Award-winning author J. M. Hochstetler is the daughter of Mennonite farmers, a graduate of Indiana University, a professional editor, and a lifelong student of history. An editor with Abingdon Press for many years, she is currently the publisher and editorial director of Sheaf House Publishers, a small specialty press based in Elkhart, Indiana.

Her latest release, published in March 2014, is Northkill, Book 1 of the Northkill Amish Series co-authored with her cousin, multi-published author Bob Hosteteler. Northkill is the inspiring story of the authors’ Amish Mennonite ancestors who came to American seeking religious freedom and were caught up in the brutal clashes of the French and Indian War.

Hochstetler previously published four historical novels set during the American Revolutionary War, Daughter of Liberty, Native Son, Wind of the Spirit, and Crucible of War, the first four books of the American Patriot Series. Book 5, Valley of the Shadow, is forthcoming in Fall 2015, and Books 6 and 7, Refiner’s Fire and Forge of Freedom will complete this acclaimed series.

Hochstetler’s contemporary novel One Holy Night, a retelling of the Christmas story set in modern times that released in a new edition in 2013, was the Christian Small Publishers 2009 Book of the Year and finalist for the American Christian Fiction Writers 2009 Carol Award.