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Epilogue: 5 More Tales from P.L. Gaus
Saturday, March 21, 2009
By Ben Beagle bbeagle@batavianews.com
Readers came to hear author Paul L. Gaus speak because they wanted to
learn about the stories behind the stories that form Gaus' Ohio Amish
mysteries. Others wanted to be part of the community of readers that
the "A Tale for Three Counties" reading project has created
over the past seven years.
MULTIMEDIA 1: Author Paul L. Gaus talks about writing Amish mysteries.
MULTIMEDIA 2: Gaus explains his writing process.
And some wanted to learn about how Gaus writes.
"I can't imagine writing a novel, so I love to know how people do it. He seems to have everything all planned out," said Eleanor Jacobs of Warsaw, who writes stories of a more technical nature as an agricultural journalist.
More than 360 people attended Gaus' programs March 12 to 14 in Batavia, Medina and Perry. Many more participated in book discussions at area libraries and other locations that featured his sixth book, Separate From the World, in the weeks leading up to Gaus' visits.
At each talk Gaus shared often humorous stories about his interactions with the Amish residents of Holmes County, Ohio, where he travels frequently and has set each book.
With another Tale project in the books, here are several more stories from Gaus:
'They're all true!'
Gaus related a story of the bookmobile that serves Holmes County and the popularity of his books; they're constantly checked out.
In one instance, an Amish man read his first book Blood of the Prodigal and came back for the second, and then the third.
"And he told the lady that 'These are such wonderful stories. And just think, they're all true,'" said Gaus, the tone of his voice raising with excitement as he recreated the conversation.
When the woman explained that, in fact, the books were not true, the man got angry and stomped out, Gaus said.
Two or three weeks passed and the man returned, apologizing for the uncharacteristic outburst and explained that in his district, the bishop did not permit its members to read fiction.
The events in his books, Gaus explained, are "all directly related to specific things that I myself have witnessed, or seen, or come to understand as a result of my interaction with real Amish people. The concepts are all rather ethereal but the events are very real.
"It all descends from various specific real events, but the stories are designed -- and the stories are completely fictional in their final form -- but they're designed to portray very real and actual types of things that happen a lot in Holmes County."
Murder mysteries?
The pacifist nature of the Amish has presented a unique challenge in writing mysteries that often involve death and violence. Gaus has heard more than once that the Amish "are never murderers."
"I have to make a bargain with the reader," Gaus said. "I think everyone knows that when they start one of my Ohio Amish mysteries it won't ever be an Amish person that does the murder."
"The hard part for me is to write about spiritual concepts that fit into murder mysteries," Gaus said. "If you think about the idea -- Amish and murder -- it's preposterous."
The next book
Gaus' seventh Ohio Amish mystery "arises from a concept that a violent act by an Amish person is so completely unthinkable in the Amish world that if something should ever happen it would be almost impossible for them to deal with that event successfully," he said.
The author explained that in the English, or non-Amish, world people can turn to lawyers and courts and law enforcement, among others, to deal with an act of violence. The Amish, however, "are not set up for that sort of thing," he said. "So the concept is this separation between this unthinkable act and the Amish ability to handle it."
Part of the story involves an English man who makes an effort to become Amish.
Going backwards
A couple of people asked Gaus about his earlier books. What, if anything, would he change if given the chance.
Dialogue, was his quick response. He'd like to improve the way his characters talk. He'd also try to provide more detail in scenes.
And even Separate From the World, published last July, got scrutiny from its author.
"I'm not entirely satisfied with Eddie," he said. "Sometimes, I think, maybe he's too much of a caricature."
A new series
Gaus freely acknowledges that writing mysteries set among the Amish is a niche genre. He's developing a series that will be in a decidedly non-Amish setting.
The series will be "about a man in Chicago who is ridiculously wealthy and able to contemplate and do just about anything he desires to," said Gaus, who is searching for a literary agent to help him find a publisher. "It's so far removed from Amish society that it is unrecognizable to any of my other work."
Another notable difference will likely be in the writing style of this new series. Gaus purposefully writes rather plainly in his Ohio Amish stories, recognizing, in a way, the simple lifestyles of his Amish characters. With this new series, Gaus said he will be able to "let myself go quite a bit in the other direction."
"As I've become more accomplished as a writer I find myself drawn to more elaborate descriptions and more intricate sketchings of characters and places and settings," he said.
Winners of the Tale book review contest drew even more details from the author, who noted his wealthy main character is a bioengineer who experiences a family tragedy and then spends "the rest of his life and fortune, and technology to set people right who can't get justice on their own."
"I understand the biotech endeavors, I know a lot about boats and watercraft, the justice systems and the differences people have," Gaus said. "And I have an overly developed sense of vengeance that I will exercise thoroughly with this new character."
Courtesy of Batavia Newspapers Corporation