About the Book

Book: Hunting for a Husband (The Heart of the Amish Book Nine) Author: Mindy Steele Genre: Amish/Christian Fiction Release Date: July, 2025 Love Is the Bull’s-Eye Leah Aims For Full of faith, hope, and romance, this series takes you into the Heart of Amish country. Ten years ago, Joe Shetler took a leap, and it cost him his ability to walk. Accepting that this is God’s will for him, Joe finds his independence running Shetler Outdoors, an archery and outdoors shop. Leah Wicky moves to Kentucky where her father has set up a deer farm. With a strong desire to marry, she soon sets her sights on Joe who, despite his disabilities, has determination and an easy way about him. A sticky situation finally affords the opportunity for a friendship to form between them. When the Wickey’s prize buck attracts attention in the community—and attempted poachers—Leah is caught in the crosshairs, and Joe’s fears of inadequacy haunt him when he fails to protect her. A future once bright has dimmed.

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About the Author

Mindy Steele was raised in Kentucky timber country and has been writing since she could hold a crayon against the wall. Steele writes Amish Romance peppered with just the right amount of humor, as well as engaging Suspense, using rural America and the residents as her muse. Steele strives to create realistic characters for her readers and believes in engaging all the senses to make you laugh, cry, hold your breath, and root for the happy ever after ending. A hopeless romantic, with a lyrical pen, Steele wants her readers to find themselves somewhere within her pages. A mother of four and grandmother to a half dozen blessings, Steele enjoys hiking and gardening, coffee indulgences and weekend road trips, and is personally doing all she can to make peanut butter its very own food group.

More from Mindy

The Story Behind the Story I love thinking outside the box and crafting a story filled with originality as well as taking the common trope and hijacking it to suit my own reading interest. Thankfully readers do too as they continue buying my books. However, none of what I create is mine to claim, as God continues to spark my imagination in the ordinary every day. Hunting for a Husband started with a chance encounter, a few God winks, and ended with lots of research on my part. Long story short, my husband was commissioned to work on an all-terrain vehicle for a Mennonite gentleman who was disabled. His condition didn’t allow him to drive a vehicle, and his livelihood was quite unique. This gentleman owned and operated an outdoor shop with archery being the center of the focus. Before this book was released he sold the business, but the echoes of his many years remain. I had the opportunity to meet him. He was funny, informative, and had a beautiful wife and family. I never crossed over to asking his story. It’s his story after all, but everything about the encounters struck a chord in my writer’s brain. Fast forward a year when I came across an article about deer breeding farms. Don’t ask. You have to be married to an avid hunter to understand why some things pique my interest. And we do have a few deer farms locally. Discovering one of the most well-known deer farms belongs to an Amish gentleman surprised even me.Again, all these little bits collected in my head. It wasn’t until I learned of an Amish man who aligned bows and was an avid hunter that I realized I needed to stop sitting on these thoughts and start writing them. Thus, the Wickey deer farm was born. This story took me across four state lines, a short novella, and a very detailed and informative conversation with a surgeon! The Wickey deer farm was first introduced to readers in Leaving Lancaster, a short novella in A Lancaster Amish Christmas. Readers fell in love with the three Wickey sisters, and though the plot twist appealed to readers, Leah deserved to find the same love as her sisters. She wasted so many years on the wrong man. Joe Shetler, after years of accepting his future was set by one boyhood mistake, needed to learn that God is the Author of our lives. I hope you smile, laugh, and find yourself immersed within these pages of second chances, leaps of faith, and the power of friendship and family. Mindy

Interview the Author

What helps you to write? Do you eat snacks, listen to music?

I’m a bit of an oldie. All my first drafts are written on paper first and even then everything has to be perfect- down to the fine point pen. No matter if its notepad or laptop, I do my best writing outdoors or at least in our sunroom porch where I can listen and see the world going about. I don’t listen to music and can’t imagine writing with something enhancing my mood when I’m trying to get in the head of my current character. There must be coffee present. In fact, there is usually a whole coffee pot present. I love my snacks. Most often its peanut butter and a spoon, but I also enjoy snacking on walnuts, dark chocolate, and blueberries.

If you could travel back in time, what time period would you go to?

I’ve always been drawn to the late 1800’s. I’m not sure why, but even the hardest parts of the era feel familiar. The determination of many and a changing of a nation was a time where families and communities were better assembled. It wasn’t without rough edges mind you, but imagine the perseverance it took, the livelihoods worth knowing no matter what part of our great country you hale from. Living on the edge of Appalachia, and growing up listening to stories, I’m certain I was born too late!

What is one thing readers would be surprised to learn about you?

I’m an open book. Really, I am. The only thing to come to mind right now is that I once rescued a deer stuck in a fence, with the tire tool from the boot of my car. It was the craziest, scariest, and most wonderful experience. I was heading to work when I saw a young buck dangling from a high fence. I couldn’t just leave him, but was smart enough to know the dangers there. I used the tire tool from the back of my jeep to untwist the barbed wired and he ran away dragging the leg behind him.

What inspired you to write this book?

This story was a collection of colliding inspirations. First was meeting a disabled man who ran an outdoors archery shop. I found his livelihood a change from typical Amish and Mennonite choices. A year later my husband’s good eye and over-eager curiosity, connected me with a wonderful family that owned a deer farm in Pennsylvania. From those I wrote a short novella for Barbour Publishing entitled Leaving Lancaster about three sisters coming of age and having to make some life altering decisions. When Barbour requested a following book for their Heart of The Amish collection, I knew the story wasn’t finished and these worlds needed to connect.

Share with me a few of your favorite things.

Aside from the most obvious, family, faith, books, and writing a best seller, I love hugs from our grandchildren and walking barefoot in my garden. Coffee makes me happy and capable of dealing with whatever the day has in store. Peanut butter makes my stomach happy, as I eat it daily, even when I try not to. I cannot walk near a creek and not feel happy, especially in fall. Just the sounds and scents bring back blessed memories.