The official word from my publisher, Helping Hands Press:
Are you ready for a contest?
We hope that you are ready for a contest; we would like you to have fun with it.
How do you participate and what are the prizes? Here are a few things you can do:
-Go to the Helping Hands Press website and sign up for our mailing list.
CLICK HERE
We will start using the mailing list March 1st, and send out the newsletters each month on the 1st and 15th.Each newsletter will be filled with inside information for you on our authors, new author signings, new release dates, inside information on new series…basically you will hear of it first in this newsletter.
-If you haven’t “liked” our Facebook page, please do so, we like to have as much fun here as possible.
CLICK HERE-Pinterest, if you are a member, please follow us; we will follow you too. We love to know what our friends are doing on Pinterest; it is a great place to have fun.
CLICK HEREAll of this information will be listed on the Helping Hands Press Facebook Page. Please look for the Rafflecopter; we will be using that to help choose the Grand Prize winner.
To enter the contest
CLICK HERE Prizes, did someone mention Prizes? I believe we did.
If you go to the Helping Hands Press website and sign up for the newsletter, we are going to email you a simple question: We have a list of stories; which one do you want to read for free? Also do you mind if we send the audio book sample for the following three releases as they are done: Karen Anna Vogel’s “Amish Knit Lit Circle- Volume 1 – Pride & Prejudice”; Murray Pura’s “The Rose of Lancaster County – Volume 1 – The Rose Garden” and “The Defective Amish Detective – Volume 1 – The Whoopie Pie Affair”. Each of them is narrated by our own Big Daddy Abel.
Now for the Grand Prize: The Grand Prize winner will get all the Helping Hands Press paper books! Right now we have eight:
Karen Anna Vogel’s: “Amish Knitting Circle Complete”,” Knit Together”,” Amish Doll”
George Michael Loughmueller’s- “An Amish Journey – Set Free Complete”
Mark Miller’s- “Sons of The King Complete” and “Daniel’s Lot”
Marsha Hubler’s – “Bachelor’s Choice”
David Stearman’s-“Hummingbird”
Sarah Price, popular author of Amish fiction, is also a contributor to the One series, which is regularly posted about on this blog. Her story, The Power of Faith, is currently available for ONLY 99 Cents with author proceeds going to a great cause. You can get it here: http://goo.gl/xhE9w
Today, she wants to share her Triangle of Blessings: Amish, Writing and Readers
I was first introduced to the Amish when I was only eight years old. It was my grandparents who took me to Lancaster County, PA. I sat between them on the front seat of their Cadillac, bouncing up and down with excitement as we passed each horse and buggy.
My grandparents came from a long line of strict Old Order Mennonites. Back in the early 1700s, our ancestors escaped persecution and travelled across the ocean to accept William Penn’s offer for free land in Pennsylvania. I often think about that journey and how terrified they must have been. Seeing the shores of Europe disappear over the horizon, facing an uncertain future in an unknown land…how courageous they were and how unfaltering in their faith in God.
There is something magical about the Amish. In today’s world of technology, information overload and crazy schedules, there is something to be said for a people who manages to maintain a simpler way of life. A people who takes care of each other. A people who lives for honoring God through their daily routines. How can you not fall in love with such people? They are truly blessed.
Likewise, I consider myself a blessed person. For almost twenty-five years, I have been staying among the Amish. In the beginning, I found an Amish family that rented out an apartment over their mule shed. For several years, I would rent the apartment and travel back and forth from my home to their farm. In later years, I was introduced to an Amish woman who rented me a room in her home. Through these connections, I have been permitted the rare opportunity to straddle the fence between my current world and this of my ancestors.
There is another blessing in my life (and I believe we all have many). I have been blessed with the desire to write. Since I was a child, I wrote books. It was my passion, my dream. I love writing, telling stories that entertain and inform. It’s in my blood. I believe that a true author writes for that reason: they have a passion to write. That’s it. It’s as plain and simple as the Amish.
The beautiful thing is that I have been blessed to combine the two: my passion for writing and my passion for the Amish. It’s a marriage made in heaven, as far as I’m concerned. Like my friend, colleague, and fellow author, Karen Anna Vogel, my knowledge of the Amish comes from first-hand experience. It allows me to write authentic books, books that are rich in true knowledge of the Amish, a special knowledge that I love to share with my readers.
