There’s always something that bit more exciting when hosting a debut novelist. I’m always moved by the staggering achievement it is to write a novel, have it critiqued, likely rack up a number of rejections, find a publishing home, more editing, more people having opinions on your story, before finally…finally…that book hits retailers, shelves, and gets read by someone like you and me!

So, kudos to you, Jennifer for taking on the ups and downs of a writer’s life and bringing to life this story for readers to immerse themselves in. And for the great feature about home and what it means to us all.

There’s No Place Like Home

by Jennifer L. Wright

“There’s no place like home.”

So says Dorothy Gale at the end of the iconic 1939 movie The Wizard of Oz. Having traveled to a mythical land in which she encounters all manner of talking animals and wicked witches, as well as a humbug wizard, young Dorothy decides there’s nowhere else she’d rather be than on this side of the rainbow, in the middle of nowhere Kansas. Because while adventures are well and good, home is where our hearts truly long to be.

I think most of us can relate. I surely can. Except, as a military spouse, home is a complicated concept. Does it mean where I grew up? Where I live now? Where I was married? Where my kids were born? Where my husband and I hope to retire? Yes, there is no place like home; however, where exactly is that for me?

I spent the first twenty-four years of my life in Indiana. But since marrying my active-duty Air Force husband, I’ve lived in two foreign countries and three different states. I have two children, both of whom have different birthplaces. Our time at each station ranges from two to three years, the longest being four. Each move has brought fresh adventures, new friends . . . and the overwhelming task of starting over once again. While I still have family living in the Midwest, every visit back reminds me how much life I’ve lived away from there. It’s no longer really my home. Nor is the duty station in which I’m currently residing.

I’ve learned to roll with the punches of this unpredictable lifestyle. I’ve had to. But if I’m being honest, for years I’ve been homesick for a home I can’t quite find. As soon as I start feeling settled, a new assignment comes down the pipeline, and my world is once again ripped at the seams. Everything is different: the town, the house, the people. In the midst of all these changes, I’ve had to constantly attempt to redefine the word home.

The same is true for the character of Kathryn, the spitfire fourteen-year-old at the heart of my debut novel, If It Rains. Born and raised outside Boise City, Oklahoma, Kathryn has a steadfast commitment to her home state that is challenged when the Dust Bowl settles over America’s midsection and refuses to relinquish its grip. As the drought worsens and the countryside wastes away, Kathryn, like thousands of other “Okies,” is forced to make a choice: stay and adapt to the reality of a home that is no longer as it used to be, or flee, uprooting all that’s familiar in the hopes of creating a new version of home somewhere else.

Change is hard. A longing for the familiar, for a place to feel both comfortable and accepted, is at the heart of Kathryn’s story . . . and my own. For me, it’s the demands of military service forcing a lifestyle of constant upheaval. For Kathryn, it’s the transformation of the land itself pressing her into a decision she never wanted to make.

There’s no place like home . . . until there has to be.

Because what I’ve discovered during my life as a nomad is that home isn’t necessarily a place. Places change, whether that be because of a forced physical relocation (such as in my case) or due to environmental circumstances outside our control (such as in Kathryn’s case). Home is more than an address. Home is the state of your heart. It is being surrounded by those you love, no matter the roof under which you find yourself. It is finding the good—and being the good—in the corner of the world where you find yourself dwelling, no matter how long or short your stay may be. Most of all, however, it is recognizing the presence of Jesus as He guides us through every change to which we will ever have to adjust. He is our familiar; in Him, we can feel comfortable and accepted no matter where this life calls us to journey.

In The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, the book by L. Frank Baum upon which the classic movie was based, Dorothy actually never utters the line “There’s no place like home.” Rather, upon returning to Aunt Em’s house after her adventure, she exclaims, “I’m so glad to be at home again!”

I still get sad every time we have to move. I grieve for the communities and friendships left behind. I’m not sure when (or if) my husband and I will ever settle in a place long enough to officially call it “home.” Perhaps, on this side of heaven, my heart will always be searching for that mythical place just outside my grasp. But I find comfort in knowing no matter how often we wander or how far, there is no place God leads us in which we are outside the arms of Jesus. And that is what gives me strength to pack one more box, find one more house, sew one more set of curtains. Because of Him, I am able to face each new duty station with a brave smile and the original words of Dorothy: “I’m so glad to be at home again.”

At least for a little while.

A story of resilience and redemption set against one of America’s defining moments―the Dust Bowl.

It’s 1935 in Oklahoma, and lives are determined by the dust. Fourteen-year-old Kathryn Baile, a spitfire born with a severe clubfoot, is coming of age in desperate times. Once her beloved older sister marries, Kathryn’s only comfort comes in the well-worn pages of her favorite book, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Then Kathryn’s father decides to relocate to Indianapolis, and only the promise of a surgery to finally make her “normal” convinces Kathryn to leave Oklahoma behind. But disaster strikes along the way, and Kathryn must rely on her grit and the ragged companions she meets on the road if she is to complete her journey.

Back in Boise City, Melissa Baile Mayfield is the newest member of the wealthiest family in all of Cimarron County. In spite of her poor, rural upbringing, Melissa has just married the town’s most eligible bachelor and is determined to be everything her husband―and her new social class―expects her to be. But as the drought tightens its grip, Henry’s true colors are revealed. Melissa covers her bruises with expensive new makeup and struggles to reconcile her affluent life with that of her starving neighbors. Haunted by the injustice and broken by Henry’s refusal to help, Melissa secretly defies her husband, risking her life to follow God’s leading.

Two sisters, struggling against unspeakable hardship, discover that even in their darkest times, they are still united in spirit, and God is still with them, drawing them home.

Thanks for the lovely feature, Jennifer – hoping you have enjoyed your release day!

Jennifer L. Wright has been writing since middle school, eventually earning a Master’s degree in Journalism at Indiana University. However, it took only a few short months of covering the local news for her to realize that writing fiction is much better for the soul and definitely way more fun. A born and bred Hoosier, she was plucked from the Heartland after being swept off her feet by an Air Force pilot and has spent the past decade traveling the world and, and every few years, attempting to make old curtains fit in the windows of a new home. She tries to squeeze in time to write in between rolling with the punches of her husband’s unpredictable schedule and corralling her two children (and one grumpy old dachshund).
She currently resides in New Mexico and has discovered a passion for all things green chile.

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Visit Jennifer’s website
Buy at Amazon: If It Rains or Koorong