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Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Interview & Giveaway: Ann H. Gabhart ~ Author of Words Spoken True

 Welcome to Christian Bookshelf Reviews, Ann! Will you tell us a little about yourself?

I’m a country girl, born and raised in Kentucky. Growing up, I helped my dad on the farm and then I married a farm boy. So, of course, the first thing we did when we could afford it was buy a farm. We still live on that farm but our farming these days is limited to a few beef cows. I’ve known I wanted to write since I first discovered storybooks, so that’s always been my focus along with taking care of my family. Always, always I was writing that next story. I have worked some temporary secretarial jobs along the way, but only until the need to write overpowered the need for the extra income. Our three children are all grown and married now. They’ve blessed us with nine beautiful grandchildren.

I’ve published twenty-three books with three more contracted to come out in the next few years. My first Shaker book, The Outsider, was a finalist in the fiction category for ECPA Book of the Year.  The Scent of Lilacs was selected as one of Booklists’ Top Ten Inspirational novels for 2006. The Believer and Summer of Joy were ACFW Carol Book Award finalists. Angel Sister is a RT Book Reviews Magazine nominee for best inspirational novel of 2011.
  
What is Words Spoken True about?

Words Spoken True is the most romantic book I’ve written for Revell Books. My other books have romance in them. The Shaker books are definitely historical romances, but because of the beliefs of the Shakers – they didn’t believe in love between a man and a woman – I had to sneak romance into those stories without much opportunity for romantic scenes. Angel Sister is a family story with a romantic thread but it’s only one of the ingredients in the whole. The Hollyhill books are about a family in a small town with a romance thread throughout too, but the romance is not the most important element of the story. Oh, but in Words Spoken True, romance jumps up on the center stage and demands the spotlight. The background history is eventful and has some timely themes that relate to some of our issues in America today, but it’s the romance that lights up every scene.

Here’s the back cover copy.
Adriane Darcy was practically raised in her father’s newspaper offices. She can’t imagine life without the clatter of the press and the push to be first to write the news that matters. Their Tribune is the leading paper in Louisville in 1855. Then Blake Garrett, a brash young editor from the North with a controversial new style of reporting, takes over a competing paper and the battle for readers gets fierce. When Adriane and Blake meet at a benefit tea, their surprising mutual attraction is hard to ignore. Still, Blake is the enemy, and Adriane is engaged to the son of a powerful businessman who holds the keys to the Tribune’s future.

I hope readers will like Adriane and Blake and be cheering for them to figure out a way to overcome all the obstacles in the way of them having a happily ever after ending. You’ll have to read it to see if they succeed.
  
When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?

I picked up pen and notebook when I was ten years old and began writing a mystery something like the Hardy Boy mysteries that I loved to read, but this one starred me and my sister and cousin. I’ve been writing ever since. I think I must have been born already infected with the writing bug.
  
How many books have you written? Which is your favorite?

These are two questions I get a lot. I always say that a better question than the first one is how many books have I published. I really don’t know how many I’ve written. I counted up once, but it’s not much fun remembering those books that haven’t found a loving editor as yet, so I concentrate on remembering how many books I’ve published. That’s twenty-three – ten in the inspirational market. I have another Shaker book, The Gifted, coming out this summer, with three additional books contracted to come out in the next couple of years.

It’s even harder to answer which is my favorite book. That’s sort of like picking a favorite child. All my books are special to me in some way and a story I enjoyed telling. I did really like Angel Sister, because of how I based the background on my mother’s memories of growing up during the Great Depression. The story is completely fiction, but it has echoes of my mom’s childhood years throughout the story. So I felt very close to her while I was writing it.   

Where do you get your information and/or ideas for your books?

PhotobucketI do most of my research in history books although I have visited the nearby Shaker village of Pleasant Hill in Mercer County, Kentucky. The physical setting and much of the Kentucky history in my Shaker books are based on that village. I also feel as if I’ve received a special bonus in my research when I come across a journal or personal account of the time period I’m researching. Such a book of letters written home by a soldier in WW I was very helpful in my research of that war for my book, Angel Sister.

Ideas come from everywhere – from bits of information or history I might stumble across in the newspaper or on a TV program. With my Hollyhill books, I used a lot of what I remembered growing up in the 1960s to get those stories going. With Angel Sister, I mined the information in my mother’s stories of growing up during the Great Depression.

