Like many children interested in books, McCrory native Annalisa Daughety started writing stories when she was very young. Even though it was just a hobby at the time, Daughety got a small taste early in her life of what it takes to sell a book.
“I started when I was in the first grade,” she said. “I actually illustrated my first books myself and sold them to my mom and my grandma.”
Now, with 11 books published, Daughety has made some of her dreams come true by turning her hobby into a second job. On June 1 of this year, one of Daughety’s books, Love Finds You in Charm, Ohio, will come to life on screen in a movie for the UP Network, and the author said it has been a surreal process that has included visiting the set and even making a cameo appearance in the movie.
Daughety did not immediately start writing professionally when she entered adulthood. Writing was an interest carried over from childhood, but she did not plunge into the world of publishing until just a few years ago. After graduating from Freed-Hardeman University in Tennessee, she started working at Shiloh (Tennessee) National Military Park and kept her writing private.
“I wrote for myself, and the thought of putting it out there for the world kind of terrified me,” she said.
Daughety’s aunt Christine Lynxwiler was already a published author, and Daughety said Lynxwiler’s encouragement helped her have the courage to submit one of her stories for publication.
In 2007, Daughety submitted a story to the American Christian Fiction Writers’ Genesis Contest, a competition that gives unpublished authors a chance to get their work in front of publishers. She was a finalist the first year she entered, and the next year, she won the contest.
“That same year, I got offered a three-book deal from Barbour Publishing,” she said. “It all happened very, very fast. Most people go through years of submitting. I never got a rejection letter. I just got, ‘Yes, send us more,’ and then a book deal. It just snowballed from there.”
The three-book deal Daughety signed included stories set in National Parks, launching off of her day job with Shiloh National Military Park. The first of the series, Love Is a Battlefield, is set in Shiloh. The other two books in the series were set in Washington, D.C., and the Grand Canyon.
After the three-book deal was published, Daughety’s publisher asked her to write books with Amish characters using the same voice she used in her first book series. She submitted a proposal that did not end up going anywhere at the time, but that proposal eventually turned into Love Finds You in Charm, Ohio.
The book is part of the Love Finds You series, which was initially published by Summerside Press and includes dozens of books set in cities all over the United States. Various authors contribute to the series, and several of the books are focused on Amish stories.
“I had written that proposal for a funny, quirky Amish story,” she said. “I had an editor who remembered that; it had been over a year. She asked for the proposal and told me not to ask any questions.”
It turned out that Summerside Press needed a book set in Charm for the Love Finds You series, and the original author they had lined up for it had to back out.
“They needed the book in six weeks,” Daughety said. “They already had a cover, and they already had it distributed, and they needed someone to come in and write their own story but set it in Charm. I hadn’t been writing novels for very long at that point, and I had six weeks to turn this little idea into a full-length book.”
Daughety said she took all of her vacation time and literally worked on the book around the clock, sleeping in two-hour increments while her editors read her work. One of her editors had family members who were close with the Amish community, and Daughety would send lists of questions along with her submitted chapters because she did not have time to do much of her own in-depth research.
“With most books, that’s not the way it goes,” she said.
Love Finds You in Charm, Ohio follows the story of Emma Miller, an Amish girl who spends one summer with relatives in Charm. That summer, she is torn between the Amish lifestyle and the modern world that defies Amish standards.
The book was published in 2011, and since then, the publishing company Guideposts has acquired the Love Finds You series. A little over a year ago, Daughety started hearing rumors that there was a possibility that a film company was working with Guideposts to make Love Finds You in Charm, Ohio into a movie, but she was not formally part of those discussions.
“When I finally talked to the producer, he was on location,” she said. “That’s when I knew it was a done deal.”
Daughety and her husband were able to visit the movie set several times during the three-week shoot, and they even have a cameo in one of the scenes. She said it was incredible to see the scenes she saw in her head being brought to life by the actors in front of her.
“It was probably one of the craziest experiences in my life, watching the people I had dreamed up in person, dressed like I imagined and saying things I had written,” she said. “It’s the craziest thing to be there and be on set.”
Love Finds You in Charm, Ohio will premiere June 1 on the UP Network. After the premiere, the movie will be released on DVD.
Staff writer Angela Spencer can be reached at (501) 244-4307 or aspencer@arkansasonline.com.