Stephanie Reed's Blog: Plain and Simple Blog - Posts Tagged "the-bargain"

Today I will mail copies of The Bargain to a contest winner and some family members. Last night I had the bright idea of mailing them out from the setting of The Bargain, which is Plain City, Ohio. Plain City is partly in Union and partly in Madison County, roughly northwest of Columbus. In 2005, when I first interviewed the woman on whom I based Betsie Troyer, only nine Amish women remained from a once-large population. Today only five Old Order Amish women remain. Where did all the rest of the Amish go? Many moved to find cheaper land. Columbus and its rapidly expanding suburbs have gobbled up land and driven up prices since the 70s. Also, many of the former Amish still live in town, but nowadays they're Beachy Amish, or some say Beachy Mennonite. If you keep your eyes open, you can see many of the old Amish names on business signs. If you're really curious, you can take a drive along Amish Pike and see where many used to live. The Amish cemetery on Amish Pike tells the rest of the story.

I'm always curious about how authors see their own characters, how about you? Here's your chance to see the real-life inspirations for Betsie Troyer and Michael Sullivan. Are the book characters the people pictured? No. Do the characters look like these people to me? Yes! These are the photos that I shared with Kregel when we discussed the cover concept. Want to see? Hop over to Relz Reviews for a Character Spotlight. Don't forget to enter to win a Kindle Fire plus a copy of The Bargain! http://relzreviewz.com/character-spot...

Save me an hour on Thursday 11/14 at 5 PM EST. I'm excited to be a guest on fabulous chef Sherry Gore's live podcast, Amish Wisdom! We'll chat about The Bargain (win a copy!) and cooking. If you've never listened to a podcast before, it's easy! Just go to the link and click the Live on Air gold arrow above Sherry's pretty photo. Guess who's up in the second half of the show? Beth Wiseman! It's going to be lots of fun, so tell your family dinner will be a little late and join us! Link: http://toginet.com/shows/amishwisdom/...

The Not Quite Amish, that is! Read my first guest post, Harness Lessons-- Amish Style here: http://notquiteamishliving.com/2014/0...

I received a huge surprise in the comments: I heard from a reader who knew the real-life Betsie Troyer, main character of The Bargain, as a girl. She found my post through a Plain City, Ohio Facebook group and shared a memory of 'Betsie' that is priceless. Don't miss out!

Get ready for The Bachelor! Download The Bargain free 9/29 for Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble Nook, and Google Play today only! Discounted price after today for a short while. Bonus: Sneak peek of The Bachelor available beginning tomorrow! Find out what Betsie and Michael have been up to-- or is it Betsie and Charley? :-)

Kindle:
http://www.amazon.com/The-Bargain-Pla...

Nook: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-b...

Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/books/d...