On a promotional trip in 2018 for Karis, All I See is Grace I visited a much loved aunt and uncle in Kansas City. One early morning I went for a walk in their neighborhood and stumbled on the historic New Santa Fe Cemetery. One gravestone intrigued me: a plain flat stone with only these words, “Horse Thief 1898.”
That day my cousin Barb and I traveled southwest to visit friends in Hillsboro, KS. As we drove through pounding rain, we brainstormed who that horse thief could have been and what happened to him. It was such fun that I said, “I’m going to write this story.” I didn’t know it would turn into a full-length novel, but as my characters told me about themselves and what led to the Horse Thief gravestone, that’s what happened. As it turns out, Horse Thief 1898 is just the beginning of Cally and Charlie’s story. I’m now writing book two, which I’m calling Treasure Hunt 1904. I’ll tell you more about that in another post.