Story has been my deepest love since before I could read. And I was serious about it. I watched Mary Poppins at five years old and thought the idea of a carousel horse joining a real horse on a racetrack was insulting. I expressed similar disdain when books violated reality. A mouse born to human parents? A swan learning to read and write and play the trumpet? Ridiculous. I wrote my first story in first grade and never stopped writing. My stories never messed with reality, never took “what if?” too far. Then, in high school, I discovered Star Trek: Voyager. A new frontier opened in my imagination. I started seeking out fantasy and science fiction. A few years later, my first full-length novel idea bloomed—the idea that would grow into SEEK AND HIDE. In the storyworld of SEEK AND HIDE, the government has seized control of the church. Bibles have been retranslated. Churches agree to teach only from the retranslated Bible or are closed. The dystopian world is represented well by the bleak sky and dilapidated farmhouse on the cover; here, freedom and truth are decaying like this house. My main character, Marcus Brenner, is a new Christian who…

Hi! I’m so happy to be back here, blogging at Fresh Fiction! This is release week for my book, THE DOCTOR’S FAKE FIANCEE. I probably had the most fun with the hero in this book, Evan. He was also the most different of all my heroes. He’s a guy who’s always had to excel, skipped ahead in school, and had it instilled in him that he needed to be the best. He’s a guy who’s SO intelligent. But he’s actually the most emotionally unaware hero I’ve ever written, so I had a blast torturing him into self-awareness. I brought the poor guy to his knees by the end of the book, as it FINALLY dawned on him what was most important in his life. So while I enjoy reading and writing about all different kind of heroes, there are certain traits they must all have-or acquire-by the end of the book. Here’s my list (in no particular order). 10. Honor. Even if a guy is a grump at the beginning of the book, he needs a code of honor. If he doesn’t have one, he just doesn’t interest me and I’ve lost respect for him. 9. Ambition. He doesn’t have…

When I look back at my earliest memories I remember the flicker of oil lamps casting shadows on the wall of our home, our buggy, and wearing plain clothes. I remember when my dad drove our first car into the driveway—a green Nova with lime colored carpet on the dash—we were leaving the Amish. And when my mammie (grandma) visited from across the street and my mom told me not to bring out my new English dress that was blue seersucker with ruffles and smocking. But I did. For several years I spoke Pennsylvania Dutch better than English but my little friends still understood me. I was still raised alongside my plain cousins because my shunned parents exhibited great patience and unconditional love in order to maintain a relationship with our Amish family. From these memories came my mammie’s memoir that shared her life through the Great Depression and World War Two. It was a difficult life and not the mainstream picturesque Amish. Seasons: A Real Story of an Amish Girl brought voices from my Amish ancestral past. I could hear my daudy (grandpa) telling me about being drafted to World War Two but because of his conscientious objector status…