Shelley Shepard Gray's Blog, page 10

Ray of Light is This Week’s Amish Living Book!

I’m so honored to be chatting over at www.amishliving.com about Ray of Light this week! If you’ve read Ray of Light, or you are simply interested to hear what everyone has to say about it, I hope you’ll join us!

On another note…the Kindle and Nook editions of the third book in the trilogy, eventide, is on sale at www.amazon.com and on www.barnesandnoble.com!  The pre-order price has been brought down to $4.49, and I’m so thrilled about this! Eventide will actually be released on September 3rd. Already, its received some wonderful reviews. 

If you’re interested in getting the book and have an e-reader, I hope you’ll take advantage of the sale and preorder it.

Well, I’d better hop over to Amish Living and see how today’s question is going…

Thank you for stopping by!

Shelley

 

Breakfast with Lynne

Years ago (gosh, almost ten years ago!) I met my friend Lynne. She was actually one of my daughter’s teachers, and she was very instrumental in helping my daughter through a challenging time. I’ve always been grateful to her for her help.  I used to visit her classroom once a year and talk about writing and books. She loves to read as much as I do!

Lynne is the type of person who goes out of her way to keep in touch with people. She will take time to call folks or write a personal letter, just to see how they’re doing. She’s been such a good friend to me! She’s gone out of her way to tell her friends about my books. She seems to know everyone, and because of her, I’ve had the opportunity to speak to many church and civic groups. She’s a one-woman PR machine! Most of all, she’s genuinely kind. We meet about once a month and catch up and she always seems to know just the right thing to say to perk me up.

Those are just some of the reasons I dedicated EVENTIDE to her. Last week, just one day after I received my author copies of EVENTIDE, we met for breakfast.  After we caught up on our latest news, I could hardly contain my excitement. I kind of thrust a copy of EVENTIDE into her hands and told her to read the dedication.

She looked at little taken aback!

But then she read the dedication and got all teary-eyed. And I did too! I was so proud of myself for keeping this secret for a good six months. And I was so pleased to do a little something to let her know how grateful I was for her friendship over the years!

Good friends like Lynne are hard to find and even harder to keep. I’m grateful for her.

 I’m also so grateful for all of you. Thank you for reading my books, and for taking the time to visit me here!

Blessings,

Shelley  

9000 Likes!

 Have you ‘LIKED’ my Facebook page yet? If not, I hope you will today! We’re giving away 9 copies of the Sisters of the Heart Trilogy in honor of reaching an amazing 9000 ‘likes’!  To enter, all you have to do is go to the FB post and tell me which of my books was a favorite and why.

I post on Facebook almost every day~I’d love to see you on my page there!

To get to my page, simply click on the Facebook Icon on my website!

Shelley

 

 

What a Long, Strange Week It’s Been

Ever have one of those weeks where things seem, well, a little ‘off’?

That’s what it’s been like around here. Oh, not writing-wise. I’ve been able to get 14 pages written every day this week-a nice accomplishment for me.

But everything else? It’s simply been strange.

First of all, we now have a rooster living next door. Well, he’s not actually next door, but he’s somewhere close. He crows in the morning and at sunset, too.  I think he also crows when he’s bored, hungry, or especially enthusiastic about something. Yep, he crows a lot. About once a day our dachshunds decide that this is something new and different and decide to bark at the mysterious rooster. This annoys my husband to no end!

Something else that has become strange is my oven. It’s one of those double ovens embedded in our wall. Unfortunately, it’s broken several times over its three-year life, and the latest occurrence was Monday morning. Luckily, it’s under warranty, and this time the technician from the appliance manufacturer arrived to actually fix it once and for all.

That hasn’t been remarkable.

What has been is that nothing about the repair job has been easy, and the poor guy has had to hang out in our kitchen three days in a row. For hours at a time. Matt, the repairman is a little grumpy, but I suppose I would be too if I had to spend my day fixing large appliances.

