Eight Books, Many Ways to Be SEEN: A Writing Journey Since January 2025
Since January 2025, my writing journey has grown to encompass eight books: six published titles and two upcoming books, through authorship and contributions across faith, memoir, children’s literature, personal development, veteran stories, and collaborative anthologies.
That journey includes participation in Legacy in Ink, the 142-author Guinness World Record publishing project in Philadelphia in May 2026.
Before I say anything else about the accomplishment, I want to say this: To God be the glory.
I am grateful for the ability to write, the opportunity to contribute, and the people whose work is part of this journey. I do not see these milestones as evidence that I did everything on my own. I receive them with gratitude to God and a responsibility to steward what has been entrusted to me.
That is a story worth pausing over.
Not because a number can tell the whole story. It cannot. But because sometimes we move so quickly toward what comes next that we forget to acknowledge the work already completed and the work still taking shape.
Eight books. Different genres. Different ways of contributing. Published work and upcoming chapters.
I want to honor that journey without asking it to do something it cannot do: establish my worth.
Published books
- No Fear. All Faith. — Devotional.
- Rooted Before Rising — Devotional.
- From Silence to Success — Personal memoir.
- God Loves Me Just As I Am — Children’s book.
- Born to Risk: Veterans Edition — Contributing author.
- Legacy in Ink — Participating author in the 142-author Guinness World Record publishing project, Philadelphia, May 2026.
Upcoming books
- SEEN — Upcoming book.
- Wake Up the Lions Anthology — Contributing author in an upcoming Christian anthology.
Gratitude to God, not another way to prove myself
I have shared how achievement can become another mask. How awards, recognition, corporate success, and more responsibility can become ways of trying to prove that we matter.
That raises an honest question: How do you celebrate something meaningful without returning to the need to prove yourself through it?
For me, giving God the glory changes how I hold the accomplishment. It turns my attention from what I can use to prove myself toward what I have been given to steward.
I think the distinction begins with what we expect the achievement to say.
This work matters to me is different from This work makes me matter.
One leaves room for gratitude. The other places identity on a condition.
I can appreciate this writing journey without making the next book responsible for keeping me worthy. I can name what I have accomplished without pretending it tells you everything about who I am.
My worth was not waiting for a publishing credit. In my faith, I find a foundation in God’s love that is not dependent on the number of books beside my name.
Identity before performance does not mean refusing to celebrate good work. It means remembering that the person existed before the milestone.
Authored or contributed: both deserve an honest name
The wording matters. This journey includes books I have authored and books to which I have contributed, with two titles still upcoming. Those distinctions deserve to remain clear.
Writing a book and contributing to a shared book are different forms of participation. Each deserves to be described accurately.
A collaborative anthology also reminds us that a book can hold more than one voice. Being part of that work does not make the other contributors background characters in our own achievement.
We can honor our contribution while honoring the fact that the work is shared.
Giving God the glory does not erase the work of authors, editors, organizers, or anyone else involved. Gratitude to God and gratitude to people belong together. Humility includes naming other people’s contributions honestly.
That feels connected to the heart of SEEN. Recognition does not have to be something we take from one another. There can be room for my voice without making someone else’s voice smaller.
Different genres make room for different questions
Faith. Memoir. Children’s literature. Personal development. Veteran stories. Collaborative anthologies.
These are not identical categories, and the readers who come to them are not all looking for the same thing.
Someone opening a memoir may be looking for a life they can recognize. Someone reading about faith may be sitting with a question they cannot resolve quickly. A child deserves a story that respects their imagination and meets them where they are. A reader drawn to personal development may want a practical way forward.
Veteran stories deserve attention to the individual person, not assumptions about what every veteran has experienced. Collaborative work invites readers to encounter voices beyond a single author.
Those are possibilities within the genres, not claims that every book can meet every need.
What matters to me in naming this range is that one form does not have to contain everything. Different kinds of writing can open different kinds of conversation.
