Author shares stories, new book

Local author and former teacher Dianne Pace visited the Russellville Public Library Sept. 20 and presented her new book “I Love You, a Bushel and a Peck.”

Pace said she wrote this book in memory of her father. She found inspiration for the book from a letter she discovered after her dad passed away. It was a short and sweet letter that affirmed his love for her that he wrote when she was in the third grade. It reminded her of the “I love you a bushel and a peck” song he used to sing to her as a child and that she later sang to him when he was in the final stages of his life.

“I related how much my earthly father loved me to how much our heavenly father must love us,” Pace said.

“I Love You, a Bushel and a Peck” is a Christian-based children’s book, and it isn’t Pace’s first Christian-based story. She also has a short story titled “A Test of Faith” about an angel experience she had, which was published by Faye Aldridge in her collection “Messages from Heaven.”

Pace’s first published fiction book was “Odel’s Diner,” a book about the Appalachian culture and the food that is so popular in the area.

Of course, despite have multiple published works, Pace said writing is still sometimes difficult.

“Creative writing isn’t really easy,” she said. “Sometimes you hit a dead end.”

To help with those inevitable dead ends, Pace said she likes to turn to something she heard author Rick Bragg say: write what you know best. That rule has applied to other works she has created as well, like environmental curriculums and life science lessons.

Pace began writing in elementary school and said it is her hope that she can convince others to take up the craft themselves, even if it just means journaling.