One of the unexpected surprises of writing--normally a very solitary experience--has been the connections I've made, friends I never would have met, had I not stepped out in faith and let my writing go out into the world. I met the wonderful people in my writers' group, Night Writers, and I have met and talked with 'fans' across the world. I don't really even think of them as 'fans,' but as readers who cared. My friend Elaine welcomed me to her home twice when I visited Scotland, and we became facebook friends. Another reader, Deb, talked to me on the phone one night to tell me all about Orkney, where she had lived, and where I would be visiting.

I feel fortunate for this connection and the people I have met as a result.

I am currently working on The Battle is O'er, Book Five of the Blue Bells Chronicles, in which Shawn completes his journey and makes his final decisions. I have several other works in progress which I'm eager to get to, especially Theology of Music, a non-fiction study of music and faith, and Castle of Dromore, a novel about a young widow who spends everything she has to take her six sons to a medieval castle in Scotland for a fresh start, in the wake of family disaster--only to find the castle is very haunted.

C.S. Lewis. Brendan Carroll. Andrew Davidson. Elizabeth Kostova. Dan Blum.

Apart from my alarm? My children, and looking forward to the day's work--practicing musical instruments, writing, and teaching music lessons.

I'm doing things with my kids, walking my Irish Wolfhound (much like the Laird's hunting hounds at Glenmirril), working on publishing other people's books, playing harp, piano, or flute (and occasionally trombone), or teaching music lessons.

I'm not sure which was the very first. There was one about a dog, based on my love of St. Bernards at the time. There was another about a haunted house. And at age 10, I was working on a novel about a boy who is kidnapped, but is so difficult that the kidnappers try to give him back and end up paying ransom money to his parents to take him back. Then I discovered O. Henry had written a similar story and quit, thinking it had been done already.

The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis. That's really seven books, but I'll count it as one. They're hugely read-able and entertaining, yet have a deeper, more profound meaning behind them. Unlike Pilgrim's Progress, however, they don't slap the reader in the face with the allegory.

In the Keep of Time, by Margaret J. Anderson. It's the story of four siblings who go into a Scottish tower and come out in medieval Scotland. Like the Chronicles of Narnia, it has adventure and history, and yet something deeper, as the siblings go from fighting with each other and being bored with everything, to really growing up and caring deeply for one another. It was also a huge influence in my own writing, as readers will easily see.

Tempo Rubato, by Brendan Carroll. I loved the portrayal of Mozart, who is brought into the modern time. I found it much more real and believable than how he was portrayed in Amadeus, the movie. I loved the story, and the music involved in it, and the question of how Mozart's music would change by virtue of hearing our modern music.

The Historian, by Elizabeth Kostova. I loved the history she gave in her book and her amazing descriptions. There's a cliff somewhere in Europe, near a monastery--I feel as if I was there in my own life, her descriptions were so vivid.

The Keep, by Jennifer Egan. An absolutely fascinating story, weaving together the 'fantasy' of a prisoner's story told in his prison writing class, along with his own story of his growing attraction to his writing instructor, and how the two stories finally dovetail.

And six, The Feet Say Run, by Dan Blum. It is profoundly read-able, a page turner; it's funny; and yet it's also profound, poignant and moving, as Hans Jaeger tells two tales--one of his current life as an 85 year old castaway, stranded with six others on a desert island, and one of his past life, starting with his youth in Nazi Germany.

Throw in a Bonus-Bonus Book: The Time Traveler's Wife. I'm in awe at the skill with which she wove together a chronology of constantly shifting time frames. The story was also a heart-breaking and beautiful story of love that lasts.