Christian Fiction with Grit and Grace: T.I. Lowe on South of Somewhere

Addiction is one of the most common realities families quietly carry. Dave Quak sits down with best selling author T.I. Lowe (Tonya) for an honest conversation about what happens when someone you love will not get clean, and how faith can stay real when life is anything but.

We dig into her novel South Of Somewhere and the choice to write addiction recovery with grit and grace: relapse pressure, toxic friendships, support meetings, and the exhausting mental math of “Am I helping or enabling?”

Tonya shares how personal grief shaped the story, why research matters when you’re writing about drug addiction, and how fiction can open a door to healing in a way arguments never will. If you care about Christian fiction, faith and mental health, recovery stories, and family dynamics around substance abuse, this chat is packed with insight you can actually use.

We also talk about breaking stereotypes by setting the book in wealthy Sullivan’s Island, the underrated power of AA style community, and why “professional” is often the enemy of connection. The conversation turns to calling and ambition too: choosing ministry over metrics, trusting God with impact, and letting stories land in the right hands at the right time. Stick around for a sneak peek of Tonya’s next book, A Southern Goodbye, and a closing prayer for courage and faithfulness.

If this encouraged you, subscribe to Sunburnt Souls, share the episode with a friend, and leave a review so more people can find these conversations.

Here are the main ways to buy T.I. Lowe's books:

Buy directly / browse all titles:

• Her official website — tilowe.com/books
• Tyndale Fiction (her publisher) — includes hardcover and softcover editions

Major retailers:

• Amazon — her full author page
• Barnes & Noble — search "T.I. Lowe"

Deals & discovery:

• BookBub — follow her for sale alerts on ebooks

Libraries:

• Check your local library's app (Libby/OverDrive) — her titles are commonly available as ebooks and audiobooks through library membership, which is free.

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Transcript

Welcome And Catching Up

Dave Quak 0:00

Welcome to Sunburnt Souls. On this show we speak about life and faith and our mental well-being, and I'm super excited because about two years ago I met T.I. Lowe or Tonya Lowe, and we've kept in touch, and she's written a new book, and I am so blessed to just have you on the show, Tonya. I just love your company. Welcome to the show.

SPEAKER_01 0:21

Well, thank you for having me back.

Dave Quak 0:23

We've been reading your writing and we've watching your interviews and stuff. And so other people know about you more than you know about them. Is that strange? Like, what's that feel like?

SPEAKER_01 0:32

It is, it is, but I try I try my best to actually um get to know people. So um when people reach out to me, I try to keep in touch with them too. Because I I was um I sent out this post uh this week actually about how this writing journey, the best part of it is all the friends I've made. And um before then I was a stay-at-home mom and I was kind of like you know in my little sheltered bubble. And I, you know, I had my friend group, but that was it. But I have met such, you know, extraordinary people. I'm talking to you, and you're in Australia. Now here I am in this tiny town in South Carolina, United States. So um it's been an amazing journey to get to know people.

Dave Quak 1:12

It's cool. I love that. That must be very exciting because you've you do a lot of interviews and I see you online a lot, lots of book reviews. You're with Tyndale, so they're like massive. So they're pushing you out there and everything as well. You know, and you're in a fun season where your children are off to college now.

