The following is a post from a community discussion on Amish books I found several years ago and took to heart when I write my Nurse Hal Amish series.
THIS is the kind of SIMPLE, AMISH reading that I'm talking about. I want to read about living, working, growing up, BEING --AMISH!!! Tell me (in detail) about collecting the eggs from the hen house and the chickens come chasing after you (this happened to ME on my grandpa's farm), talk about making friendship bread and how that's passed down (LITERALLY) from family to family or friendship to friendship. THIS is stuff I want to read about. Sure, a love story is fine, hardships are fine, but make it FIRST be ABOUT the AMISH! I'm not alone in this, either. I got the ladies group in my church reading Amish a few years back (and pass on each new book I get), but we're starving for more AMISH stories. We're going to go and actually visit the Amish here, locally, and are so excited to get to be a part of what we've read with so much interest. We'd like to find more authors that share THAT thrill!
I read the post after I had written my first Nurse Hal book - A Promise Is A Promise, and I agree with the person who wrote the post. One way to identify an Amish story as Amish is the setting and mentioning of their every day life. Every day can be different on a diversified farm such as the Amish have, and there is always details that make the story real.
In A Promise Is A Promise, I wrote about Nurse Hal helping the children get the pigs back in the pen. She rescued Daniel from a charging bull and helped the children have a burial for their dog. Nurse Hal was raised on a dairy farm and was comfortable helping with chores. Emma showed her how to butcher chickens, and that took some getting used to for Nurse Hal. She was determined to gain Emma's approval of her so when Emma asked her to go catch a rooster to butcher for lunch Hal set out to do just that. She caught the first rooster that came close to her, and found out after it was too late, she'd killed Emma's pet rooster.
How do I come up with these details? I was raised much like the Amish on a farm in Missouri. Taking care of animals and chickens came natural, because it was my family's simple way of life just like an Amish family. The rest of my life, I've lived in the country and had livestock and chickens. I can identify with anyone who knows about gathering eggs. I've been pecked many times by a hen that didn't want to give up her egg, and multiple times, I've been flogged by a mean rooster that chased me to the house. So I did take to heart the post, and I've made sure there is plenty of every day life in my Amish books. Emma's roosters haven't turned mean yet but stick around. That may happen soon.
In my latest book, Emma's Gossamer Dreams, Emma becomes the school teacher and Nurse Hal struggles as she learns to become a homemaker. She's good at nursing but terrible at cooking which adds humor but compassion if we remember our days as new cooks. Mingled in the story, Daniel brings home a baby raccoon for a pet that causes all kinds of problems like catching Emma's hens.
This is book five in the Nurse Hal Among The Amish series. If you haven't read one of the books you really should start at the beginning with book one A Promise Is A Promise so you are properly introduced to the Lapp family and Nurse Hallie Lindstrom Lapp. I promise you will have to read the rest of the series to see what happens next.
