Linda M. Lockwood
Sky Ranch:
A Memoir
In 1954 eight-year-old Linda Lockwood moves with her family to a lonely ranch in eastern Washington State; by ten, she performs the duties of an adult ranch hand entirely on her own. But it’s her mother’s schizophrenia and eventual suicide that shape her most profoundly—leaving her with questions about the illness’s cause and heritability, and ultimately driving her to seek answers at the mental institution that treated her mother.
Below: Our now-rusting wheat combine—I rode high in the wooden hopper to level the grain in late 1950s.
Above: Our home after 2 bedrooms were added in 1957.
About the Book
Release Date: September 10, 2024
Distributed by Simon & Schuster
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At the age of eight, Linda Lockwood moves with her family to an isolated ranch in eastern Washington State. From the age of ten, she patrols the ranch alone on horseback with her border collie companion—herding the sheep, killing rattlesnakes, defending the livestock from predatory coyotes, bears, and trespassing hunters, and living her dream of training horses. But her most daunting challenge lies inside the four walls of her family’s home: she also must help take care of her mother, whose mental illness is growing worse. Linda’s deepest fear is that she might become like her schizophrenic mother.
At age twenty-five, Linda is married and wants to start her own family. The joy of her first pregnancy is overshadowed by her mother’s suicide in 1972. In the following year, she grieves two additional losses—a painful miscarriage and the death of her grandmother—a traumatic journey during which she recalls the births and deaths of the ranch animals she cared for. Her success in childbirth proves that she is not like her mother, but questions remain about the cause and heritability of her mother’s disorder. Four decades later she searches for answers about her mother’s—and her own—past, and finally makes peace with the hand she was dealt.
Awards & Recognition
Readers' Favorite Awards
Winner
2025 Silver Medal in Non-Fiction - Memoir
Feathered Quill Book Awards
Finalist
Animal-Adult Category
Chanticleer International Book Awards
First Place
Cover Design Award Non-Fiction
Finalist
Hearten Award for Uplifting and Inspiring Nonfiction
Short-Listed
Journey Award for Overcoming Adversity Narrative Non-Fiction
Eric Hoffer Book Awards
Winner
Best Memoir of 2025
Winner
First Horizon Award for Debut Authors
Bookfest Awards
First Place
Nonfiction / Health & Wellness / Mental Health
First Place
Nonfiction / Memoirs – Personal
Reviews
“A big-hearted memoir on the way a parent’s mental health can shape a child’s life.”
“As much a love letter to her family ranch as a tribute to her mother’s arduous and painful journey, this stunning memoir will transfix.”
"Libraries seeking memoirs about family mental illness thus will find Sky Ranch... serves up portions of life experience and connections to nature and wellness that will also do well as powerful discussion points for book clubs."
"Celebrate fall’s literary blockbuster season with a memoir by a Seattle author."
"Moving homage to ranch life and the impacts of mental illness on family."
Midwest Book Review
“Sky Ranch brings the rancher’s world to life—complete with a love of the outdoors... Vivid, all-encompassing, passionate and thought-provoking, Sky Ranch deserves a place in general-interest libraries, highly recommended for any individual or group interested in considering the impact of mental illness on the family.”
Reader's Favorite 5-Stars
“Author Linda M. Lockwood holds nothing back in crafting this profound and emotional read... Sky Ranch is a deeply inspirational work that fans of well-penned, immersive memoirs will no doubt enjoy from cover to cover.”
"Sky Ranch navigates the rich emotional spectrum of joys and hardships of farm life while confronting the tragic consequences of schizophrenia."
“The author’s childhood takes place in a world where she is in danger from rattlesnakes, bucking horses, and bears, while her young life is also shaped by her mother’s chronic mental illness. Only later, when she researches her mother’s history, can she come to understand her whole story, as large as that high country itself. Very well written, and a page-turner.”
“Sky Ranch is a deeply moving modern western memoir. The starkly beautiful Okanogan Highlands serve as the place where a young ranch girl comes of age, learning to navigate life’s challenges, including bucking horses, deadly rattlesnakes, and the tragic mental illness of her mother. Highly recommended!”