SPEAKER_01 1:28

Yeah, I got I've got

Dropping The Polished Persona

SPEAKER_01 1:30

a good bit of freedom now. Uh funny enough, I I look back, um, so I've been doing this for 12 years now, and my first uh book event where I was supposed to speak, I bombed. I totally bombed. Yeah, I was terrible. And the ladies that owned the bookstore, she kind of kept helping me out and kept talking because I was I was like, uh uh uh. And uh so she went with we became really good friends, the the bookstore owner. And so probably two years ago, she went to another book event with me, and and on the way home, she said, You have come come such a long way. But I had learned to see because I was trying to be very professional and very, you know, I thought I had to look like a very professional author, but come to find out, that's not what people need, they just need to chat and have a friend. So I'm like, you know, if I stutter, if I, you know, I my southern voice slurs a word or one, it's it's fine. We're just gonna have a conversation and it, you know, I might, you know, make a silly comment along the way, but I think that um that worked for me when I finally figured out that I could just be myself and I didn't have to put on this air of being some, you know, a fancy author because that is not what I am. Um it just all clicked into place. And uh so it's it it's pretty fun now. It was not fun at the beginning. But I think, you know, no matter what we do, and I bet you do the same thing with your ministry, uh you've learned that you need to talk to people and not talk at them, right?

Dave Quak 3:00

Absolutely. You know, that's why I think we've connected, Tonya, is because I feel the same way about how we do faith as well. It doesn't have to be perfect, it doesn't have to be polished, it just has to be in the you know, it's got to be real. And when you last came on this show, I got a bunch of my friends from my life group to read the book, and all of them loved it because it was real. You know, they're like, oh, that that was gritty, that was real, it wasn't what they were expecting from your typical Christian author. Like, you're not afraid to go into places of death and you know, um despair and addiction and brokenness. And I think I don't know if it's the same over there, but I feel people are hungry for that. Like everyone's a bit tired of talking about the weather. Let's get into the real stuff.

SPEAKER_01 3:44

Yeah, and um early on when I was I was as a reader reading Christian fiction, and there's nothing against it if that if that's what you enjoyed, but it was just so polished and so everything was perfect, and I'm like, this is not my life. I can't relate to this story. And but I thought that's what Christian fiction was supposed to be. And like, I I don't know that I could write in that genre. But then, you know, Dave, you read the Bible and it is gritty, it is broken people, it's people struggling with, you know, sin or addiction, or you know, even Paul talking about the thorn in this side. I'm like, if the Bible can do it, why aren't we as Christians doing it? Because I can relate to those people, those broken people in the Bible, but I can't um relate to, you know, this woman that won't even um think twice about, you know, uh, you know, a very she had a very perfect, polished Christian, Christian, so to speak, life in a um Christian fiction novel. So um, and I will always give uh props to Francine Rivers. She showed me in her writing that you can be gritty and you can show, you know, grit with grace for faith. And um,

Gritty Faith In Fiction

SPEAKER_01 4:55

so that's where I I try to lean that way because I can relate to it too.

Dave Quak 4:59

Yeah. I love that you two are friends because it's you're both producing such amazing um stories. The the latest book, it's got some themes that are really close to home for me. And so, like, you know, we gotta make sure we don't give spoilers because I want everyone out there to read this book, you know, south of somewhere. They need to read it. So we'll do our best not to give spoilers, but one of the mega themes, and I don't think I'm giving anything away, is really around addiction and the cost of addiction and the process to get out of addiction, and you get into it.

SPEAKER_01 5:33

The foundation from that for that book was my my family has gone through that with loved ones. Um, my grandfather was an alcoholic, so I've seen it all throughout my life, and then I had a loved one uh die of a drug overdose three years ago. And and it rocked me because it was it it

Addiction, Loss, And Research

SPEAKER_01 5:55

and this this person, and I you know, I I try to it's not my story to tell. I just try to tell my side of a story. So I I say this person or whatnot, but um, if you read the book, I'm side of the story. I'm the sibling, I'm the loved one, I'm the family member that does not understand why the other person won't get clean. So I really wanted at it was a whole grief, this was me grieving this book. It was my process of trying to, you know, wrap my mind around why I couldn't, I couldn't fix that loved one. And so I just I dove into the research of drug addiction, and I I would love to talk to you about like America versus Australia, but over here there was a study done in 2023, and it said one in four children will have a uh parent or guardian at home that's battling addiction. Oh my god. One in four. So there's so many families and that are touched by this, and and even if you're you don't personally have a struggle with addiction, odds are you know someone that that does. So I really wanted to start that the conversation, open the conversation up through, and it's amazing that fiction can do that.

