Hey everyone! I recently read, and loved, Christina Schwarz’s breathtaking new novel, The Edge of the Earth, which just came out from Atria Books. It’s a story that begins in 1897, when two newlyweds are assigned to a lighthouse on the coast of Northern California, far from civilization. The novel brims with secrets and rich, memorable detail (an an ending that you will love!). Christina Schwarz writes with such beautiful detail, you will be able to smell the sea! I highly recommend.

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Isn’t the cover gorgeous?! Plume did a fantastic job with this one. It truly captures the feel of my beloved houseboat community in Seattle (the fictional and real one!).

What is this story about, you ask? It’s entirely inspired by the time I spent renting a houseboat on Seattle’s Lake Union (remember, my husband encouraged me to rent a houseboat as my “office” for 4 months? Well, this is the book that grew out of that!) Here’s a quick description of the story:

New York Times bestselling author Sarah Jio imagines life on Boat Street, a floating community on Seattle’s Lake Union—home to people of artistic spirit who for decades protect the dark secret of one startling night in 1959.

Since her debut, Sarah Jio has enchanted readers with her signature brand of romantic suspense. Her previous novel, Blackberry Winter, was an immediate New York Times bestseller—perfectly positioning Morning Glory to reach even greater heights.

Fleeing an East Coast life marred by tragedy, Ada Santorini takes up residence on houseboat number seven on Boat Street. She discovers a trunk left behind by Penny Wentworth, a young newlywed who lived on the boat half a century earlier. Ada longs to know her predecessor’s fate, but little suspects that Penny’s mysterious past and her own clouded future are destined to converge.

Also, I’ve very excited to share that Kirkus recently reviewed the novel, and it was a rave! They called the book a “treat for Jio fans” (which I loved!). And, I loved how my publisher gave the novel three pages in their fall catalog, with a special cover page that says, “drumroll, please…”! (So fun!)

You can now pre-order the novel here and here. I hope you’ll hop over and reserve your copy.

I cannot wait for you to read this story!

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Last night (yes, on Easter!), I went on my very first hot air balloon ride! It was amazing, exhilarating, and so incredibly peaceful and cathartic for me on many personal levels. I’m writing an essay about this momentous balloon ride in the July issue of O, The Oprah Magazine, so be sure to pick up the issue on newsstands to read about the significance of this journey for me.

For now, I thought I’d share some photos from the evening. I can’t tell you how amazing it was. A big thanks to the Airial Balloon Company, especially Shannan, for being so lovely! (If you live in the Seattle-area, you should check them out!)

The evening started out at the office, where the balloon pilots assessed the wind speed. Balloon flights can be a little fickle. That is, you can schedule something, and then it might be canceled due to poor wind conditions (this is what happened to me—I was supposed to go up the night before, but it was too windy).

Fortunately, the wind was very calm on Sunday night, and we were able to embark on our journey. I was assigned a balloon basket with three other passengers. Our pilot was Tom, a wonderful former helicopter-pilot-turned-balloon-enthusiast who says the day he rode in his first hot air balloon in the 1980′s something “snapped” in his brain and he decided that’s what he wanted to do with his life (he also edited an entire magazine on hot air ballooning—so cool).

So we drove out to the launch site (a big green grassy field). My husband and our three boys tagged along to watch (which they thought was pretty awesome, including seeing a cow skeleton in the field somewhere. That was a big moment for three city boys!). The boys ran around the field like wild men.

As the pilots and crew members set up the balloons, we all watched with anticipation (and nerves!).

There were two balloons going up that night. They were both so beautiful! They set them out on the grass and then fire them up with hot air. It’s an amazing process to watch it go from a heap of fabric on the ground to a gorgeous round balloon. I also loved looking at the baskets, and commented to the pilot that I’d love to find an old one on eBay to convert into a cool couch or something!

I’m smiling here, but really I’m sort of … freaking out. I’m afraid of heights, for one. And then I kept thinking about all these silly things: What if my camera falls? What if I faint? What if I … fall out of the basket?

Watching the first balloon take off was good, because I saw how it glided into the air with no trouble at all. I thought, yes, I can do this!

Our balloon was up next. It just needed some final inflating.

And then it was time to climb in! At first I was calm…

And then, not so much…

And then, lift off! (I had to cover my head because the heat from the burners was pretty intense! Note to self: Next time, wear a hat!) I snapped this photo of my guys watching me from the ground as I lifted up in the balloon. Note, the older boys are mildly OK with this, but the baby is crying frantically. My two thoughts as I depart are: “Am I going to fall out of this basket?” and “eeks, am I totally traumatizing my baby right now?”

Here’s a shot my husband took of our balloon sailing up into the air—so gorgeous!

The views below were amazing! I kept thinking about how different the world looks from the perspective of a bird. It’s beyond gorgeous.

We traveled about 5 miles total, and got up to about 1,700 feet. The wind was calm and the air was perfectly warm. I loved seeing the shadow of our balloon on the hillside as the sun was getting ready to set.

At various points in the flight, the pilot would let the balloon dip down. And, at one point, we even grazed a few of the treetops which was kind of thrilling (you could reach out and touch them—I loved that!). And then, we got really close to the river, and my heart started to race. I thought, “is the pilot going to land this thing in the river??!” He didn’t. But he got us close enough that I could see the pebbles in the stream.

One of the highlights of the trip was being able to see the other balloon float along with us.

We saw two bald eagles, lots of curious cows looking up at us, and ended up landing in a plowed corn field, part of an organic vegetable farm. The “chaser” vans came to pick us up there.

I loved traveling along with Donna (below) and her co-workers who treated her to a balloon ride for her retirement present from Seattle Children’s Hospital. At 76 years old, she was so brave to go up (I think I was more nervous!).

