What would you do and who could you be if you weren’t terrified of being shamed? That’s the question that Marren Halleck must answer in my debut novel, Somewhere Above It All. 

Let’s face it. Shame is everywhere. It’s in our everyday lives, lurking behind the scenes, waiting to chain up our hearts and shackle our souls and render us incapable of escaping the troubled places in our lives. It dangles the keys to our personal prison cells and speaks the language of bullies, telling us that we will never, ever be free to achieve our potential. That we must do what shame says. And we must play by shame’s rules. 

Shame will convince us that we must be prisoners for the rest of our lives. 

Friends, it’s time to stand up to shame. To be brave. To run over to shame and tackle it to the ground and grab those keys and escape our prisons. To stop listening to the lies and decide that we will play by our rules. To tell ourselves that we can be free.


In Somewhere Above It All, my protagonist Marren is imprisoned by the shame of her husband’s secret opioid addiction and the grief that follows from it. But she refuses to remain a prisoner. Instead, she stands up to her shame and finds the courage to travel to Africa and climb Mt. Kilimanjaro. And along the way, she breaks free from her chains and discovers her own strength. 

So I ask you this. Is shame holding you back from living your best life? Is it keeping you from allowing people to see what you’re really capable of doing? Is there a figurative “mountain” standing between you and your potential? If so, how are you going to climb it?  

Like Marren, you can stand up to shame and break free from your chains. You can take bold steps toward tomorrow. You can push yourself to do things you’re scared to do and go to places you’re scared to go. You can take the beautiful gifts that God has given you and transform the world into a better place. 

Start today, friends. Stand up to shame and climb the mountains in front of you to find the beauty on the other side. I hope that you’ll find inspiration from Marren and her journey in Somewhere Above It All.