Letters
I am so lucky to do two things that I love: writing and teaching.
Not only do I have some pretty good days -- especially since I'm writing the kind of books I love and I switched to part-time college teaching, not full-time high school -- perfect strangers brighten my day sometimes with lovely letters.
Oh, they're not real letters because they're e-mail, but for our generation, it's really the same thing. Lately, since A Time to Heal, Book 2 of the Quilts of Lancaster County series (Abingdon Press) released, there have been quite a few and they warm my heart so. Writing isn't always easy and so when someone tells me that they enjoyed something I wrote, it's worth the effort and the long hours. But the e-mails are also a connection with others with something we love: with our interest in the Amish,, with making our relationships better with each other, with getting away to a different place when we can't get away from home ... or don't want to.
This week I heard from a mother/daughter duo who enjoyed A Time to Heal, a minister who says she's happy she can recommend my books, and a woman who said my book kept her company late one night when she was sleepless. I've heard from a daughter of a friend who found my book; she wrote a lovely note about it and reminisced about when we stood on after school pickup duty at a school years ago.
Family members keep my almost 89 year old mom supplied with beautiful stationery and stamps so she can write letters as she's done all her life. Nothing brightens her day more than writing a letter -- except maybe when she gets one.
As someone who looks for any reason to have a celebration I decided we should have another contest for an autographed copy of my new book, A Time to Heal. My family knows I love to celebrate: I sold a book? Let's go to dinner...I got an advance check? Let's go to dinner...you get the drift. Anyway, I want to know if you still write letters or have you mostly turned to writing e-mails? What is your favorite letter or e-mail you've received? Alternately, you can suggest a recipe but it has to be one I haven't used in a book yet (and everyone suggests shoo fly pie which has been done to death ...). Don't type the recipe -- I'll ask you for it if you win. I'll announce the winner of an autographed copy of A Time to Heal in next week's blog. Just enter by midnight on Friday, March 25, on AmishHearts.com
And on a special note: please keep Kathy and Kelly in your prayers. Kathy is experiencing a health challenge and Kelly lost her mom recently.
Blessings,
Barbara
Not only do I have some pretty good days -- especially since I'm writing the kind of books I love and I switched to part-time college teaching, not full-time high school -- perfect strangers brighten my day sometimes with lovely letters.
Oh, they're not real letters because they're e-mail, but for our generation, it's really the same thing. Lately, since A Time to Heal, Book 2 of the Quilts of Lancaster County series (Abingdon Press) released, there have been quite a few and they warm my heart so. Writing isn't always easy and so when someone tells me that they enjoyed something I wrote, it's worth the effort and the long hours. But the e-mails are also a connection with others with something we love: with our interest in the Amish,, with making our relationships better with each other, with getting away to a different place when we can't get away from home ... or don't want to.
This week I heard from a mother/daughter duo who enjoyed A Time to Heal, a minister who says she's happy she can recommend my books, and a woman who said my book kept her company late one night when she was sleepless. I've heard from a daughter of a friend who found my book; she wrote a lovely note about it and reminisced about when we stood on after school pickup duty at a school years ago.
Family members keep my almost 89 year old mom supplied with beautiful stationery and stamps so she can write letters as she's done all her life. Nothing brightens her day more than writing a letter -- except maybe when she gets one.
As someone who looks for any reason to have a celebration I decided we should have another contest for an autographed copy of my new book, A Time to Heal. My family knows I love to celebrate: I sold a book? Let's go to dinner...I got an advance check? Let's go to dinner...you get the drift. Anyway, I want to know if you still write letters or have you mostly turned to writing e-mails? What is your favorite letter or e-mail you've received? Alternately, you can suggest a recipe but it has to be one I haven't used in a book yet (and everyone suggests shoo fly pie which has been done to death ...). Don't type the recipe -- I'll ask you for it if you win. I'll announce the winner of an autographed copy of A Time to Heal in next week's blog. Just enter by midnight on Friday, March 25, on AmishHearts.com
And on a special note: please keep Kathy and Kelly in your prayers. Kathy is experiencing a health challenge and Kelly lost her mom recently.
Blessings,
Barbara
Posted by Barbara Cameron at 3/20/2011 11:59 AM 
Categories: amish fiction, Barbara Cameron, A Time to Heal
Tags: Amish fiction A Time to Heal
Categories: amish fiction, Barbara Cameron, A Time to Heal
Tags: Amish fiction A Time to Heal
Nice article Barbara....I very seldom write a letter...it's always email letters....faster, cheaper and I think better......for all people who have computers.....letters to those that don't is the way to go also...
