Writing The Renaissance Sisters

In conceiving The Renaissance Sisters, I was able to draw on decades of family history and vivid personal memories.

Where hens once laid their eggs, mice now frolic in bits of leftover straw, a majestic ranch house sits empty and forlorn, and coyotes roam fifty-six lonely acres of high desert. For Sabina Crawley, the old chicken ranch holds a painful legacy of heartache and betrayal — but on her deathbed, she leaves the ranch and its truckload of unpaid taxes to her only living relatives. Sisters Harper and Paige Crawley have no experience with hardscrabble ranch living or the effects of high-desert sun on youthful skin, but the ranch offers them a chance to start their lives over and create something entirely their own. And as it turns out, the Crawley sisters have exactly what it will take to turn things around. With a lot of hard work and a little New Mexico magic, the old chicken ranch comes to life. And it offers its own special gifts: a blanket of glittering stars overhead, the musical renderings of local coyotes, and all the green-chile cheeseburgers they can eat. In the course of a single summer, Harper and Paige Crawley find themselves sinking their southern roots deep into the sandy red earth. But transforming the old chicken ranch into a ‘destination event venue and creative retreat’ is just the…