I know you love to read or you wouldn’t be here at Amish Reader.  But if you also love to write, have I got a suggestion for you:  Get yourself to this fall’s American Christian Fiction Writers Conference in Indianapolis, Indiana!  ACFW is an organization geared toward meeting the needs of new and seasoned authors alike, as well as offering a venue for readers to learn more about their favorite authors and discover the vast array of choices available from the Christian Fiction market.  Each year, ACFW hosts an amazing conference with classes taught by many of your favorite authors. The conference also offers opportunities to meet editors and agents, fellowship with other writers (aspiring and published), and celebrate the best in Christian fiction.

The reason I’m talking about the conference here on this blog is because one of the sessions I’ll be teaching focuses on Amish fiction.  Called “Amish 101”, the class includes an overview of the genre and the current state of the market, followed by an A-Z rundown of Amish life, practices, and beliefs.  As the Amish fiction genre expands and more and more authors consider trying their hand at writing it, I thought it would be helpful to provide a full understanding of the “big picture”—i.e., why the Amish live the way they do and why their world is such an interesting place for Christian writers to explore.

For more information, check out the ACFW website, where you’ll see that the conference is shaping up to be awesome, as always.  I can’t wait to go.  Hope to see you there too!

Filed under: Amish Fiction, Mindy Starns Clark by Mindy
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Q: Will you do the impossible and describe yourself in a paragraph?

A: I write generation-next contemporary fiction. My books usually center on normal people learning to live, laugh, heal, and trying to understand the concept of God in a crazy world.

I’m married to a wonderful engineer who keeps me from losing my mind (when you write fiction, this is big). I have too many books. I love British humor, bright colors, German chocolate, crossword puzzles, lipstick, cupcakes, cherry blossoms, and notepads with magnets on the back.

Q: When did you first discover that you loved to write?

A: I don’t know that I ever had a particular moment of discovery–I’ve always written and told stories. My mom’s saved my earliest attempts. They were illustrated. Finding out that I was good at it–that was big. I was 14 or 15, and at my first writers’ conference. I showed my manuscript to author Bonnie Leon, who told me it was “publishable.” That put everything into a very different perspective. Writing wasn’t just that thing I did in my free time. It could be a career.

Q: What are some of your hobbies/interests?

A: I’m into a lot of things, but I think most writers are. I love making stuff–knitting, cooking, photography. I grew up in a very artsy family with a lot of music and a lot of art. While I grew up on strictly classical music (some jazz later on), I’ve really gotten into indie-pop in the last couple years. While researching for another book project years ago, I discovered a love for film. We also finally bought me a motorcycle helmet and jacket, so I’ve been riding with Danny lately. I do have my endorsement, so maybe soon I’ll start riding on my own again!

Q: What’s the best vacation you’ve ever taken? Or the dream vacation that you’d like to take?

A: Danny and I went to Banff after my brother’s wedding last year. It was amazing. I loved it. There were mountains enough to keep Danny happy, and there were hot showers (Okay, mostly. The water was kinda weird), good food, and cute shops enough to keep me happy.

My dream vacation is to take a month or two to tour Europe. The UK, France, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, and Greece–I want to see them, and I don’t want to be rushed! Maybe it will happen someday

Q: Tell us something funny or random about yourself that not everyone knows about you.

A: I really love llamas. They’re just funny looking. My husband and I honeymooned at Black Butte Ranch in Oregon, not far from Sisters. Well, Sisters has a bunch of llamas outside of a Best Western (I’m not sure what the story is on that). My sweet husband took me to see the llamas and stood back while I took pictures of them to my heart’s content. Link to the best shot: http://tinyurl.com/y9rkezu

Filed under: Amish Fiction by Hillary
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The following excerpt is from an article on my website about the Amish school shooting.  It was written as supplemental material for my book A Pocket Guide to Amish Life, but given the Lifetime movie of the same topic, I thought I might post some of it here as well.

**************

A New Normal

Recently, I dined in the home of one of the families whose lives were directly impacted by the incident. Though the tragedy itself was not mentioned, I couldn’t help but notice the sadness that still lingers in the mother’s eyes, the heavy feeling of loss that permeates the entire family. Certainly, they have continued on in the world of the living. Their gleaming floors, healthy animals, and overflowing gardens attest to that. For the most part, family life seems back to business as usual, their youngest child laughing at the dogs’ antics, their teenager flashing a shy smile at his girlfriend.

