Today’s the day! Please buy (many, many copies of) my book. Holland, My Heart is my first novel and I am giddy to share it with you.

When the world shut down in March 2020, I was living in Tulsa, Oklahoma with a plethora of rescue dogs. (In case you’re wondering, a plethora is two dogs more than a pack. This is not science, but it is nonetheless a fact.) In the absence of anyone but my roommate and our canines, I started writing a novel based on one of my favorite stories: the book of Ruth.

For as long as I can remember, the story of Ruth and Naomi has resonated with me.

וַתֹּ֤אמֶר רוּת֙ אַל־תִּפְגְּעִי־בִ֔י לְעׇזְבֵ֖ךְ לָשׁ֣וּב מֵאַחֲרָ֑יִךְ כִּ֠י אֶל־אֲשֶׁ֨ר תֵּלְכִ֜י אֵלֵ֗ךְ וּבַאֲשֶׁ֤ר תָּלִ֙ינִי֙ אָלִ֔ין עַמֵּ֣ךְ עַמִּ֔י וֵאלֹהַ֖יִךְ אֱלֹהָֽי׃

But Ruth replied, “Do not urge me to leave you, to turn back and not follow you. For wherever you go, I will go; wherever you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God.

בַּאֲשֶׁ֤ר תָּמ֙וּתִי֙ אָמ֔וּת וְשָׁ֖ם אֶקָּבֵ֑ר כֹּה֩ יַעֲשֶׂ֨ה יְהֹוָ֥ה לִי֙ וְכֹ֣ה יוֹסִ֔יף כִּ֣י הַמָּ֔וֶת יַפְרִ֖יד בֵּינִ֥י וּבֵינֵֽךְ׃

Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. Thus and more may the LORD do to me if anything but death parts me from you.”

Something about Ruth’s hopeless devotion to her mother-in-law grabbed my heart and would not let go. As I’ve spent the last thirty-one months with this text, I think my own mother is the reason I am so connected to this story. As a military brat raised by a military brat, I can say with certainty wherever my mom goes, I will go. And yet, she also taught me that anywhere I am, she is with me. When you regularly have to pick up everything to move thousands of miles away, you learn to keep the important people in your heart.

Or, as another favorite verse puts it (this was etched on a Mizpah coin my BFF Tracey and I wore in halves when we were teens):

The LORD watch between me and thee, when we are apart one from another.

Genesis 31:49

The journey of this retelling of Ruth’s story as a contemporary romance has been a joyous ride for me. Some of my favorite women have helped me shape this novel. Emma told me we needed to see Kai right away (so we could know if he’s good enough for Holland). Sais taught me that men abhor being grilled on a date—a lesson I have yet to learn in real life. My cousin Lisa had some shaping suggestions (I mean, some Real Talk—I’m so grateful she gave me the good stuff) that are now tightly knit into the finished product. I’m just so grateful to each and every one of my people.

When I thought I was finished, my writer friends Arlys Avery, S.F. Henne, Dan del Villano, and N.M. Garrison helped me realize I was nowhere near done. So I went to Sarah Gribble and Joe Bunting for coaching. I could not, would not have finished this without their thoughtful and thorough advice.

But, let me make it perfectly clear: not one word of this book would have made it to the page if it weren’t for A.J. Hackwith’s The Library of the Unwritten. I’ve read horror novels that were less terrifying than her vision of what can happen when we don’t write what is in our hearts. I shudder to think of where I’d be if I hadn’t happened upon her novel.