Jumping into a New Story

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

A story has no beginning or end; arbitrarily one chooses that moment of experience from which to look back or from which to look ahead. ~The End of the Affair by Graham Greene (1951) There’s truth in that first sentence of Graham Greene’s novel. A writer does have to pick that moment to let her characters come to life and …

Readers & Writers at the Fiction Readers Summit

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

“Let’s be reasonable and add an eighth day to the week that is devoted exclusively to reading.” – Lena Dunham I know all these wonderful readers and writers that I spent a couple of days with last week at the Fiction Readers Summit would agree with Lena Dunham on that extra day for reading. But not having that extra day …

Have We Forgotten How to Read?

Ann H GabhartAnn's Posts, One Writer's Journal 18 Comments

I just read an internet post that suggests we’ve forgotten how to read. It included this quote from Eric Schmidt, the founder of Google. “I worry that the level of interrupt, the sort of overwhelming rapidity of information … is in fact affecting cognition. It is affecting deeper thinking. I still believe that sitting down and reading a book is …

A Moonbeam Award

Ann H GabhartAnn's Posts, One Writer's Journal 11 Comments

Before I had the good fortune to find a home with an inspirational book publisher, I wrote a number of books for younger readers. Some of them were what might be called chapter books for middle readers. That would be kids eight to twelve or thereabouts. These were “coming of age” stories about a young character facing some crisis in …

From South Africa with Love – A True Life Love Story

Ann H GabhartOne Writer's Journal 3 Comments

Don’t you just love a great love story? You all know how much I enjoy how you share your stories with me when I have a contest of some kind. Your stories make me the big winner in those contests. (I’ll be having a birthday contest soon.) I enjoy hearing from you in between contests too and I’m always glad …

Need a Few Influencers for a New Shaker Book

Ann H GabhartAnn's Posts, One Writer's Journal 46 Comments

“The people who influence you are the people who believe in you.”      ~Henry Drummond I am blessed by the influence of so many people who have believed in me through the years. My mother, first and foremost, always believed I could do whatever I set out to do. That’s not to say she might not have been a …

Some things I’ve Learned as a Writer

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

I started writing when I was around ten years old. That means I’ve been writing a very long time. Sometimes with success. Sometimes without success – at least in publishing that writing. But the actual writing was always successful because words spilled out on paper. Perhaps not the best words. But words were written.  In those childhood days, writing was …

Release Day – Small Town Girl

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

It’s July. That means Small Town Girl is officially released. It’s always a banner day for a writer like me when a new book hits the market. Way back in 1978 when my first book was published in the general market as a mass market paperback, I expected to see it on every stand. I didn’t think about how many …