For those who receive my newsletter, you had the article ”Finding Hannah” enter into your inbox in September’s issue of Plain News.  As part of an invitation to those who don’t receive the newsletter, I’ve posted that article below.

Whenever I have the opportunity to mingle with readers, I’m surprised by the number of people who are unaware of the newsletter. So I’m giving it a plug on my blog

The newsletter, Plain News, receives great reviews. If you enjoy insights into the Amish life, I encourage you to join the newsletter. It only goes out four times per year, so you’ll look forward to it each time it enters your inbox. It’s FREE. This is my way of connecting with readers between book releases.

Things the newsletter has:
A welcome letter
Sneak peeks into upcoming novel releases
An itinerary (when appropriate)
Articles I’ve written on the Amish or some part of my writing life
Contests
Various tidbits about daily life for an Old Order Amish person
A few words from a guest author
And some good reads shared by my editor Shannon [Hill] Marchese

To sign up, go to: Plain News

Congratulations to all five winners of The Shape of Mercy blog contest: Kayren, Theta, SN, Susan, and Laura. They each won a copy of The Shape of Mercy and When the Soul Mends.

For a chance to win an autographed copy of all three books, just leave a comment below. I’ll draw two winners the last of November, and the books should arrive to the winner’s home in time for Christmas. If you own copies of the books already, you can give this set as a Christmas gift.

The contest is open to those in the Continental United States.

WARNING: IF YOU HAVE NOT READ WHEN THE HEART CRIES OR WHEN THE MORNING COMES, THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE “FINDING HANNAH” HAS PLOT SPOILERS. And if the formatting comes across wrong, I apologize. I’ve followed every rule to make the correct formatting post live and it seems it just won’t . . . so the blogging goes on.

Finding Hannah

While writing When the Heart Cries, I took a midnight Amtrak ride with my youngest son. We traveled for eighteen hours, going from my home state of Georgia to Pennsylvania, where we stayed for a few days with an Old Order Amish family. My aim was for taking the train was to enhance the scene I wrote at the end of that book, in which Hannah boards a train heading for Alliance, Ohio.
When the time came to write the next book in the series, When the Morning Comes, I expected my earlier traveling experience to be sufficient research for when Hannah stepped off that train. But when I tried writing the opening, it didn’t sound or feel the way I wanted it to. I’d write five chapters and delete five chapters, over and over again. I longed to feel and hear the events as Hannah would. It soon became clear that I needed to see and feel what she would when she stepped off that train.
I try to experience life as my characters would whenever possible. While writing When the Heart Cries, I spent a couple of days in a neonatal intensive care unit to get a feel for the frailty of a preemie. I went to Hershey Medical Center and spent time on the same floors my characters did when they were injured. I washed dishes by kerosene lamp, drove a horse and buggy, and used a wringer washer to do laundry alongside my Amish friends. Those experiences helped me to write scenes that would hopefully come alive in the minds and hearts of my readers.

But as I struggled to write the opening of When the Morning Comes, it dawned on me that although I’d experienced riding the rails, I needed to see the Alliance, Ohio, depot in person. So I made plans to board the Amtrak in Gainesville, Georgia, and change trains as needed until I landed in Alliance. I checked online to see how long the ride was and discovered that the train would arrive in Alliance around two in the morning. I could deal with that.

But as I attempted to finalize my itinerary, I kept hitting dead ends. I called Amtrak several times and spoke with different people as I tried to locate a cab company or bus line so I could get to a motel after arriving. No one was able to help me locate the needed information. I couldn’t chance landing in Ohio at two in the morning without a solid plan.

I told my husband something was amiss and we needed to drive there. Being the agreeable man I married thirty years ago, he took my word for it and made arrangements to take time off from work.

A few weeks later we pulled into the Alliance train depot. The night sky swirled with snow, but the thin white blanket couldn’t hide the eeriness of the rundown, abandoned building. A white-and-blue sign near the tracks indicated a pay phone. I climbed out of the car. Snow and gravel crunched under my feet as I walked toward the phone sign. The wind whipped through my coat as if it wasn’t there.

I reached the sign, but did not find a phone.

As I stood at that bleak, abandoned depot, Hannah’s life unfolded before my eyes.

By the end of our week’s stay in Alliance, I knew more than how a traumatized teenage Amish girl managed to survive away from her home, family, and community. I also knew who she became and why.

I found Hannah.

While I conducted my on-site research, Hannah’s world became clearer each day. I went to the hotel she stayed in during her second night in Alliance. The place truly is as I described it in the book, and I wasn’t brave enough to spend a night there.

