Thanks to you, we had a smashing time the week that Where Lilacs Still Bloom was released in mid-April. A couple of television interviews, one with the #1 garden show in the Northwest www.gardentime.tv/thisweek.htm and numerous blog reviewers saying kind things as well as a full page Oregonian article in the garden section helped make the book events well-attended and the lilac garden's fund-raising event a huge success.

 

But what really brought out the readers was you, telling your friends about the Hulda Klager lilac gardens and the story of Hulda's persistence and passion. Thank you all so much for that!  The book made the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Bestseller list for the first two weeks of its release!  We're grateful. And there's still time to visit the garden (10-4 if you're in the northwest) but you can also visit via www.lilacgardens.com. Take time to smell the lilacs! 

 

 

Jerry and I have had a rough patch this spring.  Since March 9, I've had a chronic cough that seems to have no purpose other than to make me tired and wonder what I'm doing to make it worse. Maybe it's trying to tell me to just rest a bit. But out of it have come old remedies for coughs (put mentholatum on the bottom of my feet and wear old socks to bed, for one, that helped!).  A neighbor loaned me her children's humidifier. Another friend introduced me to Fisherman's Friends cough lozenges. The lozenges allowed me to make presentations without coughing my way through them. I engaged in acupuncture and Chinese herbs and upped the number of massage treatments. Saw my stomach ulcer person who said it wasn't related to acid reflux. An inhaler, cough medicine and antibiotics 10 days ago seems to have done the trick. Today I'm on the mend. I even took the dogs for a short walk.  Hurrah!

Jerry also had his share of excitement.  He fell down 11 concrete steps at a hotel we were staying at. Missed the first step and down he went. He had the presence of mind to curl himself (I would have likely fallen splat on my face!). I was sure his arm and possibly his hip were broken and worried that his back might have been reinjured as well.  While he was whisked off to the x-ray, I sat in the emergency room and tried to figure out whether to have the surgery there or take him back to Bend. I tried to imagine how to rearrange the book tour giving me time to get him safely to surgery and to tend him afterwards.

Amazingly, though he'll be 82 next month, he had no broken bones! A sprained left arm, lots of lost skin, a bruised shoulder and hip, and a sprained neck as well. I'm sure the fall did little for his already bad back but he's gotten through it.

We've gotten through it.

And I learned something about "planning." I sat in that ER room trying to decide where Jerry should have his surgery. That was wasted time. He didn't need surgery.  Prayers, deep breathing, a bit of calm in the storm would have been more productive.  urrH

 

Sometimes in my effort to get all my ducks in a row, I instead add new ducks that don't  need to be there. Later, they quack away, mocking me for my "plans." Proverbs reminds us: "Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails." I appear to need constant reminders of that. If you occasionally do, may our story be your reminder today.

 

Jane's Schedule

 

Wildflowers from Winter by Katie Ganshert. (May 8, 2012)  WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group.

 

 

I once wrote about a wild lily that bloomed only after a terribly harsh winter. I loved the hardiness and promise of that lily. Bethany Quinn, the protagonist in Katie Ganshert's debut novel, is told about wildflowers blooming most profusely after a heavy-snow winter. She's speaking with Evan Price, the man who runs her grandfather's farm in Iowa and it's during a tough time for Katie who, like a porcupine, has barbs that poke her and also keep others away.

 

She's come for a brief visit with her grandfather, leaving a boyfriend in Chicago where Bethany is an up and coming architect who has everything "planned out." Until the husband of her former best friend's accident brings her back to her hometown. Things only get worse from there, the winter deep and cold before we see the wildflowers that will bloom in spring.

 

Katie Ganshert  www.KatieGanshert.com has chosen a tough subject for a first novel and done a fine job of handling it. We care about the characters first and foremost and watch as they struggle with trials that could affect any of us. We see her make mistakes out of hurt and disappointment. A source of comfort, one's faith, has been shattered for Katie by her mother's behavior years ago and by what she perceives as a meddling, sham of a television pastor who entered her mother's life as her father was dying.

 

The story unfurls at a rapid pace with vivid imagery and authentic emotions and dialogue that I can imagine being spoken. (Writers often eavesdrop, it's a terrible habit and I felt like I was eavesdropping on Katie's characters.)

Most of all, Katie is aware of the pain that organized religion can sometimes cause people and what keeps them away from grace. Author Brian McClaren speaks of the need for "soft landings" for people seeking faith renewal who might have experienced deep pain as a result of a church encounter. I think Katie understands that need.

 In the midst of it all is a love story. The love of a man for a woman; of a woman discovering what is worthy about loving in herself; and the love and faithfulness of God bringing spring from the winter. 

 

Katie, a Midwesterner, also participated in my blog hop for which I'm grateful. I hope you'll enjoy her first novel Wildflowers from Winter!  I did.