ABOUT MY BOOK

It all began with an idea. It always begins with an idea. And then more ideas cluster around it. Then the hard work of nurturing those ideas into a story form begins.

This book began with the idea of a cowboy—maybe he was a loner. Or was he raised an orphan? My notes say this: An orphan who has worked for a living since he can remember. Taken in by a farmer at age four he soon learned his only value was in how fast he could do the chores. He ran away several times before he was eight and each time received a severe beating and starvation rations as his reward. At 8, he managed to escape by stowing away on a passing freight wagon.

That was as far as that idea went.

There were several more ideas that just might blossom into future books. A cowboy left money who wants to start over without reminders of his past. A woman struggling to survive on her own with three children. Or he discovers a long-lost brother.

So what became of the ideas? Which ones grew to maturation? I used the man finding his brother idea and combined it with a widow and three little girls.

Jake is my hero—In my notes he looks a little like this.

My heroine—the widow with 3 little girls looks like this. She’s trying to trust God. She’s said she’ll trust Him no matter how hard it gets but she didn’t expect it to get so hard. Jake showing up and camping on her doorstep is the last straw. He didn’t know about her. She always believed he was the bad guy. But she must trust God. Who else can she depend on? Certainly not any of the men she’s encountered. Jake doesn’t want to tell her the truth and ruin her memories. He can’t leave them to manage on their own even though she doesn’t trust him.