 Ideas pop up everywhere. Some lay dormant forever and never become a story. Others tickle at my imagination and make me start asking “what if?” That’s how the idea for Words Spoken True came about. I stumbled over an account of “Bloody Monday,” a day of election riots in Louisville. When I began to dig a little deeper into that history, I could see how important newspapers were at that time. So one thing led to another until I dropped my characters down in the newspaper business where they not only had a finger on the pulse of the happenings in the city, but were perhaps making that pulse race faster with their fiery editorials.

What would you say is the best and/or worst part about being a writer?
Photobucket 
There are good and bad parts to everything in life. Writing is no different. Maybe the best part of being a writer is inventing characters and getting to weave the magic that lets me tell their stories. I love being a storyteller.

The worst part is worrying that the stories you write might never find readers. I have to write, but that doesn’t mean anybody has to read what I write. But stories need readers to make them complete – my imagination to spill out the words of the story and the reader’s imagination to take in those words and let the story play out in his or her mind. I’ve had years when my stories didn’t find readers, when I thought perhaps I should give up on writing, but I never did. I kept writing a new story with new hope.

One of the hardest parts of the actual writing is getting the story out of my head down on paper or computer screen. I nearly always hit a spot in the story where I’m in the doldrums, when the winds of storytelling die down and nothing seems to be happening. But I push through, pray for a wind, and keep writing. Eventually the sails of storytelling fill again and the story gets written. So then the hardest part also becomes the best part – spilling out the story and having my characters leap to life in my mind.

What do you like to do when you're not writing?

PhotobucketI love to read. Books are a treasure of information and entertainment to me. I love visiting with family and playing with my grandchildren. My husband sings in a Southern Gospel quartet, and I like going to the concerts to hear his group sing. I enjoy walking with my dogs on our farm. I’m a big basketball fan, so I like watching the games.
What are three things you wouldn't want to do without (besides the Bible, food, and family)?

Dogs – I decided when I first got the dog hunger when I was about eight that I never wanted to be without a dog of my own and I haven’t been.

UK Basketball – I’m a diehard fan.

Our farm – I love walking in the woods and seeing wildflowers in the spring.

I’m assuming grandchildren would be included in family because for sure, I wouldn’t want to do without them.

Is there a place you’d like to visit, but haven’t yet?

I’d like to go to the Canadian Rockies. I love mountain vistas.
Photobucket 
Do you have a favorite song and/or movie?

One of my all time favorite songs was “The Rose.” I love the words in that song about the rose coming back to life after lying dormant under the winter snows. I tend to be touched by the words in songs. As I said, my husband sings bass in a Southern Gospel quartet called the Patriots and certain lyrics of their songs touch me. One is “I Can Feel the Touch of His Hand.” That song takes some of its lyrics from the 23rd Psalm. “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.”

I don’t know about a movie. I like pure entertainment at the movies – stories that make me laugh or maybe hold my breath in excitement. Movies like Star Wars or Raiders of the Lost Ark or Ghostbusters. You can tell by the way I pulled out those old titles that I haven’t had much time for movie watching lately.

Do you have any favorite authors?

It’s hard for me to pick favorite authors, but Chaim Potok opened my eyes to how a writer could make characters come vividly to life. Barbara Kingsolver is another writer I enjoy. So many great authors and great books. 

Do you have a favorite Bible verse?
I put a different Scripture reference in all my books when I autograph them. I try to find something that fits in with the title or the story. Sometimes that’s been easy. For example, I put Mark 9:23 “All things are possible to those who believe.” in my book The Believer. I used Romans 15:13 in Orchard of Hope. “Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” The Bible is chock full of favorite verses. The last verse in John (21:25) is one that boggles my imagination and so I love it too. “Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.” (NIV) Wow! I’m putting 3 John 2 in Words Spoken True because it is a blessing wished for a friend.   

Are you currently working on any new novels? If so, could you tell us a little about it?

I’m currently working on a sequel to my novel, Angel Sister. At this time it has a working title of Far from Rosey Corner, but I expect that to change. I’m following up the characters as WW II looms on the horizon and love begins to find the Merritt sisters.

But before that makes it out to bookstores, I have another Shaker book, The Gifted, scheduled to be released in July 2012. I think readers will enjoy my heroine, Jessamine, who has an endearing innocence since she came to live among the Shakers as a young girl. Part of the story is set at White Oak Springs, based on an actual popular “watering spot” in the 1800s where the wealthier people came for their health and for the social events. The springs were considered healing for all sorts of maladies, and the evening entertainments and dances helped cure spinsterhood! I hope the contrast between that place of lavish opulence with the work centered, simple life of the nearby Shaker village will make for interesting reading.

