Thursday, February 4, 2021

Writer to Farmer? by Amanda Flower

Jenn McKinlay: One of the super talents in the cozy mystery genre is Amanda Flower and I am so pleased to have her visit us today to share her journey from writer to farmer, which inspired her latest mystery, coming out on Feb 23rd! 

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Amanda Flower
: I met my now husband, David, four years ago. I was smitten right away. He was hilarious, kind, and super cute. However even more than those things, he liked that I was a strong independent woman who thinks she can do just about anything, except sing or dance. I know I can’t do those things.



David put this theory to the test early on. We were only dating for a month, when he told me he bought a farm… like literally bought a farm. He gave me the general directions to the farm because at the time it had no address just GPS coordinates. He asked me to meet him there one Sunday afternoon. Now, I know what you’re thinking, I write mysteries for a living, what on earth am I doing meeting a guy out in the middle of nowhere? But by this point, I had thoroughly checked him out to make sure there wasn’t anything I needed worry about. I was a librarian for fifteen years, and I can find out information about people pretty easily. It’s been a great skill to have as a writer and a great skill to have as a single woman navigating this crazy world. 



That being said, he was clear of any red flags, so I met him at the farm. I think I have never been so overwhelmed in my life. At the time, the farm was five wild acres. Two of those acres were wooded, but the rest was open field. There was no electricity, no buildings, no bathrooms. It was just a big piece of overgrown land with endless and overwhelming potential.

David told me his vision. He is a recording engineer and taught music recording and music engineering at the college level. He planned to build a house on the property with a state of the art recording studio inside. The rest of the land he wanted to use as a native plant and habitat farm to help the birds, bees, and animals in the area and also help the local farmers who were growing crops and caring for livestock to make their livings. 

It was an amazing plan and completely mind-boggling to me. I remember sitting on the bumper of my car as he told me all this looking out at the weeds that had grown so tall they were above my waist and feeling like I had to make a choice. I either was all in or all out.

Let me put this in a frame of where I was at the time. I lived alone in a condo in a suburb of a small city and less than two minutes from Target. Since I was in a condo, I didn’t even own a lawn mower or a decent leaf rake. I loved to garden, but my garden space was limited to flowerpots and a small plot next to my home. Now I felt like I had to be an all-or-nothing farmer as he laid his vision out before me.

I felt that way because it was his big dream, the dream he had had since he was in middle school. I couldn’t take that away from him. I had a big dream at that age too, to be a mystery author, and I became that. In my mind, there was no reason his childhood dream couldn’t come true too. Just like creating a successful career as a writer, it would be a lot of work, frustration, networking, and dedication, but it would happen. 


We married last October and are in the process of building the house/studio, which should be completed by early summer. This is, of course, weather permitting; we do live in Ohio. And as writers tend to do, I’ve used the knowledge I’ve gained as a novice farmer in a book, Farm to Trouble.It’s the first book of the Farm to Table Mysteries and is inspired by our farm. The farm tips in the back of each book are actually things we do on the farm to improve the property.


The farm looks so different from the wild land I saw four year ago. Right now, most of the field has been cultivated with non-invasive species of flowers and cover crop, we have electricity, and the foundation of the house and a finished barn are both on the property. Still no bathroom, but we’re getting there.



What about you, Reds and Readers, do we have 

any farmers or wannabe farmers in the house?


* * *

Amanda Flower, a USA Todaybestselling and Agatha Award-winning author of over thirty-five cozy mystery novels, started her writing career in elementary school when she read a story she wrote to her sixth grade class and had the class in stitches with her description of being stuck on the top of a Ferris wheel. She knew at that moment she’d found her calling of making people laugh with her words. In addition to being an author, Amanda is a former librarian with fifteen years of experience in Northeast Ohio. Connect with her online at her websiteor Facebook, or with her cats on Instagram.

60 comments:

  1. Wow . . . what wonderful memories you are making, Amanda. Now I can't wait to read your new book!

    I can't say that we've ever considered becoming farmers . . . we manage to keep up a vegetable garden, the herb garden, and the flower garden. I think that just might be our limit . . . .

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    1. Thank you! Gardening is so much fun! I'm glad you enjoy it.

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  2. AMANDA: Congratulations, this is an amazing journey you are taking with David to build your house/recording studio and farm in rural Ohio! And I am looking forward to reading FARM TO TROUBLE.

