Readers love story trivia. I find book backstory to be interesting as well. How did an author decide on a certain theme or overarching problem that needs to be solved? How were characters with flaws and complexities created? How was a setting selected and why?
Amish
Christmas Search,
my latest book from Love Inspired Suspense, released this month and highlights
two interesting locales that were fun to research and include in the story. The
book opens in Pinecraft, Florida, a winter vacation destination for Amish folks
who want to escape the cold northern winters for a few weeks of sunshine and salt
air. Pinecraft was established in the 1920s as a tourist camp in a rural area
north of Sarasota. Over the years the city has expanded and now surrounds the 178-acre
Amish vacation oasis.
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| County initiatives to ensure Pinecraft retains its historic charm are featured in this Sarasota Herald Tribune article, from Feb 24, 2015, written by Josh Salman. |
From December to April some 5,000 plain folks—both
Amish and Mennonite—travel to and from Florida on charter buses. A crowd of
onlookers is always on hand to welcome the new arrivals and to farewell those
returning home. Vacationers rent cottages and bungalows that include conveniences
not found in typical Amish homes, such as air conditioning and central heat, as
well as televisions and dish washers. Two-wheel bicycles and three-wheel
adult tricycles are favorite modes of transportation within Pinecraft, while city buses or taxis are used to ferry the Amish to the beautiful beaches of nearby Siesta Key.
Shuffleboard and bocce ball are favorite pastimes.
Amish restaurants, handcrafted furniture and knick-knack shops and fresh
produce stands attract tourists to the area. Big Olaf’s ice cream
parlor does as well.
Pinecraft has a laidback feel that draws folks from all walks of life, both plain and fancy. In my story, it also attracts trouble that sends my heroine, Lizzie
Kauffman, on the run along with Amish woodcarver Caleb Zook.
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| President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Little White House, Warm Springs, GA. |
Searching for their missing friend leads Lizzie
and Caleb north to another interesting locale—Warm Springs, Georgia. Situated a
little more than an hour from Atlanta, the historic town is the site of
Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s Little White House. The president first came to
Warm Springs in 1924 in hopes of finding a curative treatment for his polio. His
condition improved after soaking in the mineral waters, and a few years later,
he established a rehabilitation center in Warm Springs that attracted polio
patients from around the world. After the Sabin and Salk polio vaccines stemmed
the disease in the 1950s, the center switched its focus from infantile paralysis to the treatment of persons
with other types of disabilities and remains one of Georgia’s finest rehab centers.
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| A wax replica of FDR in the Little White House. |
The town of Warm Springs features 100-year-old restored shops as well as the Hotel Warm Springs Bed & Breakfast Inn where journalists rented rooms when FDR stayed at the Little White House. It was at the Little White House on April 12, 1945, that the president suffered a cerebral hemorrhage while sitting for his portrait. Newsmen covering the president raced to the hotel phone—which remains in the lobby today—to call their papers and file stories about Roosevelt’s death.
When FDR died, journalists called their newsrooms from the
phone booth at Hotel Warm Springs (seen at the rear of the photo).
I’ve written magazine articles about Warm Springs and its history for a number of publications and love spending time in the charming town. I hope readers will enjoy learning more about Warm Springs and Pinecraft when they read Amish Christmas Search.
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| The chapel on the Warm Springs Rehabilitation Center campus where FDR worshiped the Sunday prior to his death. |
Do you enjoy learning about interesting towns in the stories you read? Share information about any towns in your area of the country that would make unique settings for a book. Leave a comment to be entered in dual drawings for Amish Christmas Search and a two-in-one also out this month that includes my story, Amish Christmas Secrets, and Vannetta Chapman’s story, The Amish Christmas Matchmaker.
Wishing you abundant blessings,
Debby Giusti
Amish
Christmas Search
An Amish girl’s disappearance is a mystery…
and
the clues lead straight into danger at Christmas.
Convinced
her friend didn’t run away as the police
believe,
Lizzie Kauffman searches for the truth—but
someone
will kill to keep it hidden. Now the Amish
housekeeper
and her friend Caleb Zook are on the
run
for their lives. And if they want to find their
missing
friend, Lizzie and Caleb must figure out
a way
to survive the holiday.
Order HERE!
