Baby, it's COLD outside here in SW Louisiana....35 & NOT supposed to get out of the 40's! Way too cold for my blood LOL!
Linda Maran shared some thoughts with us last month on Amish fiction. Today we get a sneak peek into her debut title, The Stranger.
Low-rise jeans and skimpy T-shirts come face-to-face with aprons
and bonnets when a young woman discovers she’s Amish.
When Kristen Esh loses her mom in a tragic accident months
before her eighteenth birthday, she
suddenly finds herself among Amish relatives she never knew she had. The
dramatic change from the Jersey Shore to the remote Stone Arabia in upstate, New York is difficult
enough, but abiding by the Amish rules and lifestyle is a challenge unlike any
other.
When anonymous notes begin to arrive for her to go back to
where she came from, Kristen longs for her past life and her mom. As she
discovers secrets that unravel her true identity, she finds an unlikely ally in
John Wagler, the step-son of her aunt. He lessens Kristen’s fears and
encourages her faith.
Interwoven with gradual revelations is the growing love
between Kristen and John. One that encourages forgiveness and helps seal
Kristen’s fate.
She received another nudge. This time she sat up and looked over at the source of the gentle push.
A small girl with honey-blonde braids stood there, wearing a sheer white head veering and a blue dress and apron. A miniature version of Aunt Elizabeth, except that her hair wasn’t tucked into a bun and her dress was a lighter shade of blue.
Oh no! This wasn’t a dream!
“Hi. I’m Anna. And you’re Kristen, my Englisch cousin. Mamm said to wake you from your nap for supper.”
The Stranger can be purchased directly from Pelican Book Group or on Amazon.
Linda Maran has been writing since
she was a young teen, mostly poetry back then.
In her late twenties she became
ill and was unable to work at her current job as a secretary for a large firm,
so she turned idle time into writing time.
Having a love for cooking she
wrote many food articles and even put together a regional cookbook.
Unfortunately, two such books had already been published, but she had a lot of
fun doing it, and learned quite a bit about discipline and organization.
In 2004, she wrote and self-published:
Confronting The Bully of OCD. She felt that there was a need for such a book
and put herself out there in order to help other sufferers. The book contains
the techniques taught to her by a New York City OCD specialist, who graciously
allowed her to do that and who wrote the forward to the book.
She also had a small self-help
booklet published by Liguori in 2002, Living with Pain 25 Practical Steps.
Linda always loved to read good
stories with a twist and tried her hand at fiction. At the time she submitted
it to literary agent, Mary Sue Seymour. It was she who encouraged her to keep
writing (despite the fact that her submission was not up to par at the time.)
She suggested that Linda join RWA
and a Christian critique group and finally, asked her to try to write an Amish
romance.
Linda never heard of Amish
Inspirational Romance. But remembered
how she enjoyed and was fascinated by a trip to Lancaster, PA earlier, and so
embarked on setting her goals in that direction. She then read her first Amish
book called, The Shunning, by Beverly Lewis and was hooked.
Having a place an hour and a half
from Montgomery County , NY
Linda also writes contemporary Inspirational romance
and is completing such a novel at present. She maintains several self-help blogs and
continues to use personal circumstances to try to help others.
Find out more about Linda by visiting one of her many blogs and connecting with her on Face Book and Amazon.
Hope you enjoyed today's spotlight and that you'll drop by weekly for more great authors and their books and an occasional Tuesday Treasures and Thursday Thoughts.
Until next time, take care and God Bless.
PamT
8 comments:
I love the plot of your book. Discovering you're Amish has got to be a jolt! And I think it's really great that you wrote a book about dealing with OCD. That was really brave! Good luck to you!
Linda,
This sounds like a really good book! Congrats.
Hi Linda,
This sounds like an awesome read.
All the best to you.
Best wishes, Linda. Pam, I tried to keep the cold up here in Michigan, but we're freezing up here (-5F) so we're sharing. LOL
How exciting, Linda. Congratulations!
Oh my gosh, love the premise for this book! Enjoyed the exerpt...best wishes!
Thank you, everyone, for the kind words. And thank you, Pam, for spotlighting me. :)
Well, as a native of the Jersey Shore, I can imagine what a culture shock that must have been! (And I'm talking about "real" Jerseyans, not those people who pretended on TV!) Wishing you much success with the book and your writing career!
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