking during meals in what they called their "biting rooms." That would be difficult for me this Saturday morning. I plan to do some talking and sharing with my friends. If you can't be there, I'll let you know how things went on Sunday.

Hope you have some fun things planned for this weekend. Summer is zooming past. They're starting school here week after next. Seems way too early. Kids are supposed to go swimming in August. Not go back to school.

Another Winner!

Hey, everybody! It's a July Sunday - even if it does feel more like a September Sunday. We had record lows here on Friday night. Very pleasant today. I could have probably picked beans without working up too much of a sweat, but the beans had to wait for tomorrow. Anyway it is Sunday and it is July so we have a new winner of an autographed copy of my about to be released book, The Believer. And the winner is another Stephanie. The last winner was Stefanie from Kentucky. I'm not sure where this week's winning Stephanie is from, but I'll be contacting her for a mailing address to send her the book. There's still another Sunday in July and then I'll be drawing for a winner the first weekend of August, so send me a message from my website and I'll add your name to the pot. Who knows? You might win. Nearly everyone who has won a book in my giveaways has said, "I never win anything!" But that time they did.

We started Bible School at my little country church this week. Now that I've got a better hookup to the internet, I'll try to start posting some pictures here on the blog and I thought tonight that a picture of the church might be something you'd like to see. Especially those of you who read some of the Hollyhill books since I based my Mt. Pleasant Church in the books on Goshen's building. Or at least the way it looked back in the sixties. And yes, I do remember those olden days before some of you discovered America. That's what our pastor says happened when you were born. Besides, you missed out. The Sixties were some interesting years. Just think about the music. We went from Elvis to the Beatles and beyond.

Of course my mom has even more to remember and celebrate. She grew up during the Depression, got married right before WW II started, enjoyed the peaceful Fifties and has been on a roller coaster ride ever since. So much has changed in her lifetime. So much has changed in mine. But isn't that what they say is the one thing you can count on? Change. At least about everything but the Lord who is the same today and yesterday and all the tomorrows. The Bible tells us so.

And that's what we're teaching at Bible School this week. The B-i-b-l-e. I'm guessing a lot of you sang that song at Bible School when you were kids. I've certainly sung it a lot since I've taught Bible School at Goshen every year since 1967. I sometimes think I should retire, but I enjoy being around the kids too much. If you want a fresh outlook on life just go find some kids and don't talk. Just listen.

I did get that wireless stuff hooked up finally here in the house. My son figured out why I was pulling my hair out. I had the wrong kind of network cards. As I said on Facebook, I was trying to make a goose be a swan. It wasn't going to work no matter how many times I tried. So I went out to the store. Got the right stuff and had it up and running in half an hour or less. Easy as pie. Only one problem, the satellite company put me in the internet corner for 24 hours because I exceeded my download quota. I'd forgotten I even had a quota. Worse, I didn't know I'd downloaded anything. Updates perhaps for Windows or so their site suggested. But finally they let me out of the corner and I'm trying to behave and not exceed my allowed allotment. That way I won't have to try to break out of internet jail or sit and stew for a day while the internet moves slower than dial-up ever did.

I won't have much time for internetting or facebooking this week with VBS going on. I've plenty of writing publicity odds and ends to take care of. The Believer will be on Chapter-A-Week in August. I'll post the link here on Wednesday. Then it might be good to think about what I'm going to say on Saturday morning at my booklaunch at Shaker Village. (If any of you are local, you can check out details on my website if you think you might like to be there Saturday morning. It will be fun to launch the book at the Shaker Village I based Harmony Hill on.) And I'm beginning to want to be back immersed in a new story. Can't stay away from writing playing with grandkids and painting walls and canning beans too long. Believe me, the playing with the grandkids was the most fun in that list.

Hope you're having a great week. I'll tell you about the grandkids and me trekking down to Panter Rock another time. Smile - everybody will wonder what you're up to.

Breathing that New Book Smell

How do the weeks run by so quickly? I know, I know. That's a sign of getting older. Oh well, I guess that's something all of us are doing everyday no matter what our age is in years. And I want to enjoy every day. Although I do have to admit today has been frustrating. I've been trying to set up a wireless network so we can browse the internet on two different computers here in the house. We got broadband - went satellite. I was all for just hooking it up to Darrell's computer but then the nice young man who came to install it said he couldn't run the wire to that computer unless we moved it to an outside wall and how about putting it on mine. Well, okay, but I can't share my computer. I spend too many hours in here writing or at least trying to write. And Darrell can spend a whole day surfing the net. So that's definitely not a possible sharing option. So okay, we bought a wireless router and LAN cards and cables and... It goes on and on. But buying the stuff obviously isn't enough. Now I have to try to put it all together and make it work. So far it's been a dismal many hour failure. Anybody got a magic wand I can borrow?

