In April of 2020, my father passed. We had a difficult relationship, and he hadn’t spoken to me in years. I started counseling knowing that I was not equipped to handle the grief on my own, it was honestly one of the most helpful things I’ve ever done.  At the same time, I was going through a Life Coach certification program and one of my life coaches gave an assignment to write ‘A day in the life’, sort of a practice in manifesting your dream life. Before starting this assignment, I spoke with my counselor who suggested I use it as a creative outlet to also process my grief.

 I did the assignment and felt amazing as I was writing. It flowed out of me and was so helpful to put all my hopes and dreams and pair them with my very real and raw emotions in a sort of fictional world. As I finished my ‘day in the life’ I knew I needed to write more, I couldn’t just finish in one day. Being a creative my whole life and struggling with performance, nothing I ever created/produced ever felt good enough so I threw in the trash or hid it away from the world. Now, here I am extremely proud to share with you what I feel is a great short story. I processed grief with the Lord and laid down my dreams and desires in the pages of this story while creating fun adventures and mishaps along the way.

After I finished writing ‘Tis so Suite, I knew I wanted to get it published. I opened my email and there in my inbox sat an email from my local church inviting me to attend a writing workshop hosted by a big Christian publisher. I signed up immediately and grab my notebook ready to devour all the information I needed to get my book in the right hands. Honestly, I learned so much that day I could probably fill another book but there were two extremely revelatory things that I heard that day. First, Christian Fiction was explained as ‘Solutions through entertainment’. This hit so deeply, living in a world of self-help books of spiritual and personal revelations (that are all good!) can make a fiction writer seem less than. But when I heard those words my heart exploded with joy, I can’t help people AND entertain them! Hallelujah!

Secondly, he gave a few names of Christian publishers and how to submit your manuscript (that’s what we in the writing world call a book I learnt). I went home and did just that, I then got a phone call from the publisher and in a nutshell was told I could expect an answer in 30 days. Next, I went into realist mode, J.K.Rowling got rejected 12 times before Harry Potter got published, Gone with the wind was rejected 38 times, and so on and so forth I prepared myself for the inevitable rejection. Almost 30 days later, while browsing in a Halloween costume with my teenage daughter my phone rings, and as I’m preparing myself to hear a resounding “no” while surrounded by creepy murder clowns I answer. “Hello Kathy, we’ve decided to move forward with your manuscript.” …crickets “I’m sorry, can you repeat that?” I ask. “We’ve decided to publish your book, congratulations!”.

Here we are now, 6 months later. I have a freshly printed copy of MY book in my hands. The cover was designed by someone on my publisher’s design team, The Inn, the lady with red hair, and the little white fluffy dog – all of it just makes me chuckle with delight. It’s surreal that it’s here and I have loved every step of this journey and now, my favorite part is sharing my book with you! It is book 1 of a 3 part series so stay tuned. I hope you enjoy my book and tell all your friends. Next step: NY times Best Seller!

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