This week I’m hosting Marta Perry with The Forgiven (US and Canada only) and Maureen Lang with The Gift Wrapped Bride from 12 Brides of Christmas (ebook only). If you want to enter the drawings for the books, please leave a comment on your post with your email address. I will not enter you without an email address (my way to contact you if you win). If you don’t want to leave an email address, another way you can enter is to email me at margaretdaley@gmail.com. The drawings end Sunday (Nov. 2nd) evening.
Interview with the heroine from The Forgiven by Marta Perry:
1. Rebecca Fisher, tell me the most interesting thing about you. I am Amish, a mother, a widow, and one of the people my grandmother has chosen to carry on the stories of our Amish family in America. I agreed to learn and cherish the family history because I love my grandmother, but it has had an unexpected result. Through exploring the diaries of Anna, a young Amish girl coming of age during World War II, I’ve not only been encouraged by her faith and courage but have found courage of my own to move on with my life.
2. What do you do for fun? For me, fun is being with family. When we get together for a work frolic, the simplest job can become a joy. My two cousins, the only other females in my generation, are as close to me as sisters, and we love being together.
3. What do you put off doing because you dread it? My dear husband had the dream of running a Farm Stay business on our farm, and he had a natural gift for making our Englisch guests feel welcome in an Amish home. I have no such talent, but somehow I must find a way to succeed on my own.
4. What are you afraid of most in life? All my life I’ve had someone to depend on. I’m afraid—afraid I’ll fail at Paul’s dream, afraid I’ll lose the farm that is home to us, afraid I won’t be a good parent to our two children.
5. What do you want out of life? I want most to be a woman of strength, like my grandmother, so that I can teach that to my own children.
6. What is the most important thing to you? My family and my faith are the most important things in the world to me.
7. Do you read? If so, what is your favorite type of book to read? I love stories of families overcoming obstacles and establishing homes—like the Little House on the Prairie books. In the family diaries I’ve been reading, Anna Esch has had to face unexpected pain as she and her family struggle to live up to the Amish tradition of non-violence in a world of war. I wonder if I could be as brave as she was.
8. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be? I would be more outgoing and independent, like my cousin Barbie. She never seems to hesitate to speak out for what she wants, but my courage fails so easily.
9. Do you have a pet? If so, what is it and why that pet? Living on a farm, our animals are workers, like us, not pets, but my buggy horse is especially dear to me. Sometimes she seems to know where I’m going better than I do.
10. If you could travel back in time, where would you go and why? I would go back to 1941, so that I could tell Anna how much her courage means to me.