About the Book

Book: Love’s True Calling

Author: Lori DeJong

Genre: Contemporary Christian Romance

Release Date: June 27, 2023

After years of jumping through other people’s hoops to be all they thought she should be, and enduring a tragedy no mother should, self-described “newbie” Christian, Harper Townsend, has finally found her true calling … and her true love. Until it appears that to follow one may mean leaving the other behind.

Adolescent Psychologist, Wyatt McCowan, is beyond delighted to have the-girl-that-got-away back in his life, and his heart. But even as they fall more in love, he realizes that being obedient to God’s calling on each of their lives may pull them apart. She rejected him once in favor of another, which left him hurt and angry. But this time, he can’t fault her for following hard after the God she loves with all her heart, even if it means leaving him once again.Click here to get your copy!

About the Author

Lori enjoys writing stories full of grace and the redemptive power of God’s love that inspire hope, joy, laughter, and perhaps even touch a soul or two to get to know Him better. She resides in Georgetown, Texas, with her husband and two fur-babies and is the mother of one grown daughter. Love’s True Calling is the 2022 winner of the ACFW Genesis Award for Romance.

More from Lori

I’ve had a dream for a very long time. In fact, I had this dream long before I was even doing anything to achieve it! Turns out I’ve wanted to be a published author since the 1990’s. And I didn’t even start writing, join writers’ groups, or attend conferences to learn the craft until 2002. Something inside me apparently knew more than I did when I put on my 1996 long-term goals list: To be a published author.

Fast forward to 2023 and my debut novel is being published. I’m not great at math, but even I know that’s A LOT of years that have gone by since I first identified that long-term goal. So the take-away from that should be, if you set a goal, no matter what it is, make a plan. Immediately. Not years later. Seriously. Don’t be me.

So, I chugged away at this writing goal for a few years, until my husband was laid off when the economy tanked in 2009 and our lives turned upside down. I didn’t write again until 2020, when we found ourselves empty-nesters and I started listening once again to those voices in my head begging me to write their stories.

Which brings me to how my first published novel was born. Would you believe it was homework? True story! When I came back to writing in 2020, I needed to re-hone my skills. So I took an online class that required us to plot an entire manuscript based on our characters’ motivations. What do they want out of life and why do they want it?

That’s how I came up with Wyatt, the high school geek now an accomplished and handsome college professor and adolescent psychologist, and Harper, the high school Miss Everything who’d weathered plenty of storms in her life before going back to school a decade after graduation to finally get her degree. What happens when Wyatt sees the girl who broke his teenage heart sitting in his class?

I plotted out this story as homework, never intending to write it. But I fell in love with these two and they were clamoring for me to tell their story. Two years later, that story won the ACFW Genesis award and is now being published by Scrivenings Press. Best takeaway from that? Never. Ever. Give. Up.

Who knew that a class assignment could bring about the realization of a twenty-some-odd-year-old goal? Make a dream come true? God did. And I’m so glad I listened to Him as I put this story to paper.

I hope you’ll read and enjoy Love’s True Calling, a story of love rediscovered, the joy of finding purpose, and the blessing of obedience.

Interview with Lori

Can you share with us something about the book that isn’t in the blurb?

Wyatt, my male protagonist, endured a tragedy in high school that not only led him to his chosen vocation as an adolescent psychologist, but to also start a student ministry to help kids find their way through the often turbulent high school years, especially if they feel they’re on the outside looking in. Kids like he had been in high school, who were considered the kids with no social value.

Does one of the main characters hold a special place in your heart? If so, why?

I love them both so much, but I think it would have to be Harper, who as a girl tried so hard to fill up the space parental apathy had created inside her with popularity and putting her value in her status. After suffering a devasting loss in her early twenties, she finally found her way to the Lord and fell head over heels in love with Him after experiencing His grace and redemption. I love how she adores the kids in the ministry, even though her high school experience was much different than what most of them are going through.

What was the highlight of writing this book?

The scenes that took me by surprise even as I was writing them. I don’t plot every chapter and scene, only the main plot points and then write scenes between each of those. And sometimes, something will happen I had no idea was coming. There’s a scene in the book where Harper shares something with Wyatt I had no idea she’d experienced, and it changed so much about her character and how I wrote her after that, knowing what she’d gone through. I cried through that scene while I was writing it, it touched me so deeply. I hope the reader experiences the same thing and that they come away from it with the hope and peace that Harper did.

Where can readers find out more about you and your books?

They can visit my website at loridejongwrites.com and sign up for my monthly newsletter. I don’t send a lengthy one, just usually a quick share about something going on in my life or something I’ve learned, sometimes a book recommendation, and always a giveaway. They can also look me up on Instagram (loridejongwrites), Facebook (Lori DeJong Author page), Amazon, Goodreads, and BookBub.

Any current or upcoming projects you’d like to tell us about?

I’ve just finished the first draft of Love’s True Home, Book Two in the series. It features two characters from Book One and I’ve had so much fun telling the story of how Ally and Zane find their way to each other, and to a feeling of home neither of them expected.

Blog Stops

Gina Holder, Author and Blogger, August 9 (Author Interview)

Debbie’s Dusty Deliberations, August 9

Happily Managing a Household of Boys, August 10

Texas Book-aholic, August 11

Artistic Nobody, August 12 (Author Interview)

Because I said so — and other adventures in Parenting, August 13

Guild Master, August 14 (Author Interview)

Locks, Hooks and Books, August 15

A Reader’s Brain, August 16 (Author Interview)

The Book Club Network, August 17

Truth and Grace Homeschool Academy, August 18

Back Porch Reads, August 19 (Author Interview)

Pause for Tales, August 19

For the Love of Literature, August 20 (Author Interview)

Cover Lover Book Review, August 21

A Modern Day Fairy Tale, August 22 (Author Interview)

Giveaway

To celebrate her tour, Lori is giving away the grand prize package of a $50 Amazon gift card and copy of the book!!

Be sure to comment on the blog stops for nine extra entries into the giveaway! Click the link below to enter.

https://promosimple.com/ps/272f8/love-s-true-calling-celebration-tour-giveaway