I’m terribly excited about the release of my new book, A Wedding for Julia. This is book 3 in the Pebble Creek series. Here’s a short blurb.

Just As Hope Runs out the Door,

Love Softly Peeks In

  Julia Beechy is so stunned, she can hardly breathe. The announcement that she must either marry or move from the family home on her mother’s imminent death catches Julia completely by surprise. How can she leave the only home she has ever known? What about her dream of opening her own Plain café?

 Quiet Caleb Zook thought his time for marrying was long past, but he feels a stirring in his heart he cannot shake for this beautiful, forlorn woman. When he offers support, comfort, and a solution, Julia is afraid to accept it. Can she marry someone she barely knows? Is that the right thing to do? Is this God’s plan for her future? For his?

 As Julia and Caleb work through the consequences of their life-altering decision, the people of Pebble Creek weather the worst storm to hit Wisconsin in the last hundred years. Where will Julia and Caleb be on the other side of it?

Doesn’t that sound fun? It is. When I start writing a book, I have one thing in mind … but as I write, that one thing often blossoms into many other. So this story is also about

Gardening

cooking

family

faith

new beginnings

caring for the elderly

guiding teens

eating disorders

surviving tragic times

I so enjoyed this return to Pebble Creek, and I hope that you do too. By the way, if you haven’t tried any of the books in this series, books 1 and 2 are currently on sale in ebook form for $1.99 You can find out more information and direct links to vendors here. And even if you don’t have an e-reader, remember you can read Amazon kindle books on your computer. Simply click the “Available on your PC” button to the right.

Blessings,

V

Filed under: Amish Fiction, Vannetta Chapman by vannetta
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Apple Creek Dreams Book II – Coming September 1, 2013 –

Part One: Apple Creek Again by Patrick E. Craig

There is something about an agricultural town that is unique and wonderful, for with the deep link to the land comes a settled-ness and a sense of permanence found nowhere else. All the bright days of youth in such a place are held in the mystery of God’s eternal circle of life and death, winter and spring, summer and fall. The cycles of the seasons dictate the deepest feelings in the heart of one who dwells there, with days marked, not by events, but by smells and colors and sounds and all the other sensory signals.  The temperature of a morning’s rising can tell you everything about the day ahead, be it the coolness of a daybreak in spring, the heat of the long, languid days of summer, the crisp bite of a fall day, or the chill of winter that pushes you with icy fingers back under the welcoming warmth of the lovely down quilt.  The lilting chirp of a robin outside an open window, or the haunting call of the Canadian geese heading south can manifest the procession of days more surely than any calendar.  The solemn silence of a winter night, with feet softly crunching on the fallen snow as you make your way toward the light in the window ahead, or the grinding of the machinery and the smell of the thick harvest dust; it is these things that mark the passage of time and bind one surely to the beloved land and the life so graciously granted by the Master of the Vineyard.

Apple Creek, Ohio, is such a place.  It is especially beautiful in the fall.  The leaves of the Buckeye trees turn bright red and the green, spiked pods that hide the horse chestnuts split open and drop their beautiful brown seeds on the ground.  Children pile the leaves into forts and arm themselves with the shiny brown nuts against the trespasses of the kids from down the street.  Mornings come armed with the warning bite of winter yet to come and the air itself is alive with the promise of families gathered at festive tables and the wonder of frosty nights that delight the heart with cathedrals of starry splendor.  Soon the soft snow will blanket all living things in the quiet death of winter, but not yet, no not yet; for it is harvest time and the cycle of life is at its peak.

The fields surrounding the village are ripe and the air is heavy with the fecundity of the yearly progression come to its fullness.  Though the world changed greatly after World War II and the Korean War, Apple Creek remained much the same.  Even as the nation wandered into the disaster in Vietnam, the Amish community in Wayne County remained above the growing conflict and social revolution that would follow.  It was as though Apple Creek had been captured in a back-eddy of time and slowly drifted in a lovely continuity of days, while the main current of civilization rushed by into an unknown and frightening future.  The Amish in Apple Creek were connected to the land and the land was forever.  The fields stretched to the horizon and the days were like the fields; reaching back into the permanence of the past and extending forward into a future that they knew held the same tasks, the same demands, the same feasts and the same succession of birth, life, and death.  And yet they were not afraid of death, for they had their God and his promises, they had the land and the fruit of the harvest each year, and they had the children who were their inheritance and, at the same time, a down payment on the continuance of their lives.  And above everything, they had the simplicity of their way.  And it was enough… for some.

