Can I tell you a little story about a story real quick? 🙂

About three months ago, I was at the end of my writing rope. I’d been trying to write Some Bright Someday, the second book in my Maple Valley series, for nearly nine months. I was frustrated and discouraged . . . and frankly, a little upset at myself for being so upset! After all, struggling to write a book is nothing compared to what so many people have faced in 2020.

But after talking with some of the most encouraging people in my life, I made a decision. I decided to take two weeks away from my day job. Hide out from the world. Basically start over and try to write this book one. more. time.

If it didn’t go well, I thought, then I’d consider that God’s way of saying maybe it was time to let it go. Move on. Do something else.

And if it did go well . . . well, if it did, I would celebrate.

I spent my first week of that writing binge at a goat farm, and I journaled every day I was there. In fact, I did kind of a silly thing where I opened my Bible each day just to see if I’d land on a relevant verse. No joke, guess what verse I opened to my first day there?

Now, let’s be real: I know Jesus wasn’t talking about writing a contemporary romance novel when He said those words. BUT STILL. I decided to take them to heart. And I started writing . . .

AND IT WENT WELL! 🙌

So well that a few days into my writing binge, I got a crazy idea. I thought, If I can legit write this entire novel in two weeks . . . if that can really happen . . . then I should try to release it really fast.

No huge fanfare.
No weeks/months building up to a big launch.
No need to make a ton of money.

Maybe, I thought, I could even release it by Thanksgiving! (After all, teensy-tiny, non-spoilery mild spoiler: the book ends at Thanksgiving time.)

Well, it happened. With God’s help, I wrote what ended up being a 98,000-word book in two weeks in September. I revised it over two weekends in October. I sent it off to my editor, who (thank you, Jesus!) loved it, and then revised it again. I hired proofers. Contacted my cover artist. Prayed.

And today, Some Bright Someday releases into the world!

I’m selling the e-book for just $2.99—which is much cheaper than I would normally sell a brand new full-length novel—because a) I feel like I’m supposed to and b) I just want people to read it and enjoy it and have a reason to smile and swoon during what’s been a really hard year! It’s also available in paperback and in Kindle Unlimited.

I am SO thankful to God for giving me this story in what was clearly His time. And it gives me a lot of joy to send it out into the world without a lot of hoopla or intense marketing on my part. Haha!

This is book two in my Maple Valley series, but if you haven’t read book one (Now and Then and Always—which won the Christy Award just last week—which I’m still in shock about!! WHAT?!?!?!?!), no worries. It reads as a standalone.

For those of you who have messaged me asking when this book was (finally) going to come out, thank you so much for sticking with me…for your patience and your excitement. I hope Lucas and Jen’s story touches your heart!

❤️❤️❤️

Many, many blessings,

p.s. In case you’re interested in being one of my favorite people ever (lol!) there are a couple things you could do that would really help me out! No pressure, of course. But just in case:

1. Help spread the word about Some Bright Someday! Please feel free to share the graphic below on social media or you can download this graphic and share to your Instagram story.

2. Leave a review on Amazon and Goodreads. This is one of the very, very best ways to help authors! It doesn’t have to be long or in-depth. Even just a sentence or two is super helpful. THANK YOU!

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