Jennifer Dukes Lee Joins Agency
February 2012. An award-winning journalist, Jennifer Dukes Lee used to cover crime, politics, and natural disasters. Now she uses her reporting skills to chase after the redemptive story of Christ. Jennifer, a former news reporter for several Midwestern metropolitan daily newspapers, serves as an adjunct journalism professor at Dordt College in Iowa. She serves as a Contributing Editor for TheHighCalling.org.
Her husband, Scott, raises crops in northwest Iowa, and together they are raising two girls on the Lee family’s century farm. Jennifer blogs at Getting Down With Jesus.
Number 4 on the New York Times Bestseller List
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February 2012. One Thousand Gifts, 13 months after it's release is number four on the New York Times bestseller list for February, 19, 2012. It has appeared on the NYT bestseller list 27 times.
One Thousand Gifts if published by Zondervan.
Zombies Beware
January. 2012. Men need to feel alive! With the onslaught of responsibilities, it is easy to forget to experience all that life has to offer. TO KILL A ZOMBIE shows how one man was reborn by jumping in feet first.
Most zombies aren't aware that they are zombies. David Pierce heard it first from his wife Chonda: ''You just seem dead,'' she told him. ''Checked out, lifeless . . . a zombie.'' David took this as a challenge. He had to kill the zombie and come back to life--he had to connect with people and his faith in ways he never had before.
TO KILL A ZOMBIE is a collection of stories where one man is intentional about connecting with his fellow human beings. David actively lives the commandments to love God and others. He goes to a star-gazing party at a local university, volunteers for Habitat for Humanity, engages in a conversation with a Los Angeles gang member, goes SCUBA diving with his ''fist full of men,'' and climbs a mountain with all new friends--all for the sake of feeling alive.
David W. Pierce was born in Nashville, Tennessee and has lived in Tennessee his whole life. He has a master's degree in English from Middle Tennessee State University, where he has also been an adjunct English professor since 1998. He has also taught at Western Kentucky University and Taylor University in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where he taught a course in mystery writing. He currently teaches at MTSU and Motlow State Community College in middle Tennessee.
Shaun Groves Joins Agency
JANUARY, 2012. Shaun Groves is a communicator who’s known by a lot of titles: Singer/songwriter. Speaker. Blogger. Husband. Daddy. Friend. He feels and thinks deeply and laughs easily. And he’s helping Christians discover what they were saved for, and being a voice for children around the world, desperate to be saved from poverty.
It's an honor to represent Shaun, to partner with him in the Gospel and with his message of compassion for the poor. For more information about Shaun, his ministry, and his blog, go to http://shaungroves.com/.
Felicia Middlebrooks Joins Agency
January, 2012. The William K Jensen Literary Agency is thrilled to welcome Felicia Middlebrooks. 34-year veteran journalist Felicia has co-anchored the award winning morning drive program for CBS Radio/WBBM Newsradio 780 since 1984, making her the first woman in America to have survived the highly competitive, male dominated timeslot for a record 26 consecutive years at a network owned station. Her personal and professional accomplishments are remarkable and can be found by clicking on this link. http://chicago.cbslocal.com/personality/felicia-middlebrooks/
One Year Later
January, 2012. One Thousand Gifts released on January 17, 2011. In its first year One Thousand Gifts made the New York Times bestseller list 23 times, spent 231 days on Amazon's Top 100 list, and won Christianity Today's 2012 Award of Merit. At the time of this posting it's #9 on the New York Times bestseller list. One Thousand Gifts is being translated into Chinese, Korean, Romanian, Spanish, French, Dutch, Lithuanian, Indonesian, and other languages. As Ann would say, "It's all grace."
It's not about the sales but the lives impacted through the life changing message of gratitude and glory to God that thrills our hearts.
One Thousand Gifts is published by Zondervan.
Publisher Weekly Reviews "Interrupted" by Rachel Coker.
January, 2012. From Publisher's Weekly
Coker makes an impressive debut—she’s only 15—in this Depression and WWII-era tale of Alcyone Everly, who is 14 when her mother dies of brain cancer. Allie is adopted by a woman in Maine, Beatrice Lovell, and vigorously resists her adoptive mother’s kindnesses, clinging bitterly to the memory of her mother. The past re-enters her life in the form of Sam Carroll, an old friend from her childhood home whose aunt lives next door to Beatrice and Allie. Sam has always been sweet on Allie, and his reappearance stirs many unwanted and confusing emotions in her. World events seize the day as the U.S. gets caught up in WWII, altering everyone’s lives. Coker writes an emotionally compelling and psychologically nuanced tale. The plot has some weak spots: Allie manages to overhear not one but two crucial incidents that give her unexpected information, and some of her character development late in the story is abrupt. But the historical context is an engaging narrative frame. Coker is one to watch.
