FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

What are the names of all your available books?

I have two current series, both in an Amish setting. The Sisters of the Quilt series has three titles and a continuous story line. The Ada’s House series currently has one title, but new books will be released in 2010 and 2011. The books in the Ada’s House series will feature different main characters and story lines, but each will be in the same settings of Dry Lake and Hope Crossing, Pennsylvania. Below is the list of all available books, and links to more information about the books, including a first chapter preview.

Sisters of the Quilt:

When the Heart Cries

When the Morning Comes

When the Soul Mends (The epilogue is the conclusion to Hannah’s story, so don’t skip it :-) )

Ada’s House:

Hope of Refuge

The second book is The Bridge of Peace. Its release date is September 7, 2010

Novella:

The Sound of Sleigh Bells

How do I receive autographed bookplates?

Bookplates are adhesive-backed stickers that I can sign and mail to you in a regular envelope with current letter-rate postage. Putting the sticker on the title page of your book makes it an autographed copy.

If you would like to view the bookplate or know how to receive free bookplates, CLICK HERE.

What drew you to writing about the Amish?

While growing up in Maryland, I had a best friend who was an Amish-Mennonite. The moment I stepped inside her house, I could sense that there were a lot of differences between her home and mine. My friend, like all the females in her family, wore the prayer Kapp and caped dresses. Her parents didn’t allow television or radios, and many other modern conveniences were frowned upon. We only attended school together for a couple of years before her parents withdrew her from public school and began a school of their own for all the Amish-Mennonites in the area. Even though we didn’t see each other at school, we continued our friendship by spending the night in each other’s homes, sneaking off to meet halfway between our two places, or meeting at her aunt’s home, as she was my closest neighbor inside that dairy-farming community. I had a vivid imagination, and my earliest memories as a child were of me working for hours at a time on developing stories. So when she and I became friends and her lifestyle was so different from mine, my imagination constantly filtered the differences and devised stories. That time in my life planted the first seeds of writing about the “Plain” life.

Do you have Amish contacts who are willing to share their way of life with you to help you write a more accurate portrayal of the Amish?

As an adult, my first connection was with a woman who’d worked at an Amish birthing center for twenty years. She wasn’t Amish, but she knew a lot of Amish women, and she took my questions and parts of my manuscript to an Amish friend of hers. I wasn’t a published author at the time, nor did I have a contract, but I had a story I was working on. It was based on my personal experience with my Amish-Mennonite friend while growing up, years of research, and, of course, my imagination. A year after asking questions through a third party, I received an invitation from the Amish woman to come to her place and talk with her face-to-face. I took my youngest with me and we boarded a train in Georgia. I traveled by Amtrak because my character would travel that way at one point in the three-book series, and I used that time for more research. Once I arrived, the Amish woman and I found that we had a lot in common. By the end of that trip, I’d interviewed Amish men and women, and gone to many Amish homes, farms, and cottage industries. The Amish woman told me to call her at her phone shanty if I had any more questions.

That was a lot of years ago.

Today she and other Amish friends help me brainstorm my stories before I begin writing them. She and other Amish friends also read my manuscripts before they go to print, and we discuss the slightest details about living Old Order Amish until I’ve depicted the Amish very accurately. I’m careful not to share anything she feels should remain private, but what is covered in the novels is very authentic.

Will you write more books with Amish settings?

Each time I stay with my Amish friends, my mind teems with stories with Amish settings and characters, so I hope to continue to write Amish stories for a long time to come.

The Amish have enriched your life a great deal. Can you share with us what you find most inspiring about their lifestyle and how it influenced your dream to write?

The Old Order Amish way of life has much that is inspiring. Their faith, humility, and tenacity are truly amazing. The complexity of a people choosing to live similar to those in the early 1900s is worthy of a second look. It makes me long to understand what things in that lifestyle work for them and what don’t. Understanding that may help us make some of our choices of what to allow and not allow in our Englischer lives. Theirs is a multifaceted, multilayered society that pursues God, but they are still people who deal with the same struggles we do.

I’m inspired by the strength it takes to live as they do. Regardless of how man chooses to live, we will never be without the need for God to redeem us. Wherever man is, sin, mistakes, and heartaches happen. The desire to do right and the pull of the sin nature both tug on me as an author, and I enjoy the process of writing stories from that rich, yet imperfect, way of life. Some readers feel that if people dress very modestly and eschew modernization, they must be inherently “good” or even perfect. The sin nature is not destroyed just because a group of people dress a certain way or have traditions that are set on admirable foundations. And the sin nature doesn’t only have its say during the rumschpringe (young people’s time of “running around”). I love balancing the desired goal of the Amish way with the reality of being human. Thankfully, my Amish friends appreciate that I keep the stories “real” and that I don’t put them on a pedestal.

