Authors: Beth Wiseman
Plain Proposal (38 page)
Barbie Beiler, are you getting tired of being mentioned in every single book. . . lol? Seriously, I couldn’t do this without you. Peace and love to you always, my friend.
Big thanks to my Old Order Amish friends in Pennsylvania and Colorado for helping me to keep each book authentic—and for sharing your recipes with me. Peace and blessings to all of you.
To my mother, Pat Isley, for always being on hand to answer the smallest grammatical question on a regular basis. More importantly, for your encouragement, love, and constant support. I love you very much, Mother.
And everyone should be so fortunate to have a mother-in-law who cooks for them. To the best mother-in-law in the world—Pat Mackey—sending much love and thanks your way!
Janet Murphy, I’ve thought about the way things played out and how you came to work for me. This is a union truly blessed by God. Not only are you a fabulous assistant and publicity coordinator, but I’m also so fortunate to have you as my friend. I hope we make this entire journey together.
To my agent, Mary Sue Seymour—what a great year we’ve had! In addition to guiding my career, we’ve had some wonderful times together. I see more shoe shopping and trips to P.F. Chang’s in our future!
Jenny Baumgartner, some authors dread their line edits, but with you, I know that you will make it as painless as possible, and your great suggestions always make the book so much better in the end. Love and blessings to you and your family. I can’t wait to meet you in person someday, hopefully soon!
Not a day goes by that I don’t recognize God’s hand on my writing. It is only because of Him that I am able to pull together the screaming voices in my head and organize them into a story that I hope both entertains and draws people closer to Him.
Thank You
.
1. Throughout the story, Miriam is sure that she wants to be Saul’s
fraa
, but when it finally comes time for her to marry him and leave, she cries on her mother’s shoulder. What are some of the emotions Miriam feels as she enters this new phase in her life?
2. Rebecca has two strong reasons for not wanting Miriam to date Saul. What are they, and do you think Rebecca’s concerns are valid? Or should she have trusted Miriam to make good decisions and not interfered?
3. Shelby is depressed, void of hope, and doesn’t have much faith in the beginning of the story. What are some turning points for her? What and who inspire her to look within herself to seek God?
4. What are some of the things that Shelby loves about life among the Amish? What does she have a hard time adjusting to? What about you? What could you not live without within an Old Order Amish district?
5. Saul is afraid for members of the community to find out about his father’s drinking, fearing his family will be shamed. Do you know of someone who kept a family secret that was perhaps not in the best interest of everyone involved? What was the outcome?
6. What would have happened if Rebecca hadn’t stepped in to help Zeb? How could things have possibly played out differently?
7. At first, Aaron tells Rebecca that they must let Miriam make her own decisions, but his attitude changes when he finds out that Saul wants to leave the district and take Miriam with him. At what point does Aaron confess his true feelings about Miriam leaving?
8. More and more Amish families are giving up their phone shanties. Most of them have phones in the barn or even cell phones. What are your thoughts about the Amish embracing some forms of modern technology, but not others—such as electricity and automobiles?
9. Shelby uses her diary as a way to voice her private thoughts, but she stops writing in the journal after she begins to reconnect with God. Have you ever kept a journal, and if so, was it in addition to or in lieu of communion with God? Or neither one?
10. Forgiveness is a theme that runs throughout the book, and several characters must forgive either themselves or others. What are some examples of this?
11. By the end of the book, Shelby and Jesse have formed a friendship. Shelby is now a member of the Amish community, but Jesse mentions earlier on that he has a curiosity about the outside world and what it would be like to leave the district. Do you think he was just saying that because he thought Shelby would be leaving their community, or do you think Jesse might leave? Or is it normal for him to be curious and casually ponder the idea?
12. Saul is driven to live in the outside world and be a chef in a fancy restaurant. Besides his love of food and cooking, how does this external desire reveal what is truly inside of Saul? Is he a caregiver by nature? Does he enjoy pleasing others?
Amish Recipes
Overnight Blueberry French Toast
12 thick slices of bread, cut into 1" cubes
1 8-oz. pkg. cream cheese, cut in ½" cubes
1½ cups blueberries (fresh, frozen, or canned)
12 eggs
3 cups maple syrup
2 cups milk
Place half the bread cubes in a buttered 9" x 13" baking pan. Distribute all the cream cheese on top. Add remaining bread cubes and blueberries. Set aside. In a bowl, beat the eggs, syrup, and milk; pour evenly in the pan. Cover and refrigerate overnight. Then cover with foil and bake at 350° for 30 minutes. Remove foil and bake another 20 to 30 minutes (longer if necessary) until golden brown. Serve immediately.