Rachel's book releases February 14th and is published by Zondervan.
Glyniss Whitwer Signs Book Number Two
January, 2012. Glynnis Whitwer is on staff with Proverbs 31 Ministries as the Senior Editor of the P31 Woman magazine. She is one of the writers of Encouragement for Today, the Proverbs 31 e-mail devotions, with over 500,000 daily readers. Her newest book, I Used to be So Organized, released in August, 2011 with consistently brisk sales thrilling her publisher. Glynnis, her husband Tod, and their five children live in Glendale, Arizona. Visit www.GlynnisWhitwer.com or www.HerOrganizedLife.com to learn more.
Nancy Kennedy Signs Third Book in the "Miracles and Moments of Grace" series.
January 2012. Nancy Kennedy is a long-time writer and editor. For many years,she was a financial writer for magazines and newspapers, including the online Wall Street Journal and the New York Times, and for companies in the financial services industry, including Merrill Lynch. Before that, she edited the Wall Street Journal for a Dow Jones financial data service.
In the last two years Nancy has contracted four books.
Sophie Hudson Signs with Tyndale House Publishers
January, 2012. Oh, Bless Our Hearts Y’all (working title) is written in the same style as Sophie's blog, BooMama. It’s a cheerful, funny, tender take on life with her very Southern family and friends. The stories share common threads of faith, food, and friendship – three of women’s favorite topics. Plus, women love to read stories about other people’s “people,” especially when those stories serve as reminders of God’s faithfulness.
The BooMama blog receives over 110,000 unique hits per month. This is Sophie's first book.
Zondervan Publishers Contracts Mike Ashcraft & Rachel Olsen
January, 2012. Mike Ashcraft and Rachel Olsen signed a contract with Zondervan Publishers for their book My One Word. Ashcraft has been teaching the principles of My One Word since 1997. The following description was taken from the My One Word website.
"Welcome to the My One Word journey. Since 2007, this project has helped thousands of individuals move beyond broken promises of the past towards a brighter hope of who God created them to be. The challenge is simple: lose the long list of resolutions you want to make this year and instead pick ONE WORD. This process provides clarity by taking all of your big plans for life change and narrowing them down into a single thing."
You can visit the website by clicking on the link My One Word.
Trusting God--A Girlfriends in God Devotional Book
December 20, 2011. Trusting God by the "Girlfriends in God" Sharon Jaynes, Gwen Smith, and Mary Southerland released this week to great reviews and brisk sales. Georgia Shaffer, author of Taking Out Your Emotiona Trash said the following. “Trusting God in this world of uncertainty and economic upheaval isn’t easy. We all need to learn, relearn, or be reminded daily of the truth that God can be trusted for each day’s problems. True to their real and relatable style, this wonderful Girlfriends in God devotional is just what you need to encourage your heart and refresh your spirit.”
Trusting God is published by Multnomah, Colorado Springs, Colorado.
How We Did It by Nancy Kennedy
DECEMBER, 2011. In How We Did It, Nancy B. Kennedy tells the stories of those who have succeeded at their goal of weight loss, whether that means 20 pounds or 200 pounds. These stories will inspire, inform and encourage readers to find the weight loss plan that will work for them. Weight loss plans are too often presented as one-size-fits-all propositions. How We Did It compares the wide gamut of weight loss programs--South Beach, the Zone, Atkins, Thin Within, First Place, Weight Watchers and many more--and shows how weight loss seekers have succeeded using popular plans or by creating their own recipe for success. This book is a resource for both inspiration and information. With chapters that cover everything from childhood obesity to bariatric surgery, the book will help millions of adults who are struggling with their weight. In inspiring profiles, readers meet others just like them who may have tried and failed to lose weight, but who finally found a way to success that suited their lifestyle, personality, spirituality and internal values.
How We Did It is published by Leafwood.
"Interrupted" by Rachel Coker
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Zondervan Creates App for One Thousand Gifts
NOVEMBER 23, 2011. How do you find everyday, amazing grace in the midst of deadlines, debt, drama, and daily duties?
New York Times bestselling author Ann Voskamp offers this practical, radical answer: By giving thanks for the life you already have, to find the life you’ve always wanted.
This exclusive new mobile app will help you do just that. Capture your gifts. Count your blessings. Share your joy as it happens. On your way to your own one thousand gifts.
To get app click here.
"Live Abundantly" by Lenya Heitzig. An ECPA Gold Medallion Winner
NOVEMBER, 2011. In Live Abundantly, Bible teachers Lenya Heitzig and Penny Pierce Rose challenge you to dig deep into the book of Ephesians to find the spiritual treasure God has for you. Covering topics such as living in God’s will and receiving peace no matter the circumstances, the book of Ephesians reveals the magnitude of every Christian’s inheritance, a gift “exceedingly abundantly above” what you could ever ask for.
