Some stories come to life in unexpected ways. Memories of an Ash Covered Sky is one of them.

Set against the backdrop of the Almeda Fire in Southern Oregon on September 8, 2020, this novel is about more than the flames—it’s about the wreckage we carry, the things we leave unsaid, and the moments we choose to walk away from the people who once meant everything.

At the edge of the novel’s mystery is Sun Creek Estates, a quiet manufactured home community that becomes a battleground for survival, redemption, and loss. For Kaley Lattimore, Mel Hall, and Teddy Daley, it’s more than just a place—it’s a reflection of their struggles, a last chance for some, and a graveyard of past regrets for others. As the fire closes in, Sun Creek Estates becomes a convergence of fate, where reckoning is inevitable, lives are reclaimed or lost, and the line between destruction and salvation blurs.

But at its heart, this is a story of Chief Murphy Wilson, a firefighter who has spent his life saving others but somehow lost his daughter, Sky, along the way. And it’s the story of Sky Wilson, a young woman who, much like her mother before her, walked out on her family, leaving behind the father who once meant everything. After years on the streets, she now finds herself fighting her way back—not just to her childhood home, but to the man she never truly understood.

With the fire closing in, both must confront their past, the choices that shaped their distance, and the realization that while some things may feel too broken to fix, it’s never too late to try.

An Exclusive Sneak Peek

Sky peels her sore forearm from the sticky passenger door armrest of the nondescript minivan. She knows the discomfort isn’t from circulation loss or exertion—it’s the weight pressing on her mind. The last week had taken its toll, and this morning, she wasn’t prepared for the crash. The creeping pull of depression stirs in her chest. She tries to will it away.

She groans under her breath. Blah, blah, blah. She should care more about saving the planet—at least that’s what the others in the van seem so passionate about. But her mind isn’t on climate change. It’s on heading north, toward a home she abandoned years ago.

Whenever she lets herself drift too far into thought, memories seize her—slamming her against the past, forcing her to face the uncomfortable truth in the mirror: she feels like white trash.

Turning from the endless California landscape outside the window, she glances at the driver. Steel. She snickers at the self-appointed name. Really? He was many things, but steel wasn’t one of them. Plastic, perhaps. Aluminum, at best.

There’s an appeal to him, sure. But Sky doesn’t trust men who blame the world for their problems. She’s spent too much time around people like that. She wants to believe in something, in someone, but the hypocrisy always shows itself.

Steel carries himself like he’s larger than life, but his confidence is paper-thin—like a man constantly performing for an audience that isn’t watching.

The click-click-click of the turn signal pulls her back as the van eases off Interstate 5 at Exit 773. She spotted a Yreka sign miles back, somewhere near Weed—damn, she wished they’d stopped there. She wanted one of those I Love Weed T-shirts. Would’ve been a classic souvenir.

Steel grips the wheel with exaggerated importance, jutting his chin forward.

“We’re stopping at Black Bear Diner to eat. I recommend eating hearty—if all goes well, the next day and a half will be a long one. We’ll be on our feet a lot.”

Sky snickers. Hearty? Who even uses that word anymore? And why the hell was he shouting? The van only held four people, and no one had spoken in the last thirty miles. She wonders if he does it to feel important, to command some kind of authority.

What a douchebag.

She watches him with detached amusement. Steel claims to worship the planet, dedicating his life to its survival.

Sky is just trying to survive herself. Maybe that’s why she doesn’t trust him. Maybe that’s why she can’t.

Somehow, he still doesn’t seem real—just another rich kid with a cause to scream about. He reads the right books, says the right words, but she doesn’t feel passion from him. Not really.

He’s performing, and Sky has seen enough of those acts to know how they always end.

She sighs and leans her head against the window’s cool glass.

Steel preaches about saving the planet.

Sky just wants to save herself….

Why This Story?

This book is personal. While a work of fiction, it’s inspired by real places, real memories, and the all-too-real destruction of the Almeda Fire.

I wanted to explore the weight of loss—not just physical, but emotional. The kind of loss that happens over years, in the things left unsaid and the people we fail to hold onto.

And I wanted to explore redemption—because sometimes, when everything has burned away, all that’s left is the chance to start again.

Coming April 2025!