    Me, I am a city girl born and bred. always living within walking distance of all the amenities. And I rent my apartment, so like you, I don't have to do any yard or extensive garden work.

    But I am a foodie and love to cook and eat. With the pandemic and lockdowns last year, I expanded my balcony garden to double its previous size and enjoyed eating the herbs and veggies that I grew. I am now prepping for my 2021 garden. The 2021 seeds I ordered have arrived and I have new grow lights to start some veggies and herbs indoors. Our growing season in (Ottawa) Ontario is a lot shorter than I am used to and I am eager to see some new plants growing during this winter in another lockdown.

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    1. Grace, it's so much fun to watch your apartment garden grow! And the food you make too...

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    2. What a great use of the space that you have!

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    3. ROBERTA: Thanks, I am glad that you and others are enjoying my urban balcony garden experiment, and the meals that come from the harvests.

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  3. Former farmer here! I had a dream of growing more organic food than I could in my urban garden. When my (now ex) husband and I moved to the exurbs with two little boys (5 months and 3), I quit my hi-tech job and started growing vegetables and fruit. It was lots of hard work, lots of fresh air and great food, and a chance to be home when my wee ones were growing.

    I wish you and David all the best. I knew about the farm, Amanda, and the recording studio. But I'd never heard his dream of the farm part, and I love it. I put my own experiences to good use in my five Local Foods Mysteries and am off to find your new book!

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    1. Thank you, Edith! It's fun to hear you organic food mysteries came from real experience too!

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  4. Congratulations on Farm to Trouble. And on the farm and studio. It's hard work, but one of the best jobs you'll ever have. All the best with the plans, and I hope the weather is on your side!

    Hubs and I live on a rural property in far northern Maine. Although city raised myself, I was born to a farming family and spent a lot of time both on my great grandparents' farm and my godparents' farms. When we snagged this place, I was more than ready. We're planning what we want for a food garden this year, and I'm plotting out the spring floral plantings. We missed the seed window for a big garden, but we'll be able to put in enough for the two of us.

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    1. Kait, I bet you have a short growing season to work with!

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    2. Good luck plotting out your gardens. I think the planning is one of the best parts. I daydream about flowers a lot!

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    3. Hi Lucy, yes, it is very short. Common lore holds not to put in the garden before father's day to avoid late freezes. We usually start the seedlings in cold frames in late April so we have plants to plant. One year we had a killing frost on August 15th!

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  5. OMG this sounds INsane! I confess to being a big baby when it comes to roughing it. Congratulations on your book (love the title!) Wondering if you ever put the stuck-on-top-of-a-ferris-wheel anecdote into one of your novels?

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    1. I haven't used it, but now that you mention it, I probably should!

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  6. Congratulations on Farm to Trouble. Looking forward to read it.
    What a touching post, I wish you success and happiness with your project.
    I can relate a little as a girl who was brought up in the city and came to live in the country with her husband almost fifty years ago. I helped my husband to restore his father’s farm grown fallow while the children were little.
    It was both hard work but very satisfactory. I have found memories of this time.

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    1. Thank you so much! It's fun to read about your experience too!

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  7. Amanda, welcome to the Reds! This is a wonderful story and congratulations all around! I have had a garden since my mid-twenties and love it! I love even more that my husband seems to have taken over a lot of it, so I can write:)

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    1. Thank you! Gardening is my favorite thing to do, so at least I had that basis to be a farmer. It would be a lot harder if I wasn't a plant person!

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  8. I don't think I could be a farmer - they have to get up to early! But how awesome for you two to be jumping feet first into this. You must share pictures when it is all done!

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    1. Thank you! I share a lot of live videos and photos of it on my FB Page https://www.facebook.com/authoramandaflower

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  9. No farmers in my family, but my dream is to own 80 acres and have the time (and skills - ha ha) to manage it well: lots of trees, a garden, a purpose-built house with both a yoga studio (for my partner) and a writing studio (for me)...So far, it's just a dream. And I'm delighted to know that some people do, in fact, make their version of this dream come true. Congratulations to you, Amanda, and to David. But I'm concerned about the lack of bathroom -- do you have an outhouse, at least?

    I'm off to find your new book for my list. Congrats on its imminent release.