But despite the years that have passed, the whole family is obviously still learning to adapt to what psychologists call a “new normal,” one where children can be victims of a senseless crime but life goes on anyway. For this family and indeed for all the Amish families touched by the tragedy, forgiveness is something they did in the beginning, yes, but also something they must do over and over, sometimes each new day.

Among the Amish, the tragedy at Nickel Mines has come to be known as “the Happening.” They don’t talk about it much anymore, at least not with outsiders. The schoolhouse has long since been torn down, its replacement built in a different style at a different location. No longer the Nickel Mines School, it has been christened New Hope, a name that resonates with optimism for the future despite the past. Of the five victims who survived the shooting, one lives with impaired vision, they’ve all had numerous surgeries, and one suffered extensive brain damage and is confined to a wheelchair. All five are currently living at home with their families, going on with their lives.

My best impression of how the incident has impacted the Amish community at large came from a conversation with another Amish woman, one who wasn’t directly connected to the victims or their families but grieved nonetheless. She and I weren’t even talking about the shooting but about the Ordnung and infractions of rules and differences between districts. According to her, Nickel Mines put everything into perspective.

“We used to bicker more, have disagreements about this little rule and that little rule and who did what differently in which districts,” she said. “Then something…bigger happened, something terrible,” she continued, her voice faltering for a moment, “and we realized all the arguing was so pointless. There were far more important matters in life.”

Filed under: Amish Fiction by Mindy
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It’s always fun when one of my author friends has a new book out, but this week I’m especially excited about the release of Amish expert Erik Wesner’s Success Made Simple: An Inside Look at Why Amish Businesses Thrive, from Jossey-Bass Publishers.  If you’ve read the acknowledgements in my own Shadows of Lancaster County and A Pocket Guide to Amish Life, you know that Erik has been pivotal in the past in helping me with Amish research.  He is incredibly knowledgeable about the Plain people and well-connected within Amish communities across the country. He’s also an all-around great guy and has gone above and beyond to help me get the Amish parts of my own stories correct.

I’m so happy for Erik and proud of this amazing new book that shines a light on all that the Amish bring to the world of business.  Learn more at his website, where you can also download a sample chapter.  Given the fascinating topic, massive research, and excellent writing that went into Success Made Simple, I predict big things.

Congrats, Erik, and best wishes for a wildly popular book. You deserve it!

Filed under: Amish Fiction by Mindy
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The following twenty test sentences where published in the Amish monthly, The Family Life, February 2010 issue. They all contain mistakes in grammar, spelling, or usage–in the editors opinion. Readers are told to try their hand at correcting the sentences, with five points deducted from 100 for each wrong answer. Just to tweak things a little, three correct sentences are included.

1. He is recovering from his illness, but is still not quite up to power.

2. Among other injuries, his rotary cuff was broken.

3. Black clouds rolled ominously toward him. Lightning flashed and thunder roared.

4. When humans become dissatisfied with their church, they are more easily let astray by false teachings.

5. The principal of separation from the world is taught in Romans 12:2.

6. After his heart attack, he had a stint put in his heart.

7. We had a cacci camel duck this year. They are better layers than a chicken, and some have laid 365 eggs in a year.

8. Grandma broke the chocolate into handy little morals for us to share.

9. Son Nathan ran over a snake and killed it about three times. It turned out to be a copperhead.

10. The border officials asked us for our personal indentification.

11. Some children have learned that they can argue with their parents and get their own way.

12. The child was badly hurt when he fell beneath a row tarry hoe.

13. While hospitalized, he suffered staff infection.

14. Submission is a hard lesson to learn. It is always easiest to learn it at Daddy’s knee and Mama’s lap.

15. I prepared an early lunch for our pre-scholars.

16. Someone counted the amount of people at the funeral and there were 650.

17. Kraft produces enough Cool Whip in one year to fill the Grand Canyon.

18. In I Peter 2:12 we are cautioned to “live in the world but not be of it.”

19. Windmills were a common site when the Amish first arrived but are now rarely used.

20. The person who wrote the forward of the book recomended it highly.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Answers.

1. Power should be par.

2. The correct term is rotator cuff.

3. Sentence correct.

4. Should read, more easily led astray

5. Principal should be principle.

6. Stint should be stent.

7. The breed of duck referred to is the Khaki Campbell.

8. Morals should be morsels

9. You cannot kill three times.

10. Identification not indentification

11. Sentence correct

12. The farm implement referred to is a rotary hoe.

13. Staff should be staph.

14. Sentence is correct

15. Pre-scholar should be preschooler.

16. If the people could be counted, then it would be correct to say, the number of people at the funeral. Amount refers to a mass, not to something we can count.

