Characters – Real and Imagined

Ann H GabhartAnn's Posts, One Writer's Journal 35 Comments

A few weeks ago after I had a book party to celebrate my new release, A Chance for Kallie Mae, and had fun answering questions those there asked me, I invited you all to throw some questions about my books or writing at me here on One Writer’s Journal. Love coming up with answers. That’s sort of what writers do from …

A Trip Back Through Time in a Shaker Village

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

  Have you ever met a Shaker? Probably not unless you’ve been to the Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village in Maine where two Shakers still reside in the only active Shaker village remaining. The other nineteen villages that once dotted the eastern states and Kentucky, Ohio and Indiana have long passed into history. Fortunately for history buffs, many of those villages …

Small, Ordinary Pleasures

Ann H GabhartAnn's Posts, One Writer's Journal 6 Comments

When I was looking for something to share on my FB author page today where I share tidbits of Shaker history. This morning, I hunted up an excerpt from my Shaker story, The Innocent, about my character, Carlyn, working in the Shaker washroom. The Shakers had much to launder. They believed in clean. The also believed work was a way to …

Pray Anyway – Carlyn’s Story

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

In my books, while I never have everything thought out, I do have my main characters. In The Innocent, I begin with my female main character, Carlyn, and her dog Asher. I have the setting. For The Innocent, that was my fictional Shaker Village of Harmony Hill. I knew what some of Carlyn’s challenges were going to be but also …

The Sun, the Sky, the Ocean & a Good Book

Ann H GabhartAnn's Posts, One Writer's Journal 6 Comments

“Dance with the waves, move with the sea. Let the rhythm of the water set your soul free.” —Christy Ann Martine A few years ago, we went to the beach with a couple of our kids and their families. I love walking on the beach at sunrise. Just looking at this picture I can almost hear the ocean waves swooping …

Pop-up Characters

Ann H GabhartAnn's Posts, One Writer's Journal 6 Comments

  The character that lasts is an ordinary guy with some extraordinary qualities.― Raymond Chandler Readers like you and like me love words, especially when they go together in that amazing way to make stories. And what we like best are the characters in those stories. That’s true whether the characters who grab our hearts and minds are male or female, …

Word by Word by Word

Ann H GabhartAnn's Posts, One Writer's Journal 13 Comments

“The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.” ~Albert Einstein I had my book party Saturday. It was fun. It would have been even more fun if all of you could have been there the way Lavon was. It was so neat that she and a friend were able to come hear me …