What Book Release Week Looks Like for an Author

The Way of the King releases tomorrow!!! *claps* *dances around*

If I described the themes of the novel in a nutshell, it would look like this:

is the King worth losing everything for,
and what does it mean to keep the loyalty?

In my own life, the question has crept in like that side character you don't notice but who changes the entire course of the story:

will I be a disciple of Jesus?

This book release week has been one of the craziest and most blessed weeks ever where that question was closely personal. Read on to discover what release week looked like for this girl, + may it encourage you to be a disciple of Jesus deeper.

When this author anticipates release week, there's a few ideas that come to mind.

giveaways • signups for people to share on release day • social media posts • last minute things that drive me crazy ;) • lots of prayer • and then the bittersweet emotions of releasing a book that's been intimately mine for so long but now is vulnerable for the entire world to explore

But this week has been so different.

I felt God calling me to hand away the busyness and step out in faith.

So no signups. No giveaways. Instead, this week was an adventure.

Through a series of events, I found myself facing an adventure that terrified me and was too hard, but I said "yes" anyway and left the results to Him.

It ended up with me being in a hotel in a big city alone during the days with a half-week of strangers, traffic, and so many buildings... and I didn't know what God would do.

(hard for this planner, no-surprises, introvert, county girl)   ;)

And God did incredible things.

He supplied all I needed for my book release in moments of sweet quiet. With cool air pulsing the shimmery curtains and wall hangings that sweetly matched the book covers, I finalized the novel, snapped pictures, and curled on the couch with Jesus to write out snippets of the heart behind the story.

But book release week challenged me to be a disciple of Jesus myself.

I got to meet my hotel cleaning lady who spoke only Spanish and do my best to love her with my limited language. When we left, God prompted me to write her a Google-translated thank you note and shared how Jesus changes lives, and she gave me hugs.

God answered a dream (I seriously always wanted to do this!) to go to a restaurant alone and sit with a lady I’d never met, enjoy a meal and conversation together, and give her a Gospel tract.

He gave me an opportunity to share how following Jesus has transformed my life with a beautiful Muslim girl from UAE.

There was a woman in the mall who got to share her testimony with me. My sister who was on a work trip had multiple Gospel opportunities, and we gave out Gospel tracts, and there was so much more God did!

And then there were days farmsitting for a friend where I explored with my siblings, made memories, dropped in on friends randomly, and even though I couldn't wait for home, He made it fruitfully beautiful (hence, the pictures for this post).

I look back on those days and can declare, I was on mission for Jesus, and He was glorified in that.

Not that I wasn't scared or had all the right words. And thinking of doing that again is scary too. He simply was strong in the midst of my weaknesses.

I just followed Jesus. It turned out beautiful.

I share all this to say, you can be a disciple.

If you're home away with littles. If you're in the thick of the mission with missiles whizzing past your head.

He asks us to follow Him.

I'm just an ordinary girl with the Holy Spirit inside me, which changes everything. And if you have that relationship with our God on His throne in the heavens, you can be a disciple too.

Not that I was strong or capable (I was terrified).

We can be disciples today.

There's a theme verse of The Way of the King that graces the pages before the story begins:

And (Jesus) said to him, “Follow Me.”

Matthew 9:9

During book release week, this is what it looked like for me.

And my characters--Kadira, Rekém, and Othniel--have to decide if they'll follow their King.

The novel releases tomorrow (!), and you can preorder Kindle to read it right at midnight! *wink* 

...so that through patient endurance and through the exhortation of the Scriptures, we may have hope. Now may the God who enables you to endure and who exhorts and strengthens you...

Romans 15:4-5

 

~♥~

How God being our Father Changes Everything

 

Recently, in preparation for The Way of the King's release, I went back and explored the prequel, and in the last pages, I found a hidden gem that's strangely exactly the same as one in the new book.

I thought to take it out. To edit it. To make sure the heart of the story wasn't repetitive.

But I couldn't.

Because the phrase is a singular key that brings

so

much

hope.

It's one of my favorite parts about this two-part series.

It reveals the Father-ness of our God in the Heavens. And that simple fact changes everything.

In this new book, the enemy is on the rise, and the entire Kingdom is falling prey to his schemes. Life for the faithful is desperate. They have two options: flee to the furthest reaches of the Kingdom to possibly hide out the war until it eventually would find them and squeeze out all life... or face it head on and watch their children and families be slaughtered one by one.

The treacherous Prince mocks, talking of the King,

"You've allowed this Kingdom to suffer for hundreds of years, let your children die, and you watched, uncaring. Your people hate you."

Sometimes I feel this ache in the world today.

