Why "Somebody Gets It" Is The Best Feedback I've Ever Received
There is a tiny scene in Hatteras House that I honestly almost cut.
The dishwasher breaks. It floods the kitchen. The wife is texting her husband while he's on shift, trying to figure out what to do, and he just answers back, don't know what to tell you, call a plumber, I'm busy.
That's the whole scene. Nothing dramatic happens. Nobody argues. It's just life.
But my husband Troy told me, after he read through the book in about three days, that this tiny moment was one of the parts that stuck with him the most. Because for a first responder family, that is exactly how it goes. Dad might be gone for 24 hours, sometimes 48, sometimes 72 at a stretch, and mom becomes a single parent for a little while, over and over again, month after month.
Troy and I talked about this on our podcast, Hold The Line, which is our space for first responders, veterans, military families, and the people who love them to talk honestly about faith, mental health, and the realities of this lifestyle. And what keeps coming up, over and over, is how many people read Hatteras House and tell me, somebody finally gets it.
That sentence right there is exactly why I wrote this book.
Here's the truth. The divorce rate among first responders is extremely high. So are the rates of PTSD, depression, anxiety, and addiction. We talk about that a lot on our podcast, but I wanted to find another way in, a way that felt less like a statistic and more like a story you could sit inside of.
Hatteras House follows a firefighter family navigating a mental health diagnosis they didn't see coming. There is a trigger warning at the front because some of it gets fairly real, but I wanted this book to be a safe place to land. I hope that as you read it, you find yourself nodding along, laughing at the parts that feel a little too familiar, and maybe even crying at the parts that hit close to home.
Because if a first responder family reads this book and thinks, yeah, that happened to us too, then this book did exactly what I hoped it would do. And if it helps someone outside this community understand a little bit more of what these families carry, then it's doing double duty.
Hatteras House is the first in a series of five, and my goal with every one of these books is the same. Tell the truth about first responder life through fiction, so families feel seen and the rest of the world gets a little more understanding.
Grab your copy of Hatteras House on Amazon
Book two is already underway and I'm hoping to have it out this fall. After that, I can't wait to share Weathering the Storm with you. It picks up with Kayla and Eric, a young couple trapped together as a hurricane bears down on the North Carolina coast, forced to face questions about love and growing up that neither one of them feels ready for. And Matt and Laura are still learning to live in the aftermath of Matt's PTSD diagnosis, discovering that healing is never a straight line, it's a daily choice they have to keep making together.
If you have read Hatteras House, I would love to hear from you. Leave a review on Amazon or Goodreads, it means more than you know. And if you want to keep up with the podcast, the books, and everyday life around here, come find me on Instagram.
Thank you for being part of this community. Whether you serve, love someone who serves, or you're just here to understand a little more, I'm glad you're here.
