Hello Amish Readers,

Here are photos from my visit to the beautiful new birthing center in southern Holmes County, Ohio. The facility is staffed by Amish midwives and non-Amish medical personnel. I was impressed by the professional, yet warm and homey feel. Moms-to-be and their families get top notch care while part of a friendly, loving environment. Hope you enjoy the photos! I certainly enjoyed touring the facility as part of my research for my March release, Abigail’s New Hope, the tale of an Amish midwife.

Filed under: Amish Fiction, Mary Ellis by Mary
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Note: This article first appeared in the August 2010 issue of the AmishReader.com e-newlsetter.

 #1 Schedule your time carefully. Make a weekly calendar so you don’t miss a doctor’s appointment, dance recital, or the neighborhood cookout. Keep certain times “off limits.” Don’t sign up for meetings, exercise classes, or volunteer work if it interferes with the family dinner hour, Sunday morning church services, or other events you hold sacred. Make sure each day includes personal time, whether it’s a solitary walk, devotional reading, or rocking in the porch swing. Figure out how to manage housework, yard work, bill paying, laundry, grocery shopping, and the like (a little every day, or one day for each task, etc). Don’t allow internet surfing, answering e-mail, chatting on the phone or texting to steal too much time. Set limits on “time-robbers” so your sense of serenity doesn’t suffer.

#2 Prioritize your tasks. If you work outside of the home, discover ways to take care of errands during your workday, such as shopping for gifts on your lunch hour or chatting with mom during the commute (using a hands free device, of course). Shop for groceries and stop at  the post office or dry cleaner on your way home to prevent needless trips on your day off. If you work at home, treat it like a job–schedule working hours and stick to them. Otherwise you won’t get any truly “free time.” Regarding your social life…pick and choose carefully. Don’t feel you must accept every invitation, volunteer project, or committee meeting. Learn to say “no” unless you truly wish to devote the time and energy.

#3 Multi-task, but only if it’s productive. The only time I dust is during phone calls. I check voicemail while walking the dog. I group errands into one trip to free up uninterrupted time for writing. But don’t make the mistake of balancing your checkbook during your son’s ballgame if he’s expecting you to watch him play. You will fail at both tasks. Be sure to allow “down time” every now and then to watch a sappy movie, read a book, or play a game of checkers with a child. If you’re feeling stressed, recharge your batteries.

#4 Lower your standards. I can live with weedy flowerbeds as long as my bathrooms are clean. I don’t like clutter, but dust doesn’t bother me. I take store-bought brownies (dusted with powdered sugar) to parties so I can have time to write stories about women who love to cook. You can’t do it all. Repeat that as a mantra every morning. Give up the notion that you can do it all and compete with the Food Channel gurus. But if cooking happens to be your pleasure, find another area to be mediocre in, and don’t apologize.

#5 Release the outcome.  Put your future in God’s hands instead of looking too far into the future. If you dwell on what you need to accomplish by the end of the week, month, or year, you’ll become discouraged. Like every monumental project we tackle, whether building our own house or hiking the Appalachian Trail, if we fully understood how arduous the task we would never begin. Create a schedule for yourself that accomplishes your goals in small increments and stick to it. Never compare yourself to others. Pray for guidance and then listen to your intuition. This is God talking to you. Invite Him to take the helm of your life. If your goals are part of God’s plan then you cannot fail…whether it’s climbing Mount Everest, learning to speak Japanese, or writing your first book.

Filed under: Amish Fiction, Mary Ellis by Mary
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I wanted to chime in on Mindy Starns Clark’s post about the ACFW conference in September. I am very excited to not only attend my first ACFW, but also to be the hostess who’ll introduce Mindy’s workshop “Amish 101.”  Although I’ve been to other writers’ conferences in the past, this is the Cadillac of all conventions. It’s a great chance to meet other writers, editors and agents.  If you’d been debating whether or not to attend, trust me, the surrounding positive energy will sustain you until the manuscript of your dreams is finished. If you write…or would like to write Amish fiction, please register for Mindy’s course.

I’ll be waiting at the door with a warm Midwest welcome! Mary Ellis

Filed under: Amish Fiction, Mary Ellis, Mindy Starns Clark by Mary
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The National Cathedral

We’ve just returned from two weeks on the East Coast and all I can say is – wow!  In two weeks, we visited or drove through a total of nine states, spending most of our time in Vermont, Washington D.C, Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina.

We’ve faced 94-degree weather and thundershowers, long lines, heavy traffic, a chirping GPS, really good pizza, really cranky innkeepers (not ours, thankfully!), clam chowder, pomp, circumstance, and big giant robots.

And no, I’m not kidding about the big giant robots.