Thanks so much for being here! Where can we find you on the web?

My website is www.annhgabhart.com. I enjoy meeting reading friends there and you can check out more about Words Spoken True and my other books as well as personal appearances, web guest posts like this, and book giveaway chances. I have a Facebook author’s page, https://www.facebook.com/pages/Ann-H-Gabhart/132862247566 and my user name on Twitter is annhgabhart. I also post a couple of times a week on my blog, One Writer’s Journal, www.annhgabhart.blogspot.com about what’s going on in my writing or down here on the farm.

Thanks for having me over. I’ll look forward to your comments. When you read an author’s interview, what is the question you like most to see or the one you never see but would like to ask?
  
Giveaway!!


Enter to win a copy of Words Spoken True by Ann H. Gabhart! I loved this book (you can read my review here).

If the winner lives in the US or Canada they have a choice between an eBook or print copy of Words Spoke True, but if it's an International winner, they will receive an eBook copy! Open Internationally!


Enter by filling out the Rafflecopter below (here is a tutorial, if you aren't familiar with Rafflecopter). The mandatory entry is to leave a blog post comment on this blog post answering Ann's question - after you do that, the other entries will become available.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

77 comments:

  1. I enjoy reading author interviews to see what information they provide. I would like to know where their favorite place is that they have travelled to. and What their favorite food/drink is. I am curious about those two items. Thank you for the giveaway.

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    1. Fun questions, Christine. And actually an interview I just finished today asked those very questions. Well, where I would most like to travel to. My favorite places to go is anywhere I can walk on the beach or hike in the mountains. Love both places. My favorite food is strawberries picked fresh out of the strawberry patch and I love hot tea.

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    2. Great question, Christine!

      Ann, I love strawberries too!! :)

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  2. Hi Ann! Melanie asked some great questions. What started your interest in the Shakers?

    The Patriots?! My husband has heard them sing before. He grew up in a gospel music singing family that traveled all over the Southeastern US! I can clearly hear them singing "I Can Feel the Touch of His Hand" too. Love that song :)

    Even though Kentucky beat our Tarheels, I will route for them in the Final Four but I'm afraid the rest of my crew are pulling for Louisville :)

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    1. I wrote a couple of historical romances years ago for the general market. There's a Shaker village near where I live and so that's what I decided on for the subject of my third novel. It eventually ended up on my reject shelf and only years later (over 20 years) did I pull it out and rewrite it when my current editor mentioned she was interested in Shaker history. What a lucky comment for me to hear. After The Outsider was published, it had great response from readers and so my editor talked me into writing more books about the Shakers.

      It's neat that you've heard my husband's group, Anne. And I hope you hang in there wearing blue when everybody else your way is going red.

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  3. Great interview with Ann! I'm so interested to read more of her books.
    Kandra in Tennessee

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    1. Thanks, Kandra. Hope you'll enjoy the stories if you get a chance to read any of them.

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  4. Melanie...and Ann..the interviewers do such a great job of asking questions, and the authors are so open that i couldn't really think of any question i'd like to ask that i wouldn't. But here is one for Ann specifically.. have you always farmed beef, or did you farm something else earlier?
    Thank you for a great interview, the awesome giveaway, and the opportunity to win. When i read Sister Angel i was totally surprised at the story, and am sure i will love this one as well!

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    1. When we first married, my husband milked a few dairy cows and sold the milk to a Kraft cheese factory in our town. I wisely never learned to milk. All the farm wives warned me that if I did, it would become my job. We also were tobacco farmers. That may be an unpopular thing to say now, but those small acreages of tobacco kept most family farms going. Now many of the farms in my area are being developed and growing houses.

      Thanks so much for reading Angel Sister, Marianne. I'm glad you liked the story.

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    2. Thanks, Marianne! I'm glad you enjoyed the interview! :)

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  5. I am always interested in when they wrote their first book and was it published. I'm amazed at how many authors wrote their first books as a young child.

    Wendy Newcomb
    wfnren(at)aol(dot)com
    wrensthoughts.blogspot.com

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    1. I started my first book when I was ten, Wendy. Never finished it or tried to publish it. I was in my late twenties when I wrote the first book I did try to get published. It got me an agent but was never published. My second book wasn't published either. In fact my agent rejected it out of hand, but she helped me find a publisher for my third book.

