Jody has written novels for the last 16 years (with a hiatus when her children were young).
In May of 2009 she double-finaled in the Genesis contest, a national fiction-writing contest for unpublished writers, sponsored by American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW).
Shortly after the final, Jody acquired an agent, Rachelle Gardner of Word Serve Literary.
Her agent spent the summer of 2009 working on selling her books. In September of that year, Jody signed a three-book deal with Bethany House Publishers.
Jody’s debut novel, The Preacher’s Bride, releases in Oct. 2010. Her next book will release in 2011 and a third in 2012.
Jody has been married for nineteen years to her college sweetheart.
Her husband has been one of her biggest cheerleaders over the years, doing his best to understand and support her writing even in the days when publication was only the whisper of a dream.
Now in the midst of raising a busy family, he happily helps her carve out writing time. He is even learning to cook something beyond frozen pizza and hotdogs, so that when Jody returns home from a day of writing at the library, she never knows what new meal awaits!
Jody has five children ranging in ages from 13 to 5, with a set of twin daughters in the mix to make things more lively.
She spends the major part of each day teaching her children at home—grading math papers, giving language quizzes, and overseeing crazy science experiments.
When not teaching, she’s either writing or folding laundry and wondering why there are so many missing socks.
Her theory? A sock monster lives under the kids’ beds and steals them when no one’s looking. The alternate theory? The dog eats them.