My favorite part?  Visiting the National Cathedral (above).  I took 174 photos there – and about 1,000 for the entire trip.

I think I’ll be sorting through photos for a while.

Also discovered this –

They know ice cream in North Carolina.

It’s the lovechild of the bowl and the waffle cone – the waffle bowl.  I love the idea.  Tricky to eat, but sometimes that’s the way conceptual art works.

The best news?  Simply Sara is done.  I know I said she was done before, at least I think I did.  But now she’s really done, going to print done, completed acknowledgements and final edits done.  I’m a little delighted.  And VERY excited thinking ahead to the next book – I’ll keep you posted on that!

So the big giant robots?  Well…I don’t have pictures.  They confiscated my camera at the BMW factory in Spartanburg, SC.  But they were big, and giant, and they threw sparks when they welded, and I won’t ever, ever forget them.

I did get this photo in the museum though –

A BMW airplane engine.

Thanks again for all of your entries for the Simpy Sara Baking Contest!  They were tons of fun to look through, and I absolutely love Rhonda’s winning recipe – I can’t wait for you to see how it works in the book!

That’s it for now – I think my sweet hubby’s woken up from his nap

Filed under: Amish Fiction, Hillary Lodge, News by Hillary
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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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There’s a TV movie called “Amish Grace” that will air on the Lifetime Movie Network on Sunday, March 28, 5 p.m. eastern/8 p.m. pacific. It looks like it will be good. It’s based on the tragedy at Nickel Mines, where a man walked into an Amish school and injured/killed some little girls. But the real story is one of forgiveness–the community comes together to offer forgiveness to the man’s family–which created quite a stir among Englischers.

Anyone else planning on watching?

Filed under: Authors by Georgia Varozza
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It’s finally out!  After months of writing, editing, planning and paperwork, Plain Jayne has finally begun to hit the shelves.

I say “begun,” because different stores stock at different times.  It first showed up New Year’s Day at Wal-Mart; Borders says they’ll stock Friday (which is funny because most bookstores stock Tuesdays, but whatever.  I’m just the writer.)

It’s been fun hearing from people who have read the book.  So far, everyone’s enjoyed it, and anyone who hasn’t isn’t talking  But Publishers Weekly,  Booklist, and At Home with Christian Fiction have had kind things to say.

If you’re anywhere near the Portland area, mark your calendar for February 14th!  I’ll be at the Cedar Hills Crossing Powell’s at 2pm, signing books and chatting with readers.  Come join the party!

Filed under: Amish Fiction, Hillary Lodge by Hillary
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All Amish all the time…that’s what my life has felt like over the last few months. It started with a brand new book project, a small nonfiction that I was able to squeeze in between finishing one mystery novel and starting another.  Nonfiction uses a different part of my brain than fiction does, and it makes for a nice change when that brain has been working overtime on mystery, murder, and mayhem–all under pressure of a deadline.  Thus, needing a break from my usual plotting and characterization and intrigue, I took on a nonfiction project for the summer and ended up immersing myself in all things Amish. What’s the book?  A Pocket Guide to Amish Life, which will be released in January 2010. 

Yes, it’s true, I am the same person who once said, after finishing Shadows of Lancaster County, that “I may never write another Amish book again.”  That novel was difficult for me, the research among the hardest I have ever done.  Believe it or not, I found getting the inside scoop on Amish life far tougher than, say, learning how to build a pipe bomb (for Blind Dates Can Be Murder) or securing access to a real sapphire mine (A Dime a Dozen).  I even wrote an article about my struggle in researching the Amish, which I posted here. 

But I should have known that one book wouldn’t be the end of it.  Like the mountain climber who had to give up short of the summit, I found myself wanting to return and try again.  The Amish elements in Shadows were correct, but only because my plot allowed me to avoid many facets of Amish life entirely.  I learned enough to write that one, but beyond the story I told I wasn’t confident in my Amish knowledge overall.

Thus, when my publisher brought up the concept of a guidebook about the Amish, I found the idea strangely intriguing.  Could I really do it?  Could I, who had struggled through all 326 pages of a story set in Amish country, actually put my researcher’s hat back on and this time ferret out the whole truth about the Amish, enough to fill an entire Pocket Guide?  Enough to get it completely right?

Well, yes, and then some, I’m happy to report.  In the end, I had so much to say about Amish life that I found myself wishing that little book could be twice as big.  (Stay tuned, because in the coming weeks, I’ll reveal on this blog the exciting ways we’re going to make all of that “overflow” information accessible.) It wasn’t easy, but after a summer of intense reading and study, interviews, personal tours, exploration, and lots of face time with Amish scholars, experts, and some new Amish friends, I found myself finally reaching the summit that had so eluded me before. 

