Dear Reader,

Stars in the Grass began as a short story for a creative writing class at the University of Michigan over twenty-five years ago. It was told by a preacher’s daughter in her church pew looking to her father in the pulpit below. Though I wrote Seeing from the Balcony before I met my husband and we had two daughters, losing a child was my greatest fear. I think I subconsciously hoped if I worried about the subject on paper, I could somehow keep it from happening.

Because I loved Abby’s voice and wanted her to share more about her family and friends, I knew it could be a book. As my life experiences, friendships and family expanded, so did the story. There is a lot of me in Abby, maybe you, too. Who hasn’t experienced loss, guilt, or estrangement, and in grief and anger asked difficult questions? In reading, may you, like Abby find hope in your own story.

Ann Marie Stewart