Live Abundantly Is published by David C. Cook
Fawn Weaver Joins Agency
OCTOBER 27, 2011. Fawn Weaver is the president of a real estate corporation, co-owner of ValleyRentals.com and a former hotel general manager. She’s also created and directs the Happy Wives Club website which has a growing and international membership. As you have probably assumed, she’s a wife, a happy one at that. She is committed to helping marriages through the solid Biblical principles of love, respect, and grace. Her father is a pastor (and former Motown producer/songwriter) and her mother is a bestselling author. Fawn is working on a book titled, Four Weeks to an Argue Free Marriage.
Sophie Hudson, aka Boo Mama, Joins Agency
OCTOBER 12, 2011. Sophie Hudson, of the wildly popular Boo Mama blog, has joined the agency. Her blog heading says, "Read by Tens of People Every Single Day" which is funny and not exactly accurate. Besides writing her blog Sophie teaches high school English, is a wife and mother, and should soon add author to her list of titles. I am thilled to work with her.
A Return to Sunday Dinner
OCTOBER 11, 2011. Thomas Nelson Publishers and Russell Conkhite have contracted to bring back to print an updated version of the cookbook, A Return to Sunday Dinner. As VP of Editorial at Multnomah I acquired and managed the entire process of this cookbook which became one of the most creatively satisfying book projects of my career, I am thrilled in helping it come back into print.
Russell Cronkhite is an accomplished chef, pastry chef, and baker. He began his culinary career more than thirty-five years ago working and training among some of the best establishments throughout California.
In 1988, he was chosen from a distinguished field of noted American chefs to head the kitchens of Blair House, the President’s guest house. Through his remarkable twelve-year “tour of duty” as Blair House executive chef, Cronkhite served Presidents Reagan, Bush and Clinton and five Secretaries of States. Nearly every major world leader of this generation visited Blair House, including Nelson Mandela, Mother Theresa, Boris Yeltsin, Benazir Bhutto, Yitzhak Rabin, King Hussein of Jordan, Vaclav Havel, the emperor and empress of Japan, Lech Walesa, Margaret Thatcher, François Mitterrand, Hosni Mubarak, Jiang Zemin, Queen Elizabeth II, and Prince Philip. Cronkhite has cooked for all of them.
In writing his 2004 best-selling cookbook, A Return to Sunday Dinner, Cronkhite recreated his wonderful memories of childhood Sunday gatherings. “As a child we would spend Sundays with my grandparents, often joined by cousins, aunts and uncles. Birthdays and holidays become much anticipated and long-remembered special events. The food my grandmother cooked was simple and plentiful, yet the memories of her table remain clear and strong to this day. I wrote A Return to Sunday Dinner so that new generations of children can experience the long lasting memories of Sunday get-togethers.”
Forsaking All Others
OCTOBER 3, 2011. Tyndale House is now shipping Forsaking All Others by Allison Pittman. This is the second book in "The Sister Wife Series." Her first book in the series, For Time and Eternity was a 2011 Christy Award finalist.
DESCRIPTION: Camilla Fox is alive. The last thing she remembers is being lost in the snow after leaving her home to escape the Mormon faith she no longer calls her own. She’s been taken in by the 5th Infantry Regiment of the US Army and given over to the personal care of Captain Charles Brandon. As she regains her strength, memories of her two children she had to leave behind come flooding back, threatening to break her heart. Camilla is determined to reunite with her daughters. But when news of her father’s grave illness reaches her, she knows she must return to the family farm to reconcile with her father. As spring arrives, Camilla returns to Salt Lake City a changed woman, but nothing could prepare her for the changes to the city, to the Mormon church, and to the family she left behind.
20 Weeks on the New York Times Bestseller list.
OCTOBER 2, 2011. One Thousand Gifts is once again on the New York Times bestseller list. This makes 20 weeks since its release in mid January of this year. It has received 328 five star reviews on Amazon.
Your Inner Zombie
Jeff Kinley's brilliant new book, The Christian Zombie Killers Handbook: Slaying the Undead Within, just released from Thomas Nelson Publishers.
Endorsements
Jeff Kinley has found a way to communicate God’s grace to a new audience. The Christian Zombie Killers Handbook is culturally relevant, deeply perceptive and really inspires us to discover the truth for ourselves.
In this volume, you will find a gripping, face-paced zombie survival story as good as any you’ll read in a mainstream horror novel or see in the latest Romero film. But, you’ll also find a parallel commentary providing a startlingly honest insight and unique perspective on our struggle with sin.
