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It’s been a busy year so far.
- In January, I turned in a proposal for book 5 of my Indiana Amish Brides series.
- In February, I turned in my novella for An Amish Picnic, titled Picnics in Prospects
- In March, I wrote my novella for the Summer of Suspense anthology (more on that in a minute).
- In April, A Perfect Amish Match released and hit the Publishers Weekly Bestseller list for 2 weeks.
- And in May I completed and turned in book 5 of my Indiana Amish Brides series.
Have I had fun or what? And that’s in addition to teaching 2 sections of college English. I seriously love both of my jobs. Now about that Suspense novella…
How do you defend yourself against an attack you can’t see?
Nora Brooks has been sent to the small town of Shipshewana to stop a cyber-attack that could kill hundreds. She doesn’t realize that she’ll need an Amish farmer to do so. Ben Lapp is walking around the corner of his barn when he comes face to face with a woman dressed in black, bleeding from a wound on her right arm, and aiming a gun at him. When he learns why she’s there, he wants to do more than stay out of her way. He wants to help her stop this threat to the community and the people that he loves. But the man who is threatening Ben’s community has faded into the night, and it’s going to take every bit of cunning and instinct they possess to find and stop him.
This is a 16 novella anthology by 16 well known Christian authors. The pre-order price with Amazon, B&N, and Apple is just 99c. After the ebook is released on August 6th the price will go to $9.99. So go ahead and pre-order today!
As for me, I have more fun things to share in the fall, so I better get back to writing them.
~Vannetta
Amish, Mystery and Suspense Novels
From the Back Porch
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- Amish home, Middlebury, IN
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- Quilt Garden, Shipshe, IN
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- Amish home, memory garden
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- Amish home, produce garden
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- Quilt Garden, Shipshe, IN
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- Amish home, produce garden
Today I thought we’d talk about Amish gardens. Raise your hand if you’ve seen one.
I live in Texas, so I’m well acquainted with gardens. My husband’s Uncle Joe had a very large vegetable garden even after he’d gone blind. Uncle Joe was pretty amazing. So I thought I knew what to expect from Amish gardens. Ha! I was wrong.
- Amish gardens are big because they try to grow as many veggies as possible to provide for their large families.
- Amish gardens are also rather old-fashioned. For instance, look at the picture above with the gas tank in the bottom right-hand corner. I remember my grandma telling me that adding anything rusty to your garden puts iron back in the soil. Have you ever heard that?
- Amish gardens are natural, and by that I mean that they’d rather not use costly pesticides. Instead they’ll do things like plant marigolds next to vegetables to ward off insects.
- Some Amish gardens are for Englischers. Aren’t the quilt garden pictures above fun? You can find these through Shipshewana, and they’re wonderful to visit.
- Occasionally you’ll find a memory garden. The top right picture is one of my favorites. See the wooden marker? What a lovely way for this family to remember a loved one.
Amish are known for their large and beautiful gardens. Of course this is in addition to the crops they grow. What about you? Have you seen any Amish gardens? Do you have a garden? Leave a comment below, and we’ll pull one winner to receive an autographed book from yours truly. Last week’s winner was Kimberly K. (Kimberly, you should have received an email from me today.)
Blessings,
VC
Announcements for this week
- I have 2 summer specials in my VC Boutique Store and you’ll see some new spring items.
I hope you’ll check it out! - The anthology I’m participating in, Summer of Suspense, is now with our editor. You can preorder at BN and Apple and Amazon. Pre-order price is 99c for 16 awesome inspirational romantic suspense novellas. These are all original stories.
- I’ll be in Shipshewana the week of August 1-4. Mark your calendars in you’re in the area. I’ll post more soon about when and where we’ll be having our book signing. Lots of Amish authors are attending, so this should be a fun event.