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  6. I like to know where the author gets their ideas from or what inspires them for their book. I would love to win this book. I loved the interview here, with Ann. Thank you!

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    1. That is a great question, Carmee. And sometimes one that even an author can't answer. What makes one idea more enticing than another? How can the same idea pop up in different authors' heads at the same time and yet turn out to be such different stories? Great questions.

      So glad you came over and read the interview, Carmee.

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  7. My question is have you ever had a great idea for a book and because you don't have a way to write it down, it slipped through your fingers?
    My question comes from getting older, I am 65 and starting to forget even more!

    CarolNWong(at)aol(dot)

    P.S. I have visited Pleasant Hill and loved it. My favorite part was listening to singing

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    1. I don't know that I've ever completely lost an idea for a book, Carol. Some of the ideas have died out because they never developed in my thoughts. When I get a potential idea, I sometimes imagine putting it in a stew pot on a back burner in my head. If I think about the idea too much, I'm more apt to lose the excitement for it than if I don't think about it very much. That said, I've certainly come up with the perfect description or bit of dialogue or action and if I didn't make a note of it, lost it completely before I got back to my computer. Sometimes I can completely lose what I've just written if the computer dies in the middle of my writing or I hit a wrong delete key. Then it's crying time!

      The singing is great at Pleasant Hill. They have such wonderful re-enactors there to show how the Shakers lived and worshiped.

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  8. I love reading author-interview...the thing I like most and also don´t see that often is the question about favourite bible verses. I love to hear other peoples special bible verses!

    Katrin W.

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    1. That is a good question, Katrin. When I read other people's favorite verses I always think that yes, that is a great verse and I should make it one of my favorites too. So many great Bible verses that can touch us in so many different ways.

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    2. That is one question I always try to ask! Thanks for entering the giveaway, Katrin! :)

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  9. It's random but I always like to find out if the authors are night owls or morning birds!

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    1. That does reveal something about the person, Abbi. I'm a night owl who loves the early morning. That translates to I don't get enough sleep! :)

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    2. I like that question... maybe I should start asking that...

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  10. Is the author anything like the main character??

    blessings,
    Jalynn
    pattersonmom24@aol.com

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    1. Good question, Jalynn, and one authors would answer in a lot of different ways. I suppose all authors incorporate a little of themselves and of all the people they've ever known into their characters. But I don't really feel as if my main characters are much like me. That might be because I have written so many books and come up with a lot of different characters. My first characters way back when might have been more me. Definitely that first book I wrote when I was ten was the way I wished I was. I wasn't that way, but my kid's mind wanted me to be cute and smart and brave.

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  11. I already have this book on my to-read list and love Ann's writing.

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  12. I love seeing the question "What are you working on now or what do you have coming out soon?" so I can keep up with what's going on with the authors I love and the authors I have just discovered :D

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    1. That's a question that's been in most internet interviews I've done, Julie. Writers want that question in there because we want you to keep up with what's going on in our writing life.

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    2. I agree, Julie! I love that question. Thanks for commenting! :)

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  13. I love the question regarding what books the author is reading or has read. I always find that interesting and have discovered some new ones to read as well this way.

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    1. That's a fairly common question in interviews too, Margaret. I don't get to read as much as I'd like since I'm busy trying to make up my own stories, so sometimes I don't give a very good answer to those questions. Oh, for about three extra hours in every day for all those great books waiting on me.

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  14. I like the questions about what three (or more) things the author wouldn't want to do without (besides Bible, family, and food). It just helps us get to know them better. I also like their favorite Bible verses. These are things that we can't usually find out just by looking at their website. I usually go to an author's website to find out more about their books.

    pmk56[at]sbcglobal[dot]net

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  15. Thanks for posting my blogaversary button, Melanie! Loved this interview with Ann!

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    1. Thanks, Brooke, for coming over to read my interview. Melanie did a great job with her questions.

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    2. You're welcome, Brooke! Happy two-year blogoversary! :)

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  16. I had to think a little for my answer to what I wouldn't want to do without, Pam, and I'm not sure I came up with the best answer. But for sure, it did let you know a little more about me. I like it when the interviewer comes up with some new and different questions. Melanie did a great job with her questions.

