When I had the opportunity to write a novella for AN AMISH MARKET, I jumped at the chance. I live near Middlefield, OH and visit there often. One of the prime attractions is the Middlefield Market. Each Monday they hold a large flea market which includes clothing, fruits and vegetables, Amish baked goods, and in the spring and summer, vegetable plants and flower baskets. I wrote about the Middlefield Market briefly in my novella “Flowers for Rachael” (in the anthology AN AMISH GARDEN) and I was excited to revisit it in this novella collection. In “A Bid for Love”, a fictionalized version of the DCC Benefit Auction is featured. A series of misunderstandings at the quilt portion of the auction leads Hannah Lynne and Ezra to sort out their feelings for each other. Several years ago I had the opportunity to attend the DCC Benefit Auction. This is a yearly auction that supports the DCC Clinic for Special Needs Children located in Middlefield. There are several auctions held throughout the year that support the DCC Clinic and the Clinic for Special Needs Children in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. I knew this would be a special auction, but it far exceeded my expectations….

Fresh Pick for Friday, February 26th, 2016 is PLAIN DEAD by Emma Miller #InspirationalFriday a touch of murder About PLAIN DEAD A (not so) simple case of murder When a newspaperman is murdered in the Amish community of Stone Mill, Pennsylvania, Rachel Mast digs up the dirt to find out who wanted to bury the lead… Although she left her Old Order Amish ways in her youth, Rachel discovered corporate life in the English world to be complicated and unfulfilling. Having returned to Stone Mill, she’s happy to be running her own B&B. But she’s also learning—in more ways than one—that the past is not always so easily left behind. After local newspaperman Bill Billingsly is found gagged and tied to his front porch, left to freeze overnight in a snowstorm, Detective Evan Parks—Rachel’s beau—uncovers a file of scandalous information Billingsly intended to publish, including a record of Rachel pleading no contest to charges of corporate misconduct. Though Evan is certain of her innocence, it’s up to Rachel to find the real killer. A closer examination of the victim’s unpublished report leads Rachel to believe the Amish community is far from sinless. But if she’s not careful her obituary might…

“You’ve got to come down here,” my granddaughter, Savannah, said over the phone. “We have the perfect dog for you.” “Who’s we?” I asked. “Celeste, Emily, and I. It’s a rescue dog. Hurry.” Well, they are my teenage grandchildren, so I decided to accommodate them, all the while feeling that I wasn’t sure I wanted another dog. The last one I had was a 50-pound black chow with a purple tongue who decided to bite a lab and took me for runs when I was only trying to walk him. He wasn’t the cuddly type! The only thing he apparently feared was going up and down stairs. When there was a tornado alert and we retired to the basement, he stayed upstairs, braving the storm. He wouldn’t do the stairs even when it was sunshiny, nor when offered a treat. So, after he “retired,” I’d made it clear my next dog would be calm, love me, and let me be the boss. Reminding myself that these were the grandchildren who “made” me get a cat at a time I was more a “dog” person, I nevertheless met them outside the store where there were cages filled with pleading, rescued dogs….

When I tell people I’m a novelist, the inevitable next question, is: “What do you write?” When I tell them I write romances, they invariably give me a puzzled, skeptical look. I’m a middle aged lady with a reputation for being reserved, not much of a talker, and definitely not a wild and crazy woman with a vast, exciting love life. First, I want to admit I did sow some wild oats in my twenties, but I don’t look upon those years as something of which I am proud. However, I am proud of the recent anniversary I celebrated with my husband Tim. On February 14, we had been married twenty-eight years. Being married to the same man for almost three decades has given me a richness of experiences from which to draw my romances. I’ve discovered that the mystery and uncertainty, the flip-flopping of the stomach, the will-he-call, will-he-ask, will-we-live-happily-ever-after, are not nearly as fulfilling as knowing the answers and hearing them repeated year after year. We didn’t really have time for much for that. We married in 1988 three months after we met on a bus full of journalists headed from El Paso, Texas, to Albuquerque, New Mexico,…