Contact: Jana Ford Muntsinger

McClure Muntsinger Public Relations

Welcome Home to Harmony

Best-selling Author Philip Gulley Pens First Work of Fiction

All who long for simple days come home to Harmony.

In their fictional small hometown, the townsfolk of Harmony are interesting, humble and a bit eccentric. Their relationships are easy and friendships are lasting. And the memories made by the readers of Home to Harmony are unending. Best-selling author Philip Gulley writes about life in a small town alongside big issues such as faith, forgiveness, grace and friendship in his first novel, Home to Harmony (Multnomah Publishers, October 2000, $14.99). Gulley has previously written three beloved non-fiction titles, and Home to Harmony is his foray into fiction.

Told from the viewpoint of Sam Gardner, a Quaker pastor in a rural town, Home to Harmony chronicles Gardner’s first year in Harmony as he experiences the daily joys and sorrows of his church. Sam knows he is quite blessed—his wife tolerates his eccentricities with good humor, his kids really adore him and his church has not run him out of town. “When I set out to write about Sam Gardner and his first year as the pastor of Harmony Friends meeting, I wanted to mirror reality,” says author Philip Gulley. “Unfortunately, the only people I know like the people I read about in books are the people in books and I wanted this to be a different experience for readers. The rest of us muddle through, taking life’s mix of tragedy, comedy and farce in stoic stride, so these characters do the same.” It seems to be this mix of life’s true elements that draws readers into Harmony’s landscape.

Harmony can be humorous and often disharmonious, especially with its eccentric and winsome townsfolk—busybody Fern Hampton, who taught Sam in first grade many years ago; Bob Miles, Jr., the editor of the local paper The Harmony Herald and writer of its weekly column “The Bobservation Post”, childhood sweethearts Miriam and Ellis Hodge, who swapped retirement for parenthood after many childless years.

“The proper frame of mind while reading these stories is to remember back when you were little and you’d visit your relatives, the ones who lived in a small town in a house with a big front porch,” says Gulley. “After supper, you’d sit on their porch, at the edge of the conversation’s circle, listening in. The sun was setting. The western sky turned pink. The frogs started up. Somewhere down the block, a screen door banged. You’ve been there, haven’t you? And long to go back. Welcome to Harmony.”

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Home to Harmony, page two

Philip Gulley is content being a Quaker pastor and never planned to be a writer. But his folksy stories written for his small church bulletin made it into the hands of radio broadcaster Paul Harvey. Harvey used the stories on his broadcast and those mentions brought Gulley to the attention of his current publisher, Multnomah. Gulley’s essays have previously been published in the Indianapolis Star, Indianapolis News, Readers Digest, Quaker Life and iBelieve.com. The Indianapolis Monthly Magazine wrote recently: “With homespun grace, Philip Gulley is well on his way to becoming our own Garrison Keillor.” Gulley currently resides in Danville, Indiana, his boyhood home with his two young sons and his wife of 16 years, Joan.

Multnomah Publishers is pulling out all the stops to promote Home to Harmony. The marketing campaign involves national advertising in major consumer magazines, custom end cap display with shelf talker, “First Edition” Radio Special, multi-city author tour and national print and broadcast publicity campaign. Multnomah is also producing 200,000 copies of The Harmony Herald “newspaper” to be distributed free to consumers in-store. Also to promote the book in-store, Multnomah is sponsoring a nationwide contest with the opportunity to win one of several handmade quilts graced with the cover art of Home to Harmony.

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July 2000

Home to Harmony

A Novel by Philip Gulley

RELEASE DATE: October 2000

ISBN: 1-57673-613-X

PAGES: 200 pages

TRIM SIZE: Hardcover

CATEGORY: Fiction

PRICE: $14.99

MARKETING: Multi-City Author Tour

National Print & Broadcast Publicity

National Radio Special

National Magazine Advertisements

In-store Quilt Contest

In-store Newspaper Giveaway

Custom Endcap and Header

Contact Jana Muntsinger at McClure Muntsinger Public Relations 615.370.0043 for further information.