Interview with Laura V. Hilton!!!

Welcome Laura to this special week celebrating the release of your third book!! With this release we wanted to take some time to speak with you.  It is funny doing an interview like this, since we are close friends, but I wanted to let my readers get to know you better, so lets start with something fun.

Tell us 3 random facts about you that most people who have read your books won’t know.  

1.    My maternal Grandparents left the Amish.
2.    When I worked as a waitress I met Roy Clark and Buck Owens. Bill Clinton spoke at my high school graduation.
3.    I married my husband three months after I met him.

For those who haven’t gotten to read your third book yet, give us a short blurb about the book.  Promised to Another Book 3 Amish of Seymour

Annie Beiler is an Amish school teacher. She was in love with an Amish man, Luke Stultz, but Luke left the Amish community during his rumspringa, but not without begging Annie to go with him. Now Luke is back, trying to win back Annie’s love. Joshua Esh may be Amish, but he has been bitten by the travel bug. He sees the opportunity to relocate from Pennsylvania to Missouri as a way to satisfy his longing to see another place yet remain with people of his faith. Josh quickly notices the beautiful Annie, but Annie is slow to respond. With Luke in the picture, and Josh’s admission that he willingly left his district, will either man be steady and dependable enough to win the gift of Annie’s heart?

This book ends the Amish of Seymour, are you sad to leave these characters? Yes, I am.  I’ll miss them.

While you were writing, did you ever feel as if you were one of the characters? (which one if so)  No, I’m not any of the characters.  The closest one to me would probably be Becky as she was quiet and shy and I am too. Becky and I also had a similar bad thing happen in relationships. Fortunately, I didn’t get pregnant from mine, but it helped me understand her personality better. 

Seriously, I did feel as if I became close friends with all the characters in my books. I’d love to go up to Seymour and visit them…. If only I could.  

Your maternal grandparents left the Amish, have you ever considered telling their story in one of your books?  No. Because it isn’t a nice story. It’d be women’s fiction, in a style similar to what Mary DeMuth writes.  It’s really a sad story, about a dysfunctional family and my grandmother marrying a much older man in order to escape, and he had a dysfunctional family too so she exchanged one bad situation for another.  No one was saved until later in life, my grandfather actually on his death bed.  

Who is the person who first encouraged your writing?  Well, I never was brave enough to tell anyone I wanted to be one other than my parents for years. I mean I might have mentioned it to some earlier, but they reacted with a “that’s a nice dream” type look and a pat on the head. Not real encouraging. Mom was real supportive of my first attempts. My husband is too.

When did you first consider yourself a writer?   When my oldest daughter was a baby, in 1996 or so, I thought it was time to “come out of the closet” with my writing. I joined ACFW (then ACRW) and went to a conference.  Of course, I didn’t know the writing rules so my first “wonderful” story wasn’t exactly anything of interest to publishing companies. J

What type of research have you done in writing your Amish books?  All kinds.  I read Ira Wagner’s book, Growing Up Amish, I watched the DVD “The Devil’s Playground,” among other commentaries.  I talked to Susanne Woods Fisher and Sherry Gore, and I made several trips to Seymour to meet the Amish and observe the Amish in that area.

What would you say is your writing quirk?  I don’t know if I have one.  I don’t like listening to music when I write. Normal talking/playing around me doesn’t bother me, but I can’t handle arguing or fighting when I write. I don’t plot, I like the surprises that “seat of the pant” writing brings. I also seem to homeschool, read, and write almost simultaneously.   If I get stuck, I read a bit, or if I start misspelling because I’m too tired to type. 

We know that you have a new contract for another Amish Series, can you tell us about the first book, perhaps the title and when it is coming out?  I don’t know the title or the exact release.  My agent said something about July 2012, but it might be later in the summer, I guess depending on how much editing it needs.   But this is the blurb:

Amish of Webster County, book 1: Who knew Cupid had four paws? Amish midwife Kristine Lapp’s dog, Chinook, develops a slew of unfamiliar ailments that sends Kristi to Shane Zimmerman, their veterinarian neighbor. Shane has Amish grandparents, but never pursued their faith. After his wife died in childbirth, Shane moves to Amish country to live and serve. Prejudiced against the herbal and natural remedies that Kristi uses in her practice, the vet is determined to avoid what his eccentric neighbor cooks up. Can God use a loyal pet to mix a little old medicine with new and bring two neighbors past their differences so they can find a love with a positive prognosis?


Thanks Laura for taking time to answer some questions. Thank you for having me.

Where can my readers keep in contact with your book release dates and information about your writing and your books?   Author Laura V. Hilton or Laura Vernet Price Hilton on facebook, or my blog: http://laurav.hilton.blogspot.com/

From Cindy of Cindy's Book Reviews.  I just wanted to share a bit, Laura is one of my closest friends, we chat and visit nearly daily, and we have met each other in person, she is a very shy person, and super sweet.  She is so talented to write as she does, and is so modest about it. (must be her Amish genes LOL) Truly she is a wonderful friend and a great author and if you have not read her books, please do so, they are awesome.   I am including a picture of Laura and I taken September 2007, when we first met each other in person.  (disregard the date on the photo, my camera date was messed up on it)
~C~