The Blog

Pebble Creek Series, VC Book Spotlight This week I want to tell you about my Pebble Creek series. My wonderful editor at Harvest House, Kim Moore, asked me to write an Amish romance. I could set it anywhere, and it could be about anything. I’d written about Pennsylvania and Indiana, so I wanted to try somewhere new–somewhere different! Wisconsin was... read more

Weddings in Amish Communities I first visited Cashton, Wisconsin two summers ago. Being from Texas, I was stunned to see so much green! The countryside is truly spectacular. We stayed at Amil’s Inn Bed & Breakfast. The owner, Anita, had lived in the area for quite some time and knew a lot of the Amish families. She was happy to take... read more

All Things Amish – Cashton Wisconsin I have a confession to make. I’ve been holding out on you! While I was searching through my storage room (aka, bedroom closet), I found an entire tub full of items from Cashton, Wisconsin. Cashton is the setting for my Pebble Creek series. When I visited there 2 summers ago, I bought lots of... read more

All Things Amish, and Amish Weddings I had so much fun researching for my current release, A Wedding for Julia. If you’ve read the story, you know the opening scene is actually a funeral. I haven’t attended an Amish funeral, so that took a lot of research on my part. I also haven’t attended an Amish wedding! So how does... read more

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,... read more

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... read more

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... read more

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... read more

Release of A Promise for Miriam It’s here! A Promise for Miriam is now available at Christian Book Distributors. CBD is who Christian publishers use to distribute books to Amazon, B&N and your local independent bookstores. Miriam should be at your local store a few weeks earlier than we thought. Yeah! So what’s it about? You can read the blurb... read more

Places We Like … Amish Life Another question I asked you a few weeks ago is where you would like to visit, where you would go to see the Amish if you could take a trip. I like trips! It’s fun to go somewhere different and see how people live. Here are your answers. Pennsylvania Ohio Indiana Florida Missouri There... read more