Writing with My Dad & Publishing His Book, Hope for a Lifetime

    As some of you know, over the past 2 years, I have been working with my dad to write his book. I joke that we still had full-time jobs and family lives to take care of during that time, so sometimes we weren’t able to make progress as quickly as we’d hoped. Often when I was working on revisions for the book, I would need to block out several hours of a day to be able to get in the groove of writing, focus my mind on making each paragraph sound better, and crank out the work. I was often babysitting my two grandsons in the evenings and on the weekends, so it was difficult for me to find those blocks of time for writing. (However, we had a few months break when the book was with the editor on two separate rounds of editing.)

    Over the past few weeks, it has felt really good to finally be able to hold his book in my hand and to have copies of his book available for others to read! Now that we have the book in print, I can look back over the last 2 years and feel proud that…

• Dad and I worked hard to enhance each chapter over and over again. We were patient to ask several trusted people to read individual chapters and to seek their feedback on 4 specific questions that I have used for years as my revision process. After we received feedback, we would carefully consider the feedback and take time to see how we could improve the chapter. We were committed to making each chapter great—or as my dad said two years ago: “We want to make each chapter a slam dunk.” :)

• Over a year after starting the writing process—and after we had submitted our manuscript to the editor and received her developmental editing notes on that draft—Dad and I were sitting together one night working on the book for several hours. I finally told Dad that I thought we were missing a chapter. We needed to write another chapter to talk about the aftermath of my brother David’s death and the impact of his tragic death not only on my family, but also on the Hope Center. It felt unnatural to take the reader from the chapter in which Dad talks about David’s death (Chapter 10: “From the Mountaintop to the Valley of Despair”) straight into another chapter that talks about something else with the Hope Center. I finally realized we needed another chapter to fill in that gap of how we had to continue working through the pain of our loss and choose to not give up on the ministry. Even though Dad was not eager to try to write a whole new chapter after he had just worked on the manuscript for over a year, he considered my idea and then agreed. We talked for a few minutes about what he could include in that chapter, I wrote down some notes for him, and then sent him off to work on it. Within a week, Dad gave me the first draft of what is now Chapter 11, “Upside Down.” I loved how he used the upside-down tree as a theme to talk about how our lives felt upside down after David died. We worked to revise that chapter for another month or so, and I’m really happy with how it turned out! 

• I’m also really proud of the last chapter—Chapter 14, “Running with Hope.” Originally, this last chapter was going to be really short, just one page of Dad’s final thoughts and encouragement. But in the final stretch of revising the book, I told Dad that I didn’t feel that the ending was right yet. I told him, “You are such a positive person who is always wanting to motivate people and be hopeful. We want the last chapter to embody that.” Chapters 10, 11, and 12 are heavy chapters that share about Dad’s faith through loss and discouragement. Even though Chapter 13 is more upbeat and visionary, I still wanted Chapter 14 to be significant enough to end the book on a joyful, inspirational note. I remembered that at my high school senior class’s baccalaureate service when I was 18 years old, Dad spoke on how he had set 100 goals for his life when he was young. I asked Dad if he would want to write about that. His eyes lit up at that possibility, and then he set off to write the first draft of that chapter. I love the motivation he gives readers in that chapter and the vision he casts for his future and the Hope Center’s future. I feel like that chapter now is “so him” and leaves the reader feeling inspired to do important things with his/her life. I couldn’t be happier with Chapter 14!     

We are so thankful that Dad’s book Hope for a Lifetime is now released and available for purchase in the Hope Center’s Redefined Boutique. You can also purchase from the boutique online at https://bit.ly/3FRsfw6. The book is also available on Amazon and Kindle at https://amzn.to/3FruxRb. All profits from the book go to support Hope Center Indy, which is a ministry that provides residential care for women overcoming sex trafficking, sexual exploitation, and addictions. (While we are grateful for all the book orders through Amazon, the Hope Center profits more from the books we sell directly.)

I’d like to write another blog post soon about the process of writing about my brother in my dad’s book, so that might be coming soon. (I shared a little of how we got started on this writing project in my previous post.)
Sincerely,
Mary