    And you know, it might be good if I did include my favorite Bible verses on my website. You can find that out about a lot of writers on Christianbook.com on their fiction pages where they have interviews with a lot of the Christian writers. That's one of the things - the favorite Bible verse - they always list in those interviews.

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    1. And I would love for you to read this book, Abigail! :)

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  18. "What are five random things we might not know about you?" I love how much I learn about my favorite authors, they are such amazing, interesting people.

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    1. Merry, I've answered that question in interview before although I think it was three random things and not five. Let's see. I used to be in 4-H club and when I was about eleven, I wrote a contest entry and won 100 baby chicks. I'm a dog magnet and have two of my own but four neighbor dogs come to walk with me every day. Peonies are my favorite flower because they make me think of an aunt I loved very much. I don't have pierced ears so don't wear earrings. Heath candy bars are my favorite. None of that was very amazing, but very random. :)

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  19. I just wanted to say I really enjoyed Words Spoken True.. the last climatic scenes were really well written and emotive. Made me want to look for some of Ann's other work! (Where to start?!)

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    1. Thanks so much, Marie. Glad you like my story. One thing I do have to admit. All my stories are different. That's why I dedicated Words Spoken True to my faithful readers who have followed me from Hollyhill in the 1960s to my Shaker village of Harmony Hill in the 1800s to Rosey Corner in the 1930s and finally to Louisville in 1855. Hope if you read any of my other books, you'll enjoy those stories too.

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  20. Great interview, Melanie! WST sounds like a good one. I like to know how they author was inspired to write their books. The question I rarely see and would like to know an author's answer to is, "what is your favorite hobby besides writing?"

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    1. Good question, Gwendolyn, but you have to realize that a lot of us would answer reading. Most of us love words and stories. I like playing cards and games like Scrabble and hiking. I'm not into crafts, but admire people who are.

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  21. FHC
    "When you read an author’s interview, what is the question you like most to see or the one you never see but would like to ask?"
    i totally luv to see fun quirky questions ~ like fave beverage or icecream, where you like to write, what inspires you..
    1 qustn i'd like to ask is "where is your place of peace?"... TY! great qustns :)

    looking forward to any of your writing!

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    1. Great question, Faith Hope Cherrytea. Where is my place of peace? I think that might be a place I have to carry inside me, but it's one that might be easier to find when I'm walking on my farm or at my desk watching the birds fly in and out to my bird feeder outside the window. The Shakers would have said they were looking for their place of peace in their villages.

      And thanks so much for reading.

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  22. Great interview. What are you working on now or what do you have coming out soon? Words Spoken True sounds wonderful. Please enter me. Thanks for the chance to win.

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    1. Thanks for the comment, Emma. Glad you came to visit and read the interview. That question about what a writer has in the works is a good one. Hope if you get a chance to read Words Spoken True, you will enjoy the story.

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  23. Great interview, this book sounds really good! Thanks for the chance to win a copy!

    ecriggs1990(at)aol(dot)com

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    1. Thanks, Liz. I'm glad you enjoyed the interview. Good luck in the drawing.

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  24. I have never read one of this author's books and this would be a real treat to win.

    I always like the response to your question about a favorite Bible verse. Ann's comment that she has many favorites and always selects an appropriate verse to use when autographing her books is a heart-warming response.

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    1. Vera, good luck in the drawing. Glad you liked my idea of different Bible verses for the titles, but sometimes I worry that I'll forget the exactly right Scripture reference and put down a reference to a verse that doesn't stand alone or make sense with my book title. Good exercise for my memory though. :)

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  25. I always want to know what got them into writing.

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    1. I like that question too, awhartness. I enjoy reading other writers' journeys to their first published book. Me, I've always wanted to write.

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  26. Questions I enjoy the most are those This or That questions. They are not meaningful, but they are fun questions that make an interview extremely enjoyable. You know like "Cupcakes or Cake," that kind of stuff.

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    1. Angie, those kinds of questions are fun - and easy to answer. Except if you asked me cupcakes or cake, I'd want to say pie. :)

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  27. what inspired you to become an author?

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    1. That's a great question, Amanda, and sometimes hard to answer. At least for me. I love stories and words and reading. Maybe all that inspired me as a child to dream of being a published writer someday.

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  28. I would like to ask how many books you wrote before getting one published

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    1. That question is valid and one I see answered by authors quite often in their bio material or when they talk of becoming a published writer. For me it was two. My third book was published. But then I've had a few dry spells since then where I've written other books after the first one was published that have yet to find a loving editor.