Filed under: Amish Fiction, Authors, Patrick Craig by Patrick Craig
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Happy sunny day, Amish readers! At least the sun is shining in Ohio, that is. After another cold snap last week green grass, leaves on trees, and flowers blooming in my garden sure are a welcome site. I thought I’d share a recipe from Love Comes to Paradise in case you’re ready for something sweet. This came from my Amish friends in Winesburg, Ohio.

Fruit Tarts

Pastry:

2 cups Robin Hood Flour

½ cup white Crisco Shortening

½ cup yellow (butter-flavored) Crisco Shortening

8 oz. Cream Cheese

Pinch of salt

Mix all ingredients well with a pastry blender or fork. Form dough into balls and then place in a muffin or tart pan. Press dough into muffin or tart form and fill with your favorite fruit fillings approximately ½ to 2/3 full. (Lemon curd, raspberry, cherry, plum, or peach preserves.) Bake for approximately ½ hour at 350 degrees. Let cool and then add your favorite topping. We like whipped cream, but ice cream is really good, too.

Filed under: Amish Fiction, Authors, Mary Ellis, Recipes by Mary
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True or False: The Amish Reject Modern Technology?

False.

The Amish are very selective about the devices and innovations that members are allowed to possess, but they do not reject all modern technology outright. When a new technology becomes available within a district, church leaders will evaluate its potential for causing harm to Amish life and values and then make a decision accordingly. No technology, regardless of how labor-saving it may be, is permissible if the leaders determine that it will be spiritually detrimental to the community.

To the outsider, the Amish restrictions on technology are among the most confusing of their rules and often seem contradictory. Why do the Amish not own or drive cars, yet they will ride in vehicles driven by others? Why won’t they have a phone in the house but put one in the barn? To make sense of these questions and more, consider the Amish value system:

• Humility: A lack of fancy electronic devices provides less opportunity for pride.

• Submission: Following the technology rules of the order demonstrates obedience to God, to the group, and to history.

• Community: Staying off the grid prevents dependence on the outside world.

• Simplicity: Life without computers, email, or other forms of electronic interruption is more peaceful.

• Thrift: A low-tech life prevents excessive phone bills, car insurance premiums, cable TV charges, internet costs, music download fees, and so on.

• Family: Owning and driving one’s own car provides too many opportunities for temptation and allows one to roam too far from home.

Rules that seem contradictory usually relate to the overriding goal of being masters over technology rather than slaves to it. Anyone who has ever felt prisoner to a constantly ringing phone or a full email inbox can surely understand that concept!

Though the rules vary widely from district to district, many technological items are allowed in Amish homes and farms, including calculators, flashlights, manual typewriters, gas grills, chain saws, roller-blades, and more. Some districts allow manual lawnmowers only, though others permit gas-powered lawnmowers and even weed whackers.

Contrary to popular belief, the Amish do not think that technology itself is evil or wrong. They do believe, however, that if left unchecked, technology can destroy the Amish way of life by undermining its traditions, bringing inappropriate value systems into homes, and ultimately breaking communities and families apart.

This answer has been provided as an excerpt from the upcoming book, Plain Answers About the Amish Life by Mindy Starns Clark. Learn more below.

Filed under: Amish Facts, Mindy Starns Clark by AmishReader.com
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False.

The Amish are Christians and do not fit the modern, generally accepted criteria for what constitutes a cult. They may be confused as one because they follow a very restrictive set of rules and face excommunication (shunning) for certain infractions of those rules.

However, unlike a cult, the Amish religion is not centered on a single human authority, they do not require their members to pool their finances, and the tenets of their faith are compatible with most major Protestant denominations. Thus, they are not a cult but simply an ultraconservative Christian faith culture.

The Amish adhere to these tenets of the Christian faith:

• There is one God.
• God is a trinity.
• Jesus came to earth as God in the flesh, died, and rose again.
• Salvation comes through grace by faith.
• Scripture is the divinely inspired word of God.
• The church is the body of Christ.