That brings me to my final blessing, one that is so important to me: the readers. How fortunate it is that so many wonderful people desire to know the Amish and to learn about their faith! These readers are faced with so much stress: busy lives, illness, uncertainty, and hardship in a time of economic distress. It is such a blessing to know that, even if only for a few hours, they can slip away from this stress through the stories that I love to write.
I invite you into my world, to pick up one of the many Amish books written by wonderful authors that are available in bookstores and online, and to sit back in order to escape, even if just for a few pages. Who knows? Maybe you, too, will find some relief from the everyday stress in your own life as you explore the world of the Amish through our eyes.
I happen to have the privilege to be part of a great group of authors published by Trestle Press and Helping Hands Press. Starting today, you will be hearing from them on my blog. They have a lot to say about a lot of different things.
First up is best-selling Amish author Karen Anna Vogel. She asks herself a few questions.
What is your connection to the Amish?
I live ½ hour away from Smicksburg, PA, a large Old Order Amish settlement. I shop at their stores and we hired Amish men to help remodel our century old farmhouse. It’s been fifteen years of remodeling, (still not done…) so we got to know many men and their families. On their breaks, they love to talk and swap stories, and I always have 1001 questions, ranging from “Do you grow celery for weddings?”(They had no idea what I was talking about) to “Do you read the Bible?” (Yes, they do, KJV) I became good friends with Lydia, (Katie Byler in Knit Together) after buying so many plants from her greenhouses, and “Granny” while taking lots of people to her quilt shop. (Granny wishes to be completely anonymous) She is Granny Weaver in Amish Knitting Circle, Amish Friends Knitting Circle, Amish Doll and Knit Together.
When did your fascination with Amish culture start?
In my mid-20’s my husband and I moved to Upstate New York. There are many Amish in rural New York, and we became friends with a handicapped man, Harry Hershberger, and his wife, Katie. (Eli and Lottie Hershberger in Knit Together) His buggy was hit as a young man, after the birth of their daughter and the Amish build a variety store on the side of his house. My four kids loved to go in and get coloring books, and we all got to know Harry from our regular visits. He had some use of his hands and made quilts, and I took them to festivals. One day he told me I was a trusted English friend, and invited me into their food co-op. When I moved back home to Pennsylvania fourteen years later, the Amish in Smicksburg knew Harry & Katie. Since I was a trusted friend to them, they trusted me. Once you’re a trusted friend, it’s like having an all access pass into their lives it seems. They readily open up, and if you’re one of them. Once I was chatting with a woman and her husband came home from work, and he never met me before. He looked at her sternly, and she said, “Friends with Harry Hershberger in NY” and he smiled at me and nodded in approval.
Tell us about your novels and continuing short stories.
My novels out now are stand-alone stories, but are all called Amish Knitting Novels. Knit Together and The Amish Doll are set in different locations, but they both focus on healing through knitting and faith in Christ. Continuing shorts have made quite a comeback. Anne of Green Gables, Pickwick Papers, and Jan Karon’s At Home in Mitford series were all weekly serials in newspapers. My shorts come out every 3 weeks. Amish Knitting Circle started with Granny inviting five women from her church district to a knitting circle to knit shawls for tornado victims in Joplin, MO. She invites women she has inkling are hiding problems. Granny spins yarn and feels women are stronger spun together, and by the end of 10 episodes, you see how much they needed each other. Amish Friends Knitting Circle is about Granny and her girls having a knitting circle with friends from the Smicksburg Baptist Church. It’s been lots of fun to write, since I take lines right out of my own conversations with the Amish.
What are your readers saying about your books?
Since I deal with cancer, infertility, spousal abuse and other women’s issues, women tell me they are finding help and comfort, especially through Amish Knitting Circle and Amish Friends Knitting Circle. Some women are starting knitting or craft circles, spreading the message that we’re stronger as women, spun together. Also, Knit Together is semi-autobiographical. I wrote if after losing my mom and two cousins in 13 months. So it deals with grief and it seems to be ministering to people. The complete Serenity Prayer is in the book, and different parts of the prayer are prayed by different characters. It helped bring healing to me, and I hope it does the same for my readers.
Where can readers find your books and connect with you?
My eBooks can be found on Amazon, B&N, Sony, and anywhere eBooks are sold. My paperback, Knit Together and The Amish Doll, are on Amazon for now, but soon to be distributed to brick and mortar stores and other websites. Our family store, Thrifty Christian Shopper, www.thriftychristian.com (Also on EBay and Amazon) will carry the paperbacks as well. You also might find them in your local library. Ask the librarian to get a copy if they don’t have one.
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