This week, welcome Mary Hamilton to The Story behind the Story. She shares the story of the real-life Bible camp that was the inspiration for her YA series, Rustic Knoll Bible Camp.

Rustic Knoll Bible Camp—where kids bring their baggage to camp and learn how to carry it.

I didn’t have a lot of baggage growing up at a youth camp. In fact, for me, it was a bit like living at Disneyland. Every summer brought swimming, boating, campfires, and new opportunities for friendship. Since my dad was director of a Bible camp in southeastern Wisconsin, we lived there year round for the first twenty years of my life.

So when the urge to write a novel struck, I knew I wanted to set it at a camp similar to the home of my youth. The camp itself is still operating, but a lot of things—like food preparation and clean up–have changed in thirty-five years. In my day, the kitchen was open to the staff and often served as a gathering place. Campers were responsible for KP duty, which meant washing 200+ plates, bowls, and glasses by hand, not to mention the silverware, which tripled that number for each camper! Nowadays, only the cook staff is allowed in the food preparation area, and clean up is done by an automatic dishwasher.

The setting wasn’t the only inspiration for my Rustic Knoll Bible Camp series. Cooks, nurses, maintenance men, the director and even a few campers provided seeds for my characters. For example, Zeke, the camp director in the series, combines my dad’s patient wisdom with another pastor’s talent for drawing pictures to illustrate the stories he told during evening chapel. Those drawings held our attention during his message, and became prized possessions when he gave them away at the end of each evening session. A nurse’s love for fishing became a characteristic of Nurse Willie in the series. And a blind camper inspired the character featured in the most recent release, See No Evil.

Though the ideas for my characters often began with real people, their struggles are entirely fictional. The characters’ problems grew out of real life, things kids struggle with each day—divorce and remarriage, parental expectations, peer pressure, envy, grief and even sexuality. Sound like modern day issues? I can tell you that forty years ago, kids faced the same temptations and trials, asked the same questions, and carried similar burdens when they went to camp. Maybe that’s why adults seem to enjoy the Rustic Knoll series as much as kids. Because going to Rustic Knoll Bible Camp with these young characters brings back a lot of memories. And maybe it reminds them of their own stories behind the story.

Bio: In her first job out of college, Mary L. Hamilton wrote an organizational newsletter that people actually enjoyed reading. So when she became a stay-at-home mom, she pursued writing for wider publication. Her articles appeared in several magazines and she also wrote “Homespun Angel,” a Christmas play. When her youngest child started school, she went to work on writing the novel that began the Rustic Knoll Bible Camp series. The recent release of the third book, See No Evil, completes the series. All three books are available in paperback or e-book format.

Mary’s writing has reached the semi-finals in the Genesis contest, and the Selah Award finals.

Having grown up at a camp, it’s no wonder she enjoys the outdoors and nature. Her other interests include reading and knitting. Mary and her husband raised three terrific kids and make their home in Texas with a rescued Golden Retriever.

Connect with Mary:

Website/blog: http://www.maryhamiltonbooks.com

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/maryhamiltonbooks

Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/mhamiltonbooks

Twitter: http://twitter.com/@MHamiltonAuthor

Book link:

Hear No Evil, Book 1 http://tinyurl.com/kl5bovo

Speak No Evil, Book 2 http://tinyurl.com/oaleqya

See No Evil, Book 3 http://amzn.to/1MtOkMj