Friendship: An Essential Element of a Full Life by Barbara Hinske

Friendship: An Essential Element of a Full Life by Barbara Hinske

(All proceeds from the sale of ONCE UPON A FRIENDSHIP will go to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital)

“I’m so thankful for friendship. It beautifies life so much.” L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Avonlea

Anne Shirley has—as always—stated it perfectly. From our earliest days – and here I’m thinking of my three-year-old granddaughter holding hands with her bestie at preschool—to a couple enjoying a companionable silence on the porch of a nursing home—friendships are the secret sauce of life. They encourage, sustain, comfort, and uplift.

Friendships aren’t restricted by age, gender, educational level, or geographic location. Our connections with friends who aren’t just like us keep our hearts and minds open.

Most of us have friends in different categories: work; school; the gym; church; our neighborhood. We look forward to seeing them and miss them when a move or change of circumstance puts them outside of our orbit. I was acutely aware of this when I quit my day job to become a full time writer. Where were my work colleagues now? Who was I going to chit chat with during breaks, since I no longer had a water cooler to go to?

That’s when I discovered a new group of work friends—my author buddies. Slowly, over time, I became acquainted with other women’s fiction authors. Most of us got to know each other through Facebook. We friended each other, signed up for each other’s newsletters, and read and reviewed each other’s books. If a character’s motivation became murky or a plot twist wasn’t working, we turned to each other. Problems with a software glitch or a social media issue? We knew who to ask. Just as in an office setting, we became knowledgeable colleagues and trusted friends.

A common theme in the books we write is the enduring nature of friendship and its profound influence for good in our lives. This realization gave birth to our boxed set, Once Upon A Friendship.

We’re celebrating our author group friendship with this boxed set of ten novels. Each of us contributed one of our books that explores friendship, in all its many forms. We also wanted Once Upon A Friendship to be a gift to our readers, so we priced the ebook at 99 cents. Most importantly, we’re donating all the proceeds from Once Upon A Friendship to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

Once Upon A Friendship is available for preorder now and will be on sale for purchase for a limited time only, from January 25-February 8. Join the ten authors of Once Upon A Friendship in celebrating this life-affirming relationship while raising money for a life-changing institution.

FROM AUTHORS:  Ashley Farley, Rachael Bloome, Heather Burch, Debra Clopton, Kellie Coates Gilbert, Barbara Hinske, Judith Keim, Cindy Kirk, Terri Osburn, Elizabeth Thompson