Walk Worthy Press: Sweet Bye Bye

Author Testimony

" Thanks first to God who is the head of my life, for saving me, for helping me, for loving me. Without Him, I could do nothing. Next, thanks to my Pastor, Bishop Ernestine Cleveland Reems-Dickerson, at the Center of Hope Church in Oakland California, for always leading by example and for loving and encouraging us.

Sweet Bye-Bye is a love story and it's a story of faith found. It's about a very materialistic and superficial woman who learns to bring her faith up to a level where she trust that God will provide for her.

How did I come to write this book? My personal story is this, I was a sales executive in the advertising industry. I was driven to succeed. I made my quotas every month. Getting my next commission check was never too far from my mind. I was ruled by money and though I achieved some level of success, I was always stressed out. I wrote this book because I found Christ and I wanted to spread the news of his love.

I'd always known that I was going to be a writer. At seven years old, God showed me that writing was what I was to do. I remember the day that I'd been reading a Judy Blume Children's novel knowing, with every thing within me that, "this is what I am to do."

Of course, as I got older, I dismissed the call. I talked myself out of it. "What was I thinking? I couldn't be a writer. You need to have perfect grammar and a large vocabulary to write books and I don't have either one. Plus that's way too many words to be trying to think of, and it would take way too long!" I thought, "there has to be easier way for me to make a living than that."

But God knows what He is doing, and when He says something, that is what He means. Growing up, I'd always loved to read, and I wound up the editor of my middle school newspaper. And I didn't notice it at the time, but in high school, the only A's I got were in English.

In college, I wrote articles for the college paper, and it never dawned on me that God had a plan for me. The articles I wrote always seemed to be "make your life better" type of stories with titles like "Trash that Fear of Math". Once, one of my instructors, who was actually a news reporter and an author, approached me and said, "You have a gift, and I know that you want to be a writer and I will help you to become one."

I thought about my student loans. I needed a real job. I could just envision myself (and my son) after college, holding up a sign outside in the cold that read, "Help a starving artist... Poems for sale $1." I told him thanks but no thanks.

I look back now and laugh because I see that God had his hand in my life even when I didn't have a clue as to what I was doing.

So I'd have to say that Sweet Bye-Bye book is about faith and how to get it. Its a work of fiction but I believe it shows just how good and loving God is. Some may read the novel and wonder why all of the happy endings, but its because I believe that God wants good things for us. I believe that giving His people good health, or a mate, or a job, or whatever isn't too much to ask. Those types of things aren't anything extraordinary for God.

I grew up in the church, but I didn't always remember to trust God. And sometimes, I still forget and have to be reminded. But I'm so glad He is there for us and He loves us.

In my early teenage years I got away from God. In fact, in college, after taking several anthropology classes, I was feeling pretty big on "myself" and all that "I" was accomplishing. In 1998, I was debating with a friend from school about God, when he invited me to visit his church at the Center of Hope. For me, the Center of Hope is just that. It's a believing and praying church, and it didn't take long after that for me to make a decision to serve the Lord there.

I'd been writing in my journal for years but it wasn't long after I gave myself to God that the story of Chantell Meyers started pouring out of my heart. That feeling of knowing what I was supposed to be doing was back. And it wouldn't go away! It was so overwhelming that there was nothing that I could do except sit down and obey the Lord.

It took about a year to write Sweet Bye-Bye then entitled Never Judge A Book. When it was, what I thought of as completed, I started to thinking about how to get an agent. Because the story was contemporary fiction, yet there was this huge spiritual aspect to it, I wasn't sure where a book like this would fit in. Plus, with all of the attitude that Chantell Meyers had, I wasn't sure if it was a religious book. I wasn't even sure how I felt about that.

After much prayer, and asking God what I was supposed to do next. I felt maybe I was supposed to get the book to a woman named Denise Stinson. I'd seen Denise's name in the acknowledgement sections of many other writer's books. I also knew that she worked with people like TD Jakes, and it felt like she would know what to do with it.

I went to the library, and I looked in all of the writing books for her contact information but there was nothing available. I didn't know Denise Stinson at all, but I was trying to obey God.

I'd read in an article somewhere that there would be an agent at the Maui Writers Conference who had worked with Denise Stinson previously. So, I made the arrangements to attend the conference to find that agent. I went to Maui and had a wonderful time meeting other writers and agents. And I did get an opportunity to meet with the agent who I hoped would help me make the connection with Denise.

The agent, however didn't show much interest in my work, and maybe didn't really understand what I was trying to do. To me it seemed obvious that I was not going to be able to reach Denise Stinson. I figured that I may as well try to get myself another agent and just move on.

Then one day, while at home perusing some writer's help websites, I came across a tiny website that gave an address that was supposedly Denise Stinson's. Now mind you, I'd thought I'd already done my homework and I could not find a listing for Denise Stinson. Plus, I went all the way to Maui to network with someone to try to connect with her and that didn't pan out.

So I laughed and thought, "Yea right! It's not that easy. I don't believe this is her address."

But because I didn't have anything to lose, and at that point I was doing mass mailings anyways, I sent an excerpt and a query letter to the address!

A week later, Denise Stinson called me at home. She said that she really liked my writing and that she wanted to publish the book!

That is God! And I'm so very thankful.

I hope you enjoy reading Sweet Bye-Bye."

Keep Him close,

Denise Michelle Harris

Buy Now @ Amazon