This morning, I got a phone call from one of my readers, a kind Amish fellow who had agreed to review my manuscript and flag errors and questions.  He had already given me the green light on the finished product a few weeks ago, but today he was following up to let me know that he appreciated what I was trying to accomplish.

“There’s so much bad information out there,” he said, “I was thinking about it and wanted you to know to that I’m awful glad your book will help set things straight.”  He went on to thank me for presenting such a balanced, clear picture of Amish life—me, the girl who had struggled so hard the first time to get it right, the writer who said she may never return to that subject matter again.  I guess that old adage is true: Never say never.

Once our phone call was over, I returned to my work with a big grin on my face.  I’m already deep into my next novel, Secrets of Harmony Grove, and this time around I’m able to focus on other areas of research, feeling confident that I’ve finally got the Amish side of things covered. Of course there’s always more to learn, but overall I’m able to write this new novel with far more confidence and authority on a subject that had previously eluded me.

All Amish all the time?  Doing two Amish-related books back to back, it sure seems that way.

And I’m as surprised as anyone to say that I’m loving every minute of it.

Filed under: Amish Fiction, Mindy Starns Clark, News by Mindy
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Well, not only is there the release of Plain Jayne to look forward to on New Year’s Day, but also the fact that the first chapter of Simply Sara will be included in the back. So for the low, low price of $13.99, you get a novel AND a bonus chapter!

When my editor and I discussed the idea of the putting the chapter in a few months ago, I kind of panicked. The thought of having the chapter done and ready in any time frame was too much to think of after working so hard to bring Jayne to completion.

But when it came up again a few weeks ago, I bravely promised to have it churned out in a few days. When I started working on it, though, I realized I had a problem – the first chapter of a book isn’t the sort of thing you want to rush through!

Not only do you have to set up the premise of the entire book, but you want to make it fun and interesting and preferably well-written. After an additional couple days (I have a gracious editor), I was very pleased with the results.

I have to admit that a part of me sees clever writing as an un-renewable resource. Whenever I start a new project, I fear that this is the one where I realize I’ve used all the good words, the best jokes, the vivid characters, and there’s nothing left…

…until I come up with a really good idea, followed by another idea, and oh, wasn’t that a funny line? And I’m back to normal. The best part is, writers like Anne Lamott feel the same way (I found her Bird By Bird to be very reassuring). We’re all a little odd, a little fearful. I suppose that’s what happens when your job is to write down the voices in your head.

In other, less philosophical news, I made really yummy scones yesterday. We’re surrounded by blackberry bushes in our neck of the Pacific Northwest woods, so this is the time of the year when you see people wandering around filling various containers with free berries.

My husband and I went blackberry picking last weekend. Danny’s the best person to pick with because he’s even taller than I am, has very long arms, and doesn’t like blackberries, so he’s not eating and picking at the same time. We gathered about 10 cups of berries.

After two batches of cobbler, I decided to get a little creative.   I used this recipe and altered it for my purposes. I omitted about 1/4 c. sugar and the raisins (blech!) and added the zest of 2 1/2 lemons (basically, the amount of lemons I had on hand), 1 c. blackberries. When they cooled, I gave them a thin coat of lemony icing, using fresh lemon juice and powdered sugar (no particular amounts here, just start with the sugar and add lemon juice until it’s where you want it).

I worried about the dough because you’re not supposed to over-handle it, but it was so loosey-goosey I kind of had to manhandle it into submission, and getting the blackberries in took some work. I worried I’d made them too tough, but they came out perfectly. One note – I froze my blackberries so they’d keep their shape when I worked with them. Realize you’ll have to bake scones longer if you insert frozen berries into them (I didn’t, and had to keep putting them back in the oven).

If you live in a part of the country that’s lousy with raspberries, they would certainly work well too. Blueberries would be fine, but blackberries and raspberries are a bit juicier for this sort of thing.

If you try the recipe, let me know what you think!

Filed under: Hillary Lodge by Hillary
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Hey all! For those aspiring writers out there, I just posted about agents and publishing on my blog, which you can read here. Also, the cover to Plain Jayne is now posted on the Harvest House website – you can see it here. Taking a little bit of credit, I’ll tell you that the flowers on the bottom were my idea

Hopefully we’ll get it posted here soon…you really should see it, it looks great! I’m so excited for everyone to get a chance to read this book. I like to think that books are like babies (note: I don’t have babies yet, but I have many friends who do), and it seems like there’s a point where you just want to show everyone your beautiful baby. I pretty much feel that way about the book – and will even more so once it’s entirely edited!

Filed under: Amish Fiction, Hillary Lodge by Hillary
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