Dave Quak 7:08

Yeah. I I think fiction is such an underrated gospel um ministry where people don't quite understand that they're understanding how Jesus loves and understanding how Jesus um lays down his life and shows forgiveness and all of those things, but in a way that just speaks to their heart because it is story, and we remember story. Jesus was the best of stories.

SPEAKER_01 7:32

He was the best storyteller with his parables, yeah. And and you you could relate, you could understand. I loved that that he he knew that we could as people, as humans, we could really grasp what he was trying to tell us through a parable. And it's like you said, fiction can do the same thing. Like someone will pick up you know, South of somewhere as it's a southern fiction, you know set on a a coastal um town in South Carolina and and pick it up for entertainment, but walk away with so much more than just an entertaining story.

Dave Quak 8:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:07

And that to me, that's all God that you know they they can find him in the pages even though they weren't looking for him.

Dave Quak 8:13

Yeah. And all the characters kind of like represent a different aspect of things we might struggle with, or you know, you meant I feel bad saying this now, but you said you resonate a bit with Cy. He was the one I found a little hard to like in the early days. So that's not personal about you in any way. You can't like them all, you know. Yeah, and it wasn't that I didn't like him, it was just like I I felt because I'm probably more the Junior than the Psy in the in the story. And so I would have at that point be like, Come on, man.

SPEAKER_01 8:43

But just with even with Cy, um, I wanted I wanted you not to like him completely. I wanted uh people not to really like Juni completely. But and that's the thing, you you meet someone face value and they might not give you the best first impression, or you'll be like, or you know, like, oh, he's so hard on his sister, he's so judgmental. But then as the story unfolds, you understand why he's the way he is. And then Juni, you know, the choices she makes. She's and you know, she's a young um woman in this book. She's what 26, and I wanted the reader to see her growth, you know, her maturity as the book went along, too.

Dave Quak 9:21

Yeah, and you see it. I just I and I'd like a happy ending, once again, can't say it.

SPEAKER_01 9:26

Oh yeah, me too.

Dave Quak 9:27

You know, I do because and I thought the way you brought that around was genius and very unassuming. It was like it stuck up on me. I was like, oh yes, you know, but you know, there were some other really good characters like Gilbert, the um AA guy. He was cool. You know, he represented what I think a lot of men in addiction need. So we run an AA group at our church, and there's a guy who reminded me of Gilbert. He was an older guy, super fit, did it on his own volition, paid his own way. You know, there's no money changing hands in AA or NA or anything. Yeah. And I don't know, I just really respected him. Tonya, with all of this, I suppose how is it difficult not to make these characters your people? So you mentioned you resonate a bit with Psy. Is it hard not to do the thing where you you make them your personification or you know, um Fern is reminds you of your neighbor's daughter, or you know what I mean? Is that hard?

SPEAKER_01 10:31

Yeah. Um no, because and and then there's you know, in the author world, we're all um there's this it's just the truth to the matter is every book has a little bit of a of the author in it. You know, it'll always be a part of me somehow, somehow. Even if um, you know, whatever the book theme is is not my struggle. I I tend to put me in it. I mean, just a piece of me somehow. Um, but I I really try my best to step back from the characters. I don't um and I always try to like Juni, I want to represent whether it's alcohol or pills or street drugs, whatever it is, I hope um I've put enough of everybody in Juni that it doesn't, it feels like, you know, if an alcoholic picks up the book and they say, Oh, I that's me, I'm Juni, or um someone battling pill addiction, uh, that's me, that you know, I'm Juni. And then when it comes to side, the sibling or the family member trying to, you know, figure out the balance of because and I think um uh for the family that's families that I have personally know, and then my family, there's this uh balancing act of are you an enabler or you're helping? Um so it it's hard, like do you tough love them, do you just love them where they're at? And after losing, this this has become my my saying since losing that loved one. You can not agree with their lifestyle, you can not agree with what they're doing, and but you can still love them where they're at. And so I really try to focus on that. Um, but yeah, I I just really and I pour a lot of time into research. Uh I read several autobiographies. Um there's this have you heard the band Korned?

