The other day, I was enjoying a cup of coffee in my thinking spot—the window overlooking the Arizona mountains.
And I was pondering the kinds of women whose lives have shaped mine. Maybe it’s because March is Women’s History Month… or maybe it’s simply where my heart has been lately.
For me, it always comes back to my grandmother—the woman everyone says I look like and whose nature I share.
And that got me thinking about one of the first grandmothers I wrote into my books: Beverly Walsh. Nana.
She’s the kind of woman I understand instinctively—someone who would do anything for her granddaughter, Kayla. In her case, that means leaving behind her life in Washington, D.C., even her name, because she believes it’s the only way to keep Kayla safe.
But that choice comes with an unintended cost.
When the story opens, Kayla isn’t even Kayla yet. She’s Kendra McGee. By the time we see her again, she’s living under a new name in a small mountain town in Arizona—rebuilding after something that shattered her life.
Instead of planning the future she’d dreamed of, she’s learning how to live again—forming words, taking steps from a wheelchair to a walker to a cane… and eventually training in a martial art that could save her life.
Because she intends to bring justice to the man who killed her parents.
And Nana is there—a capable grandmother running a women’s shelter—holding their new life together as best she can.
As the story unfolds, Kayla’s world expands far beyond that small town—across the country, across the ocean, and into places I spent hours researching to bring to life.
At the time I wrote this trilogy, I was still trying to figure out my place as an author. I kept hearing that readers wanted strong young female protagonists, so I created Kayla.
But looking back, I can see the emotional center wasn’t just Kayla.
It was Nana.
It was that deep, unshakable love between a grandmother and her granddaughter—and the way it holds things together when everything else falls apart.
And there’s a moment in the story when that love—and the love she’s found in someone unexpected—is all she has left.
On her own in the Australian Outback, Kayla needed that love more than ever.
All that keeps her moving is the need to protect Nana from someone she once trusted… and to make it back to the man she came to love.
I think part of why this story stayed with me is that I understood what it means to trust the wrong person and live with the consequences… and how hard it can be to move forward from that.
But Kayla finds Martin, a man with a very different background than hers… or perhaps he was placed in her path for a reason. A reason neither of them fully understands.
And somewhere along the way, I planted the first seeds of another world you may recognize—the town of Peach Blossom and the orchard that appears in so many of my later books.
Maybe that’s why this story stayed with me.
But at its core, this story helped me find my way as an author. It comes down to this: What are we willing to risk to protect the people we love?
For me, the answer keeps coming back the same way… especially when it comes to women who have lived long enough to know what truly matters.
If you haven’t read the Kayla Walsh mystery-suspense trilogy, I’d love to share it with you.
You can find the three books—and a box set with all of them—here:
And if you have already read it, thank you for being part of the journey—even back when I was still finding my way.
Warmly,
Karen