As foreign as many Amish practices are to most people, their faith culture is a Christian one. The Amish are not a cult, they do not try to earn grace by their lifestyle, and they do believe in salvation.

Feeling that it would be prideful to claim an assurance of that salvation, however, most Amish districts prefer that their members maintain what they call a “living hope” or a “continued effort” on the topic, trusting the ultimate fate of their soul to God’s providence rather than claiming it with certainty.

With no central religious authority, each Amish district must make decisions about what is and isn’t allowed for its members on matters both large and small. Consequently, what may be perfectly permissible in one Amish district can be utterly forbidden in another. Outsiders might consider all Amish to be conservative, but that conservatism covers a wide range.

This answer has been provided as an excerpt from the upcoming book, Plain Answers About the Amish Life by Mindy Starns Clark. Learn more below.

Filed under: Amish Facts, Mindy Starns Clark by AmishReader.com
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I faced an interesting dilemma while researching Love Comes to Paradise in Missouri. I marked Clark, MO, on my map and headed there with eager anticipation. However, when I arrived this “town” had all but packed up and left, or blown away in the last storm. Yes, there were plenty of Amish families living in the general area of Randolph, Audrain and Boone Counties. But the town of Clark, although it survives on maps, had little to say for itself. Remember, I live within an hour of Sugarcreek, Berlin, Walnut Creek, Charm, and Mount Hope–charming, lively, and thriving Amish villages. I wasn’t used to a non-thriving town. So I visited the entire area, including Sturgeon and Higbee and then created the fictional town of Paradise. It reflects the people, weather, and history of the area, but if you head to MO looking for Paradise…you’ll need a map better than I own. Hope you enjoy my photos of MO.

Filed under: Amish Fiction, Mary Ellis by Mary
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Apple Creek is a real place.  It is a village set in the heart of Wayne County, Ohio, eleven miles from Dalton and ten miles from Wooster.   There are real streets, and real people in Apple Creek.  There are Hershbergers and Springers and some Halversons living there.  Apple Creek and the surrounding area is home to a large Amish community and has been since the mid 1800s.  Not far to the east lies Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where the first Amish that came to America settled in 1720.  I chose Apple Creek as the setting for “A Quilt for Jenna” while doing research on the Amish in Ohio and in particular on Amish quilt-makers.  Apple Creek, Dalton and Wooster, Ohio are known throughout the country for the marvelous Amish quilts that are produced there.

Dalton has one of the biggest quilting fairs in Ohio.  A town named Apple Creek was just too good to pass up as a location, so I started my story there.  I used the actual streets and highways, the localities and even local family names.  As I mentally planted myself in the heart of Apple Creek, the characters in the book began to spring out of the earth, fully grown, with lives and stories, joys and sorrows.  The story was easy to write because it seemed as though I was reading someone’s journal as I wrote it.

The more I explored Apple Creek, the more I realized how connected I was to the village.  My great-great grandfather, Anthony Rockhill, was born 49 miles from Apple Creek in Alliance, Ohio in 1828.  Apple Creek is 85 miles from the site of Fort Henry, West Virginia on the Ohio River.  Fort Henry was the site of Betty Zane’s run for life during the British and Indian siege during the revolutionary war in 1782.  The book ‘Betty Zane,’ by Zane Grey, was a childhood favorite and still has a place on my bookshelf.  As a child I poured over stories about Lewis Wetzel and Jonathan Zane and followed them through the trackless Ohio wilderness only a few miles from what would become the village of Apple Creek.  I’ve never been there, but I feel I know the area like the back of my hand.  And so it was no coincidence that I came to choose Apple Creek.

Though the characters in this book are fictional, they have become very real to me, as I hope they will become to you.  It is my hope that their stories will touch a place in your heart as you read, and that you might find something of your own life here in Apple Creek, Ohio, that may be changed for the better by the end of the book.  So, as I think about it, maybe it was coincidence that I chose Apple Creek.  After all, coincidence is just God choosing to remain anonymous …

*Thanks to Ron Jansen, my new friend from Apple Creek, who sent me these pictures.  Ron and his wife found “A Quilt For Jenna” in the ‘choice books’ display at Der Dutch Restaurant on Kidron Road.  Kidron is the road where Jerusha and Henry crashed their car on the way to the quilt fair in Dalton.  Coincidence??  Find out more about Apple Creek at my website:  www.PatrickECraig.com

Filed under: Amish Fiction, Authors, Patrick Craig by Patrick Craig
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Here’s a recipe from one of my Amish friends, Rosanna Coblentz. I hope you enjoy baking as much as I enjoy eating!