- Sean T Page, author of War against the Walking Dead & The Official Zombie Handbook.
Melanie Shankle happily accepts Tyndale Publishers book contract for "Sparkly Green Earrings."
SEPTEMBER 25, 2011. Melanie Shankle received eight offers for her book Sparkly Green Earrings: A Quirky Kind of Memoir about Family, God, and the Pursuit of Now. After much deliberation, thought, and prayer she accepted a contract from Tyndale House Publishers. Her book is scheduled to come out in March 2013. You can visit her blog at http://thebigmamablog.com/.
One Thousand Gifts #7 on the New York Times Bestseller List
SEPTEMBER 21, 2011. One Thousand Gifts has been on the New York Times Bestseller list 19 weeks since its release in mid January. This weeks it's positioned at #7. A rare accomplishment for a book released over nine months ago.
I Used to be So Organized
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AUGUST 1, 2011. Glynnis Whitwer's book, I Used to be So Organized is released by Leafwood Publishers.
I Used to Be So Organized addresses the frustrations many women feel when they can't get a handle on their lives. They know, deep in their hearts, they should be able to manage things. After all, they used to be organized . . . ten or twenty years ago. But now, life seems to hand them one distraction and challenge after another, and ''helpful technology'' that just seem to add to the problem. Just when they think they have ''caught up,'' something else changes, and there s more to be done.
In this book, Glynnis Whitwer addresses the issue of organization based in this new reality of information overload, overwhelming choices, increased expectations and technology advances that won t slow down. This book contains twenty-three chapters, each short enough for a busy woman to read during a lunch break. Every aspect of life comes together in this one easy-to-read guide.
Back to press! I Used to be So Organized is back to press just two months after its release.
Mark Hitchcock and Harvest House
Mark Hitchcock contracted with Harvest House for his next book, 101 Questions and Answers to the Book of Revelation. Mark has over 700,000 books in print.
July 2011
Ann Voskamp's One Thousand Gifts Calendar, One Thousand Gifts Gratitude Journal, and One Thousand Gifts Family Gratitide Journal was released by Dayspring's Blessings Unlimited line.
Ann Voskamp's One Thousand Gifts is contracted with Korean, Romanian, Chinese, and Dutch publishers.
Russell Cronkhite received an offer from Thomas Nelson for his cookbook, A Return to Sunday Dinner.
David Pierce signed with Leafwood Publishers for his memoir, To Kill a Zombie.
June 2011
Mark Hitchcock contracted his next book, Middle East Burning, with Harvest House Publishers.
Sharon Jaynes contracted with Multnomah Publishers for her book, A Sudden Glory.
Nancy Kennedy signed with Leafwook Publishers for her book, How We Did It!
May 2011
Mark Hitchcock signed with Harvest House Publishers for a work of fiction to be co-authored by Alton Gansky.
Allison Pittman's book, For Time and Eternity is nominated as a Christy Award finalist in Historical Fiction.
Bobby Conway contracts with Multnomah Publishers for the eBook, Hell, Rob Bell, and What Happens When People Die.
April 2011
Debbie Williams' book, A Plan A Mom in a Plan B World was released by Leafwood Publishers.
One Thousand Gifts has now been on the New York Times Bestseller list for eight weeks.
Melanie Shankle has joined the William K Jensen Agency family. Her blog, "Big Mama" has over 120,000 unique hits a month. On a personal note, my daughter Sarah has been readIing her every day for years.
Ann Voskamp's book One Thousand Gifts is once again on the New York Times bestseller list.
Bobby Conway "The One Minute Apoligist" and pastor signed with the agency. He was already been offered a contract by Multnomah Publishers. Check out his website and youtube sites by Googling "One Minute Apoligist.
One Thousand Gifts was #6 on the New York Times bestseller list for the sixth week.
March 2011
Ann Voskamp has two gratitude journals in production with Dayspring as companion books to One Thousand Gifts. Zondervan will be producing a video curriculum for One Thousand Gifts, along with a gift book. Their marketing team is developing a gratitude application for hand held devices. We are humbly bent low and thankful to God for his "all's grace" blessings.
Mark Hitchcock will be write his next book for Harvest House titled, Middle East Burning. A timely book indeed.
Sharon Jaynes whose books have sold over 400,000 copies has joined the William K Jensen Literary Agency. It's a delight and honor to represent and work with Sharon.
Marshele Waddell received an offer from Revell Books for When War Comes Home. Congratulations Marshele!
Ann Voskamp's book, One Thousand Gifts has been on the New York Times' Bestseller List for four weeks.
Allison Pittman's Lillies in Moonlight was released by Multnomah Publishers.
Nancy Kennedy's book, Miracles and Moments of Grace was released by Leafwood Press.
