Ann Gabhart is here for a visit

Q: Hello, Ann, I understand you are a country girl. Tell us about your animals, and why you love the country so much.

A: As Barbara Mandrell used to sing, I was country before country was cool. I like living in the country because I love nature. To me, the air just feels better out here in the sticks. I like being able to walk on the farm and see the flowers, trees, and birds along with the occasional skunk, raccoon or deer. I do try to keep my dog away from those skunks. My husband has beef cows, but that’s the only stock we have. I’m down to one dog of my own now. That’s Oscar, my lab mix. He’s a great dog and is always ready to go walking with me. He’s very photogenic and often makes appearances on my Facebook page. Everybody loves Oscar! Two Heinz 57 little neighbor dogs spend a lot of time on my deck. I think they’ve forgotten where their home is except they must go home to eat because they don’t look hungry. Then another neighbor dog, Roxie, a big St. Bernard, goes for walks with Oscar and me if she sees us starting out down the road. She has also made a few appearances on my Facebook page from time to time.

Q: So you started writing when you were ten. What part did books play in your life as you were growing up? Did you always have characters and storylines going through your head?

 

A: I think I was around ten. I don’t remember for sure. I just know that as soon as I could write in cursive, I was writing stories in my notebooks. I’ve always loved books. I got to go to the library when we went to town, and I remember the feeling of being in a treasure room with all those books around me. I suppose my own stories and characters have always been in my head, but lots of other fictional characters created by various writers hang out there too. I love stories.

Q: How did you feel when you got your first paycheck for writing? What was the hardest part of getting people to recognize you as a writer?

A: I didn’t frame that first check for $44.00 I received way back in 1971 for a story published in a Sunday school leaflet for teens. We needed every dollar in those days, but it did feel good to actually be paid for something I wrote. It was almost a year before I got another check. That one was $3.00 for a little poem in Home Life magazine. My first novel was published in 1978 and even then I was hesitant to tell anybody I was a writer. So I don’t think the hardest part was getting others to recognize me as a writer, but the hardest thing was me claiming out loud that I was a writer. I guess I was afraid somebody would laugh at my high hopes. Or expose me as the imposter I felt as though I was sometimes when I thought about being a writer. 

  

 

Q: How did you get started writing your Shaker novels and how many of them have you written?

A: That’s a long story and in many ways an amazing one that proves everything in its own time. So settle back and remember, you asked. I wrote a book about the Shakers that I titled The Gift of Knowing in 1980 after Warner Books published my first two historical romance books. Theypassed on my Shaker novel as not right for their needs. My agent at the time sent the book around to several publishers over the next couple of years. My most favorable rejection (if a rejection can be favorable) was from Harlequins who claimed to like the story but that it was too religious for their line. Eventually my agent gave up and stopped submitting the manuscript. I put the Shaker novel on a shelf in my closet and moved on to other stories and other hopes.

Fast forward about twenty-five years. After some ups and downs in my writing career, I finally wrote a book I loved, Scent of Lilacs, about a preacher and his family in a small town during the 1960’s. Even better, an editor at Revell Books also loved the story, and I was on the way to being published again after a long dry spell. That editor, Lonnie Hull DuPont, decided to pay me a visit way out here on the farm. I had never attended any type of writers’ conference so she decided if she was going to meet me face to face, she’d have to come to Kentucky. We had a nice chatty visit about books and whatever, and then as she was getting ready to go out the door and head on to some sort of meeting in Tennessee, she asked if there wasn’t a restored Shaker village near where I live. When I said there was, she said she wished she had time to visit the village because she’d always been fascinated by the Shakers. In an offhand way, I sort of threw out the fact that I’d written a story about the Shakers once. I was surprised when she said she would like to read that story.

So after she left, I dug around on my closet shelf and pulled out the manuscript. I had written it prior to having a computer so I had to type it into my computer. That gave me plenty of opportunity to do some rewriting. I added a few faith journey threads for the main characters and polished my words as best I could before sending it off to Lonnie. Months passed while she tried to decide if the story was one her company could use, but finally they made an offer on it. After all those years, The Gift of Knowing became The Outsider and found readers. In fact the early sales were so good for the story that Lonnie called and asked if I would write more stories about the Shakers. That wasn’t something I had given any thought to doing. I didn’t want to be a “Shaker writer,” and not be free to write other stories set in different places. But she dangled the carrot of perhaps gaining more readers, not just for the Shaker books but for any other books I might publish in the future. That convinced me to revisit my fictional Harmony Hill Shaker village and write The Believer and The Seeker. Then I had this character, Lacey, who kept whispering in my creative ear that she had a Shaker story to tell. So I wrote her story, The Blessed. That was followed by another character I enjoyed, Jessamine, in The Gifted. Now, coming in September, Christmas at Harmony Hill will be my first ever Christmas novella. So now you know the whole story and maybe much, much more than you wanted to know. LOL.

The Shaker books are all stand-alone stories that can be read in any order. They are set in the same Shaker village, but with new characters each story and in different time periods. But if you want to read them in the order I wrote them, here’s the list:  The Outsider, The Believer, The Seeker, The Blessed, and The Gifted with Christmas at Harmony Hill coming in September 2013. I am beginning work on a new Shaker novel tentatively titled The Innocent.

Q: Angel Sister was a great book. I love Depression-era stories and thought you did a wonderful job with this one. You will have a new book published this summer that will continue with these characters five years later. Tell us a little about Small Town Girl and what readers will take away from this book.

