First I want to apologize if you ended up on my newsletter list by mistake. Scott is helping me run my website and send out my newsletter and if you landed on our list against your will please free yourself by unsubscribing and accept my heartfelt apology. I’m so sorry! I know what it’s like to have an email box out of control. I didn’t even know Scott had opened this new email to run my newsletter until today when he said, “You have 75 messages in your new email box,” and I said, “What new email box?” Talk about a learning curve!

Please forgive us for not having it all together yet. This newsletter is a new endeavor for us. It was heartwarming to read your messages from December and January when you responded to the first or second or third newsletter. Thank you so much for your support. I so appreciate and love all of you very much.

Being an author is a lot more than just writing books. It’s building relationships with those who read my stories, and I’m finding this is something I truly value and enjoy. All of you are very dear to me. I hope I can encourage you on your life journey too in these newsletters and not just talk about books. I also want to dig into faith. And how we can lean on the Lord together.

But for now, here is a little more about my new novel, Leaving Lonesome that has been a long time coming. Not just for me, but for the Vietnam veterans who returned from a war that divided our country in the 1960s and early 70s. These Vietnam veterans were either quietly ignored or loudly condemned for their military service when they returned home.

In writing this novel, I hope to honor these men who served in Vietnam. Especially my father-in-law Colonel Rick Fields and our dear friend Colonel Stephen Isle. Colonel Fields is in the first photo wearing the helmet and Colonel Isle is the young man in the second photo being pinned. Both of these men served bravely in Vietnam and went on to have great military careers. They are also helping me get the details right in Leaving Lonesome and I so love, admire, and appreciate these amazing old soldiers.

I’ve been reading Vietnam books and watching Vietnam movies and I am struck by how everyday Americans ended up fighting a faraway war in Asia. This is the thing, sometimes our lives diverge into a valley of death we didn’t plan on. We do our best to survive in some dark valley and our faith either flourishes or fails us.

If you are in a dark valley right now remember the Good Lord is there with you. I read or listen to the Bible every day because it comforts me, challenges me, and scares me. I know. Who wants to be scared? But the Bible says fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

I do fear the Lord. I fear the things he let’s happen and I pray for things not to happen. I spent the last several weeks praying for a 19-year-old boy to live and he passed away recently. During this time, I began praying for another precious 14-year-old boy who was sick and God took him too. And then there was Kobe and his daughter with a group of others in that helicopter crash.

This is the God who scares me. He gives and takes away. He tells us heaven is real and it’s a better place than here and I struggle to believe this sometimes. Maybe you do too.

I woke up at 2:45 on a recent morning and wasn’t able to get back to sleep. So I finally gave up on bed and hit my Bible. Psalm 23 was in my daily reading. The Lord is my shepherd. Before I sat down with my Bible I looked out our living room window into the darkness and saw a light on the hill. We live in the shadow of the Sutter Buttes and the sheep are back in the Buttes for the winter.

Out in the darkness, a shepherd sleeps with his sheep. Or maybe he’s awake at night watching over his sheep. I see the light from his tent on the hill. We are not alone in our dark valleys. The Good Shepherd is with us in any war we face. I hope Psalm 23 comforts you today.