Do you want to know a secret? Before this is revealed to the public, I want to share with you the cover of my next book, This Promised Land.

Designed by Libby Dykstra of Tyndale House Publishers, this stunning cover beautifully represents two of the main characters in This Promised Land—sixty-five-year-old Ginny Dee, and her feisty great-niece, Arlo, who turns ten—double digits—during the story. Here is a summary of the book:

When she ran away as a young war bride, she was cut off from her family forever . . . or so she believed. Decades later, maybe the only way to move on is to go home.

Ginny Pickering Boyden can’t wait for her last day of work, when she’ll be free to pursue a lifelong ambition through a master gardener apprenticeship. But an unexpected letter brings shocking news: Ginny has inherited her family’s Christmas tree farm, a dream she’d given up fifty years before.

Facing a past laced with memories and lies she’s tried hard to bury, a furious nephew who thought the land would be his, and a failing farm with a mountain of debt, Ginny returns to New Scrivelsby, determined to sell. But when her younger nephew, a Vietnam vet, appears with demons of his own and three young children in tow, Ginny isn’t sure what to do. Too much of their story reminds Ginny of her own. But she also has little hope that three generations of warring Pickerings can set aside their differences to restore all that’s broken, both on the land and in their hearts.

Set against the beautiful and rugged landscape of the Blue Ridge Mountains, This Promised Land is the story of a daughter’s longing to make sense of the past and of the unbreakable bonds that bring prodigals home.

I can hardly wait to share this story with you. You’ll find a great deal of my heart within its pages. The book is set to release April 2025, so we do have a bit of a wait. It will be available for pre-order before then. I’ll keep you posted.

One of the dearly loved themes in this book is gardens. This spring, with so much rain, my gardens are bursting with the new growth of vegetables, fruits, and flowers—both cultivated and wild.

Many of my iris beauties came from my dear friend and literary agent, Natasha Kern. The deep purple one came from my brother, David Lounsbury.

I planted this lovely Cozy Teacups Dogwood tree this spring in memory of my mother. This Mother’s Day was our first without her.

My garden’s roses, peonies, hydrangeas, daisies, clematis, and other plants are each designated to honor or are planted in memory of loved ones. I pray for those dear ones and thank God for them each time I tend their flowers, so it truly is a prayer garden. Little wonder that my love of trees and flowers, cultivated and wild, spills over into my books!

My seven-year-old granddaughter recently asked, “Grandma, why do you love gardening so much?”

And though I’d not thought it through before, I told her, “Because I feel so close to God when I garden. God began life on earth in a garden and I feel that I’m working with Him when I work among fruits and flowers and the songs of His birds. It brings me great joy—joy that I can share with others.”

I hope you’re enjoying a lovely spring wherever you nest, and that you find time to enjoy “all things bright and beautiful.”

Until next time, happy reading, and God’s rich blessings for you,

Cathy