Two weeks to go!

It’s exactly two weeks until the release of Dairy, Dairy, Quite Contrary! Two weeks until the start of a new series. Two weeks until you meet Sissy, Duke, Bethel, and the rest of the gang. Two weeks until you get to travel to Yoder, Kansas. Via my book anyway.

Yoder is the best little town, and I have thoroughly enjoyed my two visits there. Actually, I’m already looking forward to the next trip. Not that there’s one planned or anything. Just in my head. Next time Stacey and I go to Yoder we’re going to…

What’s so great about Yoder? you ask. It’s real. It’s genuine. It’s the quintessential small town plus Amish.

Yes, the Amish community is a big part of the Yoder dynamic. Like Chouteau (the inspiration for Wells Landing) some of the Amish children go to the Charter School in town, but of course stop after the eighth grade. The rest go to the one Amish school in the community. A lot of the Amish adults work at the meat processing plant, and a great many of the young people serve up fantastic food at the Carriage Crossing Restaurant and the Bulls Eye Diner.

As in Chouteau, the Amish in Yoder drive tractors during the week and a horse and buggy on Sundays. Both wear the same sort of barrel-like prayer covering, though the Amish women in Yoder tend to wear lighter colors than those in Chouteau.  

Yoder is an unincorporated community of 165 beautiful people. That’s not just the Amish; that’s how big Yoder, Kansas is—English and Amish combined! Keeping that in mind, I had to make a few changes when I wrote Dairy, Dairy, Quite Contrary. First thing—I added a café. The Sunflower Café is where Sissy goes to work with her aunt Bethel. I added a gas station and a florist and honorary mayor. Not sure why I added politics. It just seemed right at the time.

I did my best to keep as much about Yoder intact as possible, though I did alter a few names as I was writing. The Chicken House became the Chicken Coop (FYI this is where Stacey and I stayed on our second research trip). The Carriage Crossing became the Carriage House, and the Bulls Eye became the Bull in Your Eye. But in real Yoder, there is Discount Store, a hardware store, post office, and a meat store. You’ll read about all these in Dairy, Dairy, Quite Contrary. There’s no stop light. One railroad track and just a few places to lounge about. Yet all in all it’s worth the trip. Even via book.

The pictures I took in Yoder are all here on my website. Click the link below to check them out. If you have visited before and seen them, I encourage you to give them a looksee once more. I have recently rearranged the pictures of Yoder to help visitors to my site get the best experience from them. I hope you’ll take a second look!

Thanks for visiting and as always, a big thanks for reading!

 

 

YODER PICS

Also, if you have a mind and you love mysteries you can check out my site dedicated to all things about my mystery books.

AMY WRITES MYSTERIES