Dave Quak 12:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:29

Yeah. Well, the lead guitarist was a drug addict, and he's Brian Brian Head Welsh. Yes. Have you have you read his auto his uh books, his memoir? I have because he was a drug addict and it's turned you have?

Dave Quak 12:45

Yeah, and he's turned it around. My son and I are both obsessed with corn. Um, it was actually my first concert when I was 15, scared me halfway.

SPEAKER_01 12:52

Oh yeah.

Dave Quak 12:53

That was when they were all still white.

SPEAKER_01 12:55

Yeah, they because I've seen some of their concerts on TV.

Dave Quak 12:58

It's wild. So yeah, but we my son and I are both into the autobiographies and watching his stuff, and lately he's been leading into worship in churches as well, which is cool.

SPEAKER_01 13:07

Oh wow, yeah. He has really turned his life around and and you know, given his life to Jesus, and I was so inspired by uh reading his um story, and then there's some others that I read. So I feel like I did the research that way. So when I I came to create Juni, I put a lot a lot of people into it. So I can step back from my characters and let them be who they need to be without me, you know. Yeah, that makes sense.

Dave Quak 13:35

If that makes sense. Yeah, well it does because she was very multifaceted. Did you have to protect your own heart a bit when you were writing because of that loved one? Like were there times where you had to step away for a day or two and just breathe before going back to it?

SPEAKER_01 13:49

Oh yeah. I found that a lot in um in a lot of my writing. I think you and I talked about it under the magnoise was a heavy story for me to write. Yeah. Um and it was because and I left it in the air, the father was battling bipolar disorder, but trying to hide it. So he wasn't getting the help he needed. Yeah. And so the his family never they were always scared for was he gonna commit suicide or you know, take his life. And I didn't answer that for myself until the end of the book because I, you know, I felt like if I that that tension would come through if I didn't know as the writer where it was gonna go. And those were really heavy writing days. But how I have learned to balance that is um those are the days that I step back and I'll pick up a humorous scene to write. Um, so I I do try to incorporate humor along the way. It just it kind of helps me get through it. And I did that with um the help of Henry and the Magnolia Nephilist Society.

Dave Quak 14:55

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:56

Um because I don't know about you, but life's heavy, you gotta laugh. Yeah. And that's how I help.

Dave Quak 15:02

Those guys were lunatics, man. I like today. Yeah, Henry was cool. Oh

Setting, Stereotypes, And AA

Dave Quak 15:10

man. Is um Sullivan's Island is it actually the same one as on South Carolina? Because I got on there today on Google Maps and had a little look around. It's beautiful, yeah. All those two-story Hampton-looking houses and stuff. Oh, it's fancy. Is that the that's the one? That is cool.

SPEAKER_01 15:28

It's very fancy, yes. I typically make up my towns just so I can have the creative license to just do whatever. But I made it hard on myself this time. I I did an actual place, but that even had a significance because I wanted to show uh Sullivan's Island is a very uh private community, um high dollar, you know, multimillion dollar homes. It's a very well-to-do community. Okay. And I and I did that because there's so many sty stereotypes connected to addiction. Like you have to be low on your luck, you have to be in in the poverty. That's not it. Um it's just like cancer, mental illness, it and I and addiction falls there to me too. They don't care who they victimize. Um, there's no prejudice on it. And so you can either be from the wealthy community or even the poverty community, and it could take one drink and you're you're facing a battle you never thought you would see coming.

Dave Quak 16:31

Yeah.

unknown 16:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:32

That's why I picked Sullivan's Island.