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  29. There are a couple of things I like to hear an author say in an interview

    1. A description of how he/she envisions the story and what prompts him/her to write that particular story.
    2. Since I like to read the works of Christian authors, I like seeing what their favorite verse is (even if it is their favorite at that particular moment).

    godleyv at yahoo

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    1. Vera, both of those are great things to have in an interview. I'm hoping my answers covered some of that first point, but I have to admit to finding it sometimes difficult to explain how I envision a story or why I pick a particular story to tell. So much about writing fiction is impossible to dissect and explain - at least it's that way for me.

      As for the favorite Bible verses, I pick one and then I see another that speaks to my heart in a different way. So many inspiring stories and verses in the Bible.

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  30. I love it when author interviews include the question, what's your favorite part of the writing process! :)

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    1. I like that question too, Rachelle, especially when I'm reading another author's interview. But I have to admit that writing is often hard work and sometimes it takes looking back on the process to see a favorite part. Sort of like housecleaning when the favorite part is the clean house when you're finished or maybe like building a set of bookcases when the favorite part might be filling the new shelves with books. Sometimes the favorite part is getting the story told.

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  31. I love it when authors share books that they've enjoyed reading lately. I'm always on the lookout for great new books!

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    1. That is a great question, Kate, and one I enjoy seeing on other interviews. I like talking about books and hearing what books others are reading for the same reason. And then my TBR stack grows even taller.

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  32. I like to hear about their favorite writing spot.

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    1. I like that question too, Apple Blossom, when I'm reading about other writers. How a writer writes is fascinating to me. That is, what their office looks like, do they write on the deck. Laptop or desktop. Pen and paper. Me, I like best to write in my office and I've always wanted a window. But some say you're better off in a basement room with no distractions. Me, I still need my window to the outdoors, but I haven't tried writing out on the deck yet. Figure my dogs would drive me crazy out there.

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  33. Ann, I like to learn how an author becomes so focused to work hours a day on a novel. Also, has (s)he ever written (or been tempted to write) using a pen name for one reason or another?
    As always a fan, Sandi Keaton-Wilson

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    1. Sandi, that takes self-discipline. It's easy to get excited about the beginning idea of the novel, but it's also easy to lose some of the enthusiasm about halfway through or even sooner. That's where you just have to keep showing up at "work" and put your fingers on the keyboard. Persevere. And you're right. It does take a lot of hours and a lot of days to write most novels.

      Glad you came over to read the interview.

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  34. Hello! Fellow KY writer here. :-)

    What genre have you not yet written in but really want to try?

    This is a question that's always struck a chord with me because my own interests are so varied. I can't really think of confining myself to one particular genre. I love so many!

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    1. Hi, Mishael. Good to meet a fellow KY writer. I like your question because I too have interest in a lot of different genres. I've already written books in several - young adult, middle readers, picture books (not published - yet!), family stories, historical romance, historicals, etc. While I've had some elements of mystery in a number of my books, I've not yet had a book that would be considered part of the mystery genre published. I've written a couple of cozy small town mysteries that haven't found a publisher, so that's a genre I'd like to someday try successfully.

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  35. Great interview!

    I absolutely adored "Angel Sister," and I will be reviewing "The Blessed" on my blog soon. (http://shoopettesbookreviews.blogspot.com/)

    I'm sure this question has already been asked, but what is your favorite dessert? Mine is peanut butter chocolate chip cookies.

    shoopettesbookreviews(at)gmail(dot)com

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    1. Thanks so much for reading my books, Shoopette. Angel Sister is a book of my heart and I get a big smile on my face every time a reader tells me they loved the story. Hope you enjoyed Lacey's story too in The Blessed.

      As to your question of what's my favorite dessert, that's sort of like the favorite book question. There are so many!! But right now I'd have to say angel food cake with that delicious seven minute frosting on it. Or without frosting and heaped up with fresh strawberries. Now you've done it. Got my sweet tooth going. LOL.

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  36. Thanks so much for having me over to visit, Melanie. It was such fun talking to all your wonderful readers. I really enjoyed responding to their comments. Love your blog and wish you much success and many great books to review and interesting writers to interview. Blessings, Ann

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  37. I appreciate you writing so many genres. I have a tendancy to like many kinds of books and find it difficult to just write one.
    Love your style. The interviews are great!

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