Free Book Friday: Sanctuary

And the personal story behind Surrender the Sun

Notes About this Series

Some of you’re aware that I wrote this series while going through a difficult time and a tough divorce all at once. I also happen to live in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, during a twenty-year record winter. It was not hard to imagine what this world was going through.

There are certainly dark turns and barely eeked-out wins. I see now that the series reflects what I was going through personally at the time, though I didn’t think so then. There are true sacrifices, unrequited love, and sheer determination. There were times I just wanted to close my eyes and take steps forward…but I’m not that trusting. So, wide-eyed, I took each tough step alone.

I also took a crazy research trip to the abandoned Trident Missile Silo in Deer Trail, Colorado, during this time. Also alone and in the dead of winter. It was great!

That trip from Idaho to Colorado taught me so many things both personally and fictionally. It gave me the strength I didn’t know I possessed. I was frozen half the time over the February ice-covered roads. But I persevered.

It also changed the story for the better. At first, in my mind, the people of Deer Trail were almost certainly antagonists…and they were in the beginning, but then we learn that even in the dark you have to trust someone, sometimes. Those are chances that we take must learn to take.

And I still have the napkin that I drew the map on in a coffee shop in Coeur d’Alene. Like the story and that trip, I’ve come a long way since then.

And yes, I do plan to write a fourth story in this series in the coming years. More soon!