Need a Few Influencers for a New Shaker Book

"The people who influence you are the people who believe in you." 
    ~Henry Drummond





I am blessed by the influence of so many people who have believed in me through the years. My mother, first and foremost, always believed I could do whatever I set out to do. That's not to say she might not have been a little surprised when I had the dream to be a writer and actually publish books. 

Sometimes when I think about that, I'm a little surprised! Not that I wanted to write, but that I do have books published that people like you actually read. That is a blessing I don't take for granted. I'm grateful for every reader. I'm thankful every time any of you tell one of your reading friends about my books. I appreciate every time you read my this-and-that blog posts and when you leave comments here or play my guessing games. (I'm still smiling about finally getting a mystery photo that stumped you last time. I'm also trying to come up with something new that might be fun.) 


Many of you who read my blog are also faithful readers of my books and have followed me from Hollyhill to Harmony Hill to Rosey Corner and to 1855 Louisville. I love how you've been willing to read my different types of stories. 

This summer, I'm going back to my Harmony Hill Shaker village for a new book, The Innocent. That's why I posted this with a Shaker house picture. I really didn't think I'd write another Shaker book, but then these characters came to mind and it seemed like the thing to do. I guess I'll see if it really was come July when I find out if readers are ready to go back to Harmony Hill too. The book is already available for pre-order on Amazon. 

So now I'm looking for ten or twelve readers who might like to be what is called "influencers" in the publishing business. These people get a hot off the press copy of the book and in return perhaps talk about the book to their reading friends and suggest it to their book clubs or libraries. They might post reviews on internet sites or their own blogs if they have blogs or talk it up on other social media sites if the story is one the reader liked. Word of mouth really is the best advertisement a writer can get. These are just suggested things. There is no obligation to do anything if you don't want to other than receive the book and promise to give it a read. 

If any of you would like to give this influencing bit a try, just let me know. If I get more people who would like to be on my influencer list than the list can accomodate, I'll draw out twelve names. You can leave your e-mail information here in a comment or e-mail me directly at annhgabhart(at)yahoo(dot)com. 

And thanks so much. I am blessed to have you as reading friends.

On the Hunt for "The End"

One must be drenched in words, literally soaked in them, to have the right ones form themselves into the proper pattern at the right moment. ~Hart Crane

Once more I am searching for the end of a story. Once more it seems to be hiding from me behind a crazy mixture of words that don’t seem to be paving the pathway I need to glide on toward “the end.” Once more I’m feeling the way I did back in 2009 when I wrote this:

It's been a hard work week so far with too many other things I have to do getting in the way of my five pages a day quota to make sure I meet my summer deadline. I've been writing and maybe almost getting my pages, but at the end of the day I sometimes end up thinking that I'm going to have to cut most of those words in the final draft. But I tell myself to just get the words out there where I can cut them or improve them, where I can tell the story I'm trying to tell. In the best way I can.

That’s one of the good things about keeping a writing journal. You can see you’ve been in the same place before. You can see that it wasn’t fatal. The story did get written. You can see that it even got published and people read it. Maybe not as many people as you might hope. Most all writers wouldn’t mind an appearance on the New York Times Bestseller list, but any reader’s list is good too.

I’m not sure which book I was writing in 2009. Maybe The Seeker or The Blessed. I’m almost sure it must have been one of my Shaker books. That’s what I’m searching for the end of once again. A Shaker book. I’m anxious to be at the end. I tremble a bit thinking about reading it over once I find those elusive words for fear I have not written the story I hoped to write when I first typed in the words “Chapter 1” and began.

The post back in 2009 was titled “Making the Words Disappear.” You can click on this link if you want to read the rest of what I wrote then. That is what a writer needs to do - make the words disappear. A writer wants readers to be living the story with the characters and not simply reading about them. Some years ago I was teaching a community ed class on writing and one of the sessions was how to make characters come to life. In the process of searching for something that might keep my wannabe writers interested in this very uneducated in writing processes teacher I searched for inspiring advice from other writers who were more educated in the writing process. One of the things I read that I have never forgotten was a writer saying she wanted to create characters who would crawl up into a reader’s heart and find a home there. That’s what I want to do. That’s what I’m trying to do with this book as I push my people out on the paths that will help me find an end of the story that will satisfy them and me and you, the reader.

Do the words disappear for you when you’re reading? 

Have you met characters that you invited into your heart and that you remembered long after you came to the end?

Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart. ~William Wordsworth

If You Had Your Life to Live Over

"If I had my life to live over, I would start barefoot earlier in the spring and stay that way later in the fall. I would go to more dances. I would ride more merry-go-rounds. I would pick more daisies." (Nadine Stair)

Have you ever thought about what you might do differently if you had your life to live over? Or maybe what you want to do in the days you have left? 

