When I began the Shenandoah Album series, I wanted the titles of traditional quilt blocks to suggest my stories. The theme of Lover's Knot was clear from the start. A knot can be an impediment, something to untie or move beyond. But a knot can also secure two halves of a rope, and once secured the knot itself can be the strongest part.

All relationships have knots. It's the way we untie them or even tie them tighter, that determines whether a relationship will continue.

Kendra Taylor was introduced in the second book of the Shenandoah Album series, Endless Chain. She was a journalist with tentative roots in Shenandoah County soil, and she was interested in knowing the community better. It became clear to me that her husband–whose name I didn't yet know–was not as enthused about the area as she was. I liked Kendra immediately. She was searching for something elusive, in need of the warmth and friendship she found in Toms Brook. I wanted to know her story.

About the time I was imagining what Kendra might tell me, I stumbled across an article on the Depression-era eviction of a thousand people from the area we now know as the Shenandoah National Park. I suddenly understood so much more about Kendra, about her husband Isaac, about the little cabin Isaac inherited from a grandmother he never knew.

But there was still much more to discover. I visited the park, hiked the trails, read the historical record. And I imagined what it might be like to lose the view of those breathtaking mountains, looming over every moment of a lifetime.

Kendra and Isaac aren’t simple people, but in the end, the answers they find are simple enough. I hope you'll enjoy their explorations as much as I did.