A: I’m so glad you enjoyed Angel Sister. That’s a book of my heart since the echo of my mother’s memories of growing up during the Depression are threaded throughout that story. I moved a bit away from my mother’s experiences when I wrote a follow-up story about the people in Rosey Corner. Small Town Girl came out in July. As you say, the story picks up the Angel Sister characters’ lives five years later as World War II is raging in Europe and ominous war clouds are darkening America’s horizon. Yet life is going on in Rosey Corner as the Merritt sisters are heading down some romantic pathways. Kate is ready for love, but she’s not sure she can trust her feelings. I really enjoyed writing about Jay Tanner and about Kate too as an adult searching for what next with her life.

I would hope that those who read Small Town Girl will first and foremost enjoy the story and live it with the characters. Many of my stories have an underlying theme of forgiveness and that’s true with this story too along with the need to give people a second chance. I would hope readers would be encouraged in their own faith journeys as they read about Jay’s and Kate’s. Then it would be nice if the reader is swept away by the romance too, of courses.

Q: I thought Words Spoken True was an excellent piece of historical fiction, taking place in Louisville in the 1850’s. Some exciting things happened in this book, and the competition between the two newspapers was similar to the competition we see today. Tell us how you make historical fiction so believable and exciting.

A:  I did a lot of rewrites on that story before it found a publishing home with Revell Books. It was another story that spent some time on my reject shelf. So I got to know the characters really well. Blake was a great hero and Adriane was a spunky heroine. I do quite a bit of research for my novels. In this one, I was so amazed when I read Louisville’s history for that volatile summer of 1855 that I couldn’t wait to drop my characters down into the history of the day to tell the story. I also loved learning about the newspaper business. Newspapers were how people got the news in that era prior to radios. Editors used their ink to advance their personal ideologies and fire up their readers.

I enjoy delving into history and finding places and events where I can see my characters living out their stories.  

Q: And I'm sure that quality is what makes your stories so read. Tell us about Christmas at Harmony Hill that debuted in October, just in time to be purchased as Christmas presents.

 
A: I love giving books as Christmas presents. It’s a tradition in my family that all my kids, kid-in-laws, and grandkids get a book from me for Christmas–whether they want one or not. LOL. That’s a double bonus for me because I get to shop for the books. Love bookstores. But back to the question now that I’ve inserted this little ad for buying books as gifts.

When my agent and my editor suggested I write a Shaker Christmas book, I had no idea whether I’d be able to do that or not. In my Shaker research, I’d found very few mentions of Christmas, but I like challenges in writing. So I agreed to give it a try. Once I had my characters and my historical period in mind, I was on my way.

Here’s the back cover copy. “It is 1864 and the nation is still torn apart by civil war when Heather Worth discovers she is with child. She has been working as a laundress with her husband’s army unit, but when the army gets orders to march south to Tennessee, Gideon insists Heather go home to have their child under safer conditions. Heather agrees, but returns home to another kind of devastation–deaths in the family and a father who refuses to forgive her for marrying a Yankee. With nowhere else to turn, Heather seeks refuge at the Shaker village of Harmony Hill, where her great aunt Sophrena lives. There, after many peaceful years as a Shaker sister, Sophrena is having doubts about her Shaker path. Both women are in need of love and forgiveness–whether given or received. With Christmas coming, can the miracle of new life fill their hearts with unexpected joy?

Q: Please tell us something about yourself that readers would be surprised if they knew.

A: Surprising, hmm? Not sure how surprising this might be, but I did marry very young. By the time I was nineteen, I had two children. My husband and I often struggled to make ends meet, but when a financial crisis came up, somehow the Lord always showed us a way to get through it. Nothing surprising about that. But some people are a little surprised to find out I never attended college. That is, unless you count the College of Experience. That’s an educational opportunity open to all and one that’s been very useful in my writing. My first book was published thirty-five years ago. A lot of words under the bridge since then.

Q: Do you have any advice for a new writer to help them in his or her quest to be known and published?

A: Perseverance. That’s a good word to hang onto while you’re working toward being published. Believe in your stories, but be willing to work to improve your writing skills. Don’t fasten all your hopes and dreams to one story. Write the story on your heart. Then turn it loose and write another.

Probably the best advice I ever read was from Dorothy Unthank, a mystery writer. She said she wrote her first novel and started sending it out. In those days you packed up your manuscript in boxes and mailed it to the publishing companies, one at a time. Then you waited for some kind of response. If the response was no, you mailed it to the next possible publisher on your list. Unthank said that by the time her first manuscript landed back on her doorstep after being submitted and rejected a dozen or more times, she had the second story ready to begin making its rounds to the publishing houses. Persistence pays off if you’re working to improve as well.  So the best advice is simply to write and then write some more. And don’t forget to read. That somehow helps the words accumulate and stand at ready for your own stories.  

Q: Thank you, Ann, for taking the time to answer questions for readers of my blog. I look forward to reading many more of your books in the future. And now, readers, it's your turn. Post your comment on here, on facebook, or send me an email, and I'll enter your name to win a copy of Small Town Girl, signed by Ann. I will review this book on Wednesday of this week on my blog. It is a great read.

 

A: Thank you, Juanita, for inviting me over. I’ve enjoyed my visit. I do appreciate you taking the time to read some of my stories and I hope your readers here will give one of my books a try. I enjoy meeting new reading friends.

One of the questions I answered was what part did books play in my life as I was growing up? So I’m turning that question back to you readers. What part did books play in your life as you were growing up? Have you always loved books and stories? You’ve read my answers. Now, I’d love to hear yours.

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OK, readers, it's your turn now. Comment here, on facebook, or send me an email (mjnobles{at}charter {dot}net) and I'll enter your name to win a copy of Ann's new book Small Town Girl. I've read several of her books and you're going to love them. And I hope you'll answer Ann's question about books. She'll be checking to see what you said!

Oops! Ann's download of The Blessed for $2.99 was on until yesterday!  Today it's back to it's normal price. Sorry-- I didn't realize that special price was not still good. :(