One time at a writers' retreat we were challenged to dream big and set goals for ourselves. What did we want to happen in the year ahead in our writing careers? I came up with a couple of big dreams. Neither thing happened that year or since. They are still dreams. 

Then, when I think about having over twenty-five of my books published, that would have been a really big dream for me when I started writing many years ago. But now sometimes I look back and wonder if I could have done this or that differently. Perhaps written more books or better books. At the same time, I feel blessed that I have been able to write some stories that have kept people reading. To have created some characters readers have invited into their hearts. 

We lost one of our church people this week. He had a good long life, but his family will miss him. Attending a funeral can make a person think about her own numbered days and wonder. Am I taking advantage of the blessings the Lord has showered down on me? What would I go back in time and do differently if I could? Would I lie in the grass and not worry about chiggers while I celebrated spring? Would I plant more flowers and eat more strawberries straight from the vine? Would I make more time away from my keyboard for family and friends? Would I take more time to listen and use less time talking? Would I cherish the moments and not rush the days? 

Regrets are useless. We can't go back. We can only live forward. Perhaps the thing we all need to do most is look around and enjoy the journey. 

What would you do differently if you could live your life over?

Procrastination - The Thief of Time

I knew I should have done it yesterday!!

Procrastination is the thief of time. ~Edward Young

Do you put things off? Even things you really want to do? I've been struggling with that while trying to finish the first draft of my work in progress. I want to write it. I really do. And I am writing it, but what seems at a snail's pace. It's time I hit the homestretch with a burst of speed, but instead procrastination is popping up like dandelions. I like dandelions better. 

How do I procrastinate? Let me count the ways. There are hundreds of them. But I can take solace in the fact that I'm far from the only person who has a tendency to put things off. Procrastination is a basic human impulse and a lot of us humans give in to it from time to time. Some of us more times than others. The word comes from a Latin term meaning "put off until tomorrow." 

Oh, how easy it is to put off until tomorrow! Tomorrow I'll have more time. Tomorrow I'll see the next scene more clearly. Tomorrow the day will somehow stretch and add those extra hours I need to get this writing done. 

Procrastination has been around for as long as there have been people. When you're self-employed, as I am, then you can get extremely good at procrastination. You set your work time. You can break your work times. That's not to indicate that self-employed people don't work hard. Most of the ones I know - whether they're writers, beauticians, car repair people, yard care workers, lawyers, or you name it job - they all work very hard and long hours. 

Plus, we can procrastinate about things other than our jobs. We procrastinate about washing those windows or cleaning out the refrigerator or weeding the garden or whatever chore. I'm sure you can come up with lots of things we put off. Even things like going to the dentist or to get our eyes checked. Things we shouldn't put off. Tomorrow, we'll do it. Next week for sure. Or we'll have more time this summer. Then, maybe in the fall. 

If you want to read a more detailed examination of why we procrastinate, here's a link to an article "Later" on the New York Times site. Some interesting theories and facts there. 

Of course the internet is a great procrastinating tool. There are even applications and software now that you can download to block the internet for a specific amount of time so that you CAN'T procrastinate by checking e-mails or surfing for that one more fact that you just have to know before you can write the next scene. I haven't downloaded any of them. I think I should be able to just use self-discipline, but then the phone will make that little bing that says I have a new e-mail. And while I'm looking at that, I'd better see what's going on over on my Facebook page. And is there a new review on one of my books? Or maybe I'd better pay those bills before they're overdue. Or take Oscar for a walk. Or it could be I just need to organize my pencils here on my desk. I wrote a post here a few years ago about sharpening pencils to delay the start of work.

On top of all those type of reasons for not getting the work I need to do done are the interruptions I have to allow in my day. A call about Mom. A visit to see about her. The church bulletin to do. Birthday gifts to buy. Blogs to write. All important things, but I don't need to use them to delay writing my book. Sometimes that's what I do. Just use them to put off the hard work of writing the next scene. 

So are you a procrastinator? Or what ways have you come up with to keep yourself on task?

Here's a quote I found out on the internet. I promise I wasn't procrastinating. I was looking for something I needed. Honest.

"I am taking care of my procrastination problem. You just wait and see." I think that means I'll get it done tomorrow. LOL.

Some things I've Learned as a Writer

I started writing when I was around ten years old. That means I've been writing a very long time. Sometimes with success. Sometimes without success - at least in publishing that writing. But the actual writing was always successful because words spilled out on paper. Perhaps not the best words. But words were written. 

In those childhood days, writing was simply for fun. The words bubbled up with joy and spilled out all across the notebook paper. The ink tracing of words somehow magically made a story. It was only later that I began to desire readers. The stories hidden away in notebooks were no longer enough. I wanted to write stories that not only came to life in my mind, but that would wake up readers' imaginations too. And so began my career as a writer.