I did have some good news yesterday. I got to open up The Believer and get a whiff of that new book smell. I received my first copy finally. The Fed Ex man couldn't find my house for about a week. I mean just because they spelled my name and the name of my lane wrong. Looks like the driver could have figured that out. Yeah, like I'm supposed to be able to figure out this crazy wireless connecting wizard. What I need is a real wizard. Looks like I keep coming back to that magic wand I want to borrow.

Anyway the book looks good. I like the cover and the blurbs and the dedication (mine of course, but I'd almost forgotten what it said). I dedicated the book to my sisters. There are no friends like sister friends. And since the Shakers wanted to be sisters and brothers, I thought a sister dedication would be perfect for a Shaker book.

Of course the best news was that the book may already be going into a second printing. Now I don't know how many they printed to begin with, but that's beside the point. The point is they need more. That's the good point. I think there's going to be a blog tour of the book too. That's always a lot of fun. I'll be interviewing with some of the bloggers. When I find out when and where, I'll be sure to let you guys in on the fun. Some of those bloggers can ask interesting questions - like if you were an animal, what kind would you want to be. Things totally unrelated to writing, but just for fun even if coming up with clever answers can strain the brain. At least it might be less brain strain than connecting wireless routers!! Of course for the answer to what kind of animal, I'd pick dog. Definitely dog. Run and play and sleep all day and night. And bark. I know I'd bark. People would be throwing shoes at me.

I should get my other copies of the book soon so that I can send out the book to the winners of my book giveaway. If you haven't entered the drawing and want to, you still have time. I'll be drawing for three more winners in the next three week. Just go to my website and send me an e-mail. And if you're in the area and want to enjoy "Brunch with Ann" at Shaker Village at 10 a.m. July 25, don't forget to get your tickets from Corinth Christian Bookstore in Frankfort. They're taking orders over the phone (their number is on my website) and still had some tickets the last time I talked to the owner, Steve.

Oh yeah, and if you have a magic computer setup device wand, please let me know where you got it. I need one!

Each Child a Favorite Blessing

I just got home from my babysitting weekend in WV. The babies are so cute, both the twins and their big sisters. The twins turned eleven months old while I was there. Neither of them have started walking yet, but they crawl everywhere super speed. Especially when they see an open door where they think they might escape to the outdoors. Or get something yummy out of the fridge. I'd open the refrigerator door and they both made a bee line for the bottom shelf on the door holding the jars of sauces and dressings. I'd pull one twin back and by the time I reached for the second one, the other one was already back grabbing for the jars. I had to learn to be quick. But they didn't cry except when they were hungry or sleepy and so this grandma isn't complaining. It was fun seeing them crawl everywhere.


And the girls and I had a good time playing all sorts of imagining games and reading books. They had one book about three little bear cubs wondering if their parents loved their siblings better than them. The book was very sweet in pointing out how each bear cub was special in his own right. In a family of five children that's something that's bound to come up at times. That wondering whether this or that sister or brother is more favored. In fact the six year old said she wondered about that sometimes after we finished reading the story. I told her the love of moms and dads is like a candle that can light many little candles and still burn just as bright on each of them, but I'm not sure she knew what the heck I was talking about. So I just told her she was very loved by all. Then the next day she told me that all my grandbabies couldn't be my favorites, but I told her that yes, somehow they are. Each and every one.


But most of us who grew up in a family with brothers or sisters probably thought at one time or other that our parents favored this or that sibling the most. And probably at one time or another they did, but then we no doubt got our moments when we were the favored child as well. For sure I always knew I was loved and treasured by my mother and father. And that's what my grandbabies are too - loved and treasured by their parents and their grandparents, too. What a blessing for a child. One I would wish for every child.


This is week two in my book giveaway and I actually remembered to draw the winner today for an autographed copy of my new book, The Believer. Can you believe that? And the winner is Stefanie from right here in Kentucky. If you haven't entered the giveaway yet, you can still get in on the fun by sending me an e-mail from my website. I'm going to be drawing for three more winners.


I still haven't gotten a copy of the book myself, but I think one is on the way. I had a postcard from Fed Ex that they couldn't find me. Something always happens with those delivery guys. Just because I live back in the sticks on this little obscure lane and then they always write the address down wrong. I mean what's their problem! So maybe next week I'll get to see what the new book looks like.


I'm anxious to get back to full time writing work instead of having to do all this painting. I need to put a second coat on the living room but after that I may throw away my paint rollers. Except the back hall really needs painting too and there's the trim in the kitchen and... Oh well, some of these days I'll maybe get half of what needs doing done. Of course the greenbeans are coming on in the garden and the corn is beginning to make ears. Always something. And it's always been that way all the time I've been writing through the years. And yet I have managed to keep writing and I will now too. Writing is what I do.


Hope you're getting to do what you want to do this week. Talk to you again on Wednesday.