Positive conversations with old and new friends. I'd love for you to join me on my back porch.

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Ann Gabhart

I'm so excited to have Ann visiting with us today. Please leave a comment for a chance to win a book from Ann.


Ann, thanks for joining us on Backporch!

Thank you so much for inviting me over to your back porch, Jackie, to visit with you and your friends for a while. Porches often make an appearance in my books. Even in my new book, Words Spoken True, set in the middle of Louisville, I make use of the back stoop for my character, Adriane, to go out and gather in some sunshine and make friends with an old alley dog.

But since I’m new to your back porch, maybe I ought to take a minute to introduce myself. I’m a Kentucky girl who grew up on a farm over in Anderson County. I’m just a country girl who has been trying to write down stories ever since I was about ten years old. When I began to seriously work toward publication, I took a writer’s course by correspondence, and the last assignment was to write an outline for a novel. I hate writing outlines and so I wrote the book instead. I’ve never looked back. I like making up book length stories. Now I’ve had over twenty books published, some for adults and some for young people. My last ten books have been for the inspirational market with the first one, The Scent of Lilacs, published in 2005. I really enjoy writing these stories. I like being able to include the faith journey of my characters. What a person believes can make such a difference in his or her life, don’t you think?

Even in the inspirational market, I’ve written a lot of different types of stories. My Hollyhill books are about a preacher and his family in small town America. That background was pulled straight from my own. Lawrenceburg, where I’ve lived all my life, is definitely a small town although it’s growing these days. But the Hollyhill books are set in the Sixties, a time when things were changing but at the same time we were still leaning on a lot of old-fashioned values. Then I have my Shaker books, all set in my fictional Shaker village of Harmony Hill, but the physical setting and a lot of the history in the books comes from my research of the Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill in Mercer County, Kentucky. The Shakers were interesting people, but writing romances in a Shaker setting is not the easiest thing to do since Shakers believed romantic love was a sin to be avoided. My fifth Shaker novel, The Gifted, will be out in July, and I did sneak that romance in there. One of my favorite books that I’ve written is Angel Sister, a family story set during the Great Depression. I based a lot of the background for that novel on the stories my mother and her sisters told me about growing up in those years. The storyline is completely fictional, but the echo of my mother’s childhood sounds in many of the scenes.

My new book, Words Spoken True, is the most romantic book I’ve written since coming over to the inspirational market. The story is set in 1855 Louisville and has some dramatic history and a thread of suspense, but it’s the love story that takes center stage in this book. Adriane Darcy lives in 1855 Louisville, a time when women didn’t have as many choices as they do in the modern days. Her father wants her to marry Stanley, the only son of a socially prominent man, but Adriane can’t bear the thought of what life will be like with Stanley. He’ll expect her to confine her writing to flowery bits of poetry or letters to friends. No more news stories for her father’s newspaper. No rush to find the stories and get out the news. On top of that, she knows she will never really love Stanley. Not the way she has always hoped for love.

Then she meets Blake Garrett. While the attraction is immediate and mutual, Adriane knows her father would forbid her to even so much as speak to him. Blake is the enemy, the editor of a competing paper that is threatening to woo readers away from her father’s paper and take over the position as top newspaper in Louisville. In one tragic, riot filled night, Adriane’s life is turned upside down, but love gives her the strength and courage to make the decisions she must.

Thanks for sitting and visiting with me on Jackie’s back porch. You know, a porch is a great place to settle down with a good book when the spring sunshine begins blessing us with beautiful warmth. I hope you’ll consider choosing one of my books. You can check out more about those books at my website, www.annhgabhart.com. I also post about my writing and what’s going on down here on the farm on One Writer’s Journal, www.annhgabhart.blogspot.com. I have a Facebook author’s page and you can follow me on Twitter with a user name of AnnHGabhart. Words Spoken True is available at Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Words-Spoken-True-Ann-Gabhart/dp/0800720458, or Christianbook.com, http://www.christianbook.com/words-spoken-true-ann-gabhart/9780800720452/pd/720452, or at your favorite book store.

Happy reading!

12 comments:

  1. Words Spoken True sounds like an intriguing read. The storyline also sounds like it's much different than your Shaker novels. I enjoyed reading your interview.

    ~Cecelia Dowdy~
    cdnovelist(at)gmail(dot)com

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  2. Hi, Jackie and Ann, no need to sign me up for the drawing as I already have a copy, but just had to stop by and visit on your front porch with two of my favorite KY friends. It's in the 50s and sunny and too nice to stay inside all day, anyway! I am about half way thru Words Spoken True and loving it! I grew up in Louisville and am enjoying learning some more of its history. I hope Ann will set another story there with the suspense and romance this book has!

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  3. Ann, I loved your book on the Shakers and would love to read this by you. Thanks SO much!

    Lauralee

    blissful63(at)gmail(dot)com

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  4. Hi, Cecelia. Thanks for coming over to visit me and Jackie and sit a while with us on the porch.

    Rose, you're right. It's a great day with all this sunshine for porch sitting. I was inside doing my Hometown Book Launch. Maybe I should find a porch for that!! Glad you're enjoying the story.

    Lauralee, thanks so much for reading some of my books with the Shaker historical background. Hope you'll enjoy this very different story when you get a chance to read it.

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  5. Thank you, Ann for letting us know about another opportunity to win your latest book.
    And thank you to Backporch for the interview and giveaway as well.

    I think I have entered every giveaway for this book. Love the cover on "Words Spoken True".
    I am visiting my son in Elizabethtown, Ky this week, wish I was able to stay through the weekend to meet you, Ann. Hope you have a wonderful visit there. Carmee Ross or miaross1961@yahoo.com

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  6. Hi Ann, Here I am again stalking you from blog to blog. lol. I have Words Spoken True on my wish list and would love to win. I also have you as a new author and can't wait to read all your book. Thanks for stopping by to chat and share with us.
    Thanks Jackie, for this opportunity to enter giveaway. This is my first time at Back Porch and I like your blog.

    misskallie2000 at yahoo dot com

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  7. Hi Ann

    Backyard porches are the best. Spent many of my childhood summers playing on the porches.Either with my baby dolls or just a good old board game with a friend. Life was so simple but at the same time we thought we had lots of choices. Kids nowadays would find it boring but would love to have them walk a summer in our shoes. Can't wait for the new Shaker book to come out.Happy Spring!!!!!!!!!!!

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  8. I've not had the pleasure to read any of Ann's books but after this interview, they are definately on my "To Read" list.

    Great interview, Jackie

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  9. I definitely have this book on my TBR list...sounds like a great one!

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  10. Carmee, I'm just showing up in E-town on the wrong weekend. It would have been fun to meet you in person. And good luck with this drawing. You have been very persistent in trying to win a copy of this book. I appreciate your interest and support.

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  11. Miss Kallie, you and Carmee have been following me around from blog to blog and I do appreciate it. At least this time you got to sit out on the porch and enjoy the sunshine while we talked books. I hope you do enjoy some of my stories when you get a chance to read them.

    Hi, Jackie. I did a lot of playing on porches when I was a kid too. We had a concrete front porch and I know I must have roller-skated hundreds of miles on it. In my imagination anyway!! The simple fun times were good and kids still enjoy those times nowadays too when they get the chance to experience them. Thanks so much for reading my books. Glad you enjoy the Shaker stories.

    Marcy & Angie, I like being on your TBR lists. Hope you'll enjoy the story when you get a chance to read it. Good luck in the drawing.

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  12. Hey you all, I grew up in E-town.

    And we played on our concrete front porch and back porch too.
    It's too bad Carmee, you and Ann can't see each other this weekend.

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