In the Sisters of the Quilt series, who actually took the money?

In book one Hannah left Gram’s with the bankbook, but she never saw it again after that. She didn’t realize it was missing for several days, and when she did begin searching for it, she thought maybe it had been burned when her clothes were. The next time she saw Paul (at the hospital after Luke and Mary were injured) she told him the bankbook was missing.

At the end of book one, Paul learned that the money in his and Hannah’s account was gone.

In book two Paul and the banker established who “probably” took the money. After the bank investigated the incident as much as they could and Paul added to that info what he knew, it appeared Hannah’s attacker got a hold of the bankbook that Hannah told Paul was missing. The bank had security-camera footage that showed a woman dressed in Amish clothing posing as Hannah and emptying the account. Paul and the banker believed Hannah’s attacker either tricked an Amish person into emptying the account or the attacker had someone pose as an Amish woman because the attacker knew Hannah was Amish and he knew the Amish didn’t have to have photo IDs.

In book three, when Paul discovered Dorcas’s deceit, he asked her if she took the money. He knew she had Amish relatives that he didn’t know, so she could have had someone go into the bank for her. But while grilling Dorcas it became clear to him that she had nothing to do with the stolen money. The story ended with the conclusion that the attacker had the money removed from the account.

Although Paul was correct in his assumptions (that the attacker got a hold of the bankbook and was behind the missing money), as often happens in real life, the victims had no proof of what took place.

Where the attacker is concerned, Hannah’s story is purposefully not a neatly packaged one. I felt that leaving certain things with frayed edges allowed the “nevertheless” healing to override the usual “I got justice or closure” healing. For Hannah her journey of healing and her hard-fought-for success is her closure and justice.

But as the author I know what Hannah does not: that the attacker discovered the bankbook in his car. He then got an Amish outfit and hired a woman to go into the bank and forge Hannah’s signature.

Hannah’s sister never had an opportunity to take the money because she never saw the bankbook. And even if she’d had the bankbook, she would have had to hire a driver to take her to the bank, which would have allowed for a lot of people to know what she was up to–the driver, her parents (who would have seen the driver), and, later, Paul, who would have recognized her as the Amish woman in the bank’s tape footage.

I haven’t been able to find your books. How can I get them?

The books are available at local bookstores as well as Barnes & Noble, Borders, Books-A-Million, Walmart, and the like. If you can’t find them at a store, it’s possible the stock has sold out. If so, you can ask a sales clerk or someone in customer service to order the book for you. When a store orders books for you, there are no shipping charges and they usually arrive within days of placing the order. Another way to get them is to go online and order them at Barnes and Noble.com, Borders.com, Books-A-Million.com, CBD.com, or Amazon.com

Can you help me get an Amish pen pal?

I’m really sorry, but I can’t assist in acquiring either an Amish pen pal or an Amish friend. In order to protect all parties, I can’t introduce someone whom I only know through the Internet or someone I’ve met briefly at a function to my Amish friends. Similarly, I can’t give out anyone’s mailing address and I can’t pass anyone a mailing address. I hope you understand. Although it’s not an equivalent substitution, I have a newsletter that is chock full of interesting tidbits about Amish life, my connections with the Amish, family stories from my Amish friends, recipes, and more.

Plain News is free, and I only send out a newsletter four times a year in hopes that it will be a blessing each time it arrives. If you’d like to sign up for it, click here.

May I send you my book ideas or partially written manuscripts?

Your story may be a true winner and one that would capture the readers’ hearts. Unfortunately, I cannot accept book ideas, notes, or partial or completed manuscripts. My agent has wisely advised me against any of these types of offers.

If I listen to or read your story idea, even if I never use it or if I already have a similar story under contract, I’ve opened myself up to a lawsuit if you feel any of my novels contain “your” storyline. This can be true of something I write twenty years from now.

If we tried to turn your work into a novel as a collaborative work, we could hit a thousand snags of creative differences, and then I will have time poured into something I can’t finish it, and neither of us can get a payday. Those are just a couple of reasons. There are many, many others.

When I started writing my debut novel, I wrote all I could on it, but I couldn’t get it to fit together and work well as a novel. I came to a point where I would have sold it to anyone I thought could finish it decently. But what I eventually realized is that it wasn’t the story of someone else’s heart. It was the story of my heart, and I had to figure out how to get it written.

