Amish View: Interview on Shipshewana Series

I recently had the pleasure of being interviewed for my upcoming release, Falling to Pieces: A Shipshewana Amish Mystery.

What was the inspiration for Falling to Pieces?
 
So many different bits of inspiration go into a book for me. You’ll notice on the cover is a quilt shop–Daisy’s Quilt Shop. It’s named after my Aunt Daisy. The book is dedicated to my mother who is a skilled seamstress. She first taught me to sew, though I’m just learning to quilt. Deborah is the main Amish character, and her mother is very much patterned after my mother. Probably the main inspiration for this story is the desire for friendship. I see so many people who are isolated by technology, who long to have someone they’re close to, like when we were children and had best friends. That’s what inspired me to write about the relationship between Deborah and Callie.

How much research went into this story?

A lot! I needed to learn about Shipshewana and the Amish customs in that area, which are quite different from my previous book set in Pennsylvania. I also had all that murder research to do. It does make for very interesting dinner conversation though.

How much of this story is based on fact?

Not the murder, OF COURSE. I adore digging in and finding information on all the details of a story. So, for instance, one of the Amish children in the story suffers from nemaline myopathy, an inherited muscular disorder. Aaron became one of my favorite characters probably because I learned so much about this disease. I also enjoyed researching Labrador retrievers and Agatha Christie–both played big roles in the story.
 
Have you been to Shipshewana? If so, for how long; what area? How did the trip inspire the story?

Oh, yes! My husband and I visited for a week in the summer of 2010, and it changed my story in a lot of ways. People are just different in person than they are on the internet. When you sit down and have dinner with an Amish family, when you walk their farm, listen as they describe their cattle operation, when you walk down the aisles of their flower gardens . . . it not only changes your research and your story, it also changes you.

Needless to say, I’m thrilled about the opportunity to write this series.  You can read more of the interview on the CBD site. I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend.

V~

P.S. – I added the book trailer for Falling to Pieces to this blog. You can access it under the VIDEOS tab at the top.