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
This could be a Rambutan!
Author
So it could, Ellen. Wow! But I have to admit I had never heard of a rambuten and had to google it. So while my mystery photo is not a rambuten, it certainly could be.
Author
Virginia – it has been a busy summer. I need to get back into a working writing mode after I took some time off this summer. Now I need to think about what I’m busy about!! You had a new guess. Perhaps you are the one who is going to be right. Then again, maybe not. We’ll have to wait until Wednesday night to see.
Dorita – Some others have thought the same as you. Wonder if you’re going to be right? Thanks for playing my mystery picture game.
Looks like a cockleburr to me.
I’d guess wheat or rice.
all the adventures you’ve had this summer…grandgirls and a walk for St. Jude’s…
Author
Emily, I’m glad you think my mystery photo games are fun. It’s certainly a brain exercise for me to keep trying to find tricky pictures. You’re the second person to guess caterpillar. Could be, you and that other person are right and everybody else is wrong. Could be. Could not be. You can find out after I post the rest of the picture on Wednesday night. Of course you also guessed cactus. And you’ve got several agreeing with you on that guess too.
Laura – a cocklebur is a good guess, but you’ll have to wait until Wednesday to see if it’s a right guess.
Lucy – even if you don’t feel like you’re good at guessing – and a sunflower head is a nice guess and one Karen agrees with in an earlier guess – I hope you think the games are fun.
Becky – your guesses finally came through. Sweet gum seed and chestnut pods are popular guesses. Could even be right. We’ll see.
I guessed a chestnut…I meant horse chestnut…or maybe sweet gum…
I gonna take a guess…A chestnut?
Sunflower head. I’m not good at this.
Ann,
Is it a green cocklebur?
A close up of a hairy caterpillar or the inside of a cactus plant? 🙂
These mystery photos games are so much fun,Ann! Thanks for creating opportunities to play! 🙂
~Psalm 145~
I love your mystery photo games! I’m quite sure I’m wrong, but the photo reminded me of the fishhook cactus that sat in my grandparents’ kitchen window. However, the “hooks” on the cactus are pretty big and the photo looks like they’re small. I wonder what became of the cactus when everything was divided up? I might have to do some investigating.
I just finished reading “These Healing Hills” last night. Wonderful, engaging story. I need to read “Murder Is No Accident” and I think I’m caught up on your books.
Author
Amy, I’m so glad you thought the story worked and was engaging. That’s what authors try to do – engage the reader in a story they can make come to life in his or her imagination. And I guess if you’ve got almost all my books read, I better start writing faster. 🙂
Fishhook cactus is a fun guess. Who knows? It might even be right. My mother-in-law liked raising cactus. I still remember her sons fussing about having to move this really tall cactus when my in-laws moved to a new house. They threatened to lose it along the way. Obviously they didn’t love the cactus the way their mom did, but I think it made it to the new house. Hope you find out who got your grandparents’ neat cacti.