 | ||||
All Books in E-book & Paperback!
| ||||
BLOG: A Voice In The World - from the Heart of Ginny Dye
December 6, 2013
It's Been 16 Years...
I received an email recently that blew me away. It’s amazing to me when history comes full circle…
16 years ago I moved from Richmond, VA out to the Pacific Northwest. I took 3 months for the move, traveling and stopping for wonderful adventures along the way – pulling a pop-up camper that was home during that time.
I believe (I’m not sure) that I was in Wisconsin when something broke that needed to be replaced. I searched through the yellow pages (there was no Internet) and found a trailer repair shop that was stuck out in the middle of nowhere.
When I went in to get the part I signed my name to the receipt. The young girl taking my money stared at my name and then looked back at me, her eyes wide with a question. “Is something wrong?” I asked.
She kept staring at me and then reached behind the counter and pulled out a book I recognized instantly.
“Are you her?” she asked incredulously.
I smiled, stunned that I had found a young girl reading one of my teen novels in the middle-of-nowhere Wisconsin.
“Guilty,” I admitted, and then laughed. “Who are you?”
Thus began a wonderful conversation. Sherry had read every one of the five teen novels I had written - twice. She was reading book # 1 (Time For A Second Chance) for the third time when I walked in the door.
Wow!
Another customer came in so I made arrangements to take her out for ice cream that afternoon, and then returned to the state park campground I was staying in and extended my site for another day. Our ice cream treat turned into 3 hours of laughter and talking – and lots of counseling for a troubled young girl struggling in life.
I swung by the shop the next morning on my way out of town, gave her a big hug, and then continued on my way. I never heard from her again.
Until two weeks ago.
Sherry Godek found me through Google, came to my website, and then sent me an email. (You gotta love technology!) She asked me if I remembered that day 16 years ago. How could I forget?! Then she asked me what had happened to the series of teen novels I had written. She has two daughters of her own now (11 and 12) and was looking for the books to share with them. Then she told me she was also involved with a youth group, and that she wanted them to start reading the books.
I called her the next day.
“Where can I find them, Ginny?” she asked eagerly.
“You can’t,” I said reluctantly. I spoke into the ensuing silence. “They were taken out of print years ago. The disks I first wrote them on are simply too old for anyone to pull the books off and put them in a Word Document. I tried for a long time to find someone who could do it, but couldn’t.” There was still silence so I kept going. “I thought about bringing them back into print this spring, and actually started to retype one (because I still have a set), but quickly realized I didn’t have the patience to type an old manuscript so I gave it up."
“But, Ginny, you can’t just let them die,” she insisted when she finally found her voice.
I promised I would see what I could do, we talked longer, and then I hung up to ponder it, and also rejoice that a 16 year old I had met 16 years earlier had been so impacted by my books that she found me! What a joyous surprise!
When an idea popped into my head I went to FiveRR (a site where I’ve found many of the people who help me) and found a wonderful typist in India who would retype all of them for an amazingly low price. Encouraged, I scanned them all and sent the page images to her. She sent me the final book two days ago!
Then I contacted my amazing Pakistani graphic artist, Iqra, and asked her to create the covers.
Then I began to ponder how I was supposed to use my time right now. How long would it take me to rework and revise five 225 page books? When should I do it? What should my priorities be? Coming right on the heels of finalizing the Powerful Girl & Powerful Woman Journals, I was ready to finish up Carried Forward By Hope for The Bregdan Chronicles.
My initial decision was to put the teen novels on the backburner until spring. It was a good plan, and one I felt I owed all the readers of The Bregdan Chronicles, but an uneasiness kept springing up in my soul. I finally hiked to the top of my mountain and sat on my favorite rock-outcropping until I made a decision I could be at peace with. When I came down, I knew what I was supposed to do.
And I’m doing it… Bringing back the Pepper Crest High Series. Teenagers… horses… high school… relationships… challenges… I’m having a blast!
I’ve almost finished with Second Chances (Book # 1). I’ll have the other four finished by the first week of January. It seems right… to have these powerful books back in print, and have all my books back in print within one year of when I discovered the Amazon Kindle program.
I know so many of you are anxiously waiting for Carried Forward By Hope. Will it help if I tell you there are no other projects hiding in the wings that need to be done once I get my teen novels out? I’m as eager as you are to discover what will happen in Book # 6! :)
I’m not going to give you a specific date for the release of Carried Forward By Hope – other than to tell you it will be as soon as possible. Early spring is safe… I’ve learned to not announce specific dates for a book release because life too often seems to have other plans for me!
If you want a sneak preview of the Pepper Crest High Series, CLICK HERE!
I’ve got more exciting news coming early next week – something a lot of you have been asking for for a long time! Until then...
Blessings,
Ginny
Read more of my Blogs!
