A photo backstage at the Grand Ole Opry in 1956. I’d give anything to have a time machine right now.

Some music trivia for you.

Country music saw a surge of popularity during… The Great Depression. And then, again, another surge of popularity during World War II.

So what we can take from that information is that country music can be about hard times, but it’s also for hard times. It’s a balm for hard times.

When we have feelings we need to feel, music is one of the ways we can tap into our own experience and maybe find a way to understand it better, and share it. Have you ever connected to a song where the artist seemed to know exactly how you felt?

And then there are the songs we connect to even when they have nothing to do with our own lives. The singer makes us care about characters who aren’t real and situations we’ll never experience. We hope.

Books are like that, too, right? Stories take us places we wouldn’t necessarily want to go, ourselves. Stories can wrap us in comfort when we need it most, when the world outside is much much too big and confusing.

I wrote Wreck Your Heart in part because I needed to be comforted. I had been through the pandemic with all the rest of the world, and then I was diagnosed with breast cancer. This year, I’m gearing up for the five-year mark with that—god I hate this word—journey. Part of my healing has been spending time on a book I loved writing, spending time with a character who made me laugh.

I made Dahlia Devine for my own comfort, and for yours. I can’t wait for you to meet her.

And I hope 2026 has some comforts ahead for you.