Beloved Readers,

I wanted to share a few more things with you in preparation for my upcoming release, Gathering the Threads.

My author copies have arrived from WaterBrook-Multnomah. Hurray! I’ve sent out more than twenty signed copies so far. If you are a winner of the third book or of the series, you should have received yours by now.

If we’re not connected on Facebook, you may not have heard, so let me tell you: For a limited time, my publisher is offering a special buy-one, get-one deal! If you preorder the paperback version of Gathering the Threads, you can get a paperback copy of Ties that Bind for FREE. This applies to new and previous preorders, so if you ordered the book a few weeks ago or months ago, you qualify! For more information, CLICK HERE.

I want to thank you for subscribing and reading my newsletter, and I want to apologize for the confusion about the giveaway in the previous newsletter. If I explain all that led to the confusion, I’m sure that would only make things more confusing. Who needs that, right?

Instead of doing that, let’s have another giveaway! The winner of the previous contest is Denise of Rocky Mount, North Carolina.

The new giveaway will be for a full set of the Amish of Summer Grove series, and it will run until Monday, August 7. I will do my best to get the books to the winner before or on the release date for Gathering the Threads, which is August 15.

To enter, CLICK HERE. Scroll down to “Leave a Reply” and post a comment.

This past week my daughter-in-law, Erin, and I finished the edits on our Christmas novella. I am so excited about this book! It’s a powerful story, and it is priced to sell!

Would you like a sneak peak? Here it is:

Young love…
Promises made.
Lies spoken.
She was arrested.
He returned to the safety of his wealthy parents.

Almost ten years later, Hadley and Monroe are both specialists in the field of speech therapy. They meet again . . . thrown together to help a four-year-old girl who has a speech issue that’s mingled with a fire-related trauma.

Years of secrets and anger beg to be set free as Hadley and Monroe try to push aside past hurts and find common ground in order to help the traumatized child and her family. Can the love of Christmas past drift into the present, bringing healing and hope for all?

Hadley and Monroe struggle to get along, but they do their best in order to help Chloe, a sweet girl who has stolen their hearts. Chloe has apraxia of speech, which makes it difficult for her to do certain motor movements, even though her muscles are normal.

Here is a little glimpse into their story…

Occasionally something akin to magic happened between speech therapists and their young clients—moments when tiny victories were won, and the two hearts celebrated with as much wonder and joy as if it were Christmas. But victories didn’t come quickly for most children. It could take months, even a year, to get a child to speak a few odd-sounding syllables. But no matter how skilled adults were with words, they couldn’t explain the beauty and power of a child trapped inside of apraxia who began to communicate, however poorly at first.

Monroe walked to Chloe at the edge of the dance floor. “I wonder if Chloe-kitty would like to dance with me.”

Chloe held her hands up and Monroe grabbed them, but she didn’t budge. She pulled one hand away from him and reached out. He looked up to see Hadley walking toward her.

Hadley took her small hand. “I’ll dance with you, sweetie.”

“Da-ance?” Chloe’s sweet voice rose in pitch at the end of the syllable.

She spoke!

Hadley looked at Monroe and smiled, a huge, beautiful smile that made his heart leap.

“Monroe, do you think Chloe is asking both of us to dance with her?”

“I do.” He held her gaze. “And we have to. It was a huge milestone for her to say the word.”

Hadley peered at Chloe, looking pleased with her. “It was.” She leaned down and kissed Chloe’s head between the kitty ears. “Come on, let’s swing dance. Not that I know how.” She held Chloe by one hand and reached out to Monroe.

His breath about caught as he took her hand. Her skin was as warm and soft as he remembered...

After three months of draus in da Welt, Ariana has returned to Summer Grove, the Old Order Amish community where she was raised for twenty years, and life with her Brenneman family. Skylar Nash, the Englisch-raised young woman is working in Ariana’s café while getting to know her birth family and their Plain way of life. Skylar’s time in Summer Grove has changed her outlook, just as Ariana has grown to see her personal faith in God in a different light than the manner she was taught while growing up. Both women will have to make decisions about their paths—and Ariana must decide what role her childhood friend, ex-Amish Quill Schlabach, will play in her life. To read the first chapter, click HERE.

To read Chapter One, click HERE. Releases October 10, 2017 — Preorder HERE (ebook version available soon!)

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