Jesus feels so far away. The world gets dark, our bodies hurt with the pain of sin and death, we see people we love die, there's tears and fear and horrible things.

My heart cries out,

Jesus, when will You return?

I miss You.

Because I do.

The pain was in the first book too, when Kadira stood up to her adopted father, brokenness on every side.

I raised my stiff jaw toward Father's face. "You already did. You left me that day in the desert. You turned around and left without saying goodbye." My voice rose to a shrill cry. "Why is this any different?"

His answer makes this heart break:

Tears lingered in his eyes. "My child," he said, "that was the hardest thing I ever did."

That was the hardest thing I ever did.

Oh, soul that's hurting and broken! Oh heart that's sliced by knives this evil world slashed! You have a Father, and He hurts for you!

Sometimes the waiting is so hard.

Sometimes the pain hurts, and we want to give up.

Sometimes the battle looks lost, and the lies surrounding us scream so loud we can't hear anything else.

Why does He wait? Why doesn't He do something?

But as I read Hosea, I see the picture of a loving Father who is yearning passionately for His children and hurts right along with their pain. It's a Father who must allow punishment for wicked deeds, but I wonder if it's harder for the children or for Him?

"When Israel was a child, I loved him,
And out of Egypt I called my son...

So they went from them;
They sacrificed to the Baals...

I taught Ephraim to walk,
Taking them by their arms...

I drew them with gentle cords,
With bands of love,
And I was to them as those who take the yoke from their neck.
I stooped and fed them...

How can I give you up, Ephraim?
How can I hand you over, Israel?

... My heart churns within Me;
My sympathy is stirred.

Hosea 11

This is a heartfelt message from God to His people, Israel. After He delivered them incredibly from Egypt, they were unfaithful, and here He painfully recounts His love to his straying children and the hardness of punishing them when He truly wants to gather them up like a hen gathers her chicks under her wings (Luke 13:34).

He was their Father. He hated the pain. And one day, He will rescue His children.

And whatever you're facing today, you have a God to call Father.

Yes, there's trials. But joy - He even allows those trials to produce perseverance, character, and hope, and the lovely thing is that HOPE isn't in some far-off dream but in a concrete reality He promises that WILL come to pass.

Jesus will come back.

He will restore this broken world to something beautiful and Eden-like.

He will give us resurrection bodies of glory.

No more pain.

Tears.

Loneliness.

Fear.

Sin.

Death.

All that will be removed with this earth's curse because God will win and defeat the enemy once and for all.

But right now, He painfully waits, knowing we hurt. And He bids us believe.

That's what The Way of the King is about. It's about keeping the loyalty in the darkest of days. It's about holding onto Hope. It's about the King being worthy.

((the book releases in SIX DAYS! Preorder here!))

And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope. Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

Romans 5:3-5

~♥~

 

Meet the Character on the Book Cover

 

The Way of the King releases in 11 DAYS, and today I get to introduce you to the character on the cover--a man who's a warrior who doesn't know he can fight, a musician who lost his music, and a once-boy who forgot he has permission to dream and that laying his life down for the King's dreams can change the course of the Kingdom.

Meet Othniel.

As I reread The Torch Keepers after so many years, I got to be introduced again to little Othniel.

In a barren desert with arid heat and blasts from sandstorms, a little city rises up, and in the very center is what Oth's heart loves best: the dancehall.

Marbled floors and ceilings with skylights adorn the hall, and tapestries of woven colors tell stories of the Kingdom. But he always finds himself running with eager legs to the elevated dais where instruments wait. Even with child fingers, the upcoming protégé tunes woodwinds, polishes their glossy sides, and makes the laude-chorda fill the room with music that stirs hearts. In hours, the city will rejoice in the new year celebration with feasting and dancing, and Oth gets to make music as they worship the King.

The celebration never happens.

Enemies besiege the city. Death ensues. 

And as The Torch Keepers ends, we never hear from Othniel again. This story seems lost.

But it's only the beginning.

As The Way of the King opens more than a decade later, you get to meet the man on the cover.

Oth's broken--a one-armed man with a broken past who gave up music forever and rejected the King.

After years of pain and suffering, he banded together with wanderers who established their own fortress deep in the western mountains, carving out an intricate network of cave tunnels to be their place of safety.

He's a leader. He's strong. He has an army beneath him but gets to enjoy life with fellow citizens as they build an owlery in the caves and celebrate their freedom.

But his half-arm reminds him of the past. Any hint of music makes his body freeze in fear, and he becomes a runner, pacing through a western world edged with smoking volcanoes, because he lost his purpose for the King who seemingly took so much from him.

That's the man you get to meet in The Way of the King.

"His stories are beautiful, even if they're hard." (Kadira) laughed, then looked at me, quiet. "Would you tell me your story, Oth?" ...

