Merry Christmas. What a great time of the year when cheer and goodwill fill the air! If you’re like me, memories of Christmases past bring smiles. I like thinking about the times I’ve celebrated Christmas with my characters too. In Love Comes Home, Kate and Jay celebrate a first Christmas together after World War II by buying a scraggly tree …
Remembering Christmas Morning 1964
Christmas Week 1965 Jocie Brook here reporting from Hollyhill, Kentucky. Christmas is almost here. I don’t see how Christmas 1965 can top Christmas 1964, but maybe it will. I guess I’ll have to wait and see. You can read all about that Christmas 1964 and more in the book Summer of Joy. I know, it seems a little weird to have …
How Do Authors Get Ideas?
This is my month for e-book specials. First I got news that Christmas at Harmony Hill (Amazon link) was on e-book sale for 99 cents or less and then last week I found out that Murder at the Courthouse, (Amazon link) my first Hidden Springs mystery is $1.99 for the e-book version. So you can go out to your favorite e-book …
Christmas Stories from Readers
When I sent out a newsletter recently, I invited readers to share a story about a special way they celebrate Christmas or favorite ornament or gift they remember. I love hearing your stories and I hope you’ll enjoy these I’m sharing with you. First Paty and her family have a very special Christmas tradition that helps them remember the …
A Christmas Story from Sassy Creek
Hope you all will give Shelia Stovall a fond welcome as she visits One Writer’s Journal today to tell you about her Christmas novella, A Sassy Creek Christmas, and her inspiration for her town of Sassy Creek, Kentucky. I met Shelia several years ago at a book event. Since then I’ve had the pleasure of visiting her library and getting to go …
Zooming with Appalachian Writers
One of the nicest things about writing for the inspirational market is making friends with other writers who are ready to cheer you on and tell their reading friends about your books. While some writers are very prolific and can put out several books a year, most of us are more like one or two books a year writers. Thanks …
E-book Sale on a Christmas Story from Harmony Hill
What fun to see that my Shaker Christmas novel, Christmas at Harmony Hill, is on special e-book sale right now at most internet sites for the very low price of 99 cents or less! That gives me the chance to offer you a very inexpensive gift of a story for Christmas. The book is set at the end of the Civil …
An Appalachian Christmas
Have you ever wanted to attend a book event hosted by an author you’ve wanted to meet? Well, now’s your chance to meet at least three authors, Sarah Loudin Thomas, Cindy Sproles, and me. All of us have written stories set in the Appalachian Mountains. Sarah has set all her books somewhere in the mountains. Her new release, The …
Cover Reveal – Along a Storied Trail
“Good cover design is not only about beauty… it’s a visual sales pitch. It’s your first contact with a potential reader. Your cover only has around 3 seconds to catch a browsing reader’s attention. You want to stand out and make them pause and consider, and read the synopsis.” ― Eeva Lancaster I just sent out a newsletter with a …
Blessings Only Come to Those Who Notice
May your troubles be less, your blessings more and may nothing but happiness come through your door. –Irish Blessing Blessings only come to those who notice . An unthankful heart is like a finger trying to sift the sand for iron–it doesn’t discover God’s mercies. But a thankful heart, just like the magnet, sweeps through life’s circumstances and finds daily …









