Three Roads Home (15 Weeks of Giveways #4)

I’m continuing to go through my novels and share a few thoughts and notes about them on this blog. This week, I’m talking about Three Roads Home. (To enter a contest for a free copy, go to my Facebook page.)


Publication Date:
May, 2003

Where the idea came from:

After writing The Promise Remains and The Watermark, I began work on a third short novel that would cap what I called The Letters Trilogy. The novel was called Somebody.

One Line Synopsis:

Three novellas that deal with love and loss in relation to marriage.

Journey to publication:

I pitched Tyndale House Publishers the third book in my trilogy of love stories centered around letters. Their response was very common in publishing: let’s wait and see how the first two books do. Those books did well, but they didn’t make me the next Nicholas Sparks. I decided to pitch this story to other publishers, and Waterbrook came back with the idea of making this an omnibus (a collection of three stories connected in some way). I loved the idea since it gave me two more opportunities to write something.

The Response:

This has been my least-selling book ever published. Why? I think for a couple of reasons. Even though Nicholas Sparks was a bestseller with his novels, it was still a stretch having a male writing love stories. It was even more of a stretch to have a collection of three novellas put together. Most people weren’t really sure what this book was–short stories?? love stories based on marriage?? If I already had a name, it obviously could have worked, but I was still trying to build an audience.

My Thoughts:

This book is such a window into life as a newlywed for me. The stories are simple and somewhat naive, but like The Promise Remains, that’s what I like about them. I tried to do something ambitious with the last story titled “Still Life At Sunset” by having it go backwards chronologically. I have had A LOT of emails from readers asking me to explain that one. Looking back, I realize I tried to pull it off but didn’t quite do it. Oh, well. It happens.

Interesting Fact #1:

The acquiring editor for this was Erin Healy, who has gone on to have some great success herself with writing fiction.

Interesting Fact #2:

The publisher at Waterbrook at the time was Don Pape, who is now the publisher at David C. Cook. They’re the ones doing my teen supernatural series, The Solitary Tales.

2 Comments

  1. I love Three Roads Home. I thought the third story was interesting. I had to re-read it to understand and pick up on everything. I remember when I first read this book I was pleasantly surprised, and a little wowed, because there was nothing else like this in Christian fiction.

    BTW, I just finished Isolation. It was scary and creepy, but I absolutely LOVED the ending! It brought me to tears, it was so beautiful and relevant to life. How God works all things out for good, but we will still have trouble in this life. It spoke to me.

    And one more thing, I love to read and want to support authors who write life-changing fiction. But I can't purchase every new book that comes along. But at my library, and probably most libraries, I can request a book and they will order it for the library. My library has about 4 or 5 of your books, but none of the newer ones. So, I requested the rest of your titles and Isolation was the first one to come in. I know you and your publishers would prefer everyone buy the books themselves, but if people all over the country requested your books for their library, that would add up to a lot of books, right? (Of course, I know not every reader uses the library, I am somewhat of a library nerd.)

  2. Thanks for your comments, Lori. So glad you enjoy the books. I understand that people can't get every book–I have four being published next year, which can really add up! I love the fact that you've requested these at libraries–thank you so much. I remain appreciative of anybody giving up their time to read one of my books.

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