In The Beginning…

Hello, I’m Patti (Patricia) Diener.

I have always written as a creative outlet, but in the aftermath of Lake County’s Valley Fire, in September of 2015, I was not only compelled to write about it, but it was really all I could think of. With more than 1,000 homes lost and over 10,000 people in our community evacuated, the separation of families, and lost pets……. It was a kind of Armageddon that veteran firefighters called one of the most devastating California has ever seen.

What stood out to me as the most amazing thing though, was the undeniable compassion of humanity. Strangers helping one another in ways that you never see on the evening news. Stories that I heard and scenes that I witnessed, after such a catastrophic event, were not only uplifting, but inspirational. It gave me renewed faith in people.

So armed with stories, I set out to write a book of hope. A romance, I thought, of two people who were impacted very differently by this unspeakable atrocity. A man named Gabriel Hart, and a woman named Sarah McKinney, who’s lives would intertwine in the happenstance of their meeting after the fire.

But then I had an idea. The people that Gabe meets, (in the book), all have their stories of the fire. Their stories are of what happened to them during the fire, during their displacement for weeks, and their stories of how they are still trying to move forward and heal. These are real stories of real people!

My mission was to pay a tribute to the people of my community, with giving them a story with a happy ending. A story of love, camaraderie, and hope, is the best way I know to shed light in the darkness of such tragedy.

It was my hope, and great honor, to share anyone’s story in this book either as a character in it, or anonymously portrayed. There was, and still is, much healing that needs to happen. I know from other life experiences with great loss, sometimes just being heard and telling your story can be therapeutic. I hope I was able to help in some way by saying, you are not alone. I pray each person who experienced loss from this inferno, and any subsequent fires since then, has found not only a new beginning, but most importantly, peace.

Lake County is a special community and if I have anything to say about it, we will be on the map now, not because of the fires we’ve had around here, but because of the wonderful people who pulled together to rise out of the ashes and persevere. We are stronger together.