My next book, And So We Dream, takes place in the summer of 1970 in a small Midwestern town, much like the one where I was born and raised — Carlinville, Illinois. So on a recent trip back there, I paid close attention to the sounds, scents, colors, and feel of summertime. The train whistle, the low hum of lawnmowers, the warbling of robins. The scents of freshly-cut grass, strawberries from the local orchard, and flowering bushes that perfume the humid air. The colors of summer — shades of green and blue.

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My visit was in June, one of my favorite times of year back there. Everything is green and lush, and flowers grow in abundance — masses of wild honeysuckle, cornflowers alongside country roads, shady green meadows dotted with wildflowers.

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Though it is now fifty years later from the action in the story, much of the town and countryside remain the same. Long stretches of country roads —

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including a few parts of historical Old Route 66, just outside of town.

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Tree-lined streets with beautiful old homes,

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and small-town charm woven throughout.

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Other places show the passage of time: the old wooden bridges that can still be found out in the country,

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an abandoned farm house,

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peaceful old cemeteries with tombstones leaning this way and that.

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There’s a sense of sky and openness that impresses with its beauty and grandeur. The sky dominates the landscape with every-changing drama

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and stunning sunsets that are commonplace.

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In my new book, a young boy remembers how they found pictures in the clouds, and I found myself doing the same: A lotus cloud! The profile of a lady? a Roman emperor? a marble bust? it shifts before I can decide.

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A low line of clouds and trees that seemed to march on together in the same formation.

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Storm clouds and rain over a farm in the distance, an illuminated puff over the grain elevator.

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Though I left the Midwest many years ago, those formative years in small-town Illinois form the core of who I am. I am grateful to have been raised in such a specific place, so quintessentially American — though I imagine everyone feels something similar.

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Wherever we end up, our hometown forms a part of us that no other place can fill.

(And So We Dream will be available later this summer.)