Linda Byler is the author of the new novel The Weaving of Life, the first in her New Directions series. Her many other books include the Long Road Home series.
Q: What inspired you to write The Weaving of Life, and how did you create your character Susan?
A: My son, Andy, is a logger, a rather good-looking man, and I find him a bit fascinating in his chosen line of work. In the book, Isaac is Andy, a bit rough around the edges, blunt, outspoken, an inspiration for the male character.
Susan is hundreds of Amish girls, only older and more jaded, perhaps too aware of her own lot in a negative way.
Q: Did you know how the novel would end before you started writing it, or did you make many changes along the way?
A: I never know how any of my novels will end, never give it much thought, but write stories the way I created quilts when the children were small—just write as I listen to my thoughts.
Q: How was the book's title chosen, and what does it signify for you?
A: Life is a tapestry, woven by the Master’s Hand. My mother (may she rest in peace) left an old dog-eared composition book of poems. One of them instills God’s weaving of our life, and we see only the underside. A beautiful resemblance of faith.
Q: What do you hope readers take away from the story?
A: That we may decide what we want and what we don’t, but ultimately we are in God, and God is in us. He calls the shots.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: Another trilogy about a smart, ambitious woman named Mary, raised in a conservative home, and the many trials she encounters as she seeks her own identity.
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: All my books are based on real-life characters, real observed incidents among our people after being Amish for 65 years.
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
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