Dear Reader,

Thirteen years ago, on a cold, damp October day, I was hiking alone in the mountains of the Cumberland Plateau of Sewanee, Tennessee when I realized I'd become a little lost. Instead of turning around and making my way back on the familiar path, I decided I would keep going and just figure it out. Well, I didn't figure it out and I became only more lost.

With the sun now setting, I made my way out onto a granite ledge littered with fallen leaves and acorns. I carefully tread to the edge of my vantage point to survey the landscape and find the trail, but my feet slipped. I will never forget the sickening feeling of coming loose from the rock, of finding myself airborne and landing on the forest floor.

I sat, stunned and then naively thought, "Good. I'm okay. I'm okay." And I believed this assessment until I looked down to see that my left foot was pointed east. No, I was not okay, and I had no way out of my predicament or my pain. I needed to be rescued.
The AMRT (Appalachian Mountain Rescue Team) of Sewanee saved me with what's called "a high angle rescue." It was a terrifying evening, and if I hadn't carried a cell phone, and if there hadn't been reception, mine might be a different story—one with a much graver outcome than a shattered ankle.

Even knowing the danger, even with the hardware that now holds my ankle together, I still love hiking, yet now with a humble and awesome respect for the wilds. I am enchanted by the natural world and its mysteries, as well as its healing properties. I miss the woods when I am gone from it. I love the untamed forested world, and I fear it.

Heart of the Wild is as close as I've ever come to writing about that time, and only as an imagined fourteen-year-old girl named Emma who is accidentally left behind by a youth group on a hiking trip and Becky, who is "woods wise" and understands the dangers.

As always in my work, there is a book inside this book. The Call of the Wild by Jack London is both an influence and an important talisman for my character Emma. As I learned from my own experience of being lost and injured in the heart of the woods, your mind quiets and begins searching for any signs of help or direction. In Heart of the Wild, Emma relies on animal guides, the myths she's heard about the forest, and her own inner instincts. These give her comfort and hope in the most hopeless of situations and allow her to believe the woods want to protect her, at times in unexplainable or unbelievable ways.

Join me as we walk into this forest with experiences both harrowing and mystical. Love will be tested, loyalties broken, and redemption will be found in the most unexpected places.

Happy Reading,
Patti