Cheddar Meat Loaf
3 eggs
½ cup milk
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
½ cup quick oats
½ cup onions, chopped
1 tsp. salt
1 dash black pepper
1 lb. ground beef
Sauce
cup ketchup
½ cup light brown sugar, packed
1½ tsp. yellow mustard
In a mixing bowl, beat eggs and milk. Stir in cheese, oats, onions, salt, and pepper. Add beef and mix thoroughly. Place in a pan. Mix ketchup, brown sugar, and mustard; pour over meat. Bake uncovered at 350° for 45 minutes.
Stromboli
Dough
1 pkg. active dry yeast
1 cup warm water
1 tsp. sugar
2 Tbsp. vegetable oil
2½ cups bread flour
Filling
1 lb. cheese, diced
½ lb. ham, diced
½ lb. salami, diced
2 Tbsp. spaghetti sauce (or cream of mushroom soup)
1 medium onion, diced (optional)
Topping
1 tsp. seasoned salt
1 Tbsp. butter, melted
1 16-oz. jar spaghetti or pizza sauce
In a large bowl, mix all the dough ingredients. Wait 5 minutes, then divide dough into six equal parts. Roll each into a circle. Each stuffed stromboli will have a top and bottom circle of dough. On three of the circles, place
of the cheese and meat in the center, making sure to leave an empty edge all around, then add the onion and sauce. Cover each with a plain dough circle. Pinch edges to seal tight. Sprinkle tops with seasoned salt and bake at 350° for 20 minutes. Brush each with butter, top with sauce, and serve.
T
HE
T
HOMAS
N
ELSON
F
ICTION TEAM INVITED OUR
authors to interview any other Thomas Nelson Fiction author in an unplugged Q&A session. They could ask any questions about any topic they wanted to know more about. What we love most about these conversations is that they reveal just as much about the ones asking the questions as they do the authors who are responding. So sit back and enjoy the discussion. Maybe you’ll even be intrigued enough to pick up one of Golden’s novels and discover a new favorite writer in the process.
B
ETH
W
ISEMAN
: Hi, Golden. First of all, I’d like to tell you how much I enjoyed
In the Shadow of the Sun King
. As someone who knows very little about seventeenth-century France, I found the details to be fascinating, plus it was just a wonderful story. Can you tell us how you came to write your Darkness to Light series?
G
OLDEN
K
EYES
P
ARSONS
: The series is based on my family genealogy set in seventeenth-century France. They were French Huguenots (Protestants) who were being persecuted for their faith by the Catholic government of Louis XIV and had to flee their homeland.
I had no knowledge of my strong heritage of faith until I ran across a published genealogy of the Clavell family packed away in a box. The family history had gotten buried through the years and forgotten. My mother never spoke of it, so I’m assuming that she didn’t know either.
B
ETH
: How closely do your books follow your family’s history?
G
OLDEN
: Very loosely. I didn’t have access to many concrete facts, so I used bits and pieces of our family’s story to flesh out the fictional story line.
For example, in the first book,
In the Shadow of the Sun King
, the time frame is fifty years earlier than when my ancestors fled France, but my editor thought we should incorporate the very colorful character of Louis XIV. However, my family did live in southern France around Grenoble. And they did flee to Switzerland. A Francois Clavell actually was sentenced to the galleys. And so on.
The second book,
A Prisoner of Versailles
, probably follows the story of the literal Clavell family the least. However, King Louis really did send spies into Switzerland to bring Huguenots back into France. He did have a sweetheart from his youth, who people say was his true love, but he was not permitted to marry her. So like all historical novels, the thread of factual history runs through them.
The concluding book in the series,
Where Hearts Are Free
, tells the story of the Clavell family in this country, settling in Central Pennsylvania in the Schuylkill Valley, which they did. The property is still farmland, and there are pictures on my website of those farms. My ancestor, whose name was Louisa, not Madeleine, truly had to sell her sons to redemptioners to pay for their passage over. And her husband was washed overboard with all their money, so she arrived in this country a widow, and then had to sell her children as indentured slaves. I cannot imagine what a strong, courageous woman she must have been.
B
ETH
: What’s next for you as far as writing?
G
OLDEN
: I have a book set during the Civil War in Texas coming out in the fall of 2011 to coincide with the 150th anniversary of the beginning of the Civil War. I loved doing the research on this one. I learned so much about our state that I didn’t know. The title is
His Steadfast Love
, and it deals with torn loyalties of a young woman between her Southern family and her sweetheart, who is a Union officer.
B
ETH
: How does your faith play a part in what you write?
G
OLDEN
: My faith is what and who I am. At no point in my books did I ever stop and say, “Guess it’s time to add a little faith message here.” In fact, there were a couple of times that I had to go back and tone it down a bit from sounding too preachy. I love to write about the realities of life and then show how God redeems those situations.