Before my husband and I returned to Georgia, we drove from Alliance to “Owl’s Perch.” Owl’s Perch is the fictitious name of a real place in Perry County, Pennsylvania. I knew Hannah would drive there from Ohio several times in book three, When the Soul Mends, and I needed to take the route myself—with its toll roads, service plazas, and mountain tunnels. Although the roads themselves are not described in much detail in the third novel, Hannah’s feelings while she’s on those roads are an important part of who she is.

In When the Soul Mends, Hannah finds herself traveling from one world to another. Like most people, I find more than one world affecting my life. Whenever I spend time in the homes of Amish families, I can hear echoes from my own childhood, when the conflicting messages of acceptance and prejudice worked to separate my Amish-Mennonite friend and me.

These messages have been explored in the Sisters of the Quilt series, as readers journey with the Amish, Mennonite, and Englischer characters who are dealing with their hopes, desires, and faith as well as hidden prejudices and fears. Some of those characters find that God’s redeeming love is the one thread that has the strength to unite regardless of all else.

Whatever world Hannah found herself in throughout these three books, she had moments of understanding aspects of God, and those moments gave her strength and hope. In book one she discovered the concept of nevertheless—that if everything ended with God, then those who are in Him have a good ending eventually. In book two she realized that He is more powerful than any injustice in her life—past or future. And when she forgives herself or others, she’s trusting that nothing bad is more powerful than God’s ability to overcome it. In book three her journey leads her to realize that love is never perfect—not in her, nor in others—but love doesn’t have to be perfect when forgiveness is there to pick up the pieces.

Throughout this series, all three worlds—Amish, Mennonite, and Englischer—form the woman Hannah is becoming. It is my hope that you’ll take each part of this journey with me, and that you’ll be encouraged by the One who has forgiveness and wisdom for each of us, no matter what world we’ve entered.

Em Gott Sei Friede, (God’s peace),

Cindy

I arrived home late Tuesday after a wonderful trip to visit family in Pennsylvania. There’s never enough time to see as much of my loved ones as I want, so I often leave with my heart aching for more.
 
Sally (my step mom) was a constant help from the time my plane touched down in Harrisburg. She and my dad married about eight years ago, and she’s been a godsend. After the death of my mom, she helped our family move from simply coping into living abundantly again. Sally and I hadn’t spent a lot of time alone together before this last trip, but during the visit I learned what a remarkable woman she is. My mom was remarkable too. My dad has been very blessed.

Sally went with me to Hackman’s Bible Book Store on Thursday night, which was a two-hour drive from Harrisburg. I’m grateful for all those who came out to see me there. The author chat and autograph party were wonderful. I’ll not soon forget the amazing people I met that night. Thank you!
 
If the woman who came to Hackman’s from New York earlier in the day and wasn’t able to stay until I arrived would contact me, I have a small gift for you from one of my Amish friends.

On Friday, Sally and I went to one of my Amish friend’s home. Anna* and I only had a few hours to visit, and we were far from being ready to say good-bye when the time came. But we took comfort in the hope that I can return and stay a few days longer this spring.

On Saturday, the family and I celebrated my dad’s eightieth birthday. His birthday is the reason I went to Pennsylvania. My brother, my sister-in-law, and one of their adult children drove in from Alabama. By party time, all four siblings, plus Sally’s daughter and her family, were there. We had a great time. Sally’s daughter, son-in-law, and two teenage grandchildren were a joy to spend time with. Their presence added so much to the day’s festivities!

We sang “Happy Birthday” to my dad the way he taught us–all of us purposefully off key and quite loud about it.
 
My dad, who enjoys being sarcastically grumpy, was in for a big surprise. Every time he started grousing, we sang the entire song. We only needed to sing it about forty times while he opened presents. We laughed and sang until we were hoarse. He thought it was a riot, but he also joined in on the game by becoming flamboyantly careful. He’d start to open a present and then stop and ask, “Am I doing this right? I don’t want to do anything wrong. Please tell me now, before you start singing.”

Too bad we didn’t figure out the remedy for his biting sense of humor until he was eighty!

Sally catered a meal so the workload would be light and we’d have the energy to enjoy one another. The plan worked great and also gave us a lot of food to use for Sunday’s main meal. We had such a great time, I’d do it all again in a heartbeat.

On Sunday mid-afternoon, my brother drove me to Frederick, Maryland, to meet up with my critique partner, Marci, who lives in Virginia. She and I spent the next two days working on her WIP (work in progress). She’s quite a writer, but she hasn’t turned anything in to a publisher yet. I’d tell you why, but . . . I can’t.
 
Marci and I have worked together for five years and she’s one of the greatest gifts to my life. When the Morning Comes is dedicated to her.