Anyway, yesterday he was in our kitchen for two hours. When another fuse blew at 5:30 last night and he had break the news to me that we’d be seeing each other again today, I decided to pull up a kitchen bar stool and keep him company.

We talked about kids and dogs and the state of appliances in America. I heard about his upcoming vacation (Gulf Shores, AL), he listen to me worry about my 22 year-old son’s upcoming wisdom teeth extraction.

And then he told me a story about three men who trained him, old-school, overweight men who wore suspenders~who just happened to have Biblical names. And how he thought that was fitting, since he valued their opinions so much….and that’s when I figured that was time well spent. And that comment led to a whole other conversation about mentors and the Bible and how various people become influencers in our lives in ways we could never have imagined.

That is when I figured my long, strange week hasn’t been all that bad.  I mean, when else could I have had a whole discussion with a repairman about the meaning of men named Michael, Mathew, and Luke?

The broken oven and the rooster continually crowing haven’t been the only odd things to happen this week. We’ve had other mini-worries, the least of which is a small animal who up and died in my husband’s office air vent. (the smell is unpleasant!) However, I think I’ll save that story for another day…as well as the one about how I burned myself not once but two times this week.

All this being said, I, for one, am looking forward to the weekend!

I imagine I’ll be rising early-we’ve got a rooster nearby now, you know. But while I sip my coffee and bake some biscuits (the oven now works like a charm) I’ll be thinking about a visit I had with a man who firmly believed in the blessings of three wise men with Biblical names~and how he felt the need to tell me about them in the middle of a very strange week.

And, well, how I felt the need to share that story with you, too.

With blessings to you,

Shelley 

 

our oven on Thursday, its insides neatly arranged on the island

 

See You In…

I’ve barely unpacked my bags, but I’m already planning trips in September and October!  With the release of both Eventide and Peace, I’m going to be too excited to stay home.

In September, I’ll be in Indiana!

So far, I’ll be appearing with author Vannetta Chapman at J. Farvers Christian Books and Gifts in Shipshewana, at 2:00 pm on Wednesday, September 11.

Later that night, we’ll be in Middlebury Community Library. We’ll be there at 7:00 pm, doing a signing and reading!

From there, Vannetta and I will be meeting up with Amy Clipston, another of our Amish Country Tour Buddies in Indianapolis. We’ll be signing at the Family Christian Book Store in Carmel, Indiana at 6:00 pm, on Thursday, Sept. 12. As of now, the fabulous Beth Wiseman will be joining us!

Finally, the next day, I’ll be joining lots of Inspirational authors at the Barnes & Noble in downtown Indy at 1:00-3:00 on Friday, September 13.

I’ll be posting all the addresses and phone numbers soon. Don’t forget, if you can’t make it to one of these events, you can always call the bookstores, order the books, and we’ll sign them. Then, you can pick up the books at your convenience. I do this a lot.

In October, I’ll be heading to Lansing, Michigan. I’ll be part of the Schuler Books Girls Night Out Series on Tuesday, Oct. 8 at 7:00 pm. (2820 Towne Centre Blvd. Lansing, MI 48912).

The next day,  Wednesday, October 9 at 11:00 am, I’ll be at the new Baker Book House bookstore, in Grand Rapids, MI. (2768 East Paris Ave. SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49546)

Finally, I’ll be heading to beautiful Wisconsin, where I’ll be doing a signing, reading, and luncheon with Books & Company and the Lake Country Life Enrichment Center in Oconomowoc, WI. (Thursday, October 10, 11:00-1:30 pm)

Finally, on November 1 and 2, I’ll be heading to Berlin for a series of reader events!

If you live anywhere near these areas, I hope you’ll come out to see me!

In the meantime, I hope you have a great day! Can you believe it’s almost August?

Shelley

GoodReads Giveaway!

