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

 

~♥~