Читать книгу Mountain Refuge - Sarah Varland - Страница 9

Dear Reader,

Welcome to Alaska! While I love Georgia, where I was born and where I’ve set many of my stories, Alaska is my favorite state and I had so much fun setting a book in areas that are familiar to me. While Moose Haven is purely imaginary, if you ever find yourself in Alaska and can make it to the town of Seward, which is near Moose Haven in this story, I think you’ll find it’s pretty similar. I’m looking forward to returning to Moose Haven soon for Tyler Dawson’s story.

Writing about Clay Hitchcock was so fun for me because he’s been with me for five books now. When he first had a small side character part in my debut novel, Treasure Point Secrets, I knew I liked him. Summer was such a fun contrast to him and I enjoyed imagining their story.

Both main characters in this story struggled with some amount of guilt: Clay for feeling like he let down his fellow officers in Georgia; and Summer for the way her past actions had impacted her family. Guilt is a powerful thing, but God’s forgiveness is stronger. They both also struggled with grief, and Summer especially wrestled with how her grief had taken some of the fullness out of her life. I loved writing the hints in this book to Summer about how Jesus wants us to have an abundant life because those words are so true for us who are real people. Grief is difficult to work through, but I believe God still wants us to live abundantly, to be thankful for our lives and to hold on to hope.

Along those lines, in this story, I finally came right out and touched on the subject of miscarriage. If, like me, you’re one of the women who has lost a baby and needs someone to talk to, please know that I would be happy to chat by email. Also know that you are not alone. And that God is still love, and still faithful.

Hearing from readers is one of my favorite parts of writing and I’d love to hear from you! You can get in touch through email at sarahvarland@gmail.com, or find me on Facebook at Facebook.com/sarahvarlandauthor.

Sarah Varland