The People of the Valley: Character, Community, and Setting

In Gwenda, character grows directly out of place, and the Smoky Mountains shape every aspect of the people who call them home. Gwenda herself is inseparable from the land that raised her. Her habits, speech, and loyalties come from years of living by mountain rhythms and knowing which hollers flood in spring, which stones mark familiar paths, and which neighbors have flour for the church bake sale. Her resistance to the proposed park isn’t abstract or political; it’s personal, rooted in memory and lived experience. She stands her ground because the land is part of her identity.

Adam Wagoner enters the valley as an outsider with a surveying transit, but he refuses to remain a simple foil. Instead, Adam becomes a study in humility and curiosity. His repeated visits, his willingness to listen to elders, and his efforts to learn local ways reveal a man searching for belonging rather than imposing authority. The slow thaw between him and Gwenda feels earned because it grows through ordinary acts: helping, respecting, and showing up when it matters. Their developing trust is built on steady, believable interactions that reflect how real relationships shift over time.

Around them, the community forms the novel’s emotional backbone. Neighbors are not background scenery; they are active participants in the valley’s life. Church suppers, shared labor, gossip, and mutual aid show how people survive in a landscape that demands cooperation. The author captures both the tenderness and the stubbornness of mountain communities, illustrating how resistance to outside plans is as much about protecting one another’s futures as it is about preserving acreage. The Smokies themselves deepen this portrait: mists settling in hollers, storms guided by ridgelines, seasons mirroring the characters’ inner lives. In the end, Gwenda invites readers to witness how ordinary people respond under pressure, offering a story where land and identity are inseparable and where compassion and caring shape even the hardest choices.

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Settling

Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you (James 4:8).

Too many Christians settle for an ordinary life when God offers so much more. When we draw close to Him, cultivate an intimate and personal walk, and make His will our top priority, life cannot remain ordinary. The closer we move toward His presence, the more clearly we see that true fulfillment is found only in Him.

Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world (1 John 2:15).

One of the greatest dangers we face is how easily worldly values slip into our thinking. They promise satisfaction but leave us empty, pulling our hearts toward temporary pleasures that never last. When we allow these influences to take root, they steal our joy and turn our attention toward all the wrong places, distracting us from the richness God intends for our lives.

In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths (Proverbs 3:6).

God calls us to something far better than settling. As we intentionally seek Him, surrender our plans, and follow His leading, He shapes our days into something extraordinary. A life centered on His will is marked by purpose, peace, and a depth of joy the world cannot imitate. When we choose Him above all else, we discover the life we were meant to live.

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A Deadline to Marry

In One Crazy Christmas, my novelette in the anthology A Vintage Christmas to Remember, Marianne Kincaid’s urgent fight to save her freight business sets the stage for an unexpected engagement and an even more unexpected partnership. What begins as a desperate attempt to secure her future quickly becomes a journey that touches on faith, courage, trust, and the surprising ways love can take root when life veers off its expected path.

Marianne’s story does not open with a gentle courtship or a lingering glance across a crowded room. It begins with a bold claim, an accidental lie, and a marriage deadline she never imagined facing. She has only ten days to preserve the freight business her uncle built, and she refuses to surrender it. She drives a freight team, carries a pistol, and stands firm against anyone who doubts her ability. Yet her strength exists alongside vulnerability and a quiet longing to be valued for who she is rather than what she can provide.

Jonah Benton brings his own tension to the tale. He never intended to remain in Sundale, much less become the fiancé of a woman he just met. Still, he finds himself drawn to Marianne’s independence rather than threatened by it. His challenge is not to rescue her from her life, but to discover whether he can stand beside her in it. Their partnership is tested almost immediately when rifle shots ring out on their first freight run, revealing dangers that reach far beyond a business deadline and forcing them to rely on one another in ways neither expected.

Faith threads through their story as both characters learn to act with courage, extend grace, and release the illusion of control. Trust grows slowly between Marianne and Jonah but stands stronger between each of them and God. Ultimately, One Crazy Christmas is about more than whether a rushed engagement becomes a real marriage. It is about being cherished without being diminished, choosing love without abandoning wisdom, and discovering that the most unexpected beginnings can lead to the most meaningful futures.

A Vintage Christmas is available now for a few months during the Christmas season, and then you will no longer be able to purchase it. Don't miss this wonderful opportunity.

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The Harvest Will Pass

The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved (Jeremiah 8:20).

In Jeremiah's day, God had extended mercy, sent warnings, and offered His presence to Judah, yet the people refused to turn back to Him. Today, we see the same pattern repeating itself. Many choose to ignore God altogether, living as if He doesn't exist, is distant, or has become irrelevant. They silence the tug of conviction, brush aside His call, and fill their days with pursuits that never satisfy. The seasons pass, the years slip by, and the invitation to salvation remains unanswered.

Others acknowledge God but insist on walking their own path. They believe, but only on their terms. They want the comfort of faith without the surrender it requires. Like ancient Israel, they hold tightly to their own plans, their own desires, their own timing. Yet Scripture reminds us that partial obedience is still disobedience. God longs not only to be believed in but to be followed. When we cling to our own way, we miss the fullness of His blessing, His guidance, and His transforming power.

Then there are those who hear His voice and respond with open hearts. They surrender—not out of fear, but out of love. They want to belong fully to Him, to walk closely with their Lord, and to obey Him with a willing spirit. These believers understand that God’s will is not a burden but a gift. They seek His presence, His direction, and His purpose for their lives. And while none of us follow perfectly, those who yield to Him find what Jeremiah’s generation missed: the joy of salvation, the peace of obedience, and the steady assurance that they are held by the One who never fails.

