Amish Life and Gardening, part 2 Pick up one of my books, and you’re bound to find a gardening scene. Why? Because every time I’ve been to Amish country, I’ve seen folks gardening. Doesn’t matter whether it’s spring, summer or fall, families are out working in their gardens. Last week I shared with you gardening tips from some of my …
Material Witness, Excerpt #1 Today I thought I’d share a short excerpt from Material Witness. This is from Chapter 10 (page 121). Melinda has learned that her son, Aaron — her handicapped son — is in danger. She’s hurried home to warn her family, but when she arrives no one is there. As Ginger nudged Melinda’s hand searching for a …
Blogging and Everything Amish So how do you like the new look of my blog? The blue reminds me of kitchen curtains, and the brown and orange remind me of fall. : ) I hope this will be a nice, comforting place that you enjoy visiting. So I gave the blog a facelift, and you’ll notice a few other changes …
School Days and Material Witness Material Witness is the story of a little boy who sees something terrible–he sees a man attack a woman. He doesn’t know it at the time, but he sees a man kill a woman. Why would I write such a thing? We would all protect our children from seeing this horrible event, from being …
Shipshewana–The Setting for Material Witness I was in northern Indiana last week doing research for a new book (Amish Artisan Mystery Series). While I was there, I stopped by Shipshewana for a book signing and to meet old friends. So I wanted to share with you a few photos from my afternoon there. I hope you enjoy them! …
Shipshewana Amish Mystery – Material Witness In just 2 weeks, book 3 of my Shipshewana series–Material Witness will begin shipping from the Zondervan warehouse. I wanted to share with you the new covers, which the art department at Zondervan did a wonderful job of creating. If you’ve already read books 1 and 2, no worries — the story is the …
Parents, Amish Schools A Promise for Miriam released on July 1, and we’ve been talking about Amish schools, since the plot of this story revolves around an Amish schoolhouse. This week I thought I’d share a few things I learned about Amish parents: They do repairs to the schoolhouse when needed. They clean the schoolhouse the week before school begins. They visit, …
Students, Amish Schools Since the setting for A Promise for Miriam is an Amish schoolhouse, a lot of the plot revolves around STUDENTS and how they interact. Having taught for 15 years in a variety of different schools, I believe that “kids are kids” — city, suburb, small town — kids are kids! That said, there are some differences. In my …
School Calendars for the Amish Researching is one of my favorite parts of writing. Now that copies of A Promise for Miriam have begun showing up in bookstores, I thought it would be fun to share some of the things I learned. As a public school teacher myself (15 years, 7th grade – college), I was very interested. My biggest question was …
My Setting – Amish Schools I’m so excited that copies of A Promise for Miriam have begun showing up in mailboxes. Technically, it won’t be in all stores, until July 1, but we’re shipping early. Yeah! As you probably know by now, the main character of this story, Miriam King, is an Amish teacher. So I thought we’d start our Saturday …