You all have been so patient in waiting for the next Just Molly book, and I'm so excited to announce that it is coming soon! Keep an eye on this space for the new book cover reveal in the next couple of weeks.
I apologize for the long delay between book three and book four. All I can say is... life. It's been a very busy year as we've been adjusting to a new house, a new church, and new work. Writing has had to take a little bit of a back seat. I'm disappointed I wasn't finished by Christmas 2022, but it is almost done, and I'm hoping you are as happy about that as I am! Lots of fun coming your way soon! --Laura
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Brisk days and crisp apples... What could be better than an Amish County Apple Crisp? I'm spending a week in the middle of Amish country, in an old farmhouse on 180 acres of even older farmland. The house is located on a picturesque ridge, and as I look out the huge living room window, I can see almost all the way across the valley to the Cumberland Valley Presbyterian Church on the other side. It's stunning, and it's not even in Lancaster County. In fact, it's not in Pennsylvania at all. It's in Missouri. That's okay. There are so many similarities that it still feels like home. I can take my boys to watch their Amish counterparts milk their cows (and then we buy a gallon or two). We share the road with buggies. I run into women in Walmart whose aprons are held together with straight pins instead of buttons, and who wear black bonnets instead of face masks. We shop at their shops (except on Sundays and Thursdays) and get our chain saw fixed at their store. And the other day my boys were invited to pick black walnuts up from under their tree. Then we had the black walnuts hulled. Then we sold the hulled walnuts for a little bit of money. ($16.00 for 100 pounds of hulled black walnuts.) It's cold here. I'm wearing four layers of clothes and my husband is building a fire in the woodstove while my youngest boys look on in awe. My older boys are all outside working the farm, enjoying the break from homeschooling. (They're still learning...probably even more than normal, so I'm not sweating the small stuff.) And tonight we have tickets to a real rodeo. In our family, I'm the only one who has ever been to a rodeo, so this is exciting stuff! My boys can't wait. Bronco bustin' and Bull Ridin', here we come! But one of the best things about being here in the fall (besides the breathtaking landscape colors) is the apple crisps. We bought a huge sack of Jonagold Apples from the nearby Amish bakery the other day, and now we are working our way through them. They aren't great for eating, but they are fabulous in pies and crisps. And since we are already feeding pumpkin pie to our ravenous workcrew of teenage boys, we are using the apples for crisps. It's fast. It's delicious. It's (mostly) healthy. It's an all-around win! And here's the recipe so you can make your own Amish County Autumn Apple Crisp. Autumn Apple Crisp Recipe4 cups sliced cooking apples (Jonagold is great!) 1 Tbsp lemon juice 1/3 cup flour 1 cup oats (uncooked) 1/2 cup brown sugar 1/2 tsp. salt 1 tsp cinnamon 1/3 cup melted butter Directions: Peel (if you want) and slice apples thinly. Scatter evenly over the bottom of a 9x9 inch greased baking dish. Sprinkle with lemon juice. Combine dry ingredients; add melted butter; and mix until moist. Sprinkle on top of the apples. Bake at 375 for about 30 minutes. If you are baking for a hard-workin', hard-eatin' crew like I am, you will want to double this and bake it in a 9x13 pan. Or if you are baking for people who like apple crisp. Or if you are baking. In fact, doubling this recipe is almost always a good idea. Don't worry. It won't last long! In other news, The Just Molly Series Book #3: Just One Life just hit the bookshelves. Check it out when you have time. And if you want to wait until I do a sale day, sign up below to receive an email about it. You will also get Just An Unfortunate Misunderstanding (a short story) free.
Question: The world is a dark, gritty place. So why do you write stories bright with hope and life? Yes, this world is dark and gritty with sin, pain, and--right now--diseases like Covid 19. So why would I write stories that are so cheerful and bright?
Because the world may be dark, but I see the light of Christ shining through that. Writers write about the world they see, or the world they believe in. For me, that is a world bright with hope and life. Christ is the light of the world. Because of His sacrifice on the cross, there is salvation, and with salvation comes hope. It's not that I don't acknowledge the problems this world has. As a missionary, I see all around me poverty, sickness, and grief. But there is piercing light that shines through that. There is the death of death in the death of Christ. And one day, there will be no tears, when Christ wipes them all away. I write to celebrate that. I think we should all focus on that. Sin is a curse, but the cure is salvation through Christ alone. Because of Christ, the world is a bright place. Just An Unfortunate Misunderstanding is free on KU (or .99 to purchase)
It took me much longer than I wanted it to, but Just One Girl is live on Amazon for Kindle, just in time for Christmas. For now, both books in The Just Molly Series are in Kindle Unlimited, so it's a free read for those of you in there. Otherwise, from now through the beginning of January, I have them on a 99 cent sale. Enjoy!
Read an excerpt from Just One Girl. Chapter One
Read an excerpt from Just One Day. Chapter One
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Laura Leigh is a missionary wife and mom of six. In her travels, she’s cuddled lion cubs in Africa, assisted in impromptu snake surgery in Cambodia, and boated down an underground river in the Philippines. She writes clean, wholesome Christian fiction.
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