Later I went back to my own website to see just what kind of questions I had already suggested on my website for readers to consider as they read the book.

First, did you know that every one of the novels listed on my website’s book page has reader questions available?  That’s right.  I love the idea of people considering different aspects of my books when they think about them later or discuss them.  So I create questions to get readers started.

Here are the questions I developed for Iron Lace:

1. African-American journalist Phillip Benedict wonders why white society matriarch Aurore Gerritsen has chosen him to write her memoirs.  After all, it’s 1965 and Louisiana is, for the most part, still segregated.  As Aurore’s story unfolds, at what point did you begin to suspect her reason for choosing Phillip?
2. South Louisiana has a rich heritage, made richer by traditions and cultures of a diversity of ethnic and racial groups.  Did you come to appreciate the difference between Creoles and Cajuns and the cultural importance of African-Americans in Louisiana history?
3. Racism was and still is a fact of life worldwide.  Did the struggle of the characters of all backgrounds seem real to you?
4. Aurore and Rafe are star-crossed lovers.  What decisions did each of them make that doomed their love?  What decision did each make that enriched it?
5. Aurore and Henry Gerritsen’s marriage was not made in heaven.  Considering the times they lived in and the culture surrounding them, was it believable to you that Aurore would stay with Henry, even when she realized the mistake she had made?  Was the marriage payback for her own need for revenge?
6. Despite their many flaws, did you find Aurore and Rafe sympathetic?  Or did you feel they had sealed their own fates by the mistakes they made?

Do you like having questions provided?  Does it help you think more clearly or deeply about the story you’ve read?

If you think your book group might like to explore the questions in Iron Lace, then bid now while you can to win the books and king cake and help support finding a cure for diabetes at the same time.

While you’re thinking about it, why not check my other discussion questions, too.  You’ll also find I add a recipe from each book, a short overview of the story, and my inspiration for each one, just to make reading more fun.

You’ll find all this on my Books page at my website.

The Content Strategist explained that some websites have removed their comment link. The reasons are varied, of course, but top among them are the maniacs who frequently express their hostility on any subject, with no regard for the feelings of others. There’s also research that indicates less than one percent of readers actually even look at what other people have said.

Who knew?

I like the comment option at Southern Exposure. I like what you say and have only rarely had to ignore (not publish) a comment because it verges on spam.  But not everybody is that lucky. Just look at the comments on any site with a faintly political twist, especially now, when election rhetoric is so heated I expect flames to leap out of my television screen whenever I turn it on. Or how about religion? Or global warming?  The comments can be a head-on glimpse at a world where people ditch civility and humiliate strangers because nobody knows who they really are.

I’ve noticed another problem, particularly on recipe blogs. A warm, chatty post is followed by 95 comments, 16 of which ask specific questions.”Could I substitute low-fat coconut milk for regular?” “Would this work with quinoa instead of rice?” And the questions hang there forever, because the blogger never visits the post again. Warm and chatty turns into cold and uncaring. Never a blogger’s intention.

A blogger can’t judge the success of her blogs by the number of comments. She may be preaching to the choir and leaving nothing to disagree with. She may not be controversial enough to need correcting. Personally I comment rarely on the blogs I visit. I read the blogger because I want his/her opinion and not because I want to give my own.

How about you?  Do you appreciate the chance to add your thoughts, or could you care less?  Are you worried your comment might be misconstrued or passed over, so you’re afraid to add it?

Do you read comments that follow a blog, or would that bore you?

I plan to leave my comment option just as it is. You are unfailingly polite, and I read every single word you write.

But if you ever turn into raving maniacs?  Well, there’s always this.  No-holds barred controversy on this page would probably triple my readership.

Now, isn’t that a scary thought?

If you’re in a book club, I’d love to know what you’re reading this month, so please leave a comment if you’d like to share.  My own group is finishing a discussion on Kathryn Stockett’s The Help.  We’ll begin The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows next month. 

And while we’re on the subject of comments?  I’ve gotten several queries on how to comment on my blogs, which you are always encouraged to do.  It’s easy, but not as obvious as it ought to be.  Under each blog’s title you’ll find the word ”comments” in small red letters.  Just click there, and comments associated with that post will appear.  You’ll also find an easy form at the bottom to make your own.  Please do, since I love hearing from you.

All your comments come to me to be okayed, just so we can eliminate that strange sub-human species known as spammers who find joy in creating problems for other people.  In the future, though, once you comment a time or two, your comments will show up immediately.

Why?  Well, sometime in the very near future I will be switching my blog to a different blogging platform that allows for this. We’re hoping the change will be seamless.  WordPress will offer me a chance to put links beside my blogs of other sites I hope you’ll enjoy, recipes, the links to my Facebook page and more.  I’m looking forward to it.  We’re not expecting glitches, but this IS the internet, right?  So if there’s a problem, it won’t last long.  Just get a cup of coffee or herbal tea, then check back.