Dave Quak 16:34

I think that's so genius because there's a lot of judgment around addiction where I mean that something that's breaking here in Australia, which is cool, is that it's not it's not as much now that that person's a loser making bad decisions. It's more like they've got a mental health condition and they're trying to mask a pain that they have and they're trying to get through like the rest of us, and that's just the way they do it.

SPEAKER_01 16:57

Yeah.

Dave Quak 16:57

Yeah. Is that a similar sort of um sort of vein that you were landing with some of the addiction stuff?

SPEAKER_01 17:03

I think so. And because it and even with the the AA groups, she she attends two on a regular basis in the book. Um, and she did she does online. But even those, you know, that although they were from so so many different walks of life, but they had the commonality of they had struggles too. So it was very purposeful about making sure I represented a lot of walks of life. And I wanted to represent the different types of AA groups because it's just like you said, you know, it's not a you you know, people don't do it to make they're not getting paid to do it. And so I looked at the guidelines for AA and it was you need a coffee pot and people that want to support each other in their sobriety, and that's it. Yeah. So I'm like, well, I can make uh how about the I need my own group. So I did this the Southern um group and uh but then I did the church group because I wanted to represent that too. Yeah. That there's uh there are different groups and you know, and and one size don't fit all. Just find so I hope that would give people um the insight and the encouragement they need to like, okay, well if this group's not for me, maybe I'll look around and find another group.

Dave Quak 18:15

I think it was cool how you handled the church group because a lot of people might cast shade on the you know, the geeky old lady making tea. But that's so valid. There's so many people in addiction who just want a grandma. You know, they want someone to come around them and and and hug them and be there for them and have the have them the normal conversations about flowers. You know what I mean? Like not everyone has to be a reform drug addict kind of badass to make it work.

SPEAKER_01 18:43

Mm-hmm. And that and I wanted to represent that because um that was that was that lady's ministry to love on those people that were going through that. And also Juni judged her in the beginning. She's like, why is this woman? She's not a she's not having struggles with addiction. What is she doing here? And how quick it is, you don't want to be judged, but yet you can turn around and judge someone else. Um and I that was one of the things that we went through with my loved one. Um, oh gosh, so many times. She said, Well, you're the goody two shoes. You don't, you don't know what I'm going through. Your life is perfect. And then I felt the need that I had to sit there and like, well, no, it's not perfect. Here's what I'm struggling with, and here's my mistakes. But because I I was always trying to bring myself not down to her level, but on a level where she, you know, saw that I had struggles too. It my struggles just didn't look like hers, but it never clicked. She was always just like, Well, you don't know what I'm going through. You don't know why. Um, you you're just so perfect and you're judging me. So um Juni had a lot of jobs to do in this book, though. There was a lot of jobs to cover because I wanted her, I wanted her to judge where she didn't need to judge. I wanted her to make those, you know, let had learn those lessons too.

Dave Quak 20:02

Yeah. I feel like I can picture her. You know how you get to me, so I can I feel like I know it now. Do you know what I mean? And I was so glad that it worked out because you want you're rooting for them. And then at the same time, the way you write though is so cheeky because I she might not have made it like it was really like she she could end up. I mean, this is this is T I L O. She could end up dead. Like we don't know what she's gonna do.

SPEAKER_01 20:26

Like Who knows what I'm gonna end up doing, right? But I didn't I and I it was another thing because it it's the the way I write, I don't write at all. I don't outline it before I you know I've got a general general idea where I want it to go, but I didn't know if she was going to um slip up and take a drink or slip up and take a pill. I wanted that to be something that I was wrestling with or wandering away the whole time I was writing too. Because I feel like that kind of if I write it in that sense, then it it translates over for the reader is like reading too, like is she gonna slip up? And and I don't feel like I was I could I could do this topic justice without her having those temptations because the statistics are so high for relapse. I think it's um I should have me a cheat sheet that I always have when I'm doing these talks with the statistics on it, but I think it's 70% of um of everyone that goes to rehab will relapse within 30 days.

