Hi everybody. Have you ever been invited to a frolic? My father used to tell us a story about when he was a little boy and his granddaddy invited him to come over for a frolic. His young mind thought up all sorts of interesting and fun things his granddaddy might have planned, but when he got there, his granddaddy told him it was “a bean planting frolic.” Somehow planting beans didn’t sound like all that much of a frolic to my dad. But it made a good story and my sisters and I still talk about having “frolics” to this day many, many years later.
Well, we had a frolic Saturday at my mom’s house. She has a summer room with windows all around on the back of her house. It’s a great place for her plants and to sit and enjoy the birds. My mom has a green thumb and can grow anything, plus she loves watching the birds at her feeders. The only problem was that water somehow seeped under her door and ruined her rug. So me and my sisters decided the time had come for a flooring frolic. We tore up the old carpet and laid down vinyl squares. That sounds a lot easier typing it than it was actually doing it. The tearing up wasn’t bad, but getting the glued down padding off the concrete floor proved challenging. Thank goodness the floor was nice and level when we finished and we almost did have fun putting down the new floor – except for the wear and tear on our not so young anymore knees and the fact that we didn’t have very good scissors to cut the squares to fit. You’d think one of us would have thought to bring our good scissors. But we got it done and it looks great. We even joked around and said we should start a Three Sisters Contractors business, but I opted out on that pretty fast. I told them they’d better plan on Two Sisters. I’ve got a book to write. Actually I hope I have a lot of books to write.
I’ve been working hard on a new book about the Shakers to follow up The Outsider that will soon be on the store shelves. The early buzz and reviews have been good for the August 1 release, and I’m hoping that lots of readers will enjoy the story. The book is a different type of story than my Hollyhill Series, but then I’ve written a lot of different type stories and enjoyed writing them all. I did have fun writing about Jocie and her family in Hollyhill and I hope someday to maybe move along with Jocie and see what happens in Hollyhill down the road a few years. We’ll see. Meantime I have already written another family drama type story that I’m hoping will make it out to my readers in the next year or so. Book publishing is sometimes slow business. It takes about a year to plan and write a book although I’m trying to be faster on the next two. Then the editor takes a while reading and deciding. After that it’s a long process of editing and designing and publishing. Sometimes books make it out to the shelves in a year after a publisher buys it from the author and sometimes it takes longer. That can be hard on a writer who has so much of herself invested in the book. You want to see your words set in type. You want to see it with a great cover. (And I do love the cover of my coming book, The Outsider. They got Gabrielle just right in the picture. Thanks to the beautiful model who posed for the picture. If you want, you can see it at my website or at various booksellers out on the internet like amazon.com or christianbook.com.) You want to see your book on a store shelf. But even better, even more than all that, you want to see your book in a reader’s hands. I thank all of you who have e-mailed me that you liked Jocie’s stories. That means so much to a writer. That’s like seeing you with my book in your hands.
Hope you are all having a great Memorial Day weekend. The weather is beautiful here this weekend. Great for picnics and fishing or whatever. Darrell and I took a long hike. Not unusual for me, but really unusual for him. But it was his idea. We trooped through the hayfields and woods and briars and brambles. The blackberries are blooming big time. So as long as we have some more showers along we should have some good pickings later on.
May the memories you have on this day of your loved ones who have passed on bring you smiles and that echo of love that never dies or fades away in your heart. And may we remember our soldiers and honor those who have fallen in service to our country.
Till next time.
Ann