Along the way I've discovered a few things about writing.

First and early on I learned that everything I wrote was not going to be golden. Writing was a learning process. I could improve. I could find ways to write better.

Second, I learned that writing better didn't guarantee that what I'd written would turn out to be what others wanted to read. 

Third, I learned that even when what I wrote found no ready readers, it was not wasted effort but instead practice. I had to write those words to get better at writing so that when I did find the right story to write, then my words might be so well written they would disappear before a reader's eyes as the story sprang to life in his or her imagination. 

Other things I've learned:

...that talking about writing is not writing. 

...that if I don't apply my fingers to the keyboard, nothing gets written.

...that I can't talk too much about a story before I write it or I lose the excitement of writing said story.

...that persistence is as necessary as imagination in getting a book on a store shelf. 

...that rejection, although painful, is not fatal unless you let it be. 

...that writing is hard work no matter how much you love writing.

...that even on the days when the winds of creativity don't blow on your writing sails, you can still write words that turn out to be not half bad.

...that it is easy to get distracted and do anything but write even when you badly want to write.

...that the most important person to believe in your writing is yourself. You are the one alone in front of the blank page. 

...that the most important thing I did to prepare myself to write was read and that even now after all these years of writing, reading other writers' stories is still as necessary as when I began writing.

...that even when I thought I should give up on writing, I couldn't. 

I am a writer. That's what I do. Thank you for reading some of my words. 

What lessons have your life or work taught you?

Words - A Reason for Thanksgiving

Words 

"Words are only postage stamps delivering the object for you to unwrap." ~George Bernard Shaw

Since I let Wednesday slip away without posting last night, I'm writing this early on Thanksgiving morning. So of course, it is about being thankful. I have so many blessings to count, that I could write them down all day and then nobody would get to eat those mashed potatoes or macaroni and cheese I need to cook. The turkey is in the oven and I made the cranberry sauce and chess cake last night. Stay tuned for my very simple chess cake recipe - as long as you're not dieting. :)

But last night as I got ready to go to bed I was thinking about what I could have written if I hadn't forgotten it was Wednesday night and the thought came to me that I was thankful for words. I am so very thankful that I have been given, in some small measure at least, a gift for words. I like words. I like to put them together to make a story. I like reading the way other people put them together to make stories. I like hearing people speak those words to tell a story. I like the sound of words when you read a story aloud to a child whether the words are ones in the dictionary or some arrangement of letters that make up nonsensical words for fun. 

A Big Dream

I am so thankful that I have been able to live my childhood dream of being a writer. That was such a big dream for a little girl growing up on a tobacco farm who had never even met anyone who was a writer. It was such a big dream that even after I had several books published I had a hard time claiming the title of writer out loud. It was as if I thought it might vanish if I became too sure of it. Last Sunday at church we were being thankful for our beautiful fellowship hall that seemed an impossible dream for our little church when we first thought about building it. But now it's built and paid for and a blessing to our church. There's no dream too big for our Lord. 

So that's how it was with that little farm girl who did become a writer with the help of the Lord. Now all these many years of writing later, I can say, without hesitation, I am a writer. I have been blessed by the characters who have come to life in my imagination. And I have been blessed by the readers who have also let my characters come to life in their imaginations. Words are a writer's tool. And I am thankful for those tools. 

"Love. Fall in love and stay in love. Write only what you love, and love what you write. The key word is love. You have to get up in the morning and write something you love, something to live for." ~Ray Bradbury

A Simple Recipe Everybody Likes

Now here's that Chess Cake recipe:


1 C butter or margarine
2 C brown sugar, packed
1 C granulated sugar
4 eggs
2 C self-rising flour
1 C chopped pecans

Cream butter and sugars. Add eggs and flour and then the nuts. Bake in a 13 x 9 inch dish at 350 degrees until lightly brown - approximately 35 minutes. Slice into squares and enjoy. 

Now to Announce the Winner

Melanie Backus is the winner of Jan Watson's autographed novels, Skip Rock Shallows and Tattler's Branch. I'll be in touch, Melanie. Thanks to all of you who commented on Jan's post and on the ones since. A special thanks to those of you who have offered encouraging words and shared your own journeys down the hard path of caring for a loved one with dementia. I'm thankful for each of you. 

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Story Webs

A Story Web

Four years ago I wrote a piece for my on-line journal here about how a story can be an intricate web like a spider web. I wanted a picture of a spider web to go with it, but it was late October and the spiders were battening down their hatches for winter, I suppose. I looked all over the woods for spider webs. I mean there are thousands of spiders out here on the farm, but none I could find at that time ready to pose and have their web featured on my Writer’s “Home” Journal. I did eventually take the photo above of a spider web just outside my office window. I think his ever so many great grandsons are still out there making webs in front of my window. They figure it’s a prime spot because I work a lot at night and the light attracts those unwary moths to their webs.

