Friends and fiction among the Amish

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Wanda Brunstetter does not live in Sarasota's Pinecraft neighborhood, nor is she Amish, yet she's built a substantial career writing books — novels and cookbooks — about the communities she fell in love with years ago.

Her husband, Richard, grew up in the Mennonite church, although he became a pastor in the Nazarene church, but meeting his family in the Amish region in Pennsylvania set Brunstetter on a path that's led her through 70 books, most of them about life and relationships in small Amish and Mennonite communities.

Wanda Brunstetter's books include cookbooks and a perpetual calendar. / HERALD-TRIBUNE PHOTO BY THOMAS BENDER

Wanda Brunstetter's books include cookbooks and a perpetual calendar. / HERALD-TRIBUNE PHOTO BY THOMAS BENDER

 

"It's their family values, their family unity," said Brunstetter, who spends about three months each winter in the Beekman Place neighborhood, a few miles north of Pinecraft. "They put God first and family second."

Perhaps half Brunstetter's readers are Amish and Mennonite; the other half are "Englishers," what the Plain People call outsiders.

"It takes them back to a simpler way," said Brunstetter, whose Sarasota home is decorated in tropical motifs; she keeps her Amish quilts at her permanent residence near Yakima, Washington.

Wanda Brunstetter's most recent novel is :The Decision." / HERALD-TRIBUNE PHOTO BY THOMAS BENDER

Wanda Brunstetter's most recent novel is :The Decision." / HERALD-TRIBUNE PHOTO BY THOMAS BENDER

Brunstetter's most recent book, "The Decision," is the first in a Prairie State Friends series in which various characters, some of whom have appeared in previous books, take turns at the center of the plot. In "The Decision," a young woman raised by her grandparents in Arthur, Illinois, must choose between marriage and caring for her widowed grandmother as she slips into dementia. The young man she's in love with, Jonah Miller, had been left at the altar in an earlier book.

"Jonah was very important to me," said Brunstetter. "My editor said, 'I can tell you really love Jonah. You don't want to let him go.'"

Jonah's story will continue in the next two books in the series, already written, which focus on two other young women in the community.

In "The Decision," Elaine and her grandmother earn most of their income by serving homecooked meals to busloads of tourists eager to sample chicken and mashed potatoes, peanut butter and shoofly pies.

"Those big dinners are very common," said Brunstetter. "One of my Amish friends does the sit-down dinners. People love it. They get to come into an Amish home."

Brunstetter also has compiled five cookbooks of Amish recipes, all built around the "Amish Friends" title.

Brunstetter is a disciplined writer, whose writing goal each day is a chapter. She also maintains a blog and a newsletter.

"I'm contracted to write two books a year," she said. "My publisher says more if you can do it."

AUTHOR PREVIEW
WANDA BRUNSTETTER will sign copies of “The Decision”  from noon to 2  and 4 to 6 p.m. March 14 at Yoder's Gift Shop, 3434 Bahia Vista St., Sarasota (955-7771), and from noon to 2 p.m. March 28 at Wal-Mart, 19100 Murdock Circle, Port Charlotte (625-2399).

AUTHOR PREVIEW
WANDA BRUNSTETTER will sign copies of “The Decision” from noon to 2 and 4 to 6 p.m. March 14 at Yoder's Gift Shop, 3434 Bahia Vista St., Sarasota (955-7771), and from noon to 2 p.m. March 28 at Wal-Mart, 19100 Murdock Circle, Port Charlotte (625-2399).
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Susan Rife

Susan Rife is the arts and books editor for the Herald-Tribune Media Group. She holds a bachelor of science degree in journalism from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. She can be reached by email or call (941) 361-4930. Make sure to "Like" Arts Sarasota on Facebook for news and reviews of the arts.
Last modified: March 13, 2015
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