I thought I might call it quits after I finished the Mina Moore Mystery series and finally get on to doing the two fairy tales I've been wanting to get to, Prince Caradoc and The Erlenmeyer Flask, the first being a ghost story and the second being a troll story. It has a bad-tempered gnome named Fred! And no middle as of yet... Still searching for that elusive middle. It's only been over a decade since I wrote the first synopsis <sigh>. Yes, the writing process is long sometimes.
But, before I could really focus on that Dominic Smith, one of my favorite Youtubers who does "Lost in Adaptation" which focuses on the changes between a novel and movie/series, did a piece on Amish Romance stories. Being a Christian I have seen these books all over Christian bookstores and library sections so I was interested. He pointed out many of them had paper thin plots and mentioned how the one story looked like it might be going into the history of how the Amish and Native Americans interacted (he even included a brief view of an article inwhich the Amish had apologized for their prior behavior toward them, which was largely indifference while they were abused and driven out). He also pointed out that these novels only had the slightest vestiges of accuracy to the Amish community, basically it's Puritan fiction cosplaying as Amish with a few words from Amish dialect thrown in.
So, naturally, I took this as a challenge. Having heard from the Hartline Agency that Amish Romance was really the best way into Christian fiction, anyway, and wanting to do a slightly more complex plot that addresses how the Amish and the Native Americans related in the early days of America, I decided to see if I could make a novel out of it.
And thus The Rag Quilt was born. The Rag Quilt is the story of Lydia Fischer, an 18 year old Amish girl, and Sam, a 26 year old Native American trapper/trader as they meet, get to know each other, and slowly fall in love in the shadow of Pontiac's Rebellion and The Conestoga Massacre.
I'll say, it's pretty weird to go from Victorian-style writing to a more YA type style, but trying to adapt. Plus, that's what edits are for. Anyway, best get back to that.
Into the breach!