Submitting the title of my recipe for a chance to win"A Time to Heal" is a delicious Peanut Butter Pie, I just made a couple of weeks ago, no cooking....absolutely delicious.....my daughter loved it and says she's making it next week to take to pot luck......recipe makes (2) 9" pies......Thanks, Mona
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My favorite emails are when I see yall have posted on this website !! I love the contests and I love to read what is going on in everyone's lives. I admire the Amish and I think they have truly had an influence on my life through reading the good Amish books written.
I would love to win any book that is Amish and I have tons of Amish cookbooks and recipes !! With the gardens being planted and soon to produce vegetables I think a recipe for Bread & Butter Pickles would be a sure hit !!
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Hi Barbara,
I still love to write letters & love it even more when I get one. I keep in contact with a lot of girls from all over the country (even in Costa Rica!). Most of my penpals are Amish or Mennonite but there are a few I keep in contact with that aren't. I figure once I've joined the Amish I'll have more 'english' penpals to keep in contact with friends.
Hmmm recipes...I would say Chocolate Whoopie Pies are a favorite Amish treat (so yummy!), pumpkin rolls, chicken/cheese cassarole (another Amish favorite) and Haystack (this is used to feed a large number of people like for a singing or something).
Blessings! Praying for Kathy & Kelly,
Kate
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I write my letters mostly by e-mail now. I'm almost 67 and have always had terrible handwriting(from my dad and I passed it on to 2 of my daughters) so it's best that I do it the new way. I do write a traditional letter to one person but I use the Word program...in other words, I type it. It's nice to be able to move the sentences around. Previously I'd make an arrow pointing to the place a paragraph or comment should be. I'd do a lot of corrections too but I was a prolific letter writer, even taking my notebook to soccer games. I'd send 30 page ones but not before worrying that I'd said something wrong and go over it several times. Isn't life funny how we worry about the most inane things. I do admit, tho, that it felt much more personal to actually write a letter while at a soccer game. In Christ's love, M.A.
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Oh Barbara, I so LOVE Amish Books and so does my husband. Since he couldn't get out and do much this winter he read quite a few of them. He really enjoys them.
One of my favorite e-mails was when I was going through a very discouraging time and felt as if everything was against me. I was going to go off Facebook because of something that was said but a Missionary lady in Haiti encouraged me not to. I felt so privileged to have a missionary from a country that is the poorest and then have a devastating earthquake, care enough about my little ol' problem (compared to theirs). It so lifted me and I began to lift up my head in praise to God. I found that God is always near and cares. (I knew it before, but am so human I forget).
Thanks for the opportunity to give my little "story". God is so good.......all the time.
I LOVE the books with recipes in them.
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I love your books and Amish Hearts. It's funny that your topic was on letters as this is what I've been obsessed with recently organizing. I have saved all of my special letters from my grandma, Christmas cards, Christmas letters, love letters when my husband & I dated, letters from my son when he was in the Navy, and especially things handmade by my children and grandchildren. There was nothing better than to get a letter in the mail from family or a loved one. Recently, I was organizing them into a scrapbook and was amazed when I asked some of the relatives how they had preserved their copies and to my total dismay they hadn't even saved them. Such a history to lose site of. I am glad that I had the good sense to treasure them during that time and save them all these years for future generations to enjoy.
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I, too, like your mother, love to write and receive letters of the snail mail kind! My favorites are from a dear friend in South Africa, who I'm hoping to visit for the first time, in September. She is a pastor and on kidney dialysis.....an awesome person! My favorite recipe - a PA Dutch one and one I've never seen in a cookbook is "Stuffed Noodles."
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Barbara I still have a few friends that we still hand write letters back and forth! I love emails but there is just something about getting a card or note in the mail! I would like to suggest the Hershey Bar Cake, so yummy my Grandma makes it for our Sunday lunch sometimes! Have a blessed week!
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I havent written a letter in a number of years.The people I wrote to have all passed away.It's sad to say but with cell phones and the internet I dont think a lot of people do.I know the Amish write.It was always so nice getting letters.I cant say I have a favorite tho.
My prayers for Kathy and Kelly
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I would love to win one of your books, Barbara. I didn't realize you had been a high school teacher. What a relief it must be to work with students who WANT to be in that desk, or at least have paid to be there!
Since I love salads, I would have to offer either Pretzel Salad that has cherry jello, strawberries and a creamed/whipped cheese topping or Mandarin Orange salad with is Romaine with mandarin oranges, glazed almonds, celery, green onions and a vinaigrette parsley dressing. Can never have too many salad recipes!
Thank you for writing excellent books. I go to bed with stories every night. It's a wonderful way to end a day.
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I do still write letters, but mostly just emails - I have a few close friends that I don't live near anymore and we share our thoughts by email now. My favorite letter(s) I have received are the ones that come with Christmas cards once a year from family and friends far away that bring a little piece of their lives back into my life.
