Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been categorized as “Ann’s Posts”
“No story lives unless someone wants to listen.” ~J.K. Rowling Someone once called me a storyteller and I have ever since thought it was one of the nicest compliments I have ever received about my writing. I want to tell stories or at least write them down. But as the J.K. Rowling quote says, if nobody listens/reads then a story …
Thank you all for sharing about your favorite birds after I wrote about birds in my stories. You had so many favorites, and I enjoyed reading about them. Cardinals and hummingbirds were mentioned often. Cardinals are so bright and cheerful and hummingbirds fun to watch as well as lovely. Woodpeckers showed up among your favorites several times and doves with …
Birds chirping around you is a beautiful realization that life is incredibly good. Let this sound be a gentle break in your routine. ~Hiral Nagda I like birds. My mom liked birds. She loved feeding them and so do I. So I suppose it’s only natural that I enjoy putting a few birds in my stories. The three books pictured …
Do you remember Preacher Rowlett from my book, Along a Storied Trail? Before that book set in Appalachia with history of the packhorse librarians came out a few years ago, I let Preacher tell a Bible story here on One Writer’s Journal. Since I’ve been doing some features on some of my published books, I invited him back for a …
“An opening line should invite the reader to begin the story. It should say: Listen. Come in here. You want to know about this.” ~Stephen King One of the most important lines in a story is that very first one that you write. But as important as that is to grab the attention of a reader, a first line can …
A merry heart does good, like medicine, but a broken spirit dries the bones. (Proverbs 17:22 NKJ) Usually when I think of the above Bible verse, I just want to remember the first part of the verse. I like thinking about the good medicine of smiles and laughter, but it’s not as good thinking about those with broken spirits and …
I’m continuing from Sunday’s post about my writing journey to Hollyhill. To get there I had to mine my memories of and experiences in my hometown and my little country church. This is a picture of that church and the congregations in 1962. That was before I attended there, but a lot of these people were still there when I …
Thanks to all of you who commented on Wednesday’s post with suggestions for future character interviews. I’ll be sharing some of those in the weeks to come since character interviews are one of my favorite things to write. Janet mentioned Jocie from my Hollyhill books. That had me remembering about how much I enjoyed letting Jocie take over a story. In …
Jocie Brooke here reporting from Main Street, Hollyhill. Well, I would be reporting except I have to do this science report for school about plant stamens and pistils. I know. Boring!! But Dad says grades are important and I can’t just make something up. Pistils sounds like something made up to me. Anyway, since the report is due Monday, I’m …
A few years ago when I was trying to think up a new story, I came across a story about Louis Sansbury in a book about little known Kentucky heroes. Reading about Louis and what he’d done for the town of Springfield and then what the town of Springfield later did for him fired up my imagination. What kind of …