I was very jittery about the landing, but it ended up being as smooth as silk. We touched ground with hardly even a bump, but then as the balloon settled, it was a little rocky (nobody fell, but I totally clutched the basket for dear life!). It definitely made stepping out on land all the sweeter. We made it!

I will never forget my evening in the hot air balloon. It was surreal, and I kept feeling like I was a character in “The Wizard of Oz”—ha! I hope you get a chance to go someday. If you do, here’s my advice:

*Work with a company with a perfect safety record, like The Airial Balloon Company.

*Bring a jacket. They say it’s warm up there, and it is, but if you get chilled like I do, then you’ll want a sweater or a light jacket just in case.

*Make sure your camera has a strap. It’s amazing how many people accidentally drop their cameras in the fields below. Plus, you don’t want to worry about the camera the whole time. You just want to take a picture and then set it aside and not worry about losing it.

*Wear comfy clothes (duh).

*Bring a snack in case you get jittery up there, and a water bottle.

*Have a friend on the ground to video and take photos of your adventure.

*Be flexible. Because of wind conditions that are constantly changing, you may have to try two or three different days before finally getting up. Don’t give up! It’s so worth it.

Be sure to read my article in the July issue of O! I hope you enjoy it!

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I love March, because there is always so much VIOLET love. Thanks to all the lovely book clubs who have read or are reading THE VIOLETS OF MARCH this month!

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I’m a huge fan of classic movies (and the very dreamy Cary Grant!) so it’s shocking that I haven’t seen “Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House.” My mom told me about it today after I was feeling a little overwhelmed with all the details of the design of our new house (which is truly coming along well, but building a house is not for the faint of heart … and we haven’t even started construction yet!). Here’s another look at the early layouts:

Have you seen this movie? I hear it’s hilarious! And, it not only was the precursor to the movie, “The Money Pit,” but it also was an internationally bestselling novel first (written in the 1940s by Eric Hodgins). So cool, huh?

Maybe I need to write a funny novel about house-building when this house is finally built?

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My husband and I are in the process of building a home in Seattle. I’ll be sharing more about the design and build process here. It’s truly a dream come true to be able to do this. I’ve been thinking about designing and building a home of my own for years—actually, since I was 12 years old and helping my parents build our family home. It’s in my blood, I guess.

I’ll keep you posted on the planning process in posts here. For now, I hope you enjoy having a peek at the first pictures of the house plans—and a really cool 3-D model that our architect made for us. Cool huh? I know it doesn’t really show detail, but when I look at it, it already feels like home! I cannot wait to move in!

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This is the view outside of my Seattle home. I love that there’s a big (and rare!) palm tree to look at on wintry days.

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My family and I recently survived the stomach flu (well, we are surviving—still not 100 percent out of the woods yet). Whatever this bug is that has been circulating the country, it is not pretty. I have never in my life seen anything like it and will spare you all the gory details.

Needless to say, we’ve been in stomach-flu-combat mode this week, and it’s been really tough. Sadly, we ended up in the emergency room on Wednesday, when my baby (the 2 year old—he’ll always be my “baby”) took a turn for the worse. But, we’re getting through, and he’s getting better—slowly. I wanted to share the things that really helped us this week, in case they can help you, too.

1. Yogi Echinacea Immune Support Tea: All I have to say is, get this tea, pronto! While I’m sure it’s perfect safe for kids to drink (but don’t quote me on that), I have been drinking the stuff by the gallon-load these days and I think it’s the reason I didn’t get sick. OK, so maybe it’s the placebo effect, but really, I swear by echinacea tea now for immune-strengthening. (P.S. I also love elderberry syrup—look for it in the natural foods section of your grocery store—for an immune boost.)

2. A good mini carpet cleaner: Three boys and one husband with the stomach flu. I needed this. A lot. You will too.

3. Bananas: Have you heard of the B.R.A.T. diet for sick stomachs? Bananas, rice, applesauce, toast. We did a lot of bananas for the 4 year old (it’s all he wanted to eat).

4. Disposable mats: Before this flu, I had never heard of a product like this. But, the doctor sent us home with a pack of them (or something like them—not same brand) in the ER on Wednesday, and they saved me so much work. I put them around Colby (the baby) on the couch and also in the boys beds just in case. And there were lots of those “cases” so I was glad to easily peel away a disposable pad instead of change sheets at 1 a.m., 3 a.m. and 4:26 a.m. (I know, they’re not very green, but I do my part for the earth daily. I figured I could take a hall pass this week.)

5. Extra Protective Cream. That’s what this stuff is called. Extra Protective Cream. I think you can get it at drug stores, but we received it in the ER when my baby’s bottom was bleeding from so much from such frequent diarrhea (there, I said it in a post: diarrhea). No other diaper cream could soothe his skin better. I will forever be grateful for this cream.

6. Electrolyte beverages: Though we did a ton of Pedialyte, I have a bone to pick with the stuff: it tastes gross and is loaded with artificial ingredients. Yuck! My kids like Knudson’s (organic) Recharge beverage much better.

7. Rice! More B.R.A.T. diet love. This is not the time for brown rice, quinoa, any of that. Just keep it bland and simple. To jazz things up a tiny bit, I roasted an acorn squash and mashed it in with some soy sauce and rice for the baby one day (he loved it!), and it was so good, I made some for moi.

Stay healthy, ya’ll.

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I just pulled these beauties out of the oven. They’re black bottom cupcakes, and my boys adore them, as does their mama. Seriously, I just sunk my teeth into one. It was warm and gooey, straight from the oven, and I think it was this close to being the best thing I’ve ever ate. Recipe here.

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