The story of Katie Lapp was born out of my memories of growing up near Amish farmland. Katie is completely fictitious, yet her character is loosely based on my grandmother's background and circumstance. The subconscious seeds for Katie's predicament in The Shunning were planted early on, when, as a child, I heard the story of my courageous grandmother. The impetus behind the story came thirty years later, after I'd written the first five books of the Summerhill Secrets, also set in Lancaster's Amish country.
