A new Amish romance is published about every four days, with at least 86 released in 2012, said Weaver-Zercher at a Saturday morning talk sponsored by EMU’s .

She herself had never read an “Amish romance” until Johns Hopkins University Press approached Weaver-Zercher, suggesting she investigate this burgeoning market. That led to Weaver-Zercher’s first published book, .

No explicit sexual description

Even within the Anabaptist world, the books are widely read, despite their questionable authenticity. Weaver-Zercher, a ’94 grad who majored in , mostly focused on why people are reading this genre, rather than delving deeply into the books’ accuracy or literary quality.

She interviewed several Amish romance authors and numerous readers – mostly non-Amish, evangelical women – who cited two basic appeals of the books: evocation of “a slow and simple life,” and “a clean read” (i.e., no sexual explicitness).

Her audience laughed when Weaver-Zercher elaborated that a love scene within the genre “might be some romantic glances over a pot pie.”

Although the Amish comprise only one-tenth of 1 percent of the U.S. population, the genre is well-covered in the mainstream media, including a recent , who is also managing editor at and a contributing editor for .

At her presentation, several alumni, whose student years dated from the 1950s to the 2000s, named as a favorite the recently reprinted , a Mennonite author who penned a semi-fictional account of his mother, first published in 1940.

One million book sales, plus TV dramatization

Weaver-Zercher noted the first commercially successful contemporary Anabaptist-themed romance, Beverly Lewis’ 1997 , published by Bethany House and dramatized on television, has sold over a million copies. Its heroine endures ostracism after finding she was adopted.

Lewis, who based the character on her Mennonite grandmother, ranks with Wanda Brunstetter and Cindy Woodsmall among the genre’s top three authors, who together have sold more than 24 million books. Yet only one current Amish romance author, Linda Byler, is Amish or Old Order Mennonite (the two branches of Anabaptists share more similarities than differences) – which Weaver-Zercher notes engenders skepticism about the field’s authenticity.

The genre’s female protagonists tend to be virgins or young wives; the men, earnest and sensitive, Weaver-Zercher notes. At least four authors are men, and Weaver-Zercher found an elderly, Oklahoma Mennonite farmer who has read 90 Amish romances.

In her , Weaver-Zercher said some authors blend “a divine love story” with the earthly one. She cited a sentence in Brunstetter’s The Hope Chest in which a young woman, being kissed, finds herself “reveling in God’s glory.”

Gentle mysteries tucked in

“Some authors add gentle mysteries along with the romance narrative,” said Weaver-Zercher. Byler’s series, Lancaster Burning, portrays a community plagued by arson.

Weaver-Zercher finds “distinctive styles” among some authors, unlike the formulaic products of some mainstream romance publishing houses. However, they follow parameters common to “Christian fiction” – although a “false hero” sometimes appears, endings are always happy.

“The ‘thrill of the chaste’ may be rooted in the broader idea of moral innocence – a rejection of the mass culture,” said Weaver-Zercher.

She suggested the novels exemplify a “purity culture” in reaction to what Pamela Paul’s book Pornified terms today’s mass culture. They may also, Weaver-Zercher suggested, be seen as “a Christian version of “The Way We Never Were,” referring to the title of an analysis of the American family by Stephanie Coontz.

Pointing to what French theorist Gilles Lipovetsky has labeled “hypermodernity” – a rushed, materialistic, technology-dominated culture – Weaver-Zercher added with a smile that the books give readers “a temporary vacation from hypermodernity, even when they read them on Kindles or Nooks.”

Ironically, however, she noted Amish romances are “situated smack-dab in hypermodern publishing models.” She pointed to Christian publishers getting bought up by big houses (including HarperCollins, now owned by Rupert Murdoch), and the large stock of the romances in such stores as WalMart.

Part of commercialization of Amish phenomena?

Given those dynamics, she says, “It is likely that not everyone is amused.”

Weaver-Zercher’s audience mentioned other commercial Amish-related phenomena, ranging from the “Amish Mafia” reality show, to “Amish vampire” novels, to bestseller Danielle Steel’s new venture into the setting.

Audience member Shirley Hershey Showalter, a 1970 EMU graduate, suggested Amish romances appeal to “nostalgia for the rural life in general.” Showalter, former president of Goshen College, recently published .

At Herald Press, Weaver-Zercher edited a soon-to-be-released book which she terms “historical-romance fiction.” Jacob’s Choice by Ervin R. Stutzman, former dean of and current executive director of , deals with the life of Amish farmer Jacob Hochstetler, whose family was massacred during the French and Indian War. She says Stutzman, who was raised Amish but is now a modern-living Mennonite, did meticulous research and “stays very true to details, but adds fictional elements to make the narrative read like a novel.”

“I think it might have been on Youtube that I first saw `On the Good Ship Lollipop,’ ” Showalter admitted from the comfort of her Harrisonburg home last week, letting out an infectious chuckle.

With an easy smile and a certain strength in eloquence, Showalter is a woman who seems comfortable in her own skin.

Her mother wanted a Shirley Temple doll since she was very young and had always hoped for a sister, so when she became pregnant with Showalter, it only seemed natural to call her “Shirley.”

“I became both the doll she never had and the sister she always wanted,” Showalter said.

Now 65, Showalter grew up in a “plain” Mennonite community in Lancaster, Pa. – an upbringing that restricted her from what she calls the “glittery things of the world.”

Her first book, which was released Sept. 19, explains the first portion of the headpiece-wearing Mennonite girl’s journey from the family farm to becoming a college president and foundation executive.

Although Showalter has made strides over the years, the rosy-cheeked portrait of her younger self on the cover of “,” looks very familiar.

