Many authors use personal experience to inform their fiction—but for Kathleen Fuller, the writing was especially difficult this year.
Kathleen takes readers back to Middlefield with two new books: Treasuring Emma (Thomas Nelson), the first volume of the Middlefield Family series; and the young reader title Hide and Secret (Tommy Nelson), the third in her Mysteries of Middlefield.
In the Amish romance Treasuring Emma, the title character has put everyone else first in her life. Now nearly 25, has she missed her chance at marriage? A family saga and a story of forgiveness, the novel is a peek into the tightly knit community of the Amish.
The story is also driven by the author’s personal trials: During the writing of Treasuring Emma, Kathleen was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. “As with most of my books, Treasuring Emma is about forgiveness,” Kathleen wrote for Romantic Times. “But it’s also about anger and resentment, emotions I dealt with as I was going through the process of understanding my cancer and undergoing treatment.” While the novel is not about cancer, she says it touches on the universal emotions anyone feels during different seasons of their lives.
It was a challenge to write Treasuring Emma, but Kathleen found that developing the characters helped her during her battle with cancer. “Through the character of Leona, I was able to conquer my own anxiety by reminding myself that God never abandons us, never forsakes us, and is always with us, even through times of extreme trial.”
Kathleen’s fiction is also featured in two recent collections: What the Heart Sees, with three of Kathleen’s Amish romances together for the first time; and this December’s An Amish Wedding, which stars three Amish women yearning for the perfect wedding. That collection includes novellas by Kathleen, Beth Wiseman and Kelly Long.
Kathleen continues to be treated for thyroid cancer. September is Thyroid Cancer Awareness month—for more information, visit thyca.org.