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The last handwritten letter was the one I wrote to Laura Frantz, letting her know how much I loved her new book (she had never gotten a handwritten one before)! We've have been good friends ever since. I too, prefer typing them, although I still send out thank you cards.
I have a lovely Amish cookbook that was given to me as a Christmas gift, so I have alot of good recipes. I'll have to do the eeny meeny miny mo thing...such deelish recipes!
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I would have to say I send more e-mails,I would rather send and receive an handwritten letter,so much more personal.It just seems that no one has the time anymore to write letters.I love your books Barbara.My recipe would be chicken noodle soup....hope I win,would really love to have this book.Thanks
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Hello Barbara! I love to send greeting cards. I love to send the PERFECT card. I am always on the lookout. I find some great deals at discount stores. I think that regularly priced cards are so expensive. One thing I do is send birthday cards to my coworkers at their house. I also include a scratch off lottery ticket. Sometimes they win.
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I and my family use e-mail instead of letter writing. My favorite e-mails are from my Son who lives in Texas and my Daughter her lives in Spokane, WA. I love hearing what my Grandchildren are doing. So much fun to watch videos of them too!
I love the recipe Amish Pork chops. If you haven't tried the recipe you must. They are delicious!
I will continue to keep Kathy and Kelly in my prayers.
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I still write letters to friends. I also write letters of complaints because I want them all in print. You cannot email the Social Security office. I have 12 years of fighting them just to get my disability check every month.
Best letter I got was a letter from Parents Magazine telling me I won a $ 250 Gift Card to Toys are Us.
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I home school and my son is learning to write letters, so he writes them and mails them to me
I love frut salads so i think Amish Waldorf Salad Recipe would be yummy
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I would love to get this one. I just started the first book. How about a recipe for Chicken pot pie?
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I come from a large family of 11 siblings it is so much easier to stay in touch through e-mails. I still write an occasional letter to my Aunt Betty who does not have email. I do have a recipe Stuffed Pepper Soup that I think would be a good one to use.
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I still write letters to an Aunt and a cousin as they do not do email. Most correspondence is by email now though. My sister and I are going to Holmes County in a couple of weeks so I bet I could come up with a dandy receipe!! I would love to win the book.
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I still write letters and send cards. Some of the people I know do not have or use very little computer time. I especially like sending out thank you cards for simple but meaningful gestures. It brightens my day when I can brighten someone else's day.
I suggest the cabbage casserole. I love this recipe and it is so easy to make. Tastes scrumptious too. I have improvised the recipe to my taste, but do have the original Amish recipes.
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I have always enjoyed letter writing. I actually prefer to write letters by hand using pretty stationary. I find this is a more personal way of communicating with friends and family. I always enjoyed receiving a written letter , as well. I took some adjustment getting used to writing e-mails. They have there purpose--it is quick, the sender receives your message faster, there is less chance for letters getting lost via the postal department (or damaged). But, still in my heart, I prefer the old fashioned method of pen and paper. Writing and exprssing my thoughts personally to those I care about . It also shows them that I take the time to do this..that I care. I would love to see a recipe for Amish Starter bread included in the book. I do not have the recipe to share. I would like to be able to start the entire process of making the dough. Thanks so much Barbara, for giving us these wonderful opportunities to express our thoughts and enter contest to win your novels!!!
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I still write some letters, but most of the time it's easier to talk to everyone through email. My favorite email that I have ever gotten was one my grandpa sent me. It had many pictures in it of nature and was talking about how it displayed God's glory. It was very beautiful and reminded me of how good God is.
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I still write a few letters, especially at Christmas time and I do send my Grandchildren a letter once in awhile because they like getting mail, they are 4 and 6 years old.
The recipe I was thinking about was Raisin Puffs
Love your books
I will definitely keep Kathy and Kelly in my prayers
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I still write some letters,but it seems easier to send emails. My favorite emails are the ones I get after I have told an author I liked their books and they take the time to write me back. Please enter me in the drawing. Thank You!
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I have letters from my children that mean so much to me, telling me of their love, telling me the words every mother needs to hear about their love for God. and another best was one from my Uncle years and years ago when I was young and I felt treasured as I read that letter as much as I treasured him. I still have that letter somewhere and if I could read it right now, I know it would still inspire me. I love to write letters, real letters....just to make someone feel special.
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My favorite letter is one that was not addressed to me, it was a letter my grandfather wrote to my grandmother when he had to go out of state in the early 1950's to find work. It is priceless. - One of my Grandmother's favorite recipes...Chocolate gravy.
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I only have one friend left who doesn't have email and to whom I write regular letters. My husband and I met through a penpal club years ago called Christian Singles, so my favorite letters are the ones we wrote each other.
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