Shunning Ida Mae

In 1886, Ida Lapp, a plucky Pennsylvania woman, secretly loves an Englisher, something strictly forbidden by the Amish Ordnung. When discovered by her parents, her penalty forever changes her life and sends her on a journey to face persecution, at the same time she desires the impossible—to return home to a family who despises her.

On an Iowa farm, Anna dies and leaves Joseph Melroy with the daunting task of raising two small children. Faced with the heartache of losing his wife, looming financial troubles, and a promise he is loath to keep, he must do something he’d not thought possible to survive the attempts of the area’s only unmarried woman to corral him before a preacher and to do it before she ruins everything.

Ida seeks the job to care for Joseph’s youngsters and discovers that only marriage to the English outsider can extract her from a homeless situation. She acquiesces to a loveless union on the condition she can walk away.

Immersed in a local setting where few people comprehend her Amish background, she endures whispers, side-glances, and outright hatred from the town’s gossip who claims matrimonial rights to Joseph. The woman learns of the late-night wedding and spews her venom against Ida.

Shunned by her family, and circumventing barbs by those who don’t approve of her, Ida must navigate the corridors of a vastly different culture. Will she stick with Joseph? Will Joseph save the farm? Will Ida return home to her parents who want nothing to do with her?

In 1947 Ray Petriani flees Texas in the middle of the night with his wife and young family. Desperate for work, he takes a job in California and is sent to inland China on a business venture. A gift exchange with the local potentate provides him with two things he doesn't want. Things he cannot reject, and things he is forced to protect. Those gifts change his life.

Through his research of the first item, a gilded antique music box said to have belonged to a Chinese Emperor, only uncovers additional shrouded historical doubts which raise further problems as to its real intent. Ray refuses to give up his investigation and believes the meaning of its significance lies hidden in the way it was presented.

But it's the possession of the second gift, a pretty female slave, which rocks his work and generates friction with his wife that reaches atomic proportions, and plants a minefield of impossible complications. Town's people, officials, family, and associates, all full of righteous-hatred toward Orientals due to the recent war, seek to purge the area of this Asian beauty who clearly doesn't belong, but who is forbidden from returning to her homeland.

Can Ray, his family, and this newly freed slave navigate the corridors of bitter animosity from the people of their two countries, attempts on their lives from both sides of the Pacific and bungling government bureaucracy, to uncover the deep Chinese secrets that have come to entwine their lives?

Inherited Wife

Woodrow (Woody) Hancock’s uncle offers him two wagers. First, he would make Woody find a wife sooner than he wants, and second, Woody would build the home for unwed pregnant girls they’ve both dreamed about. Both wagers would happen by the end of the following year. But Woody declines the outrageous wagers because he’s not ready to get married, nor does he have the funds to build the home. 

When his uncle dies just after the new year, Woody inherits his uncle’s beautiful farm. In addition, $186 million could become his, plus $23 million for a home for unwed pregnant girls, but if, and only if, he’s married by July. Or all the funds will be forfeited to an abortion clinic, a place he abhors. Hounded by fortune seekers, Woody is forced into hiding and starts working at a pregnancy center. The Covid pandemic sweeps the country and the center relocates to Woody’s farm where he’s secluded with four lovely women. But despite the women’s deceptions and secrets, he hurries to woo one of them as his lucky bride. 

When he selects a woman and marries, his problems multiply. As Woody and his inherited wife attempt to fulfill his uncle’s second wager to build the home for pregnant girls, they must endure threats, fire, lawyers, inspections, and a shooting. They struggle to maintain their sanity against someone who vows their downfall. Can they survive the ever-increasing turmoil?