Research for my Writing

By Mary EllisAh, research…the mere mention of the word causes stress in students from junior high age on up through graduate school. But research for a writer of Amish fiction is something quite different. I usually can’t wait to get away from my computer, check into my favorite bed & breakfast in Amish Country, and learn more about their culture. I know I’ll find gorgeous scenery, delicious meals, and friendly people eager to help. I usually come home from weekend trips with a trunk filled with homemade peanut butter, bulk seasonings, several kinds of cheese, and jars of pickled everything-under-the-sun.
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No bleary-eyed studying until dawn’s early light for this gal.

Since the main plot of The Way to a Man’s Heart involves a train car converted into a diner, I haunted rural restaurants, surreptitiously eavesdropping on waitresses over the top of my menu. I ate several times in the auction barn cafeteria, sampling daily specials and various pie recipes.

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Since I mess up brownies out of a box, I hired an Amish baker to invent the recipes that appear in my story. Her farm happens to be adjacent to the B&B where I stay. My husband and I were invited for dinner and pie-tasting so that I might choose the perfect pies for my story. What tribulation to be forced to eat three different versions of Chocolate Mousse Supreme! Her family (husband and all four children present) provided an experience that money can’t buy.
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Since one of my subplots involves a horse training facility, I attended several facilities and followed buyers and trainers around asking questions. It’s not my fault they assumed I was in the market to buy an expensive horse. I must say, jotting notes on a sunny morning, surrounded by magnificent four-legged beasts is far more enjoyable than surfing websites.
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Not that I don’t do plenty of online research too. For my second subplot, when Emma and her (non-Amish) husband convert to New Order, I studied the differences in practices and customs on the internet. Although I occasionally ask my Amish friends about their church services, I don’t want to become pesky or too invasive.
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To research Sarah’s Christmas Miracle, I visited the city where I attended college—but this time as an observer. I rode buses, trains, and subways, admired the city square and train station, hiked through neighborhoods hard hit by the foreclosure crisis, and walked the beach in winter. What fun to be a tourist in your own hometown, seeing things through fresh eyes.
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Writing books is very hard work. But doing the research for my summer releases, the only thing that suffered was my waistline.
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