What Makes Characters Come to Life for You?

Ann H GabhartAnn's Posts, One Writer's Journal 27 Comments

Do the characters in the stories you read come to life in your head? And in your heart? Is there some special something about the book or the characters that makes that happen for you? A few years ago I got a very nice note from a reader who had gone to Rosey Corner. She hadn’t read the first book, …

More Outtakes from When the Meadow Blooms

Ann H GabhartAnn's Posts, One Writer's Journal 16 Comments

Sienna and Calla were my young sisters in my recent release, When the Meadow Blooms. I always enjoy seeing one of my stories through a child’s or a young person’s eyes. This one was no different. The girls are 9 and 14 at the beginning of the story and Calla is definitely a big sister. She wants to help Sienna …

Outtakes from When the Meadow Blooms

Ann H GabhartAnn's Posts, One Writer's Journal 8 Comments

Only a couple more weeks until the release of my new book, When the Meadow Blooms. So I thought this would be a good time to share some outakes or scenes cut from the book before it was published. I sometimes tend to be wordier than necessary. I know you all can’t believe that! But some scenes are better without quite as …

Meet Another Character from Along a Storied Trail

Ann H GabhartAnn's Posts, One Writer's Journal 16 Comments

I’ve been sharing a lot of my research and about my characters as I count down to the book birthday of Along a Storied Trail coming out on Tuesday, June 1. Some of you have already gotten your hands on a copy and I thank you for reading my packhorse librarian book. But the story didn’t only talk about the Packhorse Library …

Never Say Never

Ann H GabhartAnn's Posts, One Writer's Journal 10 Comments

“…a fast paced story of love, redemption, faith, triumphs…a heartrending story…an outstanding story involving the Shakers and their beliefs. A must read.” – Review of The Blessed by April Renn, My Book Addiction Reviews My Shaker book, The Blessed, is on special e-book sale this month. Christianbook.com has it for 79 cents. It’s 99 cents most other e-book sites like Amazon. You can find more …

A Peek at a New Character

Ann H GabhartAnn's Posts, One Writer's Journal 30 Comments

I’m always depressed when a book ends, because those are my friends for however long the book takes to write. Since I spend so many hours with these fictional people, I sometimes see them more than my real friends. And then they’re gone, and we’ll never be together like that again. (Seanan McGuire) The above quote has plenty of truth in …

Clouds and Stories

Ann H GabhartAnn's Posts, One Writer's Journal 4 Comments

A cloudless plain blue sky is like a flowerless garden.  ~Terri Guillemets Ah, the beautiful sky. A blue sky with nary a cloud is something to be treasured. But at times clouds have a way of making a sky even more beautiful. Clouds are the sky’s imagination. ~Terri Guillemets Ms. Guillemets must enjoy studying the sky. As I searched through my …

Q & A Time Again

Ann H GabhartAnn's Posts, One Writer's Journal 2 Comments

An expert knows all the answers – if you ask the right questions. …Levi Strauss I don’t presume to know all the answers because I’m no expert at anything. That might be a fun question to ask yourself. What are you an expert at doing? Hmm, none of you asked me that question, but it is tickling my imagination. I’d …

Another Hidden Springs Mystery on the Way

Ann H GabhartAnn's Posts, One Writer's Journal 14 Comments

For an author, there’s nothing quite like holding in your hand that book that you’ve spent many long hours writing. You started with a shimmer of an idea. You added characters. You built a setting. You entangled your characters into all sorts of situations. Maybe some fun ones. Or romantic ones, or even dangerous ones for a mystery like Murder …