Dave Quak 21:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:33

I mean, that's very significant high relapse rate. And so um I just try to keep keep it real with that too.

Dave Quak 21:41

Yeah. Yeah, because you never know the temptations. What was the senator's summon son again? I forget his name. It starts with D.

SPEAKER_01 21:48

Deaton.

Dave Quak 21:49

Yeah, Deaton, that's right. I was gonna say Dita. Deaton, he was such a good protagonist, antagonist, sorry, just where he'd just be there at the wrong time all the time. And the lady Who voiced the um audiobook did his voice really quite well actually. Um he reminded me of a kid I know. But like he was always there when the temptation is you know the the worst thing you need there, he pops up.

SPEAKER_01 22:14

Oh he had he had a big job to do in the story too, because a lot of time, you know, if you are battling addiction, you have those friends, toxic friends that are leading you astray. And so he had a big job to do in that um category too.

Dave Quak 22:32

Yeah, yeah, he was good. I liked him. I liked where he ended up as well, but I liked him. And the whole I don't know, I just can I just say thank you from the Christian community, not that I represent all of us, obviously, for going there with these topics, you know, like with under the magnolias, we went there with bipolar. I got drawn to that because I'm a pastor day with bipolar, like like he was, and like I feel like there's a lot of people out there resonating with a message that they may not go and walk into church to hear. You know, you gotta really if you don't mind me saying so, it seems like you've got a really good grip on the redemption story of Jesus, you know, that you understand what's like for someone to be broken and be redeemed and restored. And I pray you can keep telling stories like that.

Writing As Ministry Over Metrics

Dave Quak 23:25

Is it the gospel thread that keeps driving you? Because I mean it's not easy to keep doing books. Like, is it the gospel thread? What is it?

SPEAKER_01 23:32

So every time I start a new book and throughout, my prayer is God give me the story you want me to tell, and don't let me get in the way of it. Um, and I thought, and I I will I will be honest with you, probably about halfway, midway uh I've only been in doing this 12 years, so it I know this sounds dramatic, but about midway through, I was struggling with it. I couldn't find uh an agent, a publisher, I was trying to do it on my own, and I was ready to give up or start writing just secular books. Take take my um faith out of it. And it it just I and then I'm like and it was funny enough because I had made the decision. I'm like, this is not working, I'm gonna do it this way, and my sales taint. And then all of a sudden I took a step back, I'm like, oh, okay, God, so you're telling me something that you know this is my it's not just writing books. This I feel like is part of my ministry. Yeah. And um, I was taking it for granted. So there was a, you know, um a line in the you know, this you know, a spot in my journey in the road, and I'm like, I had to decide, was this gonna be my ministry or I was I trying to do this for the wrong reasons like fame and book sales and whatnot. And then when I give it back, I gave it back over to God. Wasn't it too long after that? Um, I signed with an agent, publisher, and then under the magnolias just blew up. And and I it's all God. And I feel like um I needed that struggle to remind me where my place was, and that's behind God, God first. I was trying to get ahead of him. And so I'm always, God, give me the story you want me to tell. It might um the story I'm working on now is an aftermath story. It's not much of a it's not in the line of redemption, but it's aftermath. And um another thing that uh us as Christians struggle with loss. And so as long as God gives me these stories, I want to tell them. And uh, like I said, it's not about the book sales, it's not about the awards, um, it's about the emails that I get, it's about the people that I meet at book events that says that tell me, you just told my story. Yeah, this is what I'm going through too. And um, and then so many of them like, you know, I thought God had turned his back on me and I was doing this on my own, but through reading your story, I'm gonna go back to church. And I'm like, that's what it's about. So um I I'll I'll praise to God. And um I the whole redemption story, you know, God laid it out. Jesus laid it out in his word in the Bible so clearly, and there's so much every time, you know, with the Samaritan woman or the woman at the well, and just all the one all the people that uh he included in the story, all those redemptions, even um King David, you know, he continuously messed up, but then God redeemed him and he and so um and he was a good one because uh so the state motto for South Carolina is while I breathe, I hope. And so I ran that through the entire story. And the Bible shows us through these broken people, while they still breathe, there was still hope for God to redeem them. And so same thing for us, right?

