Northkill Amish Series

Voting for the Christian Indie Awards is now open, and Bob Hochstetler and I covet your vote for The Return, Book 2 of our Northkill Amish Series, closely based on the inspiring true story of our Amish ancestors. Voting is open through March 31, 2018. To vote, go here, click on the link, scroll down to The Return, in the Historical Fiction category, and submit your vote. Book 1, Northkill, won the 2014 Foreword Magazine Indie Award, and The Return has already won the Interviews and Reviews 2017 Silver Award for Historical Fiction. We greatly appreciate your help in spreading the word about this series, and contest awards are one of the best ways to do that.

Below are some of the latest 5-star reviews for the Northkill Amish Series. We thank all our readers for their encouraging feedback!

“This first book in the two-part Northkill Amish series was a reading experience unlike any other. What makes this novel even more gut-wrenching is that the story is based on true events that happened to the ancestors of the authors. In astonishing descriptions based on solid research, the authors bring to life the story of an Indian attack on an Amish family during the French and Indian War. It is brutal and painful to read, yet so astounding in the depth of the spiritual struggle of the captives that are forced to undergo suffering and separation from loved ones. It is a book I could not put down and will never forget. I am anxious to read the sequel.” —HistoryLover (Amazon)

“I stayed up till 2 am this morning so I could finish The Return ... the story of an Amish family whose lives were shattered when Indians attacked their home and three family members were killed while three were kidnapped. This novel ... is based on true events. It was also written by descendants of the family, who obviously poured themselves into the research behind this book and produced a stellar series.

“I barely know where to begin with my review because this book is more than a historical tale. It is a life-changing experience as you read about people of faith who must deal with the reality that God sometimes allows suffering. The why of it is not always plainly seen. Sometimes God’s truth and purposes in that suffering are revealed in time. Yet there are situations in life that make no sense from our earthly perspective and may never make sense in this life.

“Powerfully written and engaging, The Return is a must read for Christians who think that pain and suffering only happens to sinners. For indeed it does, because we all have sinned. Yet not all of us must go through such suffering. Read this series and be changed forever. Five plus stars.” —HistoryLover (Amazon)

“Beautiful story. It is like Swiss Family Robinson, The Odyssey, Daniel Boone and Light in the Forest all rolled into one.” —Bill Hostetler (Amazon).

“I have heard the stories about my Amish ancestors, but they always seemed more legend than reality. The authors have succeeded in filling in the gaps of the family folklore by giving flesh-and-blood reality to the characters in this drama. I was impressed with the thorough research that supported the narrative, and with the vivid description of frontier life for Amish immigrants. But I was most impressed by the quality of the writing that kept me engaged throughout.” —Arvilla (Amazon).

Update: Refiner's Fire

Now that The Return has released, I’m back at work on book 6 of this series, Refiner’s Fire. For the time being I’m dividing my time between research and writing the first few chapters, with greater focus for now on research. Be assured that there’s lots of adventure, intrigue, danger, and romance still ahead for Elizabeth and Jonathan, along with the rest of the cast of characters, both those already established and new ones. This time the most important action shifts to France and on the high seas.

Detail of Chateau de Versailles, Pierre Patel, 1668. Wikicommons

At this point I’m projecting a release date of either Fall 2018 or Spring 2019. I hope you’ll follow along with this blog as I share progress and sneak peeks into the action from time to time!

Hallelujah!

Considering that we’re in the Easter season, the title of this post seems particularly apropos. In addition, a few days ago I finally wrote The End to the draft of Valley of the Shadow. Talk about excitement! I truly felt like breaking out into the “Hallelujah Chorus”! With all the unexpected twists and turns this installment of the series took me on, and all the resulting recalculations I had to make, I was beginning to wonder if I was ever going to finally get it done. 

Just figuring out where to break the realigned storyline to create a logical ending was an ordeal. The word count was already higher than I wanted by the time I got to the end of December 1777, blowing away my original plan to end right after Monmouth at the end of June 1778 with a temporarily—the operative word here being temporarily—peaceful conclusion for my characters. But I managed to bring it to what feels like a nicely suspenseful ending—albeit another cliffhanger, which I was hoping not to do after the last one!—late in February 1778 without getting to Daughter of Liberty’s final word count of 127,000+, which admittedly is ridiculous!

Now it’s time to slash words. There are places where the narrative gets down into the weeds, and I’m going to try to condense, streamline, and extract details that don’t really have to be there. But first I’m taking a break for a couple of weeks. I want to be able to come back to the story relatively fresh, with a more objective perspective. And I have several friends—God bless you!—reading through it as well to give me their feedback, which will enter into the final edit. 

After I have final text I’ll flow it into my page-making software, QuarkXPress, Marisa will add the back and spine to the front cover, and we’ll be ready to go to print. And, of course, my friend John McClure will turn it into the ebook files asap. Before that’s all finished, however, I’ll already be working on research for book 2 of the Northkill Amish Series, The Return. And then back to book 6 of this series, Refiner’s Fire. I’ll tell ya, an author’s work is never done!

By the way, Valley of the Shadow is now available for preorder! For some reason Amazon doesn’t have it discounted, but Christianbook.com has a very nice price. Check it out!