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Ann Gabhart is this week's guest, as gracious as always. She chats about her new book, The Song of Sourwood Mountain. We talked about how she gets to know her characters, why there is so much Appalachian fiction, and what her church means to her. Patrons hear about her writing space and her blackberry picking.

The Song of Sourwood Mountain by Ann Gabhart
While the century began with such promise, it is 1910 when Mira Dean's hopes of being a wife and mother are dashed to pieces. Her fiancé dead from tuberculosis, Mira resigns herself to being a spinster schoolteacher--until Gordon Covington shows up.

No longer the boy she knew from school, Gordon is now a preacher who is full of surprises. First, he asks Mira to come to Sourwood in eastern Kentucky to teach at his mission school. Second, he asks her to marry him. Just like that. And all at once the doors that had seemed firmly shut begin to open, just a crack.

With much trepidation, Mira steps out in faith into a life she never imagined, in a place filled with its own special challenges, to serve a people who will end up becoming the family she always dreamed of.

From the pen of bestselling author Ann Gabhart comes a heartwarming story of the unexpected blessings that can come when we dare to follow the Lord's leading.

Get your copy of The Song of Sourwood Mountain.

Hi, glad you could stop by to get to know me better. I’m a country girl, born and raised on a farm in the Outer Bluegrass region of Kentucky. I know you’re thinking horse farm, but no, not out my way. Mostly cows on the farms around here. My grandfather did have a big old workhorse when I was a little girl. My family grew tobacco and corn. We had a few milk cows, some hogs and sheep, but mostly beef cattle. I grew up working on the farm and enjoying the woods and animals. My roots go deep in the land, and I now live on a farm just a mile away from the farmhouse where I was born and raised.

I started writing when I was ten and have been writing ever since. My first published writings (personal experience pieces, youth stories, and poems) were in church periodicals like Home Life. My first novel, A Forbidden Yearning, a historical romance about the settling of Kentucky, was published by Warner Books in 1978. Since then I’ve published over thirty other novels for adults and young adults.

.My husband and I were both very young when we married, but we defied the odds and are still married all these years later. That could be because we went to church together and were committed to the Christian life. We are blessed with three wonderful children who picked some great people to marry and now we have nine amazing grandchildren I spoil every chance I get.

And I do love to write in my office with big windows all around. Writing is what I’ve always wanted to do. The desire of my heart is to tell stories to readers like you. Thank you for reading!

Visit Ann's website.