Hope Toler Dougherty's Blog, page 5

Dougherty Thanksgiving 2022

The latest Dougherty holiday is in the books, and before November closes out, I’ll write a quick post.

Despite losing three family members over the last year, we managed to have a wonderful day. All four of our children made it home with little to no travel woes. Praise God!! The house was noisy!

We served twenty-six people for lunch, down a few people from other years, but we still had plenty to play two rounds of Capture the Flag and about an hour’s worth of Four Square. The youngest player w...

Halloween…Again!

I posted about Halloween way back in 2019. Go here to read more about the holiday at our house.

2 Pocahontas-es and 2 dinosaurs

 

And the backs!

 

This is one of my favorite pictures of Halloween. The girls are Trick or Treating their father back at our house. Not the greatest picture in terms of photo skills, but the joy on their faces!

 

With the next-door friends, Anna is Miss July 4th (look closely for the American flags in her pig tails. The rest of her red, white, and blue costume is hard ...

Book Signing in the ‘Burgh

Our first book signing for Forever Home happened in my favorite bookstore, Riverstone Books in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Lovely old friends and new friends and family stopped by to say hello!

With Val.

The Paterlines! Next door neighbors!

The Higginbothams!

The Willards!

Hattie!

A big fan!

Carol!

In my favorite book shop!

I’d love to come check out some other book shops! Do you need a speaker? Let me know. I’d love to help you out!

 

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Is Refinishing Pianos a Real Thing?

This is a picture of the refinished piano in my parents’ home. It’s an old upright that had been a player piano. I learned to play beginning in third grade, one hand and one note at a time. Sometimes practicing under protest, I eventually graduated to both hands playing hymns and Top 40 songs from the sixties and seventies.

In Forever Music, Sam Daniels, an impetuous helper, decides to refinish an antiqued green piano so that Merritt Hastings will accept it and enjoy teaching piano lessons on it...

How to Entertain in the 1950’s

When I bought Betty Crocker’s Guide to Easy Entertaining at a used book sale back in the 90’s, I just thought it was cool. I didn’t realize it was a first edition. I didn’t realize it’d play a role in my sixth novel, Forever Home, either.

What’s inside?

Take a look at the table of contents:

Would you like to…?

As the title suggests, this book contains more than recipes. It gives suggestions on how to be a good guest as well as how to treat guests well. It also shows examples of handwritten invi...

Back Cover Copy for Forever Home

Oops. I was supposed to share the back cover copy with you in July, but I got distracted with the release of A Hatteras Suprise.

Here it is now:

Back cover copy

With a fulfilling job and a home of her own, former foster child, Merritt Hastings, relishes her stable, respectable life. Dreaming for more is a sure way for heartache. When a contested will turns her world upside down, she must reevaluate what’s important to her, what’s worth fighting for, and what’s worth sacrificing.

Patience has ne...

Forever Home…Amazon’s Top Ten

There’s the proof of what happened yesterday. Forever Home broke into Amazon’s top ten!

Thank you to everyone who bought a copy (or more!) to make this happen. Thank you!

Praise God from Whom all blessings flow!

Here is a message from my launch team leader:

FOREVER HOME peeked at #9 on the new release list for Christian contemporary romance. This category is SO crowded with books that released in the last 30 days, yet you marched us right into the Top 10! This is no small feat! YAY you! BUT th...

Happy Book Birthday!

Forever Home, my newest novel, is being released today, but it was a long time in coming. I began making notes on this story back in 2018. four years ago! I was excited about Sam and Merritt and managed to write about eight chapters. then…nothing. I couldn’t keep going.

Covid hit, and the world stopped for a while. A lot of creatives blossomed during that time. Not me. I cleaned out closets and tried new recipes. I perfected my sour dough skills, making beautiful loaves every week to the delight...

Have You Ever Been on the Radio?

Here’s a picture of my first radio interview at WMPM in Smithfield, North Carolina. I enjoyed the experience back in 2016 when I had only two published novels out in the world, but I was writing the third one. Linda Carroll asked interesting questions and helped me feel comfortable in a new setting.

Radio Stations are cool.

Radio stations have always intrigued me, and I’m excited to feature this industry in my latest novel, Forever Home, which releases next week! The radio station I created in t...

A Book Surprise

My fabulous publisher, Scrivenings Press, surprised me with the release of my novella “A Hatteras Surprise” as a stand-alone novel. You first saw it in the Christmas collection, Candy Cane Wishes and Saltwater Dreams last fall. It’s the second story in the Forever series about the Daniels family. Readers first met Ben, Heath, Sam, and Josie in Forever Music.

Here’s the back cover copy if you haven’t seen it yet.

Ginny Stowe spent years tending a childhood hurt that dictated her college study and...