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.

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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.

Author Interview

What drew you to your chosen genre?

The happily ever after. It’s as simple as that. I don’t enjoy books that end sad or with no resolution. I guess I see too many sad things in real life that I love to escape in a book. And who doesn’t love love? Haha! It’s fun to read AND to write characters who are falling in love, even if there are ups and down along the way. Which there always are. And that’s the challenge in being a romance writer. The reader pretty much knows how it’s going to end, to some degree, anyway. That the characters will more than likely end up together. The writer has to make the story engaging enough for the reader to want to stay with it to the end. 

Are you a planner or a pantser?

I’m a plantser. I’ve tried plotting out an entire novel, scene by scene, but every time I did that, the story didn’t want to follow the plot once I started writing. I usually get a story concept in mind, then concentrate on character development until I feel I have them pretty well fleshed out. Next, I plot out the major turning points of the book (plotter), then write scenes from one plot point to the other (pantser). So I’m a little of both – a plantser.

What was the most challenging part of bringing this story to life?

 I think showing Wyatt as a strong man of faith, committed to God and his ministry, who also struggled with his holding his tongue at times as well as unforgiveness he wasn’t even aware he was still holding on to. He has a deep wound he thought had healed long before that he has to deal with in order to do the work God has set before him.

What do you hope readers will take away from the book?

That God’s love prevails. His plans are so much greater than ours and we simply need to trust Him. I say simply. That doesn’t mean it’s easy. It’s a simple concept—to trust. But it takes discipline and a lot of prayer and communion with God. God’s love can redeem anything. Can take the worst circumstance or situation and make it new and valuable for His glory and our good. I hope, at the most, a reader will find the redemptive love of Christ in this book, and at the least, just enjoy a nice story of a young couple following hard after God, even when it’s hard.

Where can readers follow along to see what’s coming next?

Love’s True Calling is Book One of a three-book series. Book Two, Love’s True Home, releases in June 2024, and Book Three, Love’s True Measure, releases in June 2025. Readers can follow my journey through the series by joining my community at  https://bit.ly/LoriDeJongCommunity. They can also follow me on social media, Amazon, Goodreads and BookBub at https://linktr.ee/loridejongwrites. I love hearing from readers!