Hillary Manton Lodge isn’t Amish, but she knows a thing or two about the Amish community after completing her first novel, “Plain Jayne,” a story about Amish culture.
In her book, Lodge, an University alumna, delves into the Amish culture and builds her characters around the idea of life choices and societal pressures.
Jayne Tate, the novel’s protagonist, is invested in her career and fascinated by her urban surroundings, and she lives inundated with technological and social pressures of being a career woman in Portland. In the story, Jayne works as a reporter for Portland’s daily newspaper, The Oregonian. A forced leave of absence from work sparks Jayne’s curiosity for the Amish people, and she goes to rural Oregon to live with an Amish family and explore a highly stigmatized lifestyle. While looking back on her visit and piecing together the so-called “simple life” for a feature story in The Oregonian, Jayne makes strides in her own self-discovery and personal growth.
“My whole idea was for Jayne to go and take a less critical look at what makes this group tick, a more journalistic look than others choose to take,” Lodge said.
Although Lodge graduated with a degree in magazine journalism in 2005, she always knew she wanted to be a fiction writer. Her keen interest in creative writing, combined with her experience with multiple genres, helped her land a job at Harvest House Publishers in Eugene.
Lodge, who has another Amish novel in the works, was not particularly interested in writing Amish fiction at first, but when she became employed with the publishing house, it became her job to create a deep interest in the Amish people and the way they live.
Lodge used books, magazines, and videos and even visited an Amish community in North Carolina to accurately understand the intricacies that exist within the society.
Despite her initial lack of interest in this group of society, Lodge soon became entranced in the traditions and customs exercised by the Amish people.
“The approach I took with this writing style was to find out why it is so popular and why it appeals to the American mindset,” Lodge said. “Postmodern society can be very busy with mass amounts of technology, and I looked at the concept of how living a straightforward and simple lifestyle has a lot of appeal.”
Lodge said what she found most interesting through her research was how the Amish handle family members who choose not to be baptized into the Amish church. Lodge was so fascinated by the concept that she chose to make it a main theme in her novel.
Through Jayne and various other characters, Lodge is able to dissect the value of choice as well as independence. Just as Jayne steps into the Amish lifestyle, Levi, a man in the Amish community, decides to leave for the outside world.
A romance develops between Jayne and Levi, and Jayne has to decide what her new relationship means to her.
Through her stay with the family, Jayne learns to appreciate a hard-working lifestyle and close family ties. She learns to live without many modern amenities, such as electricity and plumbing, and even takes up baking.
“Jayne starts out with a lot of rough edges and she has a lot of ideas about what she could and could not do,” Lodge said. “She learns that she can still be herself and make improvements in her own life. There is no doubt that her stay spurs her own personal journey.”
Much like the characters in “Plain Jayne,” which was officially released Jan. 1, Lodge has also embarked on her own journey, which she said started at the University.
“Either you can write fiction or you can’t,” Lodge said. “But the journalism program tightened my writing, editing and research skills, which has helped me a lot.”
At the end of “Plain Jayne,” Levi’s sister, Sarah, also decides to leave the Amish community, and she must adapt to life outside the Amish world, which is the plot of Lodge’s next book, “Simply Sarah.”
The novel, part of Lodge’s Amish fiction series, “Plain and Simple,” will center on Sarah’s escape from her once structured and limiting life.
Lodge said she will focus on the changes Sarah undergoes while adjusting to a typical city lifestyle. “Simply Sarah,” due in January 2011, will, similarly to “Plain Jayne,” examine a young woman’s personal journey and life-changing decisions.
As Lodge continues her journey at Harvest House and as a freelance photographer, she said the skills she has acquired while writing about a topic she once knew nothing about have benefited her the most.
“I know that I can take a concept and make a story around it and really make it work,” Lodge said. “I can take that and make it something successful, and that has been very comforting. I don’t know that I would want to repeat the experience, but it’s about doing what you have to do and knowing that you can. After all, publishing is a job.”
When Lodge reflects on her early and successful career in writing, her advice to those interested in writing fiction is simply to remain persistent.
“Anyone wanting to write, just keep writing,” Lodge said.
[email protected]