When Valleys Mourn

After When Mountains Sing released, it was SEVEN YEARS before I was able to complete and release When Valleys Mourn. Just as Book 1 released, my 65-year-old husband was diagnosed with a rare form of dementia (FTD). During the upheaval that followed, while I sold our home and moved us into the country to live with our daughter's growing family, I struggled to keep writing. It was my sanity break, the one thing that gave me a chance to get lost in a world without the demands of caregiving.

Then God asked me to put my life-long dream of writing aside to care for Mike. I'd like to say I agreed easily, but that wasn't really the case. Over the next four years, as I cared for my hubby of forty years, I came to understand that (of course) God knew I would need every brain cell and ounce of energy to make sure Mike received the care he deserved. I was so grateful to be able to keep him home as the disease progressed; he passed away at home in December 2023.

At that point, all my creativity was gone. I believed God had other things in store for me – perhaps writing but not fiction. I was sad to not get to finish the series, yet ready to move on. But God . . .

As a member of the Mosaic Collection authors, I already had a built-in cheering section that refused to let me quit. It seemed the creativity was slowly seeping back in. I was thrilled to write a short story for one of our anthologies, and then a few more including "A Summer of Reckoning" (Dawson Dunne's story). And ideas for Lindy's journey began forming. Very, very slowly!

The difficulty I encountered writing When Valleys Mourn was figuring out how to write it only from Lindy's perspective as a young married. My characters have always been single people (which is a lot easier than writing about a struggling marriage). How could I write Lindy's story from within those confines? I considered killing off her husband in a tragic accident. God vetoed that idea! Could I write about a divorce? Nope, not interested in that. Okay, a married couple it was.

It was challenging but satisfying to take this once happy relationship (at the end of When Mountains Sing) that had soured due to (mostly) outside influences to a new level of love, trust, commitment and joy. The most obvious motivator would be the characters discovering that a marriage based on secular footing wasn't enough for them to recommit to each other. I wanted to show the difficulties of a relationship when trust is broken, financial goals become all-consuming, and societal views and whims are the driving force. But how to weave faith into Lindy's search for her biological parents? Who would be believable mentors for these broken people?

Of course God worked that out! As Lindy left the confines of her gilded cage in high society, alone and grieving, people appeared along the journey to offer support, guidance, and encouragement—as often happens in real life. Along life's journey we meet God over and over when strangers become friends, and previously strained relationships strengthen through shared hardship. We lean into Him and find courage and strength we never knew we had (or perhaps never had). We learn to listen to inner promptings that lead us away from anger, resentment, and discouragement, toward reconciliation, forgiveness, and hope. One step at a time.

Both Lindy and Beau experience all these things but not without missteps, misunderstandings, and bouts of self-reliance that undermine forward movement. While Lindy struggles with real and perceived expectations, Beau learns what the Bible says about marriage and being a husband. And there are times when they both question if all the pain and heartache is worth it.

I hope you experience the satisfaction in watching God rebuild their marriage as much as I did writing it! God is good, all the time.