My time in Pennsylvania was refreshing, and I’m so glad I went. Now I’m behind with the rest of life and I feel the pressure of it. Still, that time was a treasure I’ll always remember.

*Names are always changed to assure privacy.
 
 

Remember the Salem Witch trials? It’s a time period cloaked in mysteries and Susan Meissner has written a powerful book that delves deep into love, fear, and how prejudice and judgment affects three separate generations of women—a young Puritan girl, an elderly librarian, and a college student.  

 Here’s what a reviewer from Publishers Weekly wrote: 

Meissner’s newest novel is potentially life-changing, the kind of inspirational fiction that prompts readers to call up old friends, lost loves or fallen-away family members to tell them that all is forgiven and that life is too short for holding grudges. Achingly romantic, the novel features the legacy of Mercy Hayworth-a young woman convicted during the Salem witch trials-whose words reach out from the past to forever transform the lives of two present-day women. These book lovers-Abigail Boyles, elderly, bitter and frail, and Lauren Lars Durough, wealthy, earnest and young-become unlikely friends, drawn together over the untimely death of Mercy, whose precious diary is all that remains of her too short life. And what a diary! Mercy’s words not only beguile but help Abigail and Lars together face life’s hardest struggles about where true meaning is found, which dreams are worth chasing and which only lead to emptiness, and why faith and hope are essential on life’s difficult path. Meissner’s prose is exquisite and she is a stunning storyteller. This is a novel to be shared with friends. (Sept. 16)

Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.  

A few weeks back, I e-mailed Susan, asking her to share a bit about why she’d written the book—what event in her life planted seeds for this book. Susan wrote back, saying ~

When I was 13, I played the role of an innocent woman accused of witchcraft in the play To Burn a Witch. To save herself, my character at the eleventh hour began to accuse another young woman in her prison cell – a friend from her village – of bewitching her. The play ends with my character being freed and the likewise innocent friend - who would not lie to save herself – being led away to her execution.

I’ve never forgotten how it felt to imagine myself accused falsely, nor what it felt like to accuse falsely. The latter has actually been more haunting. To point a finger at someone and make a declaration about him or her based on nothing more than fear is to make friends with love’s enemy. I had read The Crucible years ago in high school, but I didn’t really make the connection between what happened in Salem in 1692 with what continues to happen with sad regularity all the time: We often judge what we don’t understand, when we are afraid or when we become indifferent to our ignorance. But the truly amazing thing is, while the Salem witch trials arguably revealed the worst in us, it also laid bare the bit of divine in us that shines even in the darkest place. When faced with death, there is still courage enough within us to stand for what is right. Those who lost their lives so long ago in Salem refused to confess they had an allegiance with Satan. In writing The Shape of Mercy, I found that kind of fidelity to God remarkable – and this is what I now think of when I think of Salem, not a hangman’s rope but utter devotion to Truth.

To read about or order: Amazon

Susan’s book and mine were released on the same day by our amazing publisher WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group, and I’d like to run a contest that offers a chance for five people to win both books. So, the contest this time includes a chance to win The Shape of Mercy and When the Soul Mends. There will be five winners chosen, each will win an autographed copy of both books. All you need to do is leave a comment. Anyone who joined the last contest after a winner was chosen will have their comment moved to this contest section.

Next blog post: Finding Hannah

My next post will include an article about my search to find Hannah for book two in Sisters of the Quilt series. As book one closed, she was seventeen years old with an eighth-grade education and nothing but a few clothes, a medical book, and a lifetime of broken dreams and betrayal. But imagination alone couldn’t find her, so I went in search of her secret.  

 If you posted to the last blog entry after a winner was chosen, your comment will be moved to this post and you’ll be entered into this contest. 

In July, while at the International Christian Retail Show in Orlando, my publisher told me that my three books in the Sisters of the Quilt series will be coming out in audio format. I was THRILLED. It’s something many readers have asked me about. The publisher mentioned that the narrator would contact me in a few weeks so we could discuss correct pronunciation of some of the Pennsylvania Dutch words in the book.

Um . . . I don’t actually speak the language. I work really hard to get it written correctly. I’m blessed with three things that make me able to write the Pennsylvania Dutch words.

One, I have an Old Order Amish friend who’s willing to make sure each character is saying the correct turn of phrase. 

Two, I have a very rare copy of a Pennsylvania German dictionary.

And three, I work with a woman who has taught the language to college Englischers for years. She covers the grammar and usage part, because speaking a language and being able to spell the words correctly are vastly different from writing something grammatically correct. 

A week after I heard the news about my audio book, I received an e-mail stating that the narrator would be JILL SHELLABARGER, Christian author and the actress who played Carol in the NBC TV series Chicago Story. She also played Amanda White in the audio drama series based on the Left Behind books. She is a fabulous voice actor. My excitement soared!

