The Wanderers: Author Paul Stutzman releases his first novel

  • Denice Rovira Hazlett
  • August 30, 2012
  • 386
                        
Summary: Author Paul Stutzman is best known for his two non-fiction adventure books, Hiking Through and Biking Through. Now, in The Wanderers, the first of a three-part series of novels, Stutzman explores the simultaneous journeys of two of God's creatures struggling to find their purpose, and their way back home. Story: It had only been a few days since Paul Stutzman had lost his wife, Mary, to breast cancer. In one of the funeral flower arrangements sitting in his kitchen was tucked a twig from which hung a monarch chrysalis. Mary Stutzman had been enamored with the insects, scouring the roadsides for the solitary host plant--milkweed--that contained the Monarchs' minuscule eggs, tiny promises of a future metamorphosis. She would bring them home, wholly taking in the transformation that progressed from hatching to devouring milkweed, from mysterious encasement to miraculous emergence as a brand new creature. The chrysalis on the twig was a symbol for Paul Stutzman, a reminder of the metamorphosis that he believes comes with death and the promise of everlasting life. Paul Stutzman sunk into a chair not far from that delicate chrysalis and slipped into much-needed sleep. During the night, the butterfly emerged, the fluttering woke Stutzman, and he gently guided it out his front door. From that time on, he wondered what had become of the Monarch, whose species is also known as the Wanderer. From that, a seed of inspiration grew. Someday, he thought, he would write a work of fiction exploring that butterfly's journey. But for Stutzman, two works of nonfiction presented themselves first--one, Hiking Through (Revell, 2012), chronicling his trek along the Appalachian Trail as he processed the grief of losing his life partner, and the second, Biking Through (Wandering Home Books, 2011), following his bike path, human encounters, and his own struggles with loneliness as he pedaled across the United States from the northwestern to southeastern corner. Stutzman's works were met with readers' eager enthusiasm. In 2012, Hiking Through, which had originally been successfully self-published, was picked up by Revell Books, a division of Baker Publishing Group. Earlier this year, it also found distribution with Choice Books, a direct-store-delivery distributor of inspirational, wholesome and family-oriented reading materials servicing displays in thousands of retail locations across the continental United States, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico. According to Choice Books' CEO, John Bomberger, Hiking Through has done well, selling more than 6,600 copies through their outlets alone and picking up speed. In fact, Bomberger says, they've ordered more than 4,400 copies for distribution within the last month. On Saturday, Sept. 8, at a book signing at the Gospel Book Store in Berlin, Stutzman will release his first novel, The Wanderers, the first of a three-part work of fiction exploring the life of a restless young Amish man struggling to make peace with his place and purpose. "I wanted to write about a boy who had been raised well," Stutzman says, "someone who was intelligent and came from a good family, but wondered if he was missing out on something." Stutzman's protagonist, as some Amish kids do, goes out and experiences a different aspect of life. Johnny hides out in his "thinking stand," an old washhouse transformed into a treehouse, drinks too much beer, buys a car, and witnesses firsthand the consequences of living hard at a young age. When he meets Annie, the new parochial school teacher with a past of her own, Johnny begins to climb out of his destructive lifestyle and find hope, especially as he hears Annie talk about how she has been transformed, just like the Monarchs she loves, from a worm of a creature into a beautiful, soaring being. When tragedy strikes, Johnny sets out on a sojourn to process all he has experienced, seek what he thinks he has been missing, and cross-examine his own heart. "One of his questions always was, 'Am I really an Amish man?'" Stutzman says. "As he travels across the country seeking answers, he begins to recognize the thought patterns that reveal to him who he really is." Threaded throughout the book are the undeniable themes of pilgrimage and transformation as Johnny's travels are interwoven with those of a pair of migrating Monarchs driven by an unseen power to complete a cycle they don't fully understand, one that has been in place for hundreds of generations. The results are insightful and humorous, charming and heartbreaking, peppered with allegory and scattered with seeds of truth. Stutzman says much of the inspiration for the setting of the story came from his grandmother Mary Ann Troyer's large farm, cradled in the gentle hand of Walnut Creek, a place where Stutzman spent much time mingling with his Amish family and their neighbors as a conservative Mennonite boy. The characters who come to life in The Wanderers, he says, are completely fictitious, composites of people he has both known and imagined, and even small bits of himself, each with a different message to convey. "All the characters are telling a different part of the story," Stutzman says. "They're offering a deeper meaning than what's on the surface." Stutzman will sign The Wanderers at the Gospel Book Store in Berlin's German Village from 9 am to 12 pm on Saturday, Sept 8th and then again that evening following the Harvest Festival Parade. The book, which is being printed by Carlisle Printing of Walnut Creek, will also be available through Stutzman's website, paulstutzman.com, at local tourist attractions, and on Amazon both in traditional and eBook form. Choice Books CEO John Bomberger says he anticipates the distributor will carry The Wanderers as well. Stutzman is currently working on the second book in the three-part series, which will further explore the lives of some of the characters in The Wanderers. As to which characters those are, readers will simply have to wait and see. For more information about the book signing, contact the Gospel Book Store at 330-893-2523. For information on The Wanderers and Stutzman's other books, visit paulstutzman.com.


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