"The Soul Seekers" is Amy K. Bond’s first published work.

The book took the Baker City author more than three years to complete.

"I began to develop the characters after my first son was born, and only after my second son was born did I begin to put it all together," she said.

Her boys being so little made it impossible to work on the book whenever she wanted, so she diligently devoted about two hours a day to writing when they were both down for their naps.

A book signing took place at Sunflower Books, 1114 Washington Ave. on Friday.

At first, Bond said she was really afraid even to begin to write the book, for fear that she wouldn’t ever finish it. But before she knew it she had three 300-page notebooks filled with notes, timelines, character analysis and research.

The book centers around two main characters: Nevada Leigh Rain, a homeless and misunderstood 23-year-old, and Capt. Elliott Townsend Jr., a slightly older and compassionate shelter worker, interning under his father’s pastoral guide for the Salvation Army church in downtown Seattle. There is a love story that develops between them that becomes confusing and heartbreaking when the couple is forced to chose between their relationship and their separate callings. The plot then thickens as unexpected situations involving what those callings entail whisks the captain into the Middle East and into a smuggling operation. Nevada fights the demons of her past at home, looking for love in all the wrong places.

There are several themes. But the point that Bond wanted to get across was that no matter who you are or what you have accomplished in your life, you will always search for a purpose to your existence, a reason why you were put on this earth.

"Every character that appears within the book is seeking," Bond said, "although not all of them know why or what for exactly; even the bad guys are seekers. I wanted to glorify God in this work, so many of the answers that I provide the characters with revolve around the existence of one God and having trust in and finding freedom in submission to God."

Not all of Bond’s characters, though, figure out the answers to the tough questions. The book is 200 pages long, the first in a three-part series that Bond is working on. It’s categorized as religious fiction-romance.