SPECIAL GUEST, ANN GABHART

It is my pleasure to have Ann Gabhart as my special guest this week. Next Monday, a name will be drawn from the comments for a free autographed book. Ann will be sending you her latest book, Words Spoken True. I haven't read it, but I'm anxious to. I like Ann's writing style. Here's the blurb from the back of the book. Just be sure to put your name and email address on the comment.

Adriane Darcy was practically raised in her father's newspaper offices. She can't imagine life without the clatter of the press and the push to be first to write the news that matters. Their Tribune is the leading paper in Louisville in 1855. Then Blake Garrett, a brash young editor from the North with a controversial new style of reporting, takes over failing competitor the Herald, and the battle for readers gets fierce.

When Adriane and Blake meet at a benefit tea, their surprising mutual attraction is hard to ignore. Still, Blake is the enemy, and Adriane is engaged to the son of a powerful businessman who holds the keys to the Tribune's future. Blake will stop at almost nothing to get the story--and the girl. Can he do both before it's too late?

Set against the volatile backdrop of political and civil unrest in 1850s Louisville, this exciting story of love and loyalty will hold readers in its grip until the very last page. Bestselling author Ann H. Gabhart once again delivers an enthralling and enduring tale for her loyal and ever-expanding fan base.


Now you know what the book is like, so here are some answers to what Ann H. Gabhart is like. I think you'll like meeting her.

1.      First, tell us a bit about yourself – your personal and writing background. The usual bio stuff.

I’m a country girl, born and raised in Kentucky. I grew up on a farm, one of three sisters, no brothers. That meant Dad had to make do with us girls helping him with the crops. I married very young and picked a farm boy. So, of course, the first thing we did when we could afford it was buy a farm. We still live on that farm but our farming these days is limited to a few beef cows. I’ve known I wanted to write since I first discovered storybooks, so that’s always been my focus along with raising my family and being a farmer’s wife. Always, always I was writing that next story. I have worked some temporary secretarial jobs along the way, but only until the need to write overpowered the need for the extra income. Our three children are all married now. They’ve blessed us with nine beautiful grandchildren.

I’ve published twenty-two books with four more contracted to come out in the next few years. My first Shaker book, The Outsider, was a finalist in the fiction category for ECPA Book of the Year.  The Scent of Lilacs was selected as one of Booklist’s Top Ten Inspirational novels for 2006. The Believer and Summer of Joy were ACFW Carol Book Award finalists. Angel Sister is a RT Book Reviews Magazine nominee for best inspirational novel of 2011.

2.      What do you write?

I’ve written a lot of different kinds of books. My first published books back in 1978 and 1980 were historical romances for the general market. Then I published eleven books for young people. These were mostly coming of age stories with maybe something a little spooky or mysterious and a dollop of romance. Now I’m writing for the inspirational market, but I’m still writing different types of books. I’ve written family dramas, such as Angel Sister, and historical stories set in a Shaker village, most recently The Blessed, and novels with other historical backgrounds. My new book, Words Spoken True, February 2012, is a historical romance with some suspenseful elements. So you can see I like to keep my writing options open. My goal is to claim the genre of a good story, but I do enjoy writing for the inspirational market where I can explore my characters’ faith journeys no matter which type story I’m writing. What we believe or do not believe is such an important motivator in our lives.

Tell us about your new book, Words Spoken True.

I’m excited about this new story that isn’t all that new to me since I actually wrote the first version of it years ago. After many rejections, I rewrote it, shortened it, and added the suspense thread. After many more rejections, I stored it away until a couple of years ago when I decided to rewrite it for the inspirational market. It’s so much fun to take a book that hasn’t quite hit the mark and to rewrite it until it does finally become a story that readers are ready to read.

Words Spoken True is the most romantic book I’ve written for the inspirational market. My other books have romance in them. The Shaker books are definitely historical romances, but because of the beliefs of the Shakers – they didn’t believe in romance or marriage – I had to sneak romance into those stories without much opportunity for romantic scenes. Angel Sister is a family story with a romantic thread but it’s only one of the ingredients in the whole. The Hollyhill books are about a family in a small town with a romance thread throughout, but the romance is not the most important element of the story. Oh, but in Words Spoken True, romance jumps up on the center stage and demands the floodlights. The background history is eventful and has some timely themes that relate to some of our issues in America today, but it’s the romance that lights up every scene. 

Here’s the back cover copy.

Adriane Darcy was practically raised in her father’s newspaper offices. She can’t imagine life without the clatter of the press and the push to be first to write the news that matters. Their Tribune is the leading paper in Louisville in 1855. Then Blake Garrett, a brash young editor from the North with a controversial new style of reporting, takes over a competing paper and the battle for readers gets fierce. When Adriane and Blake meet at a benefit tea, their surprising mutual attraction is hard to ignore. Still, Blake is the enemy, and Adriane is engaged to the son of a powerful businessman who holds the keys to the Tribune’s future.

I hope readers will like Adriane and Blake and will be cheering for them to figure out a way to overcome the many obstacles in the way of them having a happily ever after ending. You’ll have to read it to see if they succeed.

4.      Who has been the most difficult character for you to write?

I don’t know that I’ve had one particular character who was difficult, but when I first began writing Angel Sister with a background lifted from the stories my mother told about growing up during the Great Depression, I had to find a way to separate my fictional characters from the real people in her stories. While I did base much of the background on Mom’s memories and even gave one of my main characters Mom’s can-do attitude, my characters and their actions had to rise up out of my imagination. I left just the whisper of the actual people in my fictional characters.

5.      What characters are lying on your "office floor"? Why didn't they come to life on the page and do you think they ever will? Or why not?

I’m sure I have had characters who didn’t come to life for me, but if so, they’ve not hung around in my memory. I think I’m more likely to have story ideas that fail to come to life on the page and a few that are still lurking in my computer saying maybe someday. Most of the time, I’m so stubborn that if I think up an idea I stick with it and work through the times when I seem to be in the doldrums. And eventually the wind of storytelling starts up again and the characters get on with their stories. That’s a good answer for me to remember right now as I try to dig a new story out of my reluctant mind.

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