17. Just a minute. Someone doesn’t realize how big the Grand Canyon is. The estimated amount comes to ten gallons every day for every man, woman, and child in the U.S.A. Any responsible editor should catch such wild claims and not print them.

18. It is uncertain what Bible verse is being quoted, but it certainly isn’t 1 Peter 2:12.

19. Site should be sight.

20. Two mistakes here. The correct spellings are foreword and recommended.

Filed under: Amish Fiction by Jerry
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Are you in the Pennsylvania area, or nearby? On Friday, February 26 from 11:00 AM – 2:00 PM, Gayle Roper, Mindy Starns Clark, and Jerry Eicher will all be signing books at the Shady Maple Smorgasbord in East Earl, Pennsylvania. If you would like to join the fun, here’s the address:

Shady Maple Smorgasbord
129 Toddy Drive
East Earl, PA 17519

Hope to see you there!

Filed under: Amish Fiction by AmishReader.com
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I’m often asked where I stay while researching my books in Amish Country, and I’d like to answer that here in case others may be planning a visit to Ohio. Although there are many fine B&Bs in Holmes County, I stay at Simple Pleasures in Winesburg, Ohio. The beautiful rooms, the gourmet breakfast, and the delightful innkeepers make it hard to go home! The proprietor is a wealth of info on Old Order Amish customs. Although she was raised in a Menonnite household, the B&B is operated English-style with full comfort and convenience. But if you’re looking for a more authentic Amish experience, the Coblentz (non-electric) Cottage is available down the lane. The cottage has a bedroom, kitchen, full bath and can accommodate up to 4 guests. A full hot breakfast will be served at Simple Pleasures–a short walk or drive away. call toll free 1-877-722-3772

Filed under: Amish Fiction by Mary
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When Mindy Starns Clark was concluding her last interview with an Amish woman for A Pocket Guide to Amish Life, Mindy asked this woman if she could give the names of a few good Amish related charities.  Mindy and her husband, John, had previously decided to donate a portion of the royalties from sales of A Pocket Guide to Amish Life to an Amish charity.  Well, the woman’s face lit up and she quickly said “Green Pastures.”

Green Pastures is a housing complex, built by the Amish, which is located next to an Amish-run mental health care facility.  So, Green Pastures provides a place for people to live while they are receiving mental health care.  Mindy and John found out that this facility has a sterling reputation.

Plus, John’s professional field is in mental health, which is a great connection for both Mindy and John and Green Pastures.  Green pastures invited Mindy and John to visit and tour the facilities which they did.

We at AmishReader want to say “thank you” to Mindy and John for their generosity and caring hearts!

FYI, if you want more info on Green Pastures and Mindy’s donation, plus a few more fun surprises, visit Mindy at http://www.morefrommindy.com/behind.php#proceeds.

Filed under: Amish Fiction by AmishReader.com
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Q: Gayle, you have written more than 40 books! That’s incredible! Did you initially plan to be an author, or did you work in other fields before writing?
A: I originally wanted to be a nurse. Then I did some candystriping my junior year in high school and realized I wasn’t made to be nurse, not at all. I was an English major in college and taught junior high English until we adopted our boys. I started writing as something to fill my time as a stay-at-home mom.

Q: When and how did your writing career actually begin?
A: Much as I loved our little guys, they weren’t the greatest conversationalists. After being with lots of people every day, home was quiet and I missed the mental stimulation. I’d always read extensively, so trying my hand at coming up with something I liked seemed natural to me. My first sale was a short story to a teen magazine based on an incident from my teaching days. I made ten whole dollars!

Q: How many hours a day do you spend writing?
A: I wish I could tell you I was disciplined and worked a given number of hours each day, but I’d be lying. All I can really say is that the closer to deadline, the longer my writing days. But a lot of writing isn’t typing. It’s thinking.

Q: Amish fiction has recently become very popular, but you actually wrote fiction with Amish themes more than 10 years ago. What is compelling to you as a writer about the Amish and their lifestyle?
A: We live right at the edge of Amish country. The closest farm is about three miles from us. So I’ve seen the Amish for years, and for a while I had a girl clean for me who was one step away from Amish. While her parents remained Old Order Amish, she said she was no longer Amish because she believed in salvation through grace.I am very impressed by their commitment to faith and family. The rest of us should do so well, whatever our theology.

