Amanda Grace

Amanda Grace wrote her first two historical Western novels at age twenty-three. Once married to a rugged backwoodsman from Illinois at age twenty-seven, Amanda and Doug began their new life together on forty acres of Ozark hill country in Missouri blessed with a year-round flowing creek and spring. With the help of Amanda’s seven brothers, a small cabin was constructed and a homestead was soon etched into the hillside along the banks of Blair’s Creek where it was quickly filled with six children, all but one being a homebirth.

No time was wasted putting in a garden. With the aid of the wood cook stove and a propane burner, Amanda fills the pantry shelves with canned goods of all varieties. Green tomatoes and okra to fry throughout the winter, green beans, spaghetti and pizza sauce, salsa, seasoned potatoes, and zucchini are just a hint of what all is preserved. Once deer season hits or a neighbor downs a razorback (wild boar), she cans the meat into roasts, stews, and chunks for BBQ sandwiches since freezer space is limited. She also cans her own chili, refried beans, and baked beans. And when all those pesky crowing roosters get under her nerves, they end up in a jar as well.

And she doesn’t stop there. Amanda ferments her own sauerkraut and makes her own wines and brandy. Sourdough is another daily staple in the home along with her homemade cough syrup and elderberry syrup. Naturally, she makes a large variety of homemade jams and syrups.

Water is hauled by hand from the creek for baths and washing dishes. A portable pump is used for watering the garden…when it works, and spring water is brought in for drinking.

Amanda and Doug homeschool their children and include them in their daily activities of mechanic work, building outbuildings and fencing, and creating each meal from scratch...even when it may come in the form of freshly caught fish or a few slain rabbits.

To keep her sanity, once the kids are put to bed, Amanda writes. Her passion is Western novels dusted with history tidbits, but she also has a weekly column in her local newspaper, The Current Wave called Along the Banks of Blair’s Creek. Each week she writes about what they might have faced that week like a bear tearing into their outside guinea pig cage, or finding a Timber Rattler intruding their chicken coop.

Amanda is up to seven novels and thirteen Memories books, often publishing a new novel every year.