I wrote the book Why the Sparrow Cries during a freefall moment. My parents had just split and it would only get more chaotic from there.
Within the span of a year they married new spouses, and I’d been highly encouraged to move out of the house and take a very fat cat with me—who was originally my dad’s.
I was making less than minimum wage at the time when the pandemic hit, and knocked out a third of my income. I continued in free fall for a year. Finally, a stable job emerged out of the chaos, and I eventually found love, a community, and activities I enjoyed. I no longer had to work seven jobs just to survive. I no longer had to count every penny at the grocery store to make sure that I could eat enough that week, but not blow the measly budget.
But.
Because of the freefall, I finally found my author’s voice with this book. Finally found a therapeutic way to channel all the hurt and confusion I’d experienced in the months prior. Finally found a character who could portray that voice.
Six years later, I am in freefall again.
In the last six months, I have experienced more than most people would in six years. Although hurt and confused at the difficult timing of everything with planning a wedding and a likely move in May, I am more than familiar with the beauty of freefall moments.
Perhaps something has yet to emerge out of all of this difficulty and confusion.
In the meantime, I’d be more than blessed if you’d take a look at the book that spawned out of my first freefall. Although the journey met with more than a few obstacles, maybe we can experience the rough patches together.
Maybe in seeing how I had made it out of the darkness you, too, can find yourself once again heading toward the hopeful light.
Hope Bolinger is an acquisitions editor and the author of almost 30 traditionally published books. 1500 of her other works can be viewed in international publications, reaching millions per year. When she isn’t busy accidentally writing a book in a week, you can find her on runways, doing local theater, and getting lost on hikes. Find more about her at hopebolinger.com
Harper hates crowds and has a strong distaste for humanity in general. A summer spent in the bustling city of London was not on her bucket list—especially not tagging along behind her nagging mother.
But when a teen from the Greek Dark Ages mysteriously appears in the very crowded British Museum, Harper decides to rescue the boy who’s even more out of place—and time—than she is. With the help of her uncle, they’ll need to keep Homer away from the British authorities, evade a tomb-robbing ex-archeologist, and figure out how to get this Palikari man back to his own time before he’s captured.
As they escape near-kidnappings, terrible yogurt drinks, and Harper’s mother’s lectures, Harper finds herself warming up to Homer. Something that hasn’t happened with anyone since the incident with her father back in Arizona.
Will she learn to love again? Or will an ex-archeologist snag the historical find of the millennium—and the only person she’s felt safe around in years?
