Working on My Ninth Amish-Country Mystery

I have been idle on this blog for quite a long time, and I thought I had better explain.  You see, it is the writer’s life that accounts for this.  I have been buried deep into the process of writing the ninth Amish-Country Mystery, and I have not had time to spare for blogging.  My creative process requires long stretches of thinking and writing, and I become so absorbed with the details of a story that I am able to think of very little else.  Just ask my wife Madonna.  She will often find me stretched out on a sofa, or leaned back in a chair, doing apparently nothing at all.  She asks from time to time what I am doing, but she knows.  I am writing, even if it appears I am on siesta.

The ninth Amish-Country Mystery is proving a bit more difficult than others have been.  It is a sequel to the eighth one, The Names of Our Tears, which will be published on May 28, 2013, by Plume, a Division of Penguin Group USA.  And The Names of Our Tears was delayed for over a year in the process of my switching to a new publisher.

At any rate, The Names of Our Tears is off to a great start.  Early reviews are coming in, and the news is good.  First, Kirkus Reviews gave it Starred Review status, marking it as a particularly notable book.  That in itself is quite an honor, but the evaluation of the novel was excellent, too.  Also, Library Journal will include The Names of Our Tears in its Mystery Series Lineup in April, and they intend to use the cover of the book with their article. 

So novel number eight is already out there working well with those who have reviewed it, and novel number nine is busy working me over as its author.  And it is quite a good work over that I am getting.  There needs to be plenty of time on the sofa for me during spring cleaning and summer’s lawn maintenance.  At least that is what I tell Madonna.  I know she understands.  I hope you do too, since I might not post on this blog as often as I would like.  Once you have read the ninth novel in the series, I hope you will agree that it was worth the wait.

Drug Use by the Amish Youth of Holmes County, Ohio

I don’t know precisely why I find it so sad to see Amish kids mixed up with drug use, but I do.  I suppose I have a tendency to harbor the notion that Amish people are set apart for a higher purpose.  To be sure, they are.  But they are also just people, like any of the rest of us, and although they may strive for an unusually high standard of saintliness, they sometimes do not achieve it.  Such is the case recently in Holmes County, Ohio, of a young Amish man who has now been sentenced to thirty days in jail after pleading guilty to two counts of trafficking in drugs.  He sold marijuana and spice to an informant.

Spice is a mix of dried plant material and synthetic cannabinoids that affects a user as if it were concentrated THC, the active ingredient in marijuana.  It is quite popular these days, along with other synthetic marijuanas like K2, Blaze, Yucatan Fire, Skunk and Moon Rocks. 

Fifty years ago, would anyone have believed that Amish youngsters would get involved with drugs like this?  Don’t answer too quickly.  Amish people sometimes smoke and drink beer and wine.  And Amish teens have gotten into their share of trouble with law enforcement.  They always have.  In truth it is nothing new.  It’s just that it seems to be happening more these days than it used to. 

The man in this case has cooperated with officials, and he has gone home to his family.  Perhaps his Rumspringe is over.  At the time of his sentencing, he declared that it was his intention to join the Amish church.  That is a good thing, but it could have been worse for him.  He was originally sentenced to nine months in prison, but that sentence was suspended.  He also was fined $600 and ordered to pay $60 in restitution.  Also, his license was suspended for a year, he was placed on three years of community control sanctions, and he will have a year of electronically monitored house arrest.  During his thirty day jail sentence, he was given work release.  If he violates probation, his original sentence will be reinstated.  Any way you look at this, that is a stiff sentence for an Amish lad.

But what of the larger question about Amish people who find themselves in trouble with the law?  Should we be surprised when it happens?  Increasingly, I am afraid, the answer is ‘no.’  It seems every month there is more news about one kind of criminality or another somewhere in the country involving Amish people.  As hard as they try to hold themselves apart from the rest of modern society, the Amish still prove themselves to be just people, human like the rest of us. 

Is that sad?  Surely.  But perhaps it is inevitable.  At least to some extent.  Still, Amish people do strive for a higher religious standard.  Maybe that’s why the rest of us are so taken when they fail.