So you may be wondering, what is all the fuss about a spider web picture? None. You’ve no doubt seen plenty of spider webs and so would have no problem bringing to mind a spider web with all those ladderlike connecting bits of sticky web. I just wanted a picture then to illustrate my point that creating a new story is sort of like a spider spinning that web. Ever since then,when I see a great spider web, I remember my hunt back then for the post I wanted to do. Last week, I spotted the web of one of those big yellow and black garden spiders, not in the garden but on a tree in our yard. So of course I took a picture.

And here it is. To go with it, here’s part of that long ago blog. Even if you read it then, I’m sure you’ve forgotten it by now. But I put spider web in the search area here on my blog and the post popped right up. Computers are so amazing. 

I’m going to be starting a new story just as soon as I finish trimming the one I’m editing. I’ve got 7,000 more words to trim. Already cut 6,000, but it’s getting harder now and the editing deadline is approaching. But here’s how I compared beginning a new story with a spider spinning a web.

A writer starts out with the first bit of web or story idea and swings on it through the air in an attempt to connect to something else. Something solid that she can anchor her story on. Maybe a character coming to life in her mind or a truth she wants her characters to discover or maybe just a fun idea of what happens next. And then the writer starts inching down that first initial web strand to figure out the next direction to spin and then the next and the next until the story is complete with its dozens of connections - events and happenings that lead to other events and happenings in your story. And you hope your web is strong. So strong it can capture readers and wrap them so up in your story that they'll sit right down and read it through without even trying to break free of your story web. 

Now you might notice that the spider web in my picture (The old picture. In the new picture the spider did a very neat and wonderful web.) is a little ragged looking with some gaps here and there, but in spite of that, it's holding together. That's what I always want my story to do too - hold together. It may not be perfect. I'm not a perfect writer. But I do like to tell stories and I'm glad to be spinning a new yarn now that I hope all of you will want to read someday.

Hope you enjoyed revisiting one of my favorite posts here. 

I’m drawing for the winners of my Christmas at Harmony Hill Celebration Giveaway early on Tuesday. You can still get an entry in today or tomorrow. Just leave a comment here with a way to get in touch with you should you win or e-mail me at annhgabhart(at)yahoo(dot)com.  Wednesday night’s blog post will announce the winners. Thank you again for sharing all your wonderful stories. I also hope to send out a newsletter on October 1, so if you’d like to get a copy, let me know and I’ll add your name to my e-mail newsletter list.

Spotted on My Walks

"Happiness is a butterfly which, when pursued, is always beyond our grasp, but which if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you." ~Nathaniel Hawthorne

I love spotting things on my walks like this butterfly. I've been pursuing him or his brothers and sisters for the last couple of months in order to take his photo. They were all very camera shy, not wanting to reveal those spotted wings for me. Butterflies are a gift of summer that edges over into autumn. I see them in my walks through the fields before the last cutting of hay harvests the late blooming flowers for the cows to eat when snow starts flying.

Some of you who follow my Facebook author page know I post photos from time to time that I take on my walks. Sometimes the clouds and sky. Sometimes flowers.

Sometimes butterflies. Sometimes Oscar. Sometimes snakes and bugs. The digital camera on my phone makes sharing my walks easy. But it does take a while to jerk the phone out of my pocket and click on the camera icon. Often too long and I miss some great shots I would love to share with you. A few weeks ago, I was walking along a fence row and a wild turkey flew up right in front of me. So I think that it sure would have been nice to have had my camera out, but I didn't get that camera out. Two steps farther on, another wild turkey flew out right in front of me. A missed opportunity. A day or two later, I was walking along a thicket of trees in another field and a fawn, still sporting spots, must have been spooked by Oscar. It jumped out right in front of me. Again, if only I'd been ready with my camera. Maybe I should start wearing one of those motion sensor cameras around my neck. :) 


Then there are these butterflies I've been chasing all summer. I get my camera ready and try to sneak up on them but just when I'm set to hit the picture taking button, the butterfly flutters away. That's what butterflies do. Flutter away and refuse to cooperate with the picture taking human.

So some of the things I spot on my walks I can only share in words. I do that at times on my Facebook page and all the time when I'm writing. I want the words of my stories to make pictures in your head. The things I spot on my walk may or may not find their way onto my Facebook page, but they have a good chance of someday finding their way into one of my stories. 

I took a break from birthday stories tonight, but I have a few more I hope to share. You have seven more days to throw your name in my giveaway hat if you haven't already. You can read about the prizes on my Website Events Page.  Leave a comment here with a way to contact you to enter or send an e-mail from my website. Always fun to hear from you and I've enjoyed all the birthday stories you've shared. 

Thanks for reading. Hope that happiness butterfly lights on your shoulder.