Sometimes I feel like I’m a little hamster running on a wheel. No matter how hard I try to catch up, I’m just in the same place…running and running but getting no where. Between the kids and the house and my husband and writing…well, I imagine that I am no different from anyone else. We […]
“Of all the books you’ve written, what was different about the writing of this novella?” When I was invited to guest blog here at Destination Amish, this is the question that I threw out to my fellow authors of The Heirloom Brides Collection. I thought it might be fun to share their answers, and give […]
Fall means two things to me: Pumpkin Spice Lattes and Book Fair Season. Yes, I am one of the hordes who goes absolutely gaga over Starbucks’ PSL. When September strikes, I begin asking my local barista if the PSL has arrived. It officially launched on September 8th, but I got one a few days earlier […]
If I say, “Amish school,” what do you think of? I’m going to guess that two things pop into your mind. First, that Amish students leave school after eighth grade, and second, that they study in a private one-room schoolhouse with an Amish teacher. These things haven’t always been true. In fact, before the 1950s, […]
As a writer, I feel a deep sense of responsibility to get my facts right when it comes to the Amish culture. On my last trip to Wisconsin Amish country, I paid special attention to some of the differences among Amish communities. In one community the women tie their kapp strings, in another, they leave […]
Summer is my favorite season. I love summer vacations, summer flowers, and summer projects. It seems like every summer I start out with great expectations of everywhere I will go, everything that I will do, and everything that I will write. In general, I would say I have a seventy-five percent success rate of doing […]
Fall of Poppies – Stories of Love and the Great War by Heather Webb, Hazel Gaynor, Beatriz Williams, Jennifer Robson, Jessica Brockmole, Kate Kerrigan, Evangeline Holland, Lauren Willig, Marci Jefferson William Morrow Trade Paperback; March 1, 2016; $14.99; ISBN: 9780062418548 Barnes & Noble / Amazon / IndieBound / Books-a-Million Top voices in historical fiction deliver an intensely moving collection of short stories about […]
One of the reasons the Amish left Europe was because of the military environment of the sixteenth and seventeenth environments. Their reformist beliefs put them at odds with established churches, and their nonresistant, peace-seeking beliefs put them at odds with the government. For many, emigrating to Pennsylvania seemed like a fresh start that gave them […]
I’m celebrating the release of Balm of Gilead, the third book in the Healing Grace trilogy. It wraps up the story of Sarah Yoder, Dokterfraa in training, and of her next-door neighbor Henry Byler, who has had a few hard choices to make over the last two books. I’d like to share with you an […]
Did you know that Wisconsin has the fourth largest population of Amish in the country? I love Wisconsin Amish country so much that all of my books are set there. My three earliest books are set in Cashton on the southwest end of the state and my Huckleberry Hill series is set in Bonduel to […]