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    1. Thank you! Still no bathroom or outhouse. We aren't living on the property right now. :)

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    2. Ah, phew. OK. If you're not yet living on the land, I guess the outhouse isn't so urgent. "Plumbing" is always the first issue I think about, as squatting in the bush is not a favourite activity of mine...

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  10. Looking forward to reading Farm to Trouble - great title! There was a time in my early teens when I sorta wanted to be a farmer's wife! I think I was strongly influenced by the Farm Journal cook book - wonderful, amazing recipes. I've always been a country girl but didn't pursue the farmer idea for long. My 4 and half acre parcel are more than enough for me. Although I've toyed with the idea of goats to keep the grass and weeds (can't call it a lawn) down. I could rent them but it would still involve way more work than I want to do. My tiny garden and blueberry bushes are about all I can handle.

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    1. We plan to put in blueberry bushes. And someday have goats too to manage the weeds. :)

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  11. Congratulations on your new release and enjoy your new life.

    I used to live in Hudson and set my stories in a fictionalized version of the town, including the old library in the farmhouse next to the green. On a return visit, I did admire the beautiful new and much-needed library.

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  12. Hi, Amanda, this is Karen Maslowski, from Cincinnati. I've watched your career since we met all those years ago, and am so pleased for your recent marriage! Congratulations on the new series. I am really looking forward to reading it.

    We have 140 acres in rural Kentucky, that I call a farm, and my husband calls a "farm". Farming has been done on it, at some point, but it's mostly vertical land, being set in a very hilly area. We mostly manage it (I should put "manage" in quotes, too) for wildlife: fields of wildflowers for pollinators, habitat for turkey, quail, deer, foxes, rabbits, and all kinds of other mammals and birds. Birds, mostly. For awhile I had a 300 sf garden there, but I have moved my veggie and herb production to our new house in Cincinnati. (So we recently went through a similar process, designing and building a new home.) We also have left 20-30 acres to grow wild at the farm for the blackberries that take over when we aren't looking.

    Now I'm busy planting native plants here at home, too, to encourage pollinators and to heal the scraped land. The photo of your wildflower meadow is exactly what we're trying to achieve here.

    Five acres, I have to say, is WAY more manageable. If you choose to make a vegetable garden you will find that it's possible to produce an incredible amount of food in a small space. Our three raised beds produced nearly 600 pounds of food in a single summer. Best of luck to you.

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  13. Amanda, I love this so much! I spent my formative years in farm country in CT and I loved the rural lifestyle. I have a million stories from those days -- like how the whole family would abandon dinner when the Casey's bull (neighboring farm) would get loose and the entire neighborhood had to help catch him. Wishing you much more peaceful farm adventures.

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    1. "Mr. Church? Are those your cows walking down the road?" One ornery cow kept figuring out how to get out of the pasture and the others followed. Yep, dinner waited.

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    2. I hope you used that bull story in a book! You should! And thank you so much for inviting me to stop by!

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  14. Okay, I had to run the numbers because I thought, Wait, didn't Amanda have one of her Amish country mysteries out just a couple of months ago? Girl, you've had three books out since last October (and another Amish Candy Shop mystery coming in April)AND you got married AND you're building a house and barn AND you've put in cover crops and native flowers?!?

    Tell the truth: "Amanda Flowers" is really identical triplets, right? If not, you need to share your amazing productivity tips with the rest of us.

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    1. LOL! It's been a crazy few years. In 2019, I wrote 9 books. I will never do that again. It was really hard to be honest. :)

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  15. Oops! I was so amazed by Amanda's writing prowess didn't answer the question. I live out in the country, and I love it. 200 year old house, barn, 3.25 acres, two of which were leased to local organic farmers for several years. It's a great lifestyle, and (just in case you need to hear it, Amanda) it's a great way to raise up kids.

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    1. LOL! Thanks Julia! And you property sounds amazing!

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  16. Amanda, I love this so much--thank you for sharing the photos from the farm and your wedding!! I live near Sandusky, Ohio--drive a few miles in any direction and there's country. I don't aspire to have a farm; I know the work entailed in that dream! I can barely keep up with my own little bit of country. Congratulations on the new series! And nest of luck with all your endeavors! Here's hoping the weather cooperates so the house/recording studio (including bathrooms!) can be finished as planned :-)

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  17. BEST of luck! Although 'nest of luck' conjures some interesting mind-pictures!

