The three great essentials to achieve anything worth while are: Hard work, Stick-to-itiveness, and Common sense. ―Thomas A. Edison

Tomorrow is Labor Day. Hope you are having a good holiday weekend as we near the end of summer. When I was a kid and after I married too and we raised a crop of tobacco, labor day usually lived up to its name. We labored out in the field getting the tobacco in the barn. I’m sure many farmers will be laboring tomorrow cutting hay or harvesting other crops. Many other workers will have to be working too and probably a lot of writers will be coming up with words for their new stories.

Do you think about writing being a job? Being work? When I was beginning down my writing path, I did often feel I had to find spare moments to write in between my “real” work of taking care of my house and kids and secretarial work. I always thought I couldn’t really call it work if it was something I so wanted to do and also something I was getting very little income from. Work should produce income. Not that raising my kids was producing income, and sometimes mothers who didn’t have outside of the house jobs were often considered to not have work. Without a payday could it be called work? Well, yes, of course it can be.

But it took a while before I actually felt comfortable telling people my work was writing. With that attitude, it was hard to make sure I had the time I needed for that writing. But one thing for certain, no matter how much you want to write, it still takes work to write a book or to write anything. Even a blog post although journal writing was always my play time writing and so that’s my One Writer’s Journal blog now.

I was very happy when Angel Sister was finally published three years after I wrote it since the two Shaker books my editor had talked me into writing were published first, The Believer and The Seeker. I was even happier when this story that had so many of my mother’s memories as background found readers. I had proposed follow-up stories back when I first sent in my proposal for Angel Sister and the publishers decided they only wanted me to write the one Rosey Corner book. Naturally, I was disappointed, but I moved on with other projects. In spite of saying I didn’t want to write more Shaker stories, guess what? Yes, I agreed to write two more, The Blessed and The Gifted. During this time, I often told my editor, Lonnie, that my next book was going to be The Ending. She always laughed and would say she liked the title, The Beginning better.

But I didn’t only work on those Shaker stories. You remember that book I wrote way back when that my agent said had the “earmarks” of a bestseller and then had been rejected for being too clean? Well, after I had success with dusting off my first Shaker book and having it published as The Outsider, I thought nothing ventured, nothing gained. So I dug out that old manuscript from my reject shelf and gave it a once over. Since I had already rewritten it twice while making the rounds the first time and had cut out 50,000 words or so, it didn’t need a major rewrite. I really wasn’t sure the story would be one that my publishers would like. It had dramatic history, some mystery, plenty of romance, but didn’t have a lot of Scripture or Bible references that my other stories had. It was more Christian worldview. But I did some edits, changed a few things here and there and sent it off to my agent who sent it off to my editor. And she liked it. It eventually was published as Words Spoken True. Some readers say it’s their favorite of my books. It did have that dramatic history of the election riots in 1855 and plenty of newspaper history at a time when newspapers were the way people got their news.

Inspiration usually comes during work, rather than before it. — Madeleine L’Engle

I was keeping my keyboard warm and turning out stories. It was exciting to have new books out there for readers. But I hadn’t forgotten my  Rosey Corner characters and those other stories I had wanted to write about them. It turned out that my readers did me a great service and asked for more stories about the Merritt sisters and Lorena Birdsong. I was thrilled when the publishers decided I could go back to Rosey Corner for a couple more stories. These were no longer as much about my mother’s memories. Instead the Merritt sisters had come to life in my imagination and headed down their own story roads. I loved writing about their loves and marriages and challenges in Small Town Girl and Love Comes Home. Love Comes Home was picked as the Selah Book of the Year. I was so surprised and even more pleased.

Then I went back to my fictional Harmony Hill Shaker village again. There was that Christmas story my editor and agent had talked about and had me wanting to do when they came to visit. And another Shaker book even though I thought I had probably run out of “The” titles, but no. We came up with another one, The Innocent. In that story I had a dog character, Asher, that played a big part. I always like writing in a dog or two. But what about cats? Tune in next week to find out when cats started showing up in my stories.

Do you like reading books that have dog, cats, or other animals in important roles in the storyline?

Don’t forget the book giveaway is still going on. Leave a comment and get an entry. If you’ve already entered on other posts, you get another entry if you comment on this post. I love hearing from you. The deadline for entries is Saturday, September 6, 2025 at midnight EST. You must be 18 or older to enter.

Eva Marie Everson presenting me with the Selah Book of the Year Award for Love Comes Home