At the heart of Stay and Fight is the perfectly imperfect chosen family of Helen, Karen, Lily, and Perley. Immersing readers in multiple points of view, Ffitch brings each character to vivid life. Stay and Fight is a story about resiliency in the face of obstacles that would break most people. It's about forging one's own path in a community where that sort of thing is uncommon. And it's also about fierce, blazing love. Love for each other, love for the land, love for the possibilities that hard work can bring.

Reading this book, it's obvious that Ffitch drew from her own experience as a homesteader while writing Stay and Fight. She portrays homesteading in an honest way: simultaneously incredibly difficult and deeply fulfilling. I truly appreciate Ffitch's insight and her ability to poke fun at some of the impulses that lead folks like Helen and myself to think that we want to build a homestead from scratch. It won't be easy at all -- but that's part of the appeal.