But that’s the point: Showalter’s message is not to run from “blush” – which she describes as the questioning naivety she developed in her uncomfortable position between the church and the world – but to embrace it.

“When we learn to embrace our blush and let go of our ego and not fight those things … but rather relax into them, then we can learn and grow and come home to ourselves,” she said.

The past as a child in Lancaster

If there’s a spectrum of religious stringency, Showalter grew up living somewhere along the middle of it.

She didn’t have to wear ankle-length dresses over black stockings, but her skirts couldn’t be too short, and jeans were absolutely out of the question.

Her hair had to be long enough to pin into a neat bun on the back of her head and then covered, although that gauzy headpiece wasn’t as conservative – read: large – as some of the ones spotted in local areas, such as Dayton, today.

“Until I went to bed that night, I [would] wear that all day long,” she explained.

She could listen to the radio at home, but she was forbidden from watching television. Dancing also fell into the forbidden category, as well as movies, although she did go with her parents to see “The Sound of Music” when she was 16.

“I happened to have been born at the edge of a great transformation that was taking place in the church, and these requirements … all have changed,” she added. “I wore a covering to public high school and my sister – who’s seven years younger – did not.”

Showalter was the first in her family in another regard. When she decided to attend then-Eastern Mennonite College, she was the first person to pursue higher education on both sides of her family, which have been in America for 10 generations.

Some of the reasoning behind that lies in the nature of the Mennonite culture in which she was raised, the near certainty that boys would become farmers and that girls would head straight for marriage, Showalter explained.”But there was also question marks and suspicion,” she said. “Would college alienate a young person from the church, from their family?”

Despite some skepticism, her parents didn’t stand in her way and quietly encouraged her in the form of financial aid and transport to and from Harrisonburg.

That’s where the book ends, but Showalter’s real story was only just beginning.

“I’ve left the book at a point where it could be picked up again, but I haven’t made any decisions yet about the next stage,” she said.

The past in the larger world

A sequel to “Blush” would likely include the story of Showalter’s journey to in Goshen, Ind., where she became the first female president of the institution.

The story goes like this: After majoring in at what is now ��ݮ����, Showalter taught at from 1970-72.

She then moved to pursue her master’s degree at the University of Texas at Austin, along with her husband, , whom she met at her alma mater.

After emerging from Austin in 1980 with a PhD in American Civilization, Showalter taught English at Goshen College for several years. In 1996, she was named the 14th president of the college. Eight years later, she moved to Kalamazoo, Mich., to join the Fetzer Institute as the vice president of programs.

Showalter, who still considers herself a Mennonite, is now a full-time writer and blogger who also teaches an honors course about writing memoirs – a process she’s now intimately familiar with – at none other than EMU.

The future

On Sept. 19, Showalter started a three-week-long book tour at in Lititz, Pa.

At 7 p.m., Sept. 25, at EMU’s Martin Chapel, she will perform with local actor . The event will be a book launch for Showalter and a book re-launch for Swartz, whose memoir, “,” has gained a new cover.

The following afternoon, at 3:30 p.m., Sept. 26, Showalter will perform a short reading of “Blush” in an event sponsored by . It will be held at the university’s Campus Center.

Showalter will then head to Archbold, Ohio, then to Goshen and Kalamazoo for book signings.

“It’s actually like having eight weddings in five states over three weeks,” she joked.

If nothing else, she wants her readers to take home this message: “I learned that being naive was a great gift,” she said. “For a long time, I kind of fought it. … I feared my naivete, but I learned that it was actually a great gift. It meant that I was always starting over. I was always in beginner’s mind, and [that’s] a wonderful place to be.

“It’s a great learning place, and so what I thought was an obstacle sometimes growing up actually turned out to be a great gift.”

Article courtesy Daily News Record, Sept. 21, 2013, with minor edits by EMU’s editors.

Fall semester classes at EMU begin 8 a.m. Tuesday, Aug. 31. The fall semester runs through Dec. 17.

Students begin to arrive

Students who will serve as community advisers or ministry assistants began arriving for training sessions Friday, Aug. 20.

First-year students will check into the residence halls Saturday, Aug. 28. Orientation programs for new students and transfers run through Monday, Aug. 30.

Returning students will arrive on campus Sunday, Aug. 29. Final fall semester registration will be held Monday, Aug. 30.

Fall convocation

EMU President Loren Swartzendruber will speak at an opening convocation 10 a.m. Wednesday, Sept. 1, in Lehman Auditorium on the theme, “Think About These Things,” based on Philippians 4.

Cross-cultural sending

A student cross-cultural group going to Spain and Morocco for the fall semester will be commissioned during the convocation.

The service will conclude with an ice cream social on Thomas Plaza of the Campus Center.

Alum Shirley Showalter opens conference

Shirley H. Showalter of Kalamazoo, Mich., opened the faculty/staff conference Aug. 18 with an address on “EMU’s Learning Community as Spirituality in Action.”

Dr. Showalter, a 1970 English major graduate of EMU, taught at locally before entering graduate school at the University of Texas at Austin, where she earned a PhD.

After more than a decade on the faculty of Goshen (Ind.) College as professor of English, she became the 14th president in 1996 and served there until 2004, when she joined the staff of the Fetzer Institute, a social justice and community healing organization. In 2010 she left the Institute to focus on writing.

Conference highlights

A dozen workshops ran concurrently Wednesday morning and afternoon on special interest topics ranging from “spiritual direction” and “leadership as coaching” to “community in a Facebook world” and “life experience and wellness.”

Other highlights of the conference were the “state of the campus” report from President Swartzendruber, daily worship, fellowship, an ice cream social, and the annual all-campus picnic.

More info

• Orientation for class of 2014 and transfer students
• 2010-11 academic calendar
• Campus events