Family, Faith, and the Plain Ways – Plus a Giveaway!

 

^{I loved returning to the West Kootenai Amish Community for Plain Redemption. It’s one of my favorite communities to write about because its small and remote—the perfect setting for a suspense story.}

^{There’s something different about reading an Amish story that sets it apart from other fiction. It’s a throwback to a simpler way of life that I think many of us long for.}

^{Could you live the Amish lifestyle? Let’s find out by taking a trip. To Amish Country.}

^{Close your eyes and imagine yourself living on an Amish farm. Beyond the romance of Amish fiction, Plain life isn’t always so easy. Depending on how progressive your community is, you’ll have to give up some of your Englischer ways.}  

^{For instance, you’ll need to leave your cell phone and car behind. Most Plain communities don’t use them. Travel is mostly by horse and buggy. Some communities use bicycles.} 

^{There are Amish businesses who have permission to have phones for their shops. There’s usually a phone shanty in the community which is a central phone that every community member uses.}

^{The language spoken mostly by the Amish among themselves is Pennsylvania Dutch, a German dialect.}

^{While the Amish homes are like ours, they don’t use lamps or light bulbs. Lanterns illuminate the home. Cooking is made possible through a gas stove and wooden oven. A woodstove heats the home.}

For the most part, women avoid too flashy of colors and stick to ones such as blues, and greens, dark magentas and purples.

^{Church services are usually bi-weekly and mostly take place in a community member’s home or barn.}

^{The Amish are all about family and community. I love that about them. They work hard and their lives are simple but challenging.}

^{As much as I would love to say I could live the Amish life, I know myself. I can’t. But it’s fun to think about it for a little while by reading an Amish book.}

^{For a chance to win a copy of Plain Redemption when it releases, do you think you could live as the Amish? Please leave your email address along with your comment!}

^{Here’s a little about Plain Redemption:}

^{Spring is a long way in coming to the Big Sky country of Montana, and Lyddie Hershberger is still living in the winter of her life . . .}

^{First her husband died a little more than a year earlier, then Lyddie lost their unborn child. Now, an accident sends her father-in-law to the hospital clinging to his life. Will the gloom of winter ever leave their West Kootenai community?}

^{When word of his father's accident reaches Thomas Hershberger in Colorado, he rushes home to find all his old sins waiting for him there, along with the woman who destroyed his heart. His brother’s widow, Lyddie Hershberger. After someone breaks into the family home while Thomas and Lyddie are at the hospital, it soon becomes apparent that his father’s accident is anything but.}

^{As Lyddie and Thomas struggle to understand why someone wishes their family harm, old feelings of love resurface. Is it possible for Thomas to overcome the guilt he feels for his part in his brother’s death and convince Lyddie that their love can melt any heartache standing in their way?}