“If I close my eyes, one of the clearest pictures I have is of my mother bent over in her garden in the evening. She straightens and massages her lower back while she looks out toward the horizon. Another time, I buried my face in billowing sheets as she hung them on the line and explained to me that the larger sheets and towels were hung on the outside lines to conceal the underwear and unmentionables on the inner lines. It doesn’t take much to recall the fresh sun kissed smell of cotton hung on a clothesline. My mother loved being outside, but could only justify it if she combined it with a chore that contributed to the family well being.

A family day out involved a picnic by a river where my siblings and I (there were six of us) trailed through clear cold rivers and sandy bottomed eddies catching frogs while my father panned for gold. It was the outing that my mother loved best and one of the few times I remember seeing her sitting still.

I inherited my mother’s silver tea service, but this love for nature, for the feel of the sun on my face is a far greater inheritance. Though I can’t touch it, I know it was my mother’s appreciation for God’s creation that influenced me to love hiking, fishing and sitting by rivers soothed by the sound of water traveling over rock.

Even in my writing with the character of Lucy Kimbol in Dead Ringer, I see my mother’s influence on my life. Lucy Kimbol is a fly fishing guide who says that being out on the river is when she feels the closest to God. My mother died when I was in my early twenties, long before I had my first book published, but I see the power of her intangible inheritance in my writing.“–Sharon

Thanks, Sharon–Lyn

For more about Sharon and her books, drop by www.sharondunnbooks.com