1. I devised one of the best heroes I could conceive to fit the story…(Forget that he’s modeled after Chris Pine) Looks are important, yes, but Jude Lyons needed to be complicated from a psychological perspective—He comes from money but doesn’t have a driving need to pursue it. He’s gentle and loving but suffered extreme emotional abuse as a child and young adult. He’s so intellectual at times that his body needs to remind him of the blessings of living in the physical world—including being married to a stunning nineteen year old Amisch girl. And he’s determined to remain celibate with her but doesn’t count on the simmering desire that mounts against his innate practicality.
2. Mary Lyons, the heroine and bride, is genuinely innocent in an otherwise tricked out world. When she has to leave her beloved home on Ice Mountain to live in Metro-Atlanta, she faces Jude’s devious and manipulating ex-fiancée’ but finds the internal strength to counter the other girl through her faith and plain wanting of her handsome husband. Mary’s gentle tenderness is tinder to Jude’s masculinity and she can turn heads without even giving it a second thought. She longs to love her at-times unlovable in-laws and cherishes the small things in life—wolves, snow globes, and licking red, rd cherries from her husband’s fingers.
3. I kept the proverbial bedroom door open….Yep, even the Amisch have sex and enjoy it. Some might argue that this is counter to the “standards” of the subgenre, while I am reminded of a sacred call by an Amisch reader and friend, Dan, who once chided me about his having thirteen children. “Where so you think I got them?” he asked. I laughed a bit but was met with silence. Then he said: “Don’t neuter my people.” I’ve never forgotten that and I imbue my writing with sexuality, not to be gratuitous, but because it is a natural and healthy part of life. It also adds dimension and tension to the story and if some readers are offended, I can honestly say that I try to forewarn on social media that my books are from the “usual Amisch.”
4. The setting—Ahhh, one of my favorite parts of this story. A natural ice mine or a cavernous vault of summer icicles as thick in some parts as a man’s thigh. Ice in the summer but no ice in the winter—a geologist’s dream and one that’s been studied by PSU and others. But for a writer, the Ice Mine is central to providing a spiritual vitality to both the Amisch community and the individual characters themselves. As the series progresses, pregnancies are announced in the palatial display of ice, justice is served by its cold fingers and new hope is discovered, even during the dry time, making the Ice Mine super hot!
5. Children or kinner add awkward questions, force dangerous choices, and are central to the heart of the community. There is sometimes no one who makes us see the true heart of who and what we are as does a child. And, whether children are a part of your life now or not, at some point, we all were children. Rosy-cheeked, tear-stained, or flash flood angry, we can all remember what it is to want, to need, and to hope. Children drive storylines but echo parts of who we all are as readers and who we’ve become. And this novel hopefully teaches that the regrets of childhood do not have to remain into adult life if love is allowed full sway.
6. Can you say ‘french kiss?’ Maybe…but there’s a certain amount of heat in watching Jude teach Mary the particular meaning of this Englisch expression. In fact, I tried to craft each kiss this couple shares, each touch—whether in the dust motes of a college classroom, or the half asleep meeting of mouths on the bishop’s couch—Mary and Jude present each other with grand opportunities to kiss with abandon, expression and heated awareness….Very hot indeed!
7. Mary’s bruders are more than they appear….Joseph and Edward King may be Mary’s watchful older brothers but they each have their own, sprawling secret story as well. Handsome, dark-haired, green-gold eyed Joseph goes on to become the protagonist of Book Two of the series—AN AMISH MAN OF ICE MOUNTAIN—due out in April of 2015. And lithe, bad-boy, good-man, Edward will lead in the third book as he must battle the most difficult enemy—himself—if he wants to keep the love of his young wife for all time, in THE AMISH HEART OF ICE MOUNTAIN. More men—more ice—more heat!!!
I wish you all happy reading!!!!
Buy THE AMISH BRIDE OF ICE MOUNTAIN today!
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