The Locket follows a young widow who discovers her grandmother’s locket has magical abilities and uses it to try and go back in time to save her husband from dying. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?

At the age of 42, I became a widow with four children to raise on my own. I used to dream of a world where I could escape, not from my kids but with them. I can’t help but think if my husband would have been diagnosed with cancer today, that he would have had a better outcome. So I am always thinking about time travel. 

I find the world you created in this novel brimming with possibilities. Where did the inspiration for the setting come from, and how did it change as you were writing? 

Just before my husband died he finally gave me his blessing to buy my first horse. So a year after he died, I did. It was a great way to spend time with my kids and help them work out their grief when we didn’t quite know how to communicate it with each other.  I decided I wouldn’t let being single stop me from my dreams. I was a determined city girl that bought herself an 80 acre ranch and moved to the country. I brought my horse home and from there the magic happened. When you own property, the other horses just seem to show up. This hodge podge of twenty horses; some rescues, some my kids’, some boarders; were my daily companions. When you own a horse ranch you don’t have time to ride horses but I enjoyed walking among them, their different personalities, and how they would follow me around when I hiked the property. We grew a little hay but mostly rocks. The land was a mix of woods and ponds and creeks. It was magical. It is the inspiration for Avenrand. 

I now live in the middle of the woods in the Ozarks. As Lacy and her girls explored Avenrand, the fascinating natural features of the landscape in this area continued to inspire the setting. I just kept asking myself, What if? What if that pond reflected the future, what if that tree could talk, what if that hole in the ground was a portal to another world? 

What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?

I wanted to take Lacy through the five stages of grief and have her come to accept her new life as a stronger, more courageous mother on the other side. In my own grief I remember how thin the veil between our world and the world beyond this life felt. One of the themes I strived to convey is how what can be very real to one person; their faith, their spiritual connections to the beyond, their memories; is very real whether other people can experience it or not and whether they truly believe it or not. The question I wanted the readers to explore, at least at some points in the story, was this: Was Lacy creating the delusion of Avenrand as a coping mechanism for her grief or is Avenrand real? Of course, I do hope by the end of the story that everyone knows that Avenrand is real. 

Other themes I enjoyed exploring were the sacrifices that military families make for our armed forces and the power dynamics in long term friendships.   

When will book 2 be available? Can you give us an idea of where that book will take readers? 

Book 2: The Key: Tales From Avenrand will be released no later than Fall of 2024. Of course, it will take readers back to Avenrand. This story will explore the themes of adult sibling relationships as Olivia and Alice deal with family trauma in different ways. 

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