Molasses Crisp Cookies

3 cups butter

2 ½ cups white sugar

2 ½ brown sugar

Mix well, then add:

4 beaten eggs and mix again

Add: 6 teaspoons baking soda dissolved in 1 cup buttermilk

Next add: 1 cup cane molasses (lighter molasses OR 1 cup dark molasses) whichever your preference.

2 teaspoons baking powder and then gradually add 10 cups flour

Chill dough for at least 2 hours and then roll into balls about the size of walnuts.  Then roll the balls in a mixture of brown sugar and cinnamon to taste.

Place on ungreased cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees for about 10-12 minutes depending on your oven.

Filed under: Amish Fiction, Authors, Mary Ellis, Recipes by Mary
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Readers and writers of Amish fiction usually think about new settlements forming and growing larger each year. During my research of Love Comes to Paradise, I discovered that’s not always the case. In Missouri, the oldest settlement was founded in 1953, but several communties were founded before the Civil War and went extinct. During the Civil War, the Amish were often at the mercy of both Union and Confederate troops since both sides stole their crops, cattle and pigs. The Hickory County settlement disbanded in 1882 due to crop failures, financial losses during the Civil War, and lack of congregational growth. A settlement near Centralia in Audrain County, (location of my fictional story) failed to thrive due to erratic weather, periods of drought alternating with heavy, persistent flooding. The last two Amish families moved away in 1917. Other extinct settlements existed in the Missouri “bootheel” during the 1920’s and 1930’s. They last around a decade before members moved away. I wish to thank Amish historian, David Luthy, for his wonderful accounts, Settlements that Failed, and Amish Settlements Across America: 2008. History certainly provides a plethora of plot twists for an author of Amish fiction! 

Filed under: Amish Fiction, Authors, Mary Ellis by Mary
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We have a great deal right now on some fantastic reads! You’ll find all the titles listed below for $2.99/each — available wherever ebooks are sold!

This offer won’t last forever…it ends on Monday, January 21, 2013. So, check out your favorite ebook store today. And Happy Reading!

–Your Friends at AmishReader.com

Amish Novels

The Face of Heaven by Murray Pura

Lyndel Keim and Nathaniel King are at odds with their Amish colony when they join the Civil War effort.  A wound threatens Nathaniel’s life and Lyndel must call upon God. A dramatic and moving story set during America’s darkest hours.

The Wings of Morning by Murray Pura

Jude Whetstone and Lyyndaya Kurtz, whose families are converts to the Amish faith, are slowly falling in love. Jude has also fallen in love with flying that new-fangled invention, the aeroplane. An exciting historical romance set in 1917 during America’s participation in World War I.

Other Inspirational Fiction

Love Blooms in Winter by Lori Copeland

In a little town in North Dakota in 1892, an engagement, a runaway train, and a town of quirky, loveable people make for more of an adventure than a visiting railroad executive is expecting. But it is amazing what can bloom in winter when God is in charge of things.

Every book in the beloved “A Place Called Home” series by Lori Wick

A Place Called Home

After escaping to Baxter because of her grandfather’s deathbed warning, Christine begins to piece together a new life. The love she finds there, along with newfound faith, sustains her as she faces the threat of danger.

 A Song for Silas

Amy thought love would never pass her way again. She didn’t know how close it was…until she met Silas. A tender story of the flowering of hidden love and the nurturing of faith in the farmlands of Wisconsin.

The Long Road Home

Broken now in body as well as spirit, Paul must face his own heart as he encounters the love of God in the patient care of his nurse. This turn–of the century romance touches the shattered dreams of a young, widowed pastor with God’s faithfulness and the possibility of new love.

 A Gathering of Memories

Her heart was fragile from too much pain—would her defenses push Ross away? A poignant tale about love fulfilled, A Gathering of Memories will capture the hearts and minds of romantics everywhere.

Filed under: Amish Fiction, Lori Copeland, Murray Pura by AmishReader.com
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