We’ve all heard the phrase ‘A picture is worth a thousand words’, and as with most well-worn sayings, it has become a cliché because it bears some truth.

But what if ‘worth a thousand words’ referred to more than someone’s smile or expression? What if it referred to a life-changing season on one’s journey?

Imagine that you had an opportunity to peek behind the proverbial lens and peer into the minds of people (or characters) who are on the cusp of adulthood, learning firsthand that what often appears picture perfect is merely a mirage, and that winsome smiles and exuberant displays can mask doubt, fear, and truth.

Indigo Burns, the main character in my new novel, discovers this when Worth A Thousand Words opens, soon after her college graduation. She’s a talented photographer who has gathered with friends and family to celebrate her promising future.

Trouble is, Indigo isn’t so sure she wants to embrace part of what’s being offered, no matter how right it seems to others. Then she confronts a personal issue she can’t control.

The questions Indigo begins to ask throughout the pages of this novel are ones most of us ponder when we’re thrown off course: Why is this happening? Am I strong enough for this? What if I make the wrong choice?

I’ve written a novel that poses these queries because while neither I, nor many of you readers, are 22 and just beginning your adult lives, we’ve all been there, or we know a young soul entering this stage with a touch of fear or too much self-confidence. What would happen if the person we mature into years down the road could bring the wisdom gained over time about loving ourselves, others, and even God, to that tender age of adulthood? Would we make different choices, knowing what we know now? Would we trust ourselves, and our faith, more?

Through Indigo, we’re given a chance to possibly get it right. Through the characters who love her, we can champion efforts to help her live in and learn from truth, rather than resent it.

Indigo doesn’t morph into an extraordinary sage by the end of the book, but as you glimpse her heart and learn the shocking truths of some of the people closest to her, I hope you learn to appreciate her – for the aspects of yourself you see in her, and for her courage to wrestle with issues that many of us would sidestep.

For Indigo, deciding which paths to take yields her biggest tests and opportunities for her greatest triumphs. Even when her circumstances are the most ambiguous, she learns that honesty is priceless.

It is only when she sheds her mask and presses into what’s real, that she begins to pursue a life not just of her dreams, but one also filled with significance.