Vanetta Chapman with Nora

Last week, Lonesome Hollow hosted Vanetta Chapman and her husband, from Texas.  Vanetta came to Wisconsin to research the Wisconsin Amish for her upcoming  book  series of Amish mysteries.   Her book, A Simple Amish Christmas, was published last October, and she has  begun releasing a series of books called the Shipshewana Amish Mystery Series. Falling to Pieces,  A Quilt Shop Mystery will be released November, 2011.

Vanetta writes in her blog about her visit to our area:  “I visited Wisconsin this week in order to meet some of the local Amish folk formy upcoming Pebble Creek series (Harvest House, 2012). I’m so glad I did. Not only are the Wisconsin Amish lovely people, but they’re very different from the Amish communities I visited in Indiana.

And isn’t that to be expected? After all, if you came to Texas, you’d find things vastly different where I live in a small town in the hill country than where I used to live in the Dallas-Ft. Worth metroplex. To some extent people are the same–true. We have common beliefs and roots. But other things change with the area around you.

I could have read about Cashton, Soldiers Grove, and Baraboo on the internet … but I couldn’t have seen how to make a rug on a loom, or visited a furniture store, or talked to an older Amish gentlemen as he explained about his grandchild who was sick and in a local hospital. Those are things I needed to be here to experience, and I’m grateful that I did. Now when I boot up my computer and write–I hope I’ll be able to share with you the heart of the Amish people in Cashton and the surrounding area. You can let me know how I did, next June.”

This is  absolute best part of innkeeping!  Meeting such interesting and wonderful people like Vanetta and her husband, Bob!