I initially wrote this series a decade ago when I was a stay-at-home mom raising my two daughters. Breaking Together (originally Broken by Design by a lovely publisher and a dreary cover!) came into existence because in a short span of time three of the moms who had kids at the same elementary school as my kids, unexpectedly lost their husbands. This scared me. I had put my teaching career on hold to raise the kids. If I lost my husband, what would we do? How would we survive? I used fiction to explore this and to ease my fears.

Carrying Secrets was inspired by a couple of stories of girls in our community who gave birth and hid their babies. As the mother of daughters, I wondered if my girls knew they could trust me with an unexpected pregnancy. I wondered how I would handle the situation. And I explored the idea of abortion versus keeping the baby (a hot election topic at the time) from a different perspective.

I wrote Crossing Bridges to wrap up the series. I felt like book two left Nichole and Emma hanging a bit, and I wanted to finish their story. However, just as I was finishing this novel, I had the opportunity to go back into teaching on a part-time basis. It seemed like a good way to ease into the workforce, so I rushed this book the first time. I have spent the last couple of years (while working full time) revising this series. Crossing Bridges received a major overhaul, but, much like building a new house versus remodeling an old one, this was an arduous process. 

Losing Time is what I call a “vessel story.” Sometimes, when I’m smart and patient, I pray first and then let words and ideas flow from that. One of my dearest friends lost her dad very suddenly, and this made me wonder, more speculatively than Scripturally, if the spirit of those we lose sticks around for a while to ease us into adjusting to life without them. I wonder, too, if we will one day gain a heavenly perspective which allows us to see how even the heartaches, mistakes, and losses all belong in this beautiful masterpiece that is not just our own lives, but all of creation. Mistakes and death are part of the picture, and maybe the beauty of eternal living is the absence of time and space. This free novella allowed me to explore these ideas, and it helps bridge the time gap between Breaking Together and Carrying Secrets while also introducing readers to Desiree who is the protagonist of book two but who did not appear in book one. 

Well, that was a lot! I’m wordy! But I hope this helps you to understand where I was coming from with this series. 

I would love to connect with you! Feel free to reply to this email. Or, if you enjoy the books and have a minute, a review on Amazon would be super helpful. Here’s the link, and thank you, again, for your purchase!