Meet new Amish Fiction Author, Laurie Stroup Smith as she introduces us to her Pocket Quilt Series, Pocket of Promise. Laurie takes us behind the scenes of getting her very first book published and lets us in on some new projects she has in the works.

The following transcript is a shortened version of the original recording.

Your listing to Buggy Talk, where some of your favorite authors, friends, and guests explore the simpler side of life. Here's your host Amish fiction on Tracy Fredrychowski. 

Tracy: Hey there. Welcome to another episode of Buggy Talk. I'm your host, Tracy Fredrychowski. Each week. I'll bring you the story behind the stories, along with the storytellers. For this week's episode, we have a new author to the Amish genre, and that is Laurie Stroub Smith

Hello, Laurie.

Laurie: Hi, Tracy. How are you today? I'm doing great. Thank you for this invitation. I'm excited to be here and have this opportunity to talk with you. 

Tracy: Well, thank you for joining us. We have so many things to chat about, one being your new book, Pockets of Promise. And this is a new book for you, and a whole new venture in your world as an author. So I'm very excited to have you onboard today.

I have to ask you what inspired you to start writing? 

Laurie: Well, writing has always been fun for me, and when we have two daughters, and when they were in grade school, I served as a girl scout troop leader for about six years. And I started a blog, Capers Cookies, and Campfires with the intention that it would serve as an additional resource for other leaders. And a couple of years later, I wrote a story for our girls who were grieving the loss of two grandparents, and nothing was working to help them through that time. And I thought maybe if I write a story, maybe that will work. And an author friend of mine knew I was writing it and asked to take a peak. And so I was brave, and I shared it with her, and she admitted it was rough, but she saw potential and encouraged me to pursue writing. And soon after that, I just felt God was calling me to make writing a priority in my life. And so I did. And here we are. 

Tracy: Oh my goodness. That is wonderful. I know that you, you, um, work pretty closely with that author friend. Do you, do you want to mention her name or not? 

Laurie: It's Shelley Shepard Gray. I've been working with her since the fall of 2013, and she has a great friend and, um, just a genuine person. And um, yeah, 

Tracy: I have not had the pleasure of meeting Shelly yet, but hopefully somebody in our rounds, I will meet up with her, but yeah, I have read a lot of Shelley's books, and she is a fantastic writer. So what a great person to have, um, as your little cheerleader. So that is awesome. 

Laurie: Exactly, exactly. Yeah. She's an excellent mentor. 

Tracy: I bet she is. You know, as an author, I know the challenges that we all go through for one, to find the time, to write, two, to make sure our stories are interesting and three having faith in ourselves that people want to write what we read or read what we write.

So tell me as an author. What is the most challenging part of writing for you? 

Laurie: Oh my goodness. I have found that I'm most productive when I have a significant block of time to write, and I work best when it's silent. So finding chunks of time and quiet space has been a huge obstacle for me during this pandemic. As I said, we have two teenagers, and they've been home since mid-March doing remote learning and are now on summer break. And my husband