EXCLUSIVE: Fifty Shades of Hay! Amish community up in arms over ‘tame’ romance novel where characters’ ‘lips meet in mutual consent’

An Amish novelist is taking the Christian literature world by storm, selling nearly a million books and setting the hearts of the ultra-conservative community racing.

Linda Byler has been labeled the EL James of the Amish people, but she assured DailyMail.com that her latest work, Carpet of loveis ‘tame’ compared to Fifty Shades.

Her writing career began at an Amish newspaper, where she honed her talent before embarking on her romantic series, which has propelled her into the literary stratosphere.

But not everyone is thrilled with the overwhelming success of her titillating novels, and some older adults claim that the novels’ rising popularity is fueling sexual abuse.

“They’re very tame books,” Byler said, adding that there’s no sexual intercourse involved. ‘There is nothing unclean in them. There’s something touching, my editor said it should be discreet and be a bit of a kiss,” she told DailyMail.com.

Byler says her works couldn’t be further from the challenging Fifty Shades trilogy, whose sado-masochistic themes captured the zeitgeist well over a decade ago, making James an overnight millionaire.

After James’ huge success, she is now one of the richest authors in the world, with a net worth of around $200 million. And Byler is hot on her heels with her extraordinary success, bringing her an income that means neither she nor her husband have to work anymore.

Byler began writing for an Amish newspaper to make ends meet when her husband went bankrupt. She later added strings to her bow when she published several children’s books. But she found her niche in romance novels that have become increasingly popular along the American Bible Belt and other Christian communities.

With sales skyrocketing, she was quickly dubbed the Amish community’s answer to EL James.

Regarding the recent cases of sexual abuse within the Amish community, Byler says members have wrongly blamed her.

“In the last decade, romantic novels have gone wrong in the community,” Byler said.

‘Romantic novels are looked down upon by much of the younger generation; they view them negatively because of the many troublesome people who end up in institutions where they go to get help.

“But there’s a little bit of[community sexual abuse]going on and you know, when these things come out, they blame the novels.”

Because of the Amish sects’ strict rules of eschewing all modern conveniences, including electricity and motor vehicles, Byler writes her novels by hand, in a notebook, and then sends them to Sky Horse publisher Tony Lyons in New York.

As for the Amish people, Byler said that instead of her community becoming more progressive as the years go by, she has actually become even more conservative.

“Touch is looked down upon these days, but it wasn’t in my day. Sex before marriage is, of course, a no, no. But we have pregnancies. We have couples who “loved each other” before marriage. There are single mothers, but they are not shunned; they are accepted in the community,” she explained.

The Amish are a 250,000-strong sect, descended primarily from Swiss Mennonite religious groups who began migrating to the US in the 18th century to avoid religious persecution and compulsory military service.

They speak a Germanic dialect known as Pennsylvania Dutch, travel by horse and buggy, and survive by farming.

Byler is from the “Old Order,” the most conservative type of Amish settlement.

Electricity is banned and residents have no access to cars, phones, televisions or the internet, which they fear would destroy their simple way of life.

And while the community welcomes new members to “mix and jingle” within the Amish community, Byler issued a warning to those interested in joining: “People who don’t belong to the Amish community and join – we never say no, but it never works. You almost have to be born into the culture. Otherwise it won’t work. It’s too restrictive for outsiders.’

After having seven children, Byler said three of her children decided not to join the church or left the community after previously joining the church at the required age of 19.

“They attend church, but are not affiliated. I have a daughter; she lives in Florida. And then I have a son who never joined the Church because as soon as he turned 19 he decided not to join the Church.”

Fortunately, Byler and the rest of her family who remained in the community were not shunned.

The author said, “If Amish people are shunned, in rare cases the elderly will not break bread with them at the same table, cooperate with them, and worship with them according to the age-old practice of shunning the religion. In stricter regulations, shunning can drive families apart, cutting off all contact between parents and their children.

“I mean, the shunning is very different from what it used to be; there is no pride in it. You are ashamed, something is wrong, but it fades. You are still a respected person in your community.’

Despite the Amish’s reputation for rejecting all Western customs, Byler admits that she enjoys and watches reality television when she vacations at her daughter’s home in Florida.

But she’s not a fan of the Kardashian’s narcissism: “I watch TV every summer when I go on vacation to the beach. I enjoy the reality show The Alaskan People – it’s about people living in the frontier areas.

“I’m 65 years old, so I’m not a fan of the Kardashians. I don’t look down on them or judge them. It seems like they are all about themselves. I don’t like that.’