The solution for you is to either tuck the story away as a hobby you enjoyed or pursue learning how to turn your ideas into a completed novel or series. Whatever your decision, I hope the very, very best for you.

What advice do you have for a person trying to become a published fiction writer?

For me, taking my writing seriously began after I made contact with a professional author who told me about American Christian Fiction Writers. I attended their conference and my eyes were opened to the publishing world, and I’ve been learning and honing the craft ever since. You can find out about ACFW at ACFW.com Another great writing conference is in Northern California Mount Hermon.org. If you can’t go to conferences or aren’t ready to attend just yet, many writers’ conferences offer audio recordings of their classes after the conference is over.

The best piece of advice I can offer is to do all you can to make sure your manuscript is ready for submission. The percentage of manuscripts that are rejected by agents and publishers is high, but most of those rejections are due to the author submitting before the manuscript was ready. Before sending your manuscript to a publisher, you’ll want to have it read by someone who can give you an unbiased opinion. A husband, sister, or friend may offer some good insights, but their relationship to you can hinder them from seeing your writing objectively. My hubby is great at brainstorming with me and being a first reader, but his love for me keeps him from being the stringent set of eyes I need.

A better option is to find a good critique partner or critique group. You will learn from the opinions of other seasoned writers as they read your manuscript. You will also learn by reading their manuscripts and commenting on what you see as the strengths and weaknesses.

One way you can learn writing techniques is to read books about writing. A few of my favorites are Stein on Writing by Sol Stein and Goal, Motivation and Conflict by Debra Dixon, and Getting into Character by Brandilyn Collins. I have two other favorite books that I’ve given or suggested to numerous aspiring authors, and I’ve received great feedback about how helpful each book is. They are by fellow author James Scott Bell: Plot & Structure and Revision and Self-Editing. You can also find lots of writing tips on many writers’, editors’, and publishers’ Web sites.You can also find lots of writing tips on many writers’, editors’, and publishers’ Web sites. As an aspiring author, I found great tips on the Web site of Steve Laube, literary agent. (He’s now my agent! :-) )

For a professional opinion of your manuscript, you may wish to hire a freelance editor. A copyeditor will clean up all the punctuation, usage, grammar, and spelling issues that can mark your manuscript as amateur right off the bat. But you’ll want to get more than just a basic copyedit, because if your story/writing isn’t strong, you will be turning in a polished copy of a poorly written manuscript.

A mentoring-type editor is your best bet. Writing mentors go beyond fixing technical problems; they’ll work with you on your story arc, characterization, plot structure, overall tone, development, consistency, pace, smoothness, ease of readability, and marketability of your concept. They will point out where your story line gets confusing or ambiguous or where your writing needs to be tightened. They look for words and phrases that might be offensive to certain readers, and advise you of the legal guidelines for appropriate use and permission of any quoted material you may have.

One way to find a freelance editor is to look in Sally Stuart’s Christian Writer’s Market Guide. Another is to do an Internet search. Or check the Acknowledgments pages of books you like; many authors mention their editors (but keep in mind, some of those editors work for the publisher, not for individuals). For a personal referral to established, professional editors who specialize in the type of writing you have and the level of editing you want, go to www.ChristianEditor.com and fill out the online form for authors seeking editors.

I know from personal experience that Kathy Ide is an excellent freelance editor. She’s also the founder and director of the Christian Editor Network. If she’s not the right editor for you, or if her schedule will not allow time for her to work with you, she’ll help you find a good editor. For more info, go to www.kathyide.com.

A good mentor won’t be right about everything, however. You’ll have to balance his or her advice against what you believe in your heart is best for your book.

Do you ever have doubts about your books when you get started?

Absolutely! No editor, agent, or author knows what’s going to strike a chord with readers. Most authors write because they love it, not because they know if the work will be picked up by a publishing house or, if it is picked up, whether the book will sell enough copies to be financially worth all it took to get to that point.

Editors and agents know if a certain story has a chance of doing well, but when someone is starting out, that’s all they know.

Dealing with the unknowns is part of the business. Once a book has been contracted, and the publishing house puts editing, marketing, and distribution behind it, will they regret it? If the book sells really well and the publishers are completely pleased, will they like the next book?

The questions and doubts go on and on, so we have to quiet the voices, refuse to worry, and put energy into the things we do have control over, like honing our skills and working hard at the craft of writing.

I’ve written a couple of articles about writing and one about doing interviews that you may find helpful:

Before. Behind. Between. Begin. Finding the Four B’s of Your Character

Let’s Do the Twist ~ Adding Twists and Avoiding Cliches

Interview Tips I Wish I’d Known Beforehand

Many blessings,

Cindy