And I began my CatchUp with book clubs, so will end with them.  This week I had the opportunity to do two speaker phone conversations with groups in Wisconsin who are not only reading my Shenandoah Album series, but making quilts from my Quilt Along With books to give to charity.  The conversation was a pleasure and an honor.  To schedule one for your own group?  Go here to my website and fill in the form.  I do these for love, not money, and I’ll look forward to talking to you, as well.

First, on the beauties of having a Facebook page. The moment I thought I’d figured out how to use this wonderful tool, Facebook decided to throw the proverbial wrench.  They completely changed the look of their pages and how to manage them, and the moment we figure this out, they will change them again.  It’s inevitable. 

But as delightful as I find learning to use new technology (!), they haven’t completely thwarted me.  You can still become my “fan” if you click right here.  For some reason they’ve made it impossible for us to reply to your posts–right folks, that’s a GREAT way to make people love us–but please know if you visit me there, I’ll be reading your stuff and replying in my head, since that’s the only way I can do it right now.  However I will also be sending regular updates.  And. . .

As hard as this is for any amateur photographer to believe, some of you did email to say you wished I’d had room for more photos of my trip last month to Guatemala.  So just to make you happy, and not because I wanted to show off or anything remotely similar, I have downloaded more Guatemala photos to a Facebook photo album, available here. 

Of course Facebook will undoubtedly find a way to thwart this, as well.  But for now, visit me there for a heartfelt but amateur attempt to convey the beauties of Guatemala.

And, lest this be a blog you might actually have time to read. . . One more thing.  My webmaster has now made it much simpler for you to comment here.  No more test of your ability to read squiggly letters disguised as funny balloon animals or abstract art.  You can simply comment, and I’ll take it from there.  Yes, those cute little spam folks, who have nothing better to do than make life miserable for everybody with a computer, will probably applaud this easier form.  But I thought you deserved to comment without harassment.  Let’s see how it goes.

When I decided to buy a quilt and sponsor this contest to promote my novel, Sister’s Choice, I considered my options.  I could simply ask people to fill in their names and addresses and choose one at random.  I could ask them for something as complicated as an essay, or something simpler, which was the compromise I decided on.  Since I wanted this contest to be either fun for the readers who had already purchased the book, or a way to introduce myself to new readers, I asked a question.   

What are the first names of the youngest pair of sisters in the novel, the two little girls who are the children of Jamie Dunkirk?

Now, this doesn’t seem so hard, does it?  In fact, anybody with a little sleuthing ability could have discovered the answer without buying the novel.  It’s on my website, as a matter of fact.  Yep, right there under “inspiration” on the pages devoted to Sister’s Choice.  It’s also easy to glean from Amazon.com and other places on the web.

Still, I got complaints.  Many people routinely enter a multitude of contests each day, through sweepstakes sites.  They don’t want roadblocks or detours.  One woman told me I had a lot of nerve insisting she answer a question.  When I explained that one of the purposes of the contest was to bring people to my site to see what I write, she said she would boycott my books forever. I am not losing sleep.

One of the largest sweepstakes sites has a bulletin board, and a participant published the answer.  However, to their eternal credit, when I asked the powers that be to remove that post, they did so.  I love that their participants can come to my website to look around, find the answer and enter to win.  May they continue.  But automatic answers?  Uh uh.

I also got the oddest replies.  Random names (what are the chances that anyone would randomly choose two correct names out of thin air?)  And many incorrect answers that showed “some” knowledge of the book, but not attention to the question itself.

So those are the frustrations, minor at best.  But here are the rewards.

One, I publicized Sister’s Choice. 

Two, I was able to donate to a wonderful charity that supports breast cancer research.  And since my book deals in part with breast cancer and a great deal with quilting, this was a serendipity.

Three, I made the winner very, very happy.

Four, I had the fun of creating the contest.  And that’s where I differ from some of my colleagues. 

I LOVE thinking up contests.  For me this is not a chore, this is almost as much fun as writing.  Coming up with the perfect giveaway, something readers will enjoy owning, and something that is really appropriate for my next book is, pure and simply, a joy.

So, frustrations or not, there will continue to be contests on my site.  There may be a lull as I prepare for the next one, but check my contest page frequently.  And don’t frown if you have to answer a question along the way.  That should be part of the fun.  Put on your Aggie Sloan-Wilcox trench coat, and sleuth a little.

This week was the big payoff.  I listed all the contest entrants who had answered the Sister’s Choice question correctly, numbered them and discovered that I had 270 good entries.  Then I used a random number generator to choose a number between 1 and 270.  Finally I emailed the winner, Sue in Matthews, North Carolina.  A few minutes ago I heard from her.  She is delighted, and luckily a big fan of pink.

Talk about rewards?  That was the best reward of all, because Sue will enjoy and appreciate this lovely quilt for years to come.  And meantime, while she’s cuddling under it, I’ll be organizing the next contest.