I am thrilled to announce that my new novel, Autumn in Wolf Valley, will be released on June 3rd. It is currently available for pre-order both on Kindle and in paperback.
Pre-Order Today:
The book tells the story of Howard Lynch. In the fall of 2002, Howard is still grieving the loss of his wife, acclaimed novelist Amber McNamara, a year earlier. His only companion? An adopted dog named Coby—a four-legged reminder of a life he could have had.
Then, the river starts rising.
With a relentless storm stalled over the region, Howard is faced with a devastating choice: Leave Coby, or stay and brave the rising water. His decision plunges them into a desperate struggle for survival, forcing him to confront not only the storm outside but the buried secrets of the past.
Weaving between the flood and the intricate love story that leads up to Amber’s tragic passing, the novel paints an intimate portrait of a complicated man whose life was marked by obstacles from his earliest years.
Ultimately, Autumn in Wolf Valley is a story about the things we lose, the unexpected gifts we find, and the enduring power of forgiveness. It’s a reminder that even in the darkest depths, hope can rise. And sometimes, the greatest love stories are the ones we never see coming.
This book has been a long time coming. I first had the idea that would evolve into Autumn in Wolf Valley well over a decade ago when I was a student at the University of Michigan. The key word here is evolve, because the seed that I planted back then grew into so much more than I ever would have expected.
It took years to sprout. In that time, I published three other books — my first novel, Between Two Slopes (2013); a pair of novellas, Somewhere More Than Free (2015); and a short story collection, In a Northern Town (2017). If you didn’t notice, my writing projects continued to shrink in size. Life was getting in the way, though I really cannot complain too much: marriage, jobs, house, freelance work, two kids.
Still, the idea that was developing into Autumn in Wolf Valley continued running through my mind. Eventually, around 2019, I could no longer ignore it. I thought back to my days as a university student hearing Colson Whitehead say that one must be crazy to attempt the grueling process of writing a novel. Fortunately, I had been through this before. If you can cross that threshold once, you can cross it again.
By the summer of 2024, I had finally finished the manuscript. And after eight months of constant revising and editing, I am excited that it is finally ready to share with the world.
Thank you for supporting my work. I hope you find as much fulfillment reading Autumn in Wolf Valley as I found writing it.
ED A. MURRAY 