R: Romona Tucker
Field of Daisies, a recently released book from OakTara Publishing Company, offers hope and comfort to those who struggle with recurring generational problems and to those who must make decisions regarding elderly family members.
If you enjoy a good romance, this book is for you, but it is so much more than that. Readers have enjoyed its sensitivity to the feelings of characters who become as real as their friends. Many have said they couldn’t put the book down and ended up reading it far into the night. Some loved its elements of empathy, consolation, joy, affirmation, insight, and spiritual renewal. It is a poignant story of hope, faith, and determination to beat seemingly impossible odds.
The story takes place on a farm in the rolling hills of Western Pennsylvania where the characters delight in walks and horseback rides through the field of daisies. Andrea and Lans Mulder met as young teenagers there, renewed their romance as young adults during an enchanted week in Paris, and eventually married in the field of daisies.
With two growing children, their life has been as close to perfect as you can imagine. But when the destructive disease of Alzheimer’s strikes the third generation of Andrea’s family, can even a made-for-each-other couple stand strong—and stay together? Especially when Andrea herself receives the worst news of her life?
The love story is pure fiction but the story of generational Alzheimer’s is the story of my family. It is a story that I have long wanted to write in order to give encouragement to families who are living through the difficulties this devastating disease brings. It sent me on a desperate search through the Bible to find answers. I started searching the word “blessings” and came to believe that God’s heart is to pass on blessings from generation to generation rather than the terrible curses suffered by the children of Israel when they rebelled against God. Finding such a compassionate Father in the scriptures changed the direction of my life. My hope is that my readers will remember this long after they have put the book aside. While Field of Daisies is a work of fiction, its pages are filled with life-changing truth.
I have been writing most of my life: poetry, short stories, and research articles. Educated at Smith College and Harvard business School, I worked for a management consulting firm before marrying and raising four children. For 15 years I lobbied for high community standards at home and throughout the United States, giving hundreds of Radio and Television interviews and debates and walking the halls of state and national government buildings convincing lawmakers that our downward spiral must be stopped. Featured in Christian Herald Magazine and Focus on the Family’s Citizen, I received the first Christian Herald James 1:22 Award. I appeared on the Today Show with Bryant Gumbel, Dr. James Dobson’s Radio Program, and on 100 Brinkley Street in Canada. Dr. D. James Kennedy broadcast an hour-long video of my work to halt the pornography industry.
When writing the book Don’t Touch That Dial: The Impact of the Media on Children and the Family, an analysis of social science research on the harms of sexually explicit and violent media, I thought often about how many more people would read my book if it were a fictionalized story rather than a compilation of research findings. That is when I began writing fiction. My book on the harms of viewing pornography An Island Just for Us is expected to be released in the fall of this year.
Field of Daisies is the story I have wanted to write for many, many years and I am delighted to be able to draw your attention to it. When my church chose it for our monthly Book Club, many ladies who were not in the Book Club bought it and came to hear my presentation. They found help in it for a wide range of problems. Some said it should be a resource for counselors and those who face multi-generational issues. There is something in it for every generation alive today.
It presents both models of marriage that are inspirational to others and ways in which Christians effectively deal with difficulties in their lives regardless of age or season of life. It discusses marital issues in times of crisis, parent-child relationships at various stages of life, and issues dealing with the care of older family members.
Great places to order my book are www.amazon.com, (printed version or Kindle) www.barnesandnoble.com, www.oaktara.com, and www.facebook.com/oaktara. It can also be purchased from www.christianbook.com, www.buy.com, www.booksamillion.com, www.target.com, and many other national and international outlets. It can be ordered by bookstores, groups and organizations through Ingram or directly from www.oaktara.com. The ISBN number is 978-1-60290-321-0. If, for any reason, you have trouble ordering the book, call my editor Ramona Tucker, Editorial Director of OakTara: 630-464-3909 or write her at rtucker@oaktara.com.
You might be interested in my blog: Live Every Day of Your Life. Shortly after I wrote the book, I discovered epigenetic science which, through its research studies, has found that we have the potential to influence even our genetic code. You can go to www.blog.barbarahattemer.com to read about how this can be done. It is an incredibly hopeful new science that is good news for all those who wonder if they might be next to contract whatever problem plagues your family. It not only offers hope for those who already have generational problems but for all people since we all increasingly face illnesses from our toxic way of life. You can sign up to receive my blogs there or you can write to me at barbhat@infionline.net and ask me to add your e-mail to the list of people who receive the blog regularly.
I hope you enjoy reading the book. While it is a heavy subject, there are many delightful scenes on the farm, in Paris and New York that make it a pleasure to read.