I make no secret of the fact that I feel like having grown up in the Midwest, I paid my dues with surviving winter weather. Winter in Colorado, where I live now, is actually quite mild in comparison.

For instance, while we do have cold and snow and things can be messy, the next day might well be 50 degrees. Or 70. I remember a January day one year when my little girl rode her bike in the driveway in shorts while the mounds of a heavy snowfall were still trying to melt where they had been shoveled out of the way.

To me, knowing that the blasts of winter are short-lived and it’s never safe to put away your tee-shirts is a whole different mental energy than where I grew up or the periods I lived in the Midwest as an adult.

I am a little annoyed, however, that I am writing to you on October 26, and we are hunkering down for our third snowfall of the “winter” already while I’m still trying to finish the fall yardwork! What’s with that? (It was close to 70 today. Tomorrow? Not so much.)

Nevertheless, thinking about snow seems like an appropriate occasion to remind everyone that my winter story in the Tree of Life series (which will take us through all four seasons) is about to release. November 1 is the official day.

In the Tree of Life series, Jillian and her father, Nolan, open their hearts to people who need the light of joy along the way. In In the Cradle Lies, that someone is Tucker, who has arrived in the mountain town of Canyon Mines, Colorado, with a charming personality but some reckless habits that just don’t add up—including potentially bringing harm to himself. When Jillian puts her genealogy skills to work, and the story of Tucker’s grandfather and great-grandfather unfolds, new light sheds perspective on what has Tucker knotted up.

I hope you’ll check it out! More information on the whole series here.