 December 1 is World AIDS Day, a time to remember the 34 million people in the world today living with HIV. Half a million have died in the US alone. More than two thirds of those living with HIV are in sub-Saharan Africa where I have lived for many years. For every one person with the virus in the blood steam, weakening the immune system, countless others are affected—parents, children, friends, employers, employees, whole communities loosing economic power as wage earners become too ill to work. Anti-retroviral drugs have greatly extended the lives and health of people living with HIV, but the virus still presents huge challenges.
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 Several years ago I started the practice of writing down something I’m thankful for every day. It has to be something specific to the past twenty-four hours. I don’t allow myself to repeat the generic friends, family and food. Which friend and why? What about my family? Or what food brought me special pleasure today that I want to thank God for?  It's here! The beautiful cover designed by Katy Popa with a painting by Kathy Haasdyk, illustrator of Our Gran. Keeping Secrets will be released December 1, World AIDS Day.
Keeping Secrets is not a book for pre-teens. Because of content involved with HIV, parents will want to read it themselves before giving it to readers under thirteen or fourteen. But then I always try to make my books for young people interesting to adults as well. Discussion questions at the end can help you talk about issues raised. Read a sample chapter here. Then tell your friends by clicking on the buttons above and get ready for the December 1 release!  When we moved to England in 1997, my dear friend Liz gave me lots of cuttings to start houseplants that brightened our new home. A bit of this and a snip of that. She loved the excuse to “play plants,” as she called it. Well, I love to “play photos,” and a new book is the perfect excuse. My slide show of the setting of Honddu Vale went over well at the book launch in September so I have turned it into a movie for YouTube. It only takes eight and a half minutes, and I think you will enjoy it. If you have already read the book, you will recognize the places. If you haven’t, then what are you waiting for? Hopefully the video will make you eager to get your copy.  I've had a great time this past year working with Rob Skead on several YA manuscripts. (Not this one.) When he came up with this great idea for using his new digital picture book to raise funds for Feed America, I had to let you know. Here's what Rob has to say about his new book: I want to give a big thank you to LeAnne for inviting me to be her guest blogger. She is one of the “things” I’m thankful for this Thanksgiving. If it were not for her editing and mentoring skills I would not have sold a story to Zondervan this year. What a blessing! One day on our recent visit to Split, Croatia, we took a city bus to the late Roman city of Salona.  Salona, a city of 70,000 people, was the birthplace of the future Emperor Diocletian in the fourth century. You can see the modern city of Silon in the background. |
AuthorLeAnne Hardy has lived in six countries on four continents. Her books come out of her cross-cultural experiences and her passion to use story to convey spiritual truths in a form that will permeate lives. Add http://www.leannehardy.net/1/feed to your RSS feed.
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