Amazon Best-selling author, Patrick E. Craig, is a lifelong writer and musician who left a successful performance career in 1986 to become a pastor. After pastoring, teaching and speaking at seminars in churches on the west coast for many years, he retired in 2007 to concentrate on writing and publishing fiction books.

Tracy: Hey there. Welcome to another episode of Buggy Talk. I'm your host, Tracy Fredrychowski, and each week, I bring you the story behind the stories, along with the storytellers. For this week's episode, we have Amish author, Patrick E. Craig with us. Good morning, Patrick. How are you? 

Patrick: I'm great, Tracy, how are you? 

Tracy:   I am wonderful. Thank you so much for joining us. We have a lot of things to talk about today. One being your new book Islands: Far on Ringing Plains that you're writing with Murray Pura. But before we talk about that, a lot of our listeners like to get an inside peek at some of their favorite authors. So, I want to ask almost little personal questions about your writing career. Is that okay? 

Patrick:   That's absolutely fine. 

These are just a few of the questions Patrick answered for us. If you would like to hear his answers, I encourage you to listen to the complete podcast. As a special bonus, Patrick read us a snippet from his new book Islands: Far on Ringing Plains.

1. We want to know what inspired you to start writing in the first place because you have a diverse background, you have a musical background, which I found amazing. Tell us what actually got you into writing. 
2. What do you think is the most challenging part about writing for you? 
3. Tell us a little bit about your publishing journey.

Tracy: Thank you so much for sharing that with us. Patrick, I have to tell you that when I, when I started to set up this interview, I really thought we were going to talk about The Amish Menorah and Other Stories that you wrote with the Men of Amish Fiction. But since I started researching, I read a couple of things about your new book, and I was blown away, so we are going to talk about it.  

These are just a few of the questions I asked Patrick about his latest book, Islands: Far on Ringing Plains.

1. If you could describe the main character in three words, what would they be?
2. Will there be a sequel?
3. Can you read us the first page? 

Tracy:  Oh, my goodness. Patrick, that was, that was beautiful. That was just beautiful. I'm typically not someone who reads that type of story, but I am very intrigued by that.

Tracy:  Well, Patrick, I want to thank you for spending time with us this week. And I look forward to reading Far on Ringing Plains, along with all of your projects, and that wraps up this week's episode. Next week we'll have award-winning Amish Author Lenora Worth on board. So, we'll see you next week on the Buggy Talk Podcast.