Merle-you can do this!

                  My Dad Was the First Person I Told-

since it was while we were fishing, so I figured he would hear it, say sounds interesting, then without a pause-ask did I see that fish wake coming at us! LOL

I don't know why I hadn't told anyone yet. Maybe I wasn't ready for it to be real. Maybe I was afraid someone would look at me like you? writing a novel? and I'd lose my nerve.

But my dad? I told him.

He was the first, and for a long time, the only, person who knew about Clara and June and the cabin in Aspen and the map and all of it. And he listened the way dads do when they believe in you completely. No skepticism. Just genuine interest. Tell me more.

I lost him at the end of November.

It's been the hardest thing. The kind of hard that makes it difficult to do much of anything, let alone sit down and write a novel. For a while I couldn't. I just wasn't able to.

But here's the thing: I promised myself I was going to write this book. And I promised him too, in the way you promise someone something when you're not sure if they'll be around to see it finished.

So I'm doing it, Dad. I am doing it.