Why I Wrote The Lady’s Mine

The simple answer to why I wrote The Lady’s Mine is I needed to rest from heavy issues.  Writing The Masterpiece involved researching childhood trauma and its impact on adult thinking.  We are shaped by our life experiences, but we can also choose another path, one open and bright with a future and a hope.  The question that drove that project was:  Can two broken people find wholeness together?   Yes, they can — when they place Jesus at the center of their relationship.

I wasn’t sure I would write another book after that one.  But, as my agent, Danielle Egan Miller, reminded me – I am a writer.  Eventually I will have to write.  I won’t be able to help myself.  It’s my calling and God will let me know when to get back to work again.

I did take a break, but then a question kept rolling around in my brain: Can one person change an entire community?

Years ago, I wrote historical romances in 1840-1880s California. I’m a native Californian and I’m fascinated by our history.  I also love rough-and-tumble westerns – the old John Wayne- Maureen O’Hara type westerns with a strong, self-made, intelligent man and a feisty, sharp woman who is his match.  Characters came to life in my head; a man and woman en garde, wits sharpened, ready to allez!

And I felt that nudge to write again.  Happily, I climbed aboard the transcontinental railroad with my primary female character and chuga-chuga-chugged west, climbed aboard a stagecoach heading up a mountain road to a wild west silver mining town where Matthias Beck was dealing out his brand of justice until fiery red-head Kathryn Walsh stepped off the stage and turned Calvada upside down and inside-out.

COVID hit and the whole world seemed to shut down.  Everything was so serious and grim, the future nebulous. Fear spread faster than the virus.  No more traffic jams with so many sheltering in place.  Stores closed, many going bankrupt while a few big-box and grocery stores remained open for desperate-for-supplies, well-masked customers social distanced while filling carts before swiping credit cards, racing home, and squirting gallons of hand sanitizer.

We forgot how to laugh. Sages say “laughter is the best medicine” to lift our spirits in times of stress.  And, oh, how I needed and wanted to laugh about something!

And that’s why The Lady’s Mine turned out the way it did.  It’s my offering to readers in the hope each will find fun and laughter in the pages and a reminder that God is sovereign  – even in the midst of the most troubled and difficult times.