We had the best bloom ever here on our farm in February. Considering “Bloom” was my word for 2020, this was very exciting. I loved February’s bright, balmy weather, busy bees, and blooms as far as the eye could see. It smelled like heaven in our orchards and the birds sang their little hearts out. Then March roared in like a lion, and along with winter returning, Covid-19 crashed the party. Overnight I became a homeschooling mom in the middle of trying to finish my latest novel, Leaving Lonesome.

There were days I wrote with a wild bird flying around our living room. Our youngest son loves to catch birds and he brings them into the house to show me. Sometimes they “accidentally” get loose. I often write in the middle of my crazy family, so I sat on the couch, working on my novel with a bird flying around my head.

There were also plenty of dog piles. I’m not sure I’ve ever struggled this hard to finish a book. The good news is I did not get bit by a rattlesnake this time. The last book I had to finish with one hand because of my snake bite. It was too painful to use my fang-marked hand for several weeks so I finished Farming Grace with five fingers instead of ten.

The weirdest things have happened while I am trying to finish a book. I didn’t think anything could top a snake bite but now we have a pandemic. Unbelievable. But I’m a lucky mom to quarantine with this crew. These boys keep me laughing. Sometimes I cry, once in a while I yell, but a lot of days I laugh.

Most of us have never seen times like these with schools closed across the nation and people ordered to stay in their homes to stop the coronavirus, but this quote encouraged me. “Adopt the pace of nature; her secret is patience.” Ralph W. Emerson. Plus, it’s Easter, my favorite holiday and though I was sad today to not get to go to church or gather with our family and friends, He has risen indeed!

And on another encouraging note, Shakespeare wrote King Lear while quarantined during the plague. After a month of quarantine, I’m happy to announce I finished Leaving Lonesome this past weekend and sent it off to the copy editor, which means in about four weeks we should have the book back ready for early readers.

It also means I’ll be looking for a launch team. Yay! If you’d like to be on my team, I will send you a free ebook or PDF of Leaving Lonesome and you’re invited to join the Leaving Lonesome Facebook page where we’ll talk about the story, focus on the importance of forgiveness, and hopefully have a good time. If you haven’t been on a launch team before, it’s easy and fun!

I am hopeful this pandemic will pass and we’re all out of quarantine by the end of May. I realize many of us have more time to read in quarantine so I will do my best to get the early reader copy of Lonesome to you as soon as I can if you want to join my team. If you’re interested or have any questions, please drop me an email. So excited to share Leaving Lonesome with you soon!