It is 1936 and Kate Merritt, the middle child of Victor and Nadine, works hard to keep her family together. Her father slowly slips into alcoholism and his business suffers during the Great Depression. As her mother tries to come to grips with their situation and her sisters seem to remain blissfully oblivious to it, it is Kate who must shoulder the emotional load. Who could imagine that a dirty, abandoned little girl named Lorena Birdsong would be just what the Merritts need?

It is 1936 and Kate Merritt, the middle child of Victor and Nadine, works hard to keep her family together. Her father slowly slips into alcoholism and his business suffers during the Great Depression. As her mother tries to come to grips with their situation and her sisters seem to remain blissfully oblivious to it, it is Kate who must shoulder the emotional load. Who could imagine that a dirty, abandoned little girl named Lorena Birdsong would be just what the Merritts need?

In this richly textured novel, award-winning author Ann H. Gabhart reveals the power of true love, the freedom of forgiveness, and the strength to persevere through troubled times. Multidimensional characters face real and trenchant problems while maintaining their family bonds, all against the backdrop of a sultry Kentucky summer. Readers will be drawn into the story and find themselves lingering there long after they've finished the book.

Ann H. Gabhart is the bestselling author of several novels, including The Outsider, The Believer, and The Seeker. Her latest novel was inspired in part by the many stories her mother and two aunts told her of growing up in small town Kentucky during the 1930s. She lives with her husband a mile from where she was born in Kentucky.

http://www.christianbook.com/angel-sister-ann-gabhart/9780800733810/pd/733811

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Author: Ann H. Gabhart
Located in: Lawrenceburg, KY
Submitted: June 22, 2011

    Tell us a little about yourself.  I'm a native Kentuckian who was born on a farm and has lived a farm girl's life. I married young and of course, he was a farm boy. We still live on a farm. I've been writing since I was a young girl and discovered the joy of reading. I knew I wanted to be somebody who came up with the words in those books I loved.

    What was your motivation behind this project?  My mom and her sisters always had such fun telling stories about their childhood during the Great Depression. What always came through crystal clear in their stories was how much love they had for one another as they made it through some tough times. So I decided to use her background as a setting of my fictional story. Although the characters and story are totally from my imagination, my mom's memories weave a thread of truth through the story and make it a story from my heart and from hers.

    What do you hope folks will gain from this project?  I hope they will see how love and faith can get them through even the hardest time. I want them to live the story with my characters and come away with hope for their own futures.

    How were you personally impacted by working on this project?  This book took me back to my mother's childhood. It helped me to see her before she was my mother. To know her in a way that I might not have known her otherwise. While my characters are fictional, I did create Kate with the kind of can-do attitude my mom has always had. I walked through my mother's memories and did my best to feel what she felt when she was playing hide and seek at dark or when she saw her father passed out after drinking too much since he had a drinking problem just as the father in the book did. There was a Fern in my mother's community and I felt the shivers of fear up my back when my mother saw that lady with her hatchet. I listened for the echo of joy that is my mother's life and I not only heard it, I tried to capture it in the words of Angel Sister.

    Who are your influences, sources of inspiration or favorite authors / artists?  My mother has been such an influence on me in the way she always embraced life and did whatever had to be done. I've also been greatly influenced by the little church I've attended for years. I've been blessed to listen to our pastor, Br. Fred preach Bible stories and make them real for over 30 years. His great sermons and teaching buried many Bible stories in my heart and mind where they can surface when the time is right in my stories.

    Anything else you'd like readers / listeners to know:  I love hearing from readers and knowing what you think about the stories you read. And I'm always especially happy when some of my characters crawl up into your heart and find a home. Thank you for reading Angel Sister.

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