She and I talked on the phone, and I was blessed to be able to put her in contact with an Amish woman who speaks the language fluently. I sent Anna* an overnight package with all three glossaries.

A few days later, Jill contacted me about a song Hannah sings in book one. She asked if I knew the tune that went to it.

The Old Order Amish sing a cappella, so the book I had taken the song from doesn’t show any musical notes. However, I know the tune of that song for Englischers. It’s in every hymnal I’ve ever seen. But because the Amish don’t use written music, I didn’t know how it would be sung by the Amish today. And since the song was written more than two hundred years ago, I thought it likely that the tune would be different now from when it was originally incorporated into their worship.

Thankfully, all this back-and-forth among me, my Old Order Amish friends, and Oasis Audio took place during the summer, because I try to avoid calling a phone shanty in winter. We think it’s interruptive to get a phone call during a movie. What if we had to don hats, coats, and boots and then shiver in the snow while talking on the phone? EGAD!

I called Anna’s phone shanty and left a message, knowing that her husband checks the phone out near the barn every day or two. When I heard back from her, I shared my predicament. She assured me she’d find the song, memorize the tune for it, and speak to Jill within the week.

You know, I’d hate to have to try to sing a song for a stranger on the phone. But as always, Anna came through for me. Now everyone who purchases the audio version will get to hear Jill Shellabarger sing as Hannah just the way Anna sang the song to her via phone. What a blessing!
*Anna is the  name I use for all my female Old Order Amish friends. It gives them double privacy because I use the same pseudonym for several people.

Contest News:

A winner has been drawn randomly from the last blog entry. Commenter number 52, Jordan, will receive an autographed copy of each book in the Sisters of the Quilt series. Jordan’s comment for her contest entry said:
 
My sister loves your books, and it would be awesome if I could get these [the Sisters of the Quilt series, autographed] for her because she will not shut up about the third book and it’s getting on my nerves. So enter me, please.

Okay, Jordan, we’ve done our part to make your sister shut up. Now answer the e-mail I sent a few days ago by sending me your postal address. The books await you . . . uh . . . your sister.

It’s time for another contest! 

For a chance to win an autographed copy of each book in the Sisters of the Quilt series, all you need to do is leave a comment on this blog. You can share your thoughts or simply post “enter me.” This contest will last approximately two weeks. Anyone who entered the last contest after the drawing took place (that’s commenters 85 to 94 on “Winner, a Contest, and Detasseling”) will be moved to this contest. A winner will be drawn in approximately two weeks.

Whew! Time has slipped right past me! I’m under deadline and have been under the weather. Those are never a good combination, are they? 

I have so much I want to share, and only a few minutes.

First, I’d like to send a huge CONGRATS to RITA winner, Linda Goodnight. I’m so excited for her! It truly was an honor to be nominated with such a wonderful lineup of women. We had a blast doing the rounds of interviews. You can read each interview on my Book Lover News blog. Linda has written a few things more and shared them with me, so I’ll post that a little later this week.

Second, I’d like to announce the winner of my July blog contest. The winner is commenter number sixty-one, Judy, from Goldsboro, North Carolina. She’s won an autographed copy of each book in the Sisters of the Quilt series. 

Congratulations, Judy!

I appreciate each comment made here. And I’m always encouraged by the things you share. Thank you.  

It’s time for another contest.

For a chance to win an autographed copy of each book in the Sisters of the Quilt series, all you need to do is leave a comment.  You can share your thoughts or simply post “enter me.” This contest will last approximately two weeks. Because I didn’t get to post this new contest on time, those who entered a comment on the last blog entry after the drawing had taken place will be entered into this contest.

And to round this little blog post session off, I’d like to share a bit about detasseling. Some of you are thinking, what?

Corn detasseling is the crucial last step in producing hybrid corn seed. It involves removing the pollen-producing top part of the plant, the tassel, so the corn can’t pollinate itself. Instead, pollen from another variety of corn grown in the same field is carried by the wind, pollinating the detasseled corn. The result is corn that bears the genetic characteristics of both varieties and can produce healthier crops with higher yields. Despite technological advances in agriculture, detasseling is still a task that for the most part is done by hand.

The excerpt above is from Wall Street Journal, August ‘02 To understand the process better, just follow that link.

Perhaps a fair amount of non-Amish are still involved in detasseling. I’m not sure what impact the new breeds of corn and the new machines have had on non-Amish, but detasseling is something Amish youth still do.

Corn with tassels still in place.

Corn with tassels removed.

Bis schpeeder (til later)