A Month of Summer (48 page)

In terms of maintaining a sense of peace and connection at home, I still believe in the family dinner. Sometimes, it’s so tempting to serve off the counter and let everyone wander back to various TVs or whatever. In defiance of the whines and the “But, Mom, the game’s on!” I just insist. We sit, we say grace, we eat together. We talk.

A. I love spending time with readers and booksellers. The most, most, most wonderful part of writing a story is knowing that someone else enjoyed reading it, and found it a source of entertainment, courage for change, a greater appreciation of life, or just a few hours of peace. Over the years, I’ve treasured letters from readers who were encouraged in difficult times, inspired to make life changes, to reunite with family members, to finally document the stories of older family members, to look at life with new eyes, to appreciate the gifts of the moment. I’m amazed and humbled that a story can be a catalyst for action, but at the same time, I recall the stories that have moved me over the years. Once, a reader who’d finished my novel
Texas Cooking
and had been inspired to relocate back to the hometown she’d always missed, ended an e-mail to me by writing, “Did you ever imagine that your humorous book about Texas would affect someone this way?”

What a wonderful and complicated question! I always hope the books will produce good fruit, but I never know what it will be, or where it will land, or what will grow from the seeds within. So much of that remains in God’s hands, which is as it should be.

A. In addition to the continuation of the small-town Texas series that began with
Talk of the Town
, published by Bethany House, I plan to continue stories of life in the houses on Blue Sky Hill, published by New American Library. As with the books in the Tending Roses series, the ending of each character’s story often marks the beginning of another journey. Because I never know where a story might lead, or how it will end, or what may happen to the characters after the final page, the only way to find the next image in the canvas is to get out the loom and let the threads start moving again. Eventually, it’ll all start to make sense, and after it does, there will be another thread that seems to continue beyond the picture, raising the question, What happens now?