✨ A Note from the Author

Mary was one of the first people who introduced herself to me when I began writing Where the Creek Runs Black. She arrived carrying questions instead of answers, the kind of person who desperately wants the truth but isn’t sure she’s ready for what she’ll find.

At first glance, Mary seems practical. She’s the one trying to make sense of the impossible, searching for facts while everyone around her speaks in whispers and half-truths. But beneath that determination is someone quietly wrestling with the realization that the people we love most can also be the people we understand the least.

Writing Mary meant exploring what happens when skepticism collides with memory, when loyalty battles curiosity, and when going home means reopening wounds you thought had long since healed.

I think many readers will see themselves in her. She’s not fearless. She isn’t always confident. She second-guesses herself, makes mistakes, and often wishes she could turn around and leave Blackwater behind.

But she doesn’t.

Because some questions become impossible to ignore.

More than anything, Mary reminds us that courage isn’t the absence of fear. Sometimes courage is simply choosing to keep walking toward the truth, even when every step feels heavier than the last.

And perhaps that’s why I love her so much.

She keeps going.