Posted by Kathleen Pooler/@kathypooler with Shirley Showalter/@shirleyhs
” We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow man.” Herman Melville
I am thrilled to feature Shirley Showalter in this guest post on her new memoir, Blush: A Mennonite Girl Meets a Glittering World. Shirley and I met online several years ago and have been following each other ever since. Her blog is an excellent writing resource as a well as a source of ongoing inspiration and motivation for writers.
On June 4, 2013, 100 days before her book publication,she launched “The 100-day Challenge”, inviting her readers to participate in a “New Beginnings Challenge” where we shared a new beginning we had experienced each day. In doing so , she led us all gently , yet enthusiastically by the hand into her own personal journey to publication.
My reviews of Blush can be found on Amazon and Goodreads
Blush: A Mennonite Girl Meets a Glittering World Book Cover
Excerpt of Book Description from the back cover:
“Little Shirley Hershey grew up in a plain Mennonite home, yet she was named for a movie star. With her nose pressed to the window of the glittering world, she felt intensely the gap that existed in the 1950s and 60s between Mennonites and the larger world. This is a story of how a rosy-cheeked, barefoot Mennonite farm girl prepared to enter the glittering world and learned to do it on her own terms.”
Welcome , Shirley!
A Chance Encounter…
Do you believe in divine providence? Or in destiny?
Here’s an author/reader story that confirms my belief in both.
My husband picked a surprise destination for our 44th wedding anniversary: Tangier Island. To get there, we traveled by boat—the Chesapeake Breeze ferry. By chance we met another couple. Eventually the topic of my book entered the conversation.
I discovered that the woman in our shipmate couple loved to travel to Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, the setting for most Amish and Mennonite romances, and that she was one of the millions of readers of fiction depicting this subculture. Like many of those readers, she identified herself as an evangelical Christian.
I was very excited to meet her, because I wanted to know if the interest in Anabaptist (a term that includes both Amish and Mennonite) fiction translates into an interest in Anabaptist memoir. In my new friend’s case it did! She has ordered two copies of Blush, and I plan to autograph them before my publisher sends them to her. She should have them by the time you read this story.
Background: I had read my first Amish romance novel as I prepared to launch my childhood memoir Blush: A Mennonite Girl Meets a Glittering World.
I chose Harvest of Hearts by Laura V. Hilton. The plot consists of a romance between a “drop-dead-gorgeous Amish man” Matthew Yoder and an Amish girl runaway Shanna Stoltzfus, who has to eventually choose where her true home is.
I chose this book because the Amish Fiction Group on Goodreads made it their selection. In my own youth I enjoyed Christian fiction, especially romance, so I understand the appeal of a love story that confirms one’s own belief system yet offers an intriguing window into a different culture – and enough conflict to make the pulse quicken.
In the year 2012 there were 85 Amish romances published, most of them to an excited, loyal readership. Valerie Weaver Zercher’s book Thrill of the Chaste explains the amazing growth of this publishing phenomenon. I carried Amish memoirist Saloma Miller Furlong’s review of this book on my blog, and a stimulating conversation ensued.
One of the many reasons I wrote Blush is that for a long time I felt a connection between the story of my childhood and the longing that brings tourists to Lancaster County (and to a half dozen other Mennonite and Amish communities, mostly in the East and Midwest). I described that longing as an element of finding my own voice as a writer in this post on Susan Weidener’s blog:
Writing to Find Authentic Voice
Now here’s the truly amazing part of this story. I was taking a course from marketing expert Dan Blank: Master Class :Roadmap to Readers at the time of this trip to Tangier Island. He had asked all of us writers to describe our ideal reader.
I had just constructed this picture of “Rachel,” my ideal reader.
Now, here in front of me was a “Rachel.” She was a woman I knew I would enjoy getting to know better. As she reads and responds to my memoir, this is what I hope to learn:
- Where were you moved, inspired, challenged as you read?
- Who else might enjoy this book?
- Where do those people congregate?
- Will you help me connect with them?
Was meeting “Rachel” on the boat to Tangier a chance encounter or was it God having fun, stirring up a few waves in the Chesapeake?
You decide.
I know what my answer is.
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Author Bio: Shirley Hershey Showalter grew up on a Mennonite family farm near Lititz, Pennsylvania. The first person in her family to go to college, she eventually became the first woman president of Goshen College in Indiana. After six years as an executive at the Fetzer Institute, Kalamazoo, Michigan, she became a full-time writer living in Harrisonburg, Virginia.
Shirley can be reached at:
Twitter @Shirleyhs.
Her Facebook fan page : https://www.facebook.com/ShirleyHersheyShowalter.
Her Google + profile is here: https://plus.google.com/u/0/117720879252864367816/about
Her website
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Thank you Shirley for transporting us into your publishing journey as well as into your “real -life plain life.” You have shown us how connecting with your purpose for writing helped you find your readers.
How about you? Who is your ideal reader? Have you ever had a chance encounter that changed your life as a writer? Do tell!
Shirley has graciously offered to give away a copy of Blush to a commenter whose name will be selected in a random drawing.
We’d love to hear from you. Please leave your comments below~
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Stay Tuned: Every Friday in October Memoir Author, Coach, Editor Denis Ledoux of The Memoir Network will present four posts on Memoir Writing Tips in preparation for “November is Life Writing Month”
10/4: Action is Essential in Memoir Writing
10/11: Describing Characters in Memoir Can Be Easy
10/18: Establish Your Setting
10/25: Conveying Theme Effectively
Denis has generously offered to give away his Memoir Starter Package at the end of the series to a commenter whose name will be selected in a random drawing.
Next Week:
Monday, October 7: I will be participating in The Memoir Network Blog Carnival with “What Memoir Writers Have in Common with Sculptors.”
Wednesday, October 9: Memoir Author Paige Strickland will discuss ” How I Found my Memoir While Searching For My Roots” in conjunction with the release of her memoir, Akin to the Truth: A Memoir of Adoption and Identity.
Friday, October 11: Memoir Writing Tips byDenis Ledoux as above.