New thoughts on Amish Fiction

So. After enjoying several posts on the completely terrific Stuff White Christians Like blog, I started thinking.

There are some who find the content on the SWCL blog offensive. I'm sad for them; they have no sense of humor (ironically, they probably like Adam Sandler). Nobody likes white Christians. We are not hip. We are not politically correct. No one wants to see a white Christian on TV, at least not a white out-of-the-closet Christian, talking about Christian things.

All we have left is to make fun of ourselves. Not like it's hard.

Well, let's think of something else White Christians like - Amish Fiction. And see, I used to think it was about security, about knowing nothing truly awful was going to happen in an Amish book, about the soothing setting of the Amish kitchen.

Now I think it's all about white Christian un-hipness. Because when you look at it, Amish people are less hip than white Christians. I mean, they don't get to drive American-made cars. They don't even have an opportunity to argue about whether to call the sanctuary a sanctuary or a fellowhsip hall, because most Amish attend church in each other's homes.

White Christians love Amish fiction because it makes them feel hip by comparison.

Just Can't Stop Blogging

Things are continuously changing on AmishReader.com. Now authors have a feature where we can keep a cute little blog on the site. The blog has different content than this one, a little more geared toward the Reader of Amish Fiction (rather than the Amish Reader, who presumably wouldn't have a computer). It's a bit more PR (read: no demotivator posters).

If you'd like to check it out, it's here. I did post some info on the book that is unavailable anywhere else, and will be following up with answers to some of the questions I get asked a lot.

I'm ALMOST done with the book. Very close. Like, one chapter. Need to be done soon, because I've decided that I want to make striped throw pillows for my couch, and possily a new lampshade, and play the piano, and try an Italian chicken dish I've been meaning to make for a month...

A Little Less Conversation, a Little More Amish Please

It’s day one at the Oregon Christian Writers’ conference, and we’re already worn out. I say “we,” because Danny’s here running around, running sound and pretty much anything with wires. It's great fun because we're equally tired, and equally loopy.

I love the conferences because it's like summer camp for writers. Most of us are slightly odd ducks, so you get a group of us together making bad writing-related puns and exchanging rejection stories.

There is much conversation over what editors are looking for. Most of us want to know what those elusive editors are looking for, even though I think, subconsciously, we just want them to be looking for us. We don't want to conform to what they're looking for.

The big topic this year is over the Amish: everyone wants Amish. Those of us who write contemporary fiction lament over the fact that what we write just isn't selling. It's hard to remember sometimes that even Christian publishing is a business. Publishers want to acquire books that will sell. Nobody wants unsold books to be recycled into toilet paper. Nobody wants to be responsible for producing a book that will run a deficit.

The publishing industry is not unlike Hollywood; if they find something that sells, they'll make a lot of us. And while that may irritate the creative at heart, we do have to realize it's good business practice.

The question creatives have to ask themselves is, "how creative am I?" Are we creative enough to write salable books? Are we capable of crafting stories that follow the trends, in order to avoid a toilet paper future?

Will the Amish trend blow over? You bet your buggy. Will it blow over before new Amish acquisitions are released? Yeah, probably. Which is why it's important to write stories that supercede trend. Stories that may involve quilting and buggies but also tell a solid story in an unexpected way.

I know for me, Plain Jane will not be the only book I write. There will be more. And it won't be all Amish all the time. Next year, there will be a new "Amish."

Aliens, probably. But we'll see.