A few years ago, I traveled to France with my family. I went to the ancestral home of the Baysingers in the village of Hermerswiller, near the Rhine River. With a little persistence, I was able to find a connection to my ancestors, Jacob Besinger and Margaret Laemmer, whose son emigrated to America in 1770. I thought about what it must have been like for Jacob and Margaret to watch their child leave for America, knowing they would never see him again. That was the genesis for my first full-length novel Margaret's Last Prayer.