It is not enough to be busy. So are the ants. The question is: What are we busy about? ~Henry David Thoreau
Do you ever feel as though you might just be spinning in place and not getting anywhere? Sometimes that’s how I feel. I’m busy, busy, busy, but what am I really getting done?
I have had a busy month with the release of my new book, These Healing Hills, but that’s been a good kind of busy. I’ve been out on the internet doing guest posts here and there. (Watch for one tomorrow with a book giveaway. I’ll post the link on my Facebook page after the post goes live.) I’ve heard from readers and done giveaways. I had a local book event, Breakfast with Ann, that was sponsored by Tastefully Kentucky, a great store here in my hometown that carries local authors’ books along with all kinds of culinary goodies from Kentucky Chocolates to specialty teas to Crank & Boom ice cream. Not to forget the country eggs and the Amish butter. Not sure how my books fit into all that, but I’m glad they do and that I now have a place here in my hometown to tell people they can get my books. I’ll still have my own Hometown Book party too. If you are in the area and interested in hearing me talk about my new book, you can check out my News & Events Page. The book party will be in a couple of weeks. I’ve already got some door prizes ready and I’ll have to bake something chocolate for sure.
So I’ve been busy getting word out about These Healing Hills to readers. A giveaway is going on right now for all the Revell titles published so far in 2017 which includes not only These Healing Hills but also Murder Is No Accident. Enter at Soul Inspirationz. 
But busy doesn’t stop there. This weekend I walked in the St. Jude Walk for the Cure. Our family can never repay St. Jude for the life saving treatments my great niece received there. Many of you prayed for Kaelyn while she was receiving her treatments and I know you will be happy to know she’s doing well. She’s in the picture here with her grandmother and me at the walk. Many other families who have had a child treated there feel the same gratitude to St. Jude as our family. A mother spoke at the walk Saturday about how her 15 month old son was diagnosed with cancer and given a 45% chance of survival. Today that child has been cancer free for seven years and every year I’ve been to the St. Jude walk, his team of family and friends have been the top fundraisers there. St. Jude is in the business of saving children’s lives. So walking for St. Jude Saturday was a good kind of busy.
Then my wonderful grandkids have a way of adding some busy days to my life. Last Saturday I watched my granddaughter ride in a horse show. This Saturday two granddaughters came to spend the night and we went to our town’s Burgoo Festival. Didn’t eat any burgoo though. Next weekend I’m going to a storytelling festival with my daughter and my sister plus our church is having Homecoming on Sunday.
But somewhere in all this busyness, I need to put my fingers on the keyboard and write another book. I tell myself I’m letting the story build in my imagination, but somewhere along the line that building has to start piling up some words on paper or computer.
Everybody is busy these days. Busy is good. But I’m not too busy to have some fun with you here and it is definitely time for another mystery photo game and book giveaway. A new book means time for a blog giveaway and while These Healing Hills isn’t a mystery story, we can still have fun with a mystery photo game. So check out the first mystery photo up top. Do you know what it is? Leave your guess in a comment here and that will get you entered in a drawing for one of my books, winners’ choice.
The contest is open to those of you 18 years and older. Each time you guess on a new mystery photo in the next couple of weeks, you get a new entry in the drawing. I’ll pick three winners. I’ll post five mystery photos (I hope I can come up with that many puzzlers) in the next couple of weeks here on my blog posts. Deadline to enter is October 10, 2017 at midnight EST. I’ll draw for the winners and notify them by e-mail on October 11th before announcing the winners on my blog that night.
So, ready, set, guess! And as always, thanks for reading and for playing my games here on One Writer’s Journal.
Comments 36
I’m sure it is part of a plant or weed, but I don’t know which one, maybe someone will have the right answer!
Author
That’s a pretty broad guess, Connie, but it still gets you an entry in the giveaway. And yes, I think somebody will guess right. In fact, they may already have done so, or then again, they may not. I like trying to be mysterious. 🙂
Author
Love all your guesses so far, everybody. Most all of you are pretty sure it’s some kind of seed pod. Hmm, wonder if you’re right??
Jeanne – I like your wooly worm hair guess. Maybe you’ll be the one who’s right and they’ll all be wrong.
April and Lisa = the Venus fly trap is a great guess too. Margaret I like your gooseberry guess. Have you ever eaten gooseberries? They are very sour.
Okay, Lois, I have to admit. I didn’t know what a kohlrabi was. You can be sure I’m not a gourmet cook. But I looked it up and found out it’s a vegetable something like a cabbage radish turnip & who knows what mix. Very interesting. Anybody else curious like me and as much in the dark about what it was as me, just google the name kohlrabi. It is not a rabid Kohls shopper. 🙂 But it is a very interesting looking bulb plant. So guess you know by all this that it is not a kohlrabi. 🙂
Karen Jones – I like your middle of a sunflower bloom guess. That could be it. I do have sunflowers.
Lou Anne – love your riddle and your guess. You and Marji and Melanie are agreeing on your guess. So who knows? You could be right and you could not be right.
Karen G – the outer part of a chestnut is a great guess. Kathy S is in there with you guessing a different seed pod with milkwood and Lillian is thinking thistle while Paula takes it a step farther to cactus.
Evelyn says it’s a knuckleburr and Laura says it’s one of those whatchamacallits that stick to your clothes. Sometimes the right word just won’t come, will it, Laura?
I do appreciate all your guesses and you all got you name in the pot to maybe win a book. Come back Wednesday to see if any of you were right about the guess and to check out a new mystery photo. I’ll be hunting something mysterious all day now instead of being busy about what I should be busy about. Hope you had fun with picture number one and I’m looking forward to more guesses.
Much fun reading all the guesses. Hard for me to believe that you have time to post them all, write novels and do everything else that you have on your plate! WOW!!! You are one amazing lady!
A Venus fly trap. I’m not sure, but that is what I thought of immediately.
What’s round as a ball, sharp as an awl, grows in the summer, dies in the fall? I have two guesses: pod from a datura plant or pod from sweet gum ball tree. My guess for your picture is sweet gum ball tree pod.
Looks like the outer part of a chestnut
Looks to me like the middle of a Sunflower. 😊
It is some part of a living plant. They cling to your clothes, but for the life of me, I cannot remember what they are called!
Looks like a knuckle burr, you know those things that get stuck in dogs fur.Did you know that’s where the idea for Velcro came from?
Hi Ann,
You are busy in such an active way! You give back and forward. Thank you for that! Looking forward to your next story. These Healing Hills captured me in so many ways: the language of the mountains from the people and from nature, the stories of the lives of your characters, the history of the Frontier Nursing Service, the courage of the mountain people, just to name a few.
I think the photo is a green buckeye or horse chestnut.
Author
So glad you enjoyed my mountain story, Rebecca. I tried to get the rhythm of the mountains and the people into the story. You know, that rhythm that Granny Em said was in everything. It’s good to have some rhythm in your words while you are writing too. And the Frontier Nursing Service history was great. Thank you for saying what you liked about the story.
Thanks for your guess too. You’ll have to check back Wednesday to see if you might be right.
My guess is some kind of seed pod, maybe Milkweed?
It could be a Thistle plant.
Wooly worm hair
I am going with a Sweet gum seed .
I think it is a Kohlrabi
Perhaps a caterpillar.
This looks like a sweet gum seed….before it turns brown…..nasty little buggers if you step on them in your bare feet.
Is it a Venus fly trap???
I think it’s either a gooseberry, or perhaps a flower stamen. Thanks for the link to the Revell contest!
Is it the seed pod thing from a Swan Plant?
Can’t imagine anything but part of a plant. Some kind of succulent or cactus?