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  18. Amanda, welcome to JRW! I love, love, love your Magical Gardens in Scotland series!

    Love the photos, especially your wedding photo.

    Great question about farms. I love the idea of sustainable farms that are green and do not pollute the environment. I was thinking about how the Native Americans knew how to farm and they took good care of the earth.

    Farming is really important because otherwise we would not get food, right?

    Question for you and your husband:

    How will the farm get electricity for the music recording studio? I wondered if there will be solar panels or water ? for electricity?

    Diana

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    1. Thank you so much! We are connected to electrical grid now, but trust me it was an undertaking. We have to have a 800 foot long trench that was 4 feet deep dug from the road to the house site. Ultimately, we will be installing solar panels, but to get started we had to connect to power company per building codes, etc.

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  19. No farmers currently, Amanda! I've had some nice vegetable gardens in the past but our current residence has no room. And even tomatoes in pots fail. Too much heat from streets, sidewalks, etc.
    Your project sounds like my husband's. He bought land and has been clearing it. Brought in electricity after much wrangling with the only power company in the area. Had a well dug. He currently has a cement floor, one bathroom, one wall, and a roof which covers a trailer he stays in. He got an estimate to finish putting up walls etc. but materials prices have gone way up so he will sit it out for now. Anyway, good luck on your projects and books!

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    1. Thank you so much! Your husband's project sounds like a big one too. We need to get a well in too!

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  20. No farming aspirations here. It's a life of stronger stuff than I have but I do appreciate those who provide for others. Good luck with the farm, new marriage and new series.

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  21. I have a vegetable garden and my boyfriend has a native plant pollinator garden. We raise Monatch and Black Swallowtail butterflies to release every year and I think that’s as close to farming as I want to get.

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    1. That's great that both you and your boyfriend enjoy plants!

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  22. Hi Amanda! I loved your story and your photos! No farming aspirations here--I struggle with my dozen vegetable buckets. But we do have a big old lot and grow mostly native plants that are bird and pollinator friendly. I'm happy to experience your farming adventure vicariously by reading your book!

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    1. Mostly native plants are wonderful for the environment!

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  23. I had no idea. What a great story.

    No farmer or dreams of farming here. I kill plants way too easily.

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  24. Amanda is my FAVORITE (I may be biased, LOL). I had an early copy of FARM TO TROUBLE and loved it. Can't wait for everyone to read it! And I am so excited to record in Davey's studio!

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  25. Wow! Such a journey! I'm into water gardening, but no dirt gardening. I don't like messy hands and most gloves are too big for my tiny hands so I can't get the dexterity I need in them. So I just stick to my little pond and water lily. :)

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  26. Oh! I hope to add a water lily pond to the farm too!

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  27. I am so excited for you and David! I grew up on a multi-generational farm. We were conservative Mennonites so we did quite a bit by hand, the old fashioned way. I loved it! We were always busy and learning from the land. I plant a flower garden and a vegetable garden every year. There is nothing better than nurturing plants and watching them grow to fill your soul with hope and happiness. May the two of you (and the editors, of course) enjoy the peacefulness and bounty of your beautiful farmland!

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    1. Doing it all by hand can be so much better for the health of the soil, Patti. Traditional cultures were (are) wise about things like that!

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  28. Although I enjoyed going to my great-aunt's farm when I was a kid, I never wanted to be a farmer. Gardening is my love. I have mostly flowers with one tomato plant and some herbs. I'm one person who isn't interested in freezing or canning so am happy to go to the farmers' market for my produce. Looking forward to the new series. Stay safe and well.

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  29. Another former farmer here! Hubby and I finally built our log home in 1988 on what had previously been country escape land for our families to visit from the city/suburbs, on over 100 acres, with stock tanks for the cows/wildlife and for fishing. We raised beef cattle, a goat named Cookie, and grew enough organic produce to not only supply ourselves but also to sell at a few health food stores. It is a lot of work, and much easier when we were younger, but so satisfying and peaceful! I wish you the best. Am currently in the pandemic bubble taking care of family in the suburbs, and can't wait to get back to the country! I loved our life there!

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  30. This is amazing. I hope it all works out to be lovely. I grew up in a rural area surrounded by fields. I live in a smallish city now. I have a few pots on a deck at my condo. I don't really have any farming or gardening dreams.

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