Q: Give us a little introduction to The Amish Farm Trilogy. How would you describe this series?
A: When I began thinking about writing a book set in the Amish culture, I knew I didn’t want my viewpoint character to be Amish. It was a matter of not understanding their thought processes. My main character would have to be English, reacting to Amish life with both respect and disagreement. I based the paraplegic brother who comes home to live after his accident on folks we knew who remained Old Order but brought in phone and electricity for their paraplegic son. The idea of having the heroines rent the second floor of Jake’s part of the house came from wherever ideas come from.

Q: One of the themes of A Stranger’s Wish is art and its place in society. Why was this an important theme for you to explore?
A: I’ve known forever that the visual arts have no part in Amish life because there is no overt Christian usage for them. A picture may be a thing of beauty, but it doesn’t speak of biblical truth as a written article can. It also has no practical use like woodwork or quilts. When I found postcards that were prints of art done by an Amish woman, I was amazed. For years I wondered how she managed to be creative in a field frowned upon by her people and still remain Old Order.

Then I met her and learned she has come to the conclusion that God gifted her, and if He gifted her, she should use that gift. In A Stranger’s Wish, the Amish mother, Mary, is a closet artist who yearns for the freedom to pursue the gift God has given her. When her son rents his second floor to an artist, Mary dares to show her work. The theme isn’t so much art as it is stretching to be all God has gifted us to be.

Q:What is another important theme in this novel?
A: Another theme is choices and consequences. For Kristie, the heroine, taking the key given her by the stranger has ramifications. For Mary, showing her art to Kristie opens a door she’s kept firmly closed for years. For Jake, giving up and settling for his chair results in depresson and bitterness. For Mr. Geohagan, the stranger of the title, his decision about Jesus has eternal consequences. And for Kristie, her choice about the two men in her life will affect her as long as she lives. Choices should always be made with the consequences counted.

Q: Did you get any ideas for the plot or characters for this book from real life? And if not, how did you dream up the details for your mystery/romance plot ?
A: As I mentioned, I got the idea for Jake from real life, but the rest of the book is from my imagination. How I dream the stuff up is a mystery to me. It’s one of the things that makes the imagination so exciting. There are things, thoughts, ideas tucked away in the recesses of our minds and consciousnesses that we don’t even realize until they break through. Not that there’s anything new under the sun. It’s that things seem new when we have our wonderful “aha” moments.

Q: Tell us about yourself personally. What do you enjoy doing in your spare time? What’s something that might surprise people about you?
A: I’m a wife, a mom, and a grandmom. I’ve lived in the same house for most of my married life. I love reading mysteries and romantic suspense. I’ve been teaching writing at writers’ conferences for years and love the short bursts of intense energy required. Then I come home and collapse. The past few years are the first in my life without a pet. I dislike the telephone but love e-mail. I keep forgetting to go to my Facebook page because I don’t have anything interesting to say. I don’t have a favorite color but rather love combinations of colors. I love movies. I am very easily distracted. I love family get togethers because I love my family and extended family. I organize a silent retreat for my church’s women’s program every year. Chuck and I helped plant our church with 17 people. We are now about 2,000, very large for our area. I need to lose weight but don’t feel strongly enough to do much about it. Besides, if I got skinny, my wrinkles would show. I thank God He’s allowed me to be a writer because I can take the time to say what I want to say well, not as it would blurt out of my mouth.

Q: What is your number one goal with your writing?
A: That’s easy. It’s my mission statement: To write quality materials that point to the fullness of life in Christ and to teach others to find/do the same.

Filed under: Amish Fiction by Gayle
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The following is a re-print from the Amish newsletter, Wheat Ridge Exchange…

A group of Alumni, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old university professor. Conversation soon turned to complaints about stress in work and life.

Offering his guests coffee, the Professor went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups-porcelain, plastic, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive and some exquisite, telling them to help themselves to the coffee.

When the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the professor said, “If you noticed, all the nice looking expensive cups were taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress. Be assured that the cup itself adds no quality to the coffee. In most cases it is just more expensive and in some cases even hides what we drink. What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you consciously went for the best cup–and you began eying each other’s cups.

“Now consider this–life is the coffee, the jobs, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain life, and the type of cup we have does not define nor change the quality of the life we live. Sometimes by concentrating only on the cup we fail to enjoy the coffee God has provided us. God brews the coffee, not the cups. Enjoy the coffee.”

Filed under: Amish Fiction by Jerry
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