Jo

My new novel ….coming soon!

Jo is set on cattle ranches in rural Oregon and Wyoming in the early 1950s, and Central California in the late 50s after an unexpected turn of events forces hard choices. Jo Glover must come to terms with her unbearable childhood and take charge of her family’s future when her husband’s unflagging optimism and repeated losses threatens to upend their lives.

Jo finally realizes her dream of having a stable, secure place to raise her family when she and her husband Kurt move with their three young children to his parents’ pioneer ranch in eastern Oregon. Kurt is excited about returning home again after completing his military duty in WWII, and Jo is eager to try her hand at raising their children on a cattle ranch far away from her charming but devious mother. Her desire for putting down new roots reinforces her determination to not look back at the tumultuous childhood she escaped by leaving home at age thirteen.

When economic and familial challenges threaten their long-term livelihood on the family ranch, Jo agrees with Kurt’s desire to relocate their growing family to a larger ranch in northwest Wyoming, sight unseen. Yet bitter cold winters on the thirteen-hundred-acre ranch at the base of the towering Absaroka Range bring wind blasts and intense blizzards that lead to stacks of frozen lambs outside the lambing shed. While summer brings a respite, the short haying season and wild hailstorms wreak havoc on the nascent crops and place the couple squarely on the cusp of economic ruin.

Jo’s fierce love for her husband and desire for a safe haven are worn threadbare by Kurt’s insistence on clinging to his dream to stay on the land despite formidable challenges. By the late 1950s, the couple loses the land they’ve leased in Wyoming and their livelihood. They move to California without a foundation—a theme that resonates with the contemporary American experience.