A milestone is meaningful without becoming the whole story
This journey includes participation in a Guinness World Record publishing project. As a Guinness World Record Holder, I can acknowledge that distinction with pride.
And I can thank God without treating a record as proof that I am more loved, more faithful, or more valuable than someone whose work has not received public recognition.
But recognition is a part of the story, not a replacement for the work.
A record tells you something about an achievement. It does not, by itself, tell you what a reader will find on a page, which sentence they will return to, or whether a story will matter to them.
That is why I want room for both the milestone and the quieter significance of writing.
The achievement can be celebrated. The page still has to meet the reader.
A story can offer language, not a complete answer
One possibility I value in writing is that a reader may find words for something they have struggled to express.
Not because the writer knows their entire life. Not because one chapter can solve what they are carrying. But because a sentence can sometimes create an opening.
I have felt that, too.
I did not know how to say it.
Maybe I can begin this conversation.
Those are hopes for what writing can make possible, not outcomes I can promise or assign to readers.
My prayer is that God would use what I write to offer encouragement, invite honest reflection, and help someone feel less alone. I cannot control what every reader receives. I can approach the work with care and trust God with what is beyond me.
A book is not a substitute for every form of support a person may need. It can, however, be one place where a question becomes easier to name.
There is value in that without exaggerating it.
The connection to SEEN
SEEN is rooted in identity before performance and the message You Were Never Invisible.
For me, that conviction is connected to faith: being known by God before I have anything impressive to present. My accomplishments can be an expression of my life, but they are not the source of God’s love for me.
That conviction makes me think about writing in two directions.
First, toward the person who writes. Your voice does not become worthy of attention only after you have a published title beside your name. Publication is a milestone, not the beginning of your humanity.
Second, toward the person who reads. You should not have to arrive with a polished story, an impressive background, or the right words before your experience deserves care.
The writing journey and the movement can meet there: in making room for a person, rather than asking a person to become a performance.
That does not mean every book carries the same message or serves the same purpose. It means this is the conviction I want to carry as I reflect on the work.
You do not need eight books to have something worth saying
If you read this milestone and immediately begin measuring your own life against it, pause.
This is not a standard you have fallen behind.
You may have a conversation you have been avoiding, a paragraph you have not finished, or a story you are still deciding whether to share. You may have no desire to publish anything at all.
None of that makes your life less significant.
Your life does not need to resemble my milestones to matter to God. Quiet work and unseen care are not lesser simply because they do not produce an announcement.
If writing is something you want to explore, start with one honest paragraph. Write about something you understand differently now. Name what you know, what you do not know, and what belongs to you to tell.
You do not have to publish it. You do not have to turn every experience into content. Some stories need time, boundaries, or privacy.
Your first responsibility is not to make your life impressive on a page. It is to be truthful and thoughtful about what you choose to share.
Taking a moment to acknowledge the journey
Six published books. Two upcoming titles. A journey through authorship, contribution, and shared work that began in January 2025.
I am glad to be able to acknowledge that. I am also glad those milestones do not have to carry my entire identity.
There is room to celebrate the work, respect the different forms of contribution, and remain curious about what comes next.
There is room for the milestone and the person behind it.
That is the perspective I want to carry into the next chapter: not another opportunity to prove that I matter, but another opportunity to do meaningful work from a place of already having worth.
God, thank You for the ability to write, the people who have shared in this journey, and the opportunities to contribute. Help me steward the work with humility, tell the truth with care, and remember that the person reading matters more than my recognition. May what I do point beyond me. To You be the glory. Amen.
You Were Never Invisible. Your story does not need a publishing credit to make that true.
Find your next read
If this writing journey resonates with you, explore the Books & Devotionals collection. Read about the titles featured there and choose a book that speaks to the questions or season you are living through.
You do not have to read everything. Start with what draws your attention, and make room for a meaningful moment with the words.