Dave Quak 27:36

Now that that moment in the road happened, do you ever get tempted to start thinking like you were before that, or is that dealt with now?

SPEAKER_01 27:46

It's dealt with now. Um praise God. Like uh, yeah, like um you know, you'll see a fellow author will have a book released and they'll get the this this little orange strip on Amazon that says number one bestseller in their category. And used to it bothering me because my my book my book may not get that. And but nowadays I don't want a real quick, fast, um, all of a sudden the book comes out and there's a big um one-day sale where everybody gets the book and I'm um the bestseller. I just would my prayer is God just keeps putting them in people's hands along and along when they need it. Um I don't want the story to just I I like when I want God to put my my story in people's hands when they need it. And um, so I I I don't know. I I don't know what God's got and and what his intentions are with my books, but I want him to do it. And it might be um slow sales, it might not it may only be I wrote I might write a book for just one person, but I to the point where that's what matters and if it changes someone's life, I think that's much more important than a sell. Yeah. And um, so I I've dealt with that. I dealt with it because I felt like and it it wasn't and it, you know, there was a lot of selfishness when I was at that part in my um journey because I, you know, I wanted to be the successful author. And I, you know, it was all about what I wanted. And so I had to remember, and I think we all probably get to that point with different things, like whether our careers or with our children, what we want, what we consider success or whatnot, but um man, we can make a mess if we get ahead of God. And um, I I I fear I you know, I think about I wonder how close I came to completely derailing my writing career by um terming my going in a different um direction that was not the direction I should have been in. So I just thank God that He's kept me on this path. And and like, you know how I f I feel like it's relatable that I did come to a point where I questioned what I was doing, and um people do that, and we just have to keep praying and have the faith that God's gonna put us where he needs us to be, even if we stumble.

Dave Quak 30:13

I love that, Tonya. Uh it's actually ministering to me because through this week I've been a little bit like you know, when you're asking the questions around the podcasts, I would be like, Okay, how do we go to the next level? And there's just you can read a million blogs, you can follow a thousand coaches and whatever else, but I got to a similar place where I'm like, I God, can you just can you just do your thing, man? Because what do we know? Like, you know what I mean? And I know that's different to book sales, but that principle where we've got to it's the same though. Well, yeah, we've got to trust God with our future and the things that He's put us, you know, to put our hands to. And I think that's exciting, hey. I read some of your reviews on the I'm pretty sure it was the Tyndale website, so it wasn't even the big one, like it wasn't Amazon or whatever. And there's like 72. And they were all just like, this book's changed my life. This book's changed my life over and over and over and over. So I mean, I pray if you ever get discouraged, just jump on there for 10 minutes, man. That is like some serious encouragement on there.

SPEAKER_01 31:17

Thank you.

Dave Quak 31:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 31:18

But and then and the and I'm sure you feel the same way. That's what matters, right? Um we we're sitting here talking or cutting up, or you know, and um you might be doing a podcast, but you want people to come come to hear us um, you know, very informal chat the today, yeah, but find some encouragement to um get their life back on track too. That's right. And just keep doing what they're doing, or just keep doing what they're doing, right?

Dave Quak 31:46

Yeah, and I think that's where the goal is. Tony, it's been really lovely having you. Are we allowed to get a sneak peek about what's next?

What’s Next And How To Read

Dave Quak 31:53

You said it is a not a restoration story. What was it? A post-grief story.

SPEAKER_01 31:58

Aftermath.

Dave Quak 31:59

Oh, yeah, an aftermath. So what does it mean?

SPEAKER_01 32:01

Yeah, so okay, so uh is the title of the book is a southern goodbye. Do you happen to know what that is?