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Holding Ground

The Themes of Home, Trust, and Change

The novel, Gwenda, is set in the Great Smoky Mountains during the land acquisition for the national park.

Gwenda explores how land shapes identity and how trust evolves. One of the central ideas woven through the novel is the notion of home as inheritance. Gwenda’s attachment to her valley isn’t romantic nostalgia; it’s lived knowledge, the kind passed down through chores, songs, seasons, and stories. So when surveyors arrive to map the proposed national park, the conflict is less about property lines and more about cultural survival. The tension between tidy maps and lived familiarity reveals two very different ways of knowing a place.

Trust, how fragile it can be and how it grows, threads through the story as well. Adam Wagoner enters the valley as the face of unwanted change, and Gwenda’s mistrust is understandable. He may be an outsider, yet he's no villain. He keeps returning, listening, helping, and learning mountain ways. Trust doesn’t arrive in dramatic moments; it builds through small, practical acts, like gathering eggs, chopping firewood, showing up when needed, and paying attention. Those quiet gestures form the groundwork for reconciliation.

The novel also asks what grace looks like when loss feels inevitable. The novel refuses tidy resolutions. Grace becomes something practiced in the hard places — negotiating with institutions, facing reality, and wrestling with one’s own heart. Some of the story’s most meaningful moments are the quiet ones: a shared meal, a porch conversation, the slow realization that survival sometimes means adapting, and sometimes means holding the line. These moments invite readers to slow down, take a seat, and ponder the choices the characters face. In a time when questions about land, stewardship, and heritage are urgent, Gwenda asks how we honor the past without freezing it, how we build trust across divides, and what choices we make when everything we love might be at risk.

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The Tares Among the Wheat

But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way (Matthew 13:25).

Wheat is not planted in neat rows; it is sown, scattered closely together much like turnip seed that falls where it may. Jesus used this picture to show how the enemy works. Satan cannot pluck us from God’s hand, but he can sow distractions, temptations, and false influences right beside us. The tares looked so similar to the wheat in their early stages that no one could tell them apart. In the same way, the things that pull our hearts away from God often resemble good, harmless, or even admirable pursuits until they mature and reveal their true nature.

Let both grow together until the harvest (Matthew 13:30a).

The Lord teaches us that wheat and tares grow side by side for a season. That is the reality of the Christian walk: truth and deception, devotion and distraction, obedience and compromise—all press close around us. The tares in Jesus’ parable were nearly identical to wheat until the heads formed. Only then did the difference show. Wheat grows heavy with grain and bows under the weight, while tares stand straighter with smaller, darker seeds. A poisonous fungus often attaches itself to tares but not to wheat. Likewise, spiritual maturity reveals what is genuine. A heart anchored in Christ bends in humility, obedience, and surrender. A heart shaped by worldly influence stands tall in pride, self‑will, and empty pursuits. God calls us to discern the difference and to keep our eyes fixed on Him rather than the look‑alike distractions growing nearby.

Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn (Matthew 13:30b).

True peace comes when we stop trying to sort every distraction ourselves and instead commit our way to the Lord. He knows what is wheat and what is tare. He knows what strengthens our walk and what quietly chokes it. When we surrender our choices, our time, and our affections to Him, He guides us with clarity. The world’s opinions may rise and fall, and the enemy may sow confusion, but God’s faithfulness remains constant. As we bow under the weight of His truth, like mature wheat, we find rest, confidence, and freedom. In the end, He gathers what is His. Our calling is simple: stay rooted, stay faithful, and trust the Lord to separate what is false from what is true.

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Returning to the Mountains: A New Story Rooted in Home

As some of you may know, I grew up in the Appalachian Mountain culture. It’s not surprising, then, that the first books I published were four historical novels in the Appalachian Roots series. I’ve written more books in that setting, but it’s been a while. When I began to write my newest book about life in the Great Smoky Mountains around the time of the building of the national park, it felt like coming home, and I’m excited to share that adventure with readers. There is something about those ridges and hollows, their quiet strength and stubborn beauty, that continues to influence the stories I tell.

This newest novel released October 9 and carries that heritage forward through the eyes of Gwenda Stuart, a young woman whose world is the Smoky Mountain valley her family has tended for five generations. When surveyors arrive to map out land for the proposed national park, Gwenda meets Adam Wagoner, the outsider sent to assess the very slopes her people have fought to keep. She dislikes him instantly. He represents change, loss, and the threat of displacement. Yet as he keeps returning—listening to her father, helping neighbors, and learning mountain ways—Gwenda begins to see a man who respects the land as deeply as she does. He's a man who might even help her family negotiate for a fair future. Still, the question haunts her: Can she trust him when the stakes are her home, her heritage, and the only life she’s ever known?

I wrote this story with the hope that readers would feel the tension of that moment in history with the uncertainty, the courage, and the grace that threads through even the hardest decisions. In the shadow of the mountains, grace truly does write a new story. Gwenda’s journey is one of holding on, letting go, and discovering that sometimes the person you least expect becomes the one who stands beside you. He came helping those who wanted to take her land. Now, he may steal her heart. I can’t wait for you to step into the valley with her and experience the beauty, conflict, and hope that shaped the birth of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Gwenda, Great Smoky Mountains Bride is available now in paperback, Kindle, KU, and Audible. Get your copy today.