Goodreads is holding an eventide giveaway!  15 Advanced Copies will be given away! If you are interested, please click on the link below. Good luck! I’d love for some of the winners to be familiar names!  http://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/60118-eventide-the-days-of-redemption-series-book-three

More About RWA

Happy Tuesday! Here in Cincinnati, I’m finally unpacked, rested, and am slowly making plans for the rest of the week. Like any big vacation or event, it’s always a little bit hard to say goodbye to all the busy-ness. Because I spend so much time just writing, I really enjoy conferences and spending time with girlfriends who I have a lot in common with. 

Last Friday was my busiest day at RWA.  Since I plan to do very little this Friday (beyond write a little and work on my tan!) I thought I’d share the schedule, and try to post a few pictures!

8:00 Went to the RWA breakfast. (scones, lots of coffee and a glass of OJ~breakfast of champions, right? )

9:30 Arrive at Avon Open House. This is for conference attendees. They wait outside the closed doors until 9:45. When I got to the right room, there were already at least 60-70 people in line. All the books are free! (All the publishers host open houses! It’s awesome!) This year, Avon put all the inspirational authors in the center of the room! Robin Lee Hatcher was there, as was Colleen Coble and Rachel Hauck, Debra Clopton, Amy Clispton, and me! They had copies of the Sisters of the Heart Trilogy and The Search for me to sign. At 9:45, the doors opened, and the fun began! 

 11:15…ran to do a blog interview for Amazon.com. Couldn’t find the right room. Ran downstairs, upstairs, downstairs, then finally ran to the press room at 11:32. Did the interview…we talked all about Eventide!

11:45….trotted upstairs to the main lobby where I met with Julie from Avon. She’s a media genius and helped me open up a Twitter account and gave me all kinds of great advice. (No, I haven’t actually tweated yet.)

12:45…Met with my Zondervan editor and two lovely ladies from Thomas Nelson. They took me out to lunch (fish tacos!) and we talked about my Chicago historical. And, well, all kinds of things. We sat outside in a covered patio. I didn’t want to leave!

3:00…My agent, Mary Sue arrived at the hotel and met me in the lobby. She hadn’t eaten lunch, so we ran out to get something for her…and I got dessert, of course. Because really, why would I ever skip a meal?

5:00…ran back to hotel and up to room. Changed into a party dress and went to the Seymour Agency Cupcake and Cocktail Party.

5:45…Got on a shuttle with other Avon Authors and headed to the Avon Romance party.

9:00…Hopped in a taxi with Mary Sue and few of her agent friends to the Harlequin party.

11:30, Grabbed a taxi and went back to the hotel. I had had enough! And, well, I had another signing to do on Saturday morning!

Signing next to Amy at the Avon Open House

With Mary Sue, eating lemon chess pie. : )

 

 

Ray of Light Is On Sale

 

I have more photos to share about last week’s trip to RWA in Atlanta, but I didn’t want to forget to let y’all know that the Kindle and Nook versions of Ray of Light are now on sale for $1.99. If you’ve been waiting to get the book, or perhaps you know someone who might like it, please pass the word! My books rarely go on sale, so it’s so nice to offer y’all the opportunity to purchase it for a lot less!

Shelley

 

Coffee with Chelsey

Yesterday I spent most of the day in my hotel room revising Hopeful.  I was glad to have the time to get it done! In the middle of the day, though, I took a three hour break. I hung out with authors Amanda Flower and Amy Clipston, and also shared a cup of iced coffee with Chelsey,  my in-house editor with Avon. It was so fun discussing Eventide, Peace, Hopeful, and a few other projects that are coming up! We’re going to be pretty busy pretty soon!

Shelley

 

RWA, Day 1

This morning I was so happy to be a part of the “Faith Matters” panel during Library Day at the Romance Writers of America conference.  Our panel was one of several that talked about their genres. I spoke about my love for inspirational fiction and that very popular question: “Why do folks read Amish fiction?” It was a lot of fun.

A few hours later, I was a part of the very big author book signing. All the proceeds go to support literacy, which I think is such an important cause. I got to visit with a few people (okay, a lot of people-the room was very crowded!).One of my favorite conversations was with a lady who walked up to me and asked me about Crittenden County!

With blessings to you,

Shelley