Dave Quak 32:10

I don't know what a southern goodbye is, no.

SPEAKER_01 32:12

Oh my gosh, Dave. So in the South, us us country folk, we do this thing where uh we're okay, it's time for us to go. Like if you're visiting someone, you say, Okay, it's time to leave, and then you keep talking.

Dave Quak 32:23

That's Jess. And then That's my wife. She takes about 15 minutes to leave. Is that a southern goodbye?

SPEAKER_01 32:28

Okay, tell Jess she does southern goodbyes. Yeah, because and then you you might make it to the door and you talk a while. Then you get to the porch and you're still talking. Yeah, so it's a very long, drawn-out goodbye. And um, so the the base of the story is three people lose one person, the same person. And it's their journey, their grief journey, uh, and how they deal with their loss differently. Uh-and so it's it's gonna show different facets of grief, and that not everybody grieves the same way. And um, but these three people they really don't like each other. The only thing they had in common was who they lost. But um, through their grief and that journey, they um come together and uh it's kind of like a family uh nearly come to the end. So yeah.

Dave Quak 33:20

That'll be awesome. It'd be a different flavor to the last couple, so I'm interested. And for all your existing books, are you happy with Amazon for people to go get that? I want them to go get South of Somewhere, which is the latest one. Amazon's your favorite, and then you can get Audible. I did that, and it's really good if you're listening. And there's also your regular Kindle and also paperback too. Does that have uh um hardcover?

SPEAKER_01 33:41

Anywhere books are sold.

Dave Quak 33:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 33:43

Uh yes.

Dave Quak 33:44

It does as well. Cool.

SPEAKER_01 33:45

Yeah, yeah. If you if you like hardcovers, they have hardcovers too. Um and like Books a Million, Barnes and Noble, uh, Amazon, Tindall. You can go straight to Tyndall and order Tindall House Publishers. So yeah, anywhere books are sold.

Dave Quak 33:59

Yeah, awesome. I recommend you do that. Um, T I Lo Tony Low. It is unfortunately the end of our chat.

SPEAKER_01 34:06

We're gonna do it. Are we gonna do a southern goodbye?

Dave Quak 34:08

Yeah. We'll do one after we hang out. We'll hang out for the next couple of hours. I cannot believe you've finally explained what Jess does. I like I just want a smoke bomb. I want to just go now. But she just takes all day.

SPEAKER_01 34:22

So tell she she should be living in the south.

Dave Quak 34:25

I come to the south. I mean, if I could go and steal somebody's house on Sullivan's Island, I would. Those things were ridiculous.

SPEAKER_01 34:30

Oh, me too.

Dave Quak 34:31

Weren't they nice? There's no fences either. Everyone's just kind of near each other and stuff. It's cool.

SPEAKER_01 34:37

Yeah. We went several times so I could do book research, so to speak. I mean, it was it was terrible, Dave. I had to go to the beach, I had to go to the restaurants, I had to go shopping. I mean, it was just awful research. Yeah, I did it for the book. I did it for the book, you know.

Dave Quak 34:53

I love that. Oh, thank you, Tanya Sunburn Souls. It's always blessed to have you.

SPEAKER_01 34:58

And um we appreciate ya.

Dave Quak 35:01

Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 35:02

Thank you. So, would you want me to pray now?

Dave Quak 35:04

I would love that.

SPEAKER_01 35:06

All right, let's pray. Dear Lord, we thank you so very much for allowing me and Dave to come together and to have this chat. We thank you, dear Lord, for our platforms. Um even though they may be smaller considered uh compared to others, uh, you can do great things through them, and I know that you will. Uh, I pray that you would bless Dave and Jess and his family and his ministry as he moves and does as you would have him do, and um just continue to bless us and guide us. Thank you, dear Lord, for all that you do. In Jesus' name I pray.

Dave Quak 35:35

Amen. Amen.