I pulled away... "Not all stories," I whispered. "They're not all beautiful."

The memories. Fire. Explosion. Someone screaming, thrusting away, and burning pain in my arm. Darkness.

Kadira grabbed my hand, and her eyes were fiery. "Oth," she said, "only without the King they're not. But he can change that."

Writing Oth's part of the story was a lovely part of the book-writing process... but it was hard.

I sat with fingers itching to write, to be faithful in this calling God gave me... but I didn't know his story.

The book follows three characters, and Kadira's was easy. Her tale has been growing and begging to be written for years. But Oth and Rekem's came slowly, from hours of pressing forward and leaning into God.

In Oth's, I got to experience cave life, weave loose ends of The Torch Keepers from his past (it makes reading the first book even more fun!!), and write about someone with an amputation and how much value and purpose his life had, how the King could bring so much good out of what he'd lost, and that even with part of his body missing, Oth was completely loved and utterly desired for the King's grand purposes. He was a warrior.

Sometimes writing looked like me stumbling to remember which arm was his full arm (left or right?) and being shocked at the amazingness and ingenuity of people who live with that every day.

And I believe more than ever:

every person is called to be a warrior for our King.

every person is beckoned to surrender themselves to a purpose He has that's grander than what they could ever envision.

And He gives us everything we need.

Our decision:

will we trust?

I rejoice because God promises a Day when He will return and bring restoration to broken bodies... from food allergies to sicknesses and even restoring missing limbs and opening the eyes of the blind!

And today, we're called to keep the loyalty. He is worth it, and the battle will be won.

Othniel had to decide for himself if the King was worth it, and his story is a heart-felt one of suffering, humility, and heroism (and it's amazing, and you should totally read it XD).

The Way of the King will be released August 1, but preorder on Kindle just opened! Click here!

Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened,
And the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.
Then the lame shall leap like a deer,
And the tongue of the dumb sing.
For waters shall burst forth in the wilderness,
And streams in the desert.

Isaiah 35:5-6

~♥~

Ready for a Brand-new Book Cover?

 

Once upon a time, I woke up with God pouring out story ideas, and I couldn't argue that I was too busy working on another book, because it was so clear that this was Him.

A year and a half later, the first book was published, but it was only the start. Because there was a continuation, a satisfying, beautifully urgent, and war-cry ending that was yet to be written.

Every step of the way was a fight to be loyal to Jesus:

There was editing that was overwhelming and beyond me.

There were days I had no creativity but sat down to write as an act of worship anyway.

There were moments of formatting that seemed endless and minute as I cried out to God.

But I type here to declare that God is faithful. This story is beautifully beyond me, and I'm humbled that He chose me for His work and said, "this story is for her, and I will give her all she needs to complete it."

((And I cannot wait for you to read it, eep!!!))

So today, I'm celebrating by sharing the never-before-seen cover of The Way of the King: a fantasy, allegory novel (AND a giveaway)!

Are you ready?!?!?!?!?

The Way of the King

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(coming August 1, 2023)

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designed by the lovely Megan McCullough...

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 presents

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about the book

As the Kingdom of Érkeos collapses in revolution, three unlikely heroes must keep the loyalty through the darkest of days.

Three months after The Torch Keepers ends, Kadira, a warrior-defector from the Prince’s Liberation army, flees into the mountains as a big sister to a family of orphans. Her eyes mark her as a Torch Keeper for the King, an enemy to the Prince.

Behind her, Rekém rises to power over the city that was once the children’s home. As the Prince’s brother, he is forced to become a leader yet is drawn to humble hunting trips where he remembers dreams he once had. In mountain forests, Rekém discovers dangerous secrets he can’t escape from.

And deep in the throngs of cave tunnels, a musician missing half his arm builds his own fortress, not knowing that two armies close in. When the sides collide, the heroes must decide if the one they follow is truly worthy of every sacrifice. It seems the future of Érkeos is in the hands of a King who's never been seen.

And to celebrate...

a giveaway!

• a beautiful, ceramic mug (that just matches the books *giggles*)
  
  
• organic hibiscus berry tea
  
  
• + coconut water & mimosa flower bath bombs (that smell so good that I use them as air fresheners!)

Enter by dropping a comment below! Share what you're most excited for about this book or send to a friend!

God is so good and faithful and worthy of following, and He fills life with celebrations to praise Him in! So let's do it. ;)

Now to the One who is able to keep you from faltering beyond recovery and to bring you before His glorious presence without blemish and with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus the Messiah our Lord, be glory, majesty, supremacy, and authority, before all ages and now and forever into all the ages. Amen.

Jude 1:24-25 

~♥~