As we prepare for Fall, let us still enjoy a good book in the month of August.
Our highlights below include new releases, contracts signed, notable reviews and PR events, new authors to the agency and other news of note by clients and agents.
Releases
Congratulations to Debora Coty and Christian Art Publishers for the July 1st release of Bless Your Heart.
Ever feel like you can’t escape the storm cloud hanging over you? Might be a soul problem, sister. Refresh your “beauti-tude” with Bless Your Heart: Daily Devotions to Warm Your Heart and Feed Your Soul, Debora M. Coty’s 365-day devotional.
Debora’s heartwarming and relatable devotions are reminders that God cares about you—even in the little things. You’ll find encouragement to love cranky coworkers, drop-kick fear, and reclaim your value as a daughter of God. The combination of humor and biblical truth is refreshing for an early morning read or an afternoon pick-me-up.
Each day offers a Bible verse that speaks to your soul, a devotional reflection that renews a joyful spirit, and a prayer to remind you of God’s praiseworthy character. Let Debora’s lighthearted and warm words soothe your soul and point you back to your true source of light—Jesus Christ.
Bless Your Heart is a joy-filled gift for any best friend, sister, mom, or grandma. You’ll want to buy at least two copies—one to share and one for yourself. Gift it to your small group leader to say, “thank you.” Send one to your BFF as a way to show you’re thinking of her. Bless Your Heart comes with a faux leather cover and has a sweet, floral, feminine design that she’ll love.
God has Jesus-joy waiting for you in His word. Let Debora remind you of it in Bless Your Heart: Daily Devotions to Warm Your Heart and Feed Your Soul.
Congratulations to Katie Powner with Bethany House Publshers for the August 5th release of When the Road Comes Around.
Only trouble can bring about the beauty of redemption and grace.
In the small town of Grady, Montana, twenty-four-year-old Tad Bungley has a reputation for trouble. When he lands a job at Come Around Ranch, however, his life seems to take a positive turn. As he develops a soft spot for Sam, the ranch owner’s disabled son, and a special bond with TJ, a rescue horse with a poor reputation of his own, Tad becomes determined not to bungle it up this time.
Forty-eight-year-old Anita Wilson is too young to feel so old, but rheumatoid arthritis limits her ability to work on the guest ranch she owns with her husband. It was a risk to hire Tad for the summer, but Anita is convinced he just needs a bit of encouragement to find his footing. What she doesn’t anticipate is that Tad’s presence at the ranch will change everything, including her relationship with her son. And when Tad finds himself in more of a mess than ever, he and Anita must learn when to hold on, when to let go, and what grace really means.
“Katie Powner is my go-to author for multigenerational tales that take a tender and honest look at the human condition. . . . This is my favorite Powner book yet!”–AMANDA COX, Christy Award-winning author
“When the Road Comes Around is a stick-with-you testament to why nurturing hopeful perseverance in ourselves and others is always the best route to take.”–SARA BRUNSVOLD, Christy Award-winning author
Congratulations to Jamie Sumner and Simon & Schuster for the August 26th release of Schooled.
A bighearted novel from acclaimed author Jamie Sumner about new schools, unexpected friendships, and overcoming loss.
Eleven-year-old Lenny Syms is about to start college—sort of. As part of a brand-new experimental school, Lenny and four other students are starting sixth grade on a university campus, where they’ll be taught by the most brilliant professors and given every resource imaginable. This new school is pretty weird, though. Instead of hunkering down behind a desk to study math, science, and history, Lenny finds himself meditating, participating in discussions where you don’t even have to raise your hand, and spying on the campus population in the name of anthropology.
But Lenny just lost his mom, and his Latin professor dad is better with dead languages than actual human beings. Lenny doesn’t want to be part of some learning experiment. He just wants to be left alone. Yet if Lenny is going to make it as a middle schooler on a college campus, he’s going to need help. Is a group of misfit sixth graders and one particularly quirky professor enough to pull him out of his sadness and back into the world?
Congratulations to Grace Hamman with Charity Spencer and Zondervan Publishing for the September 9th release of Ask of Old Paths.
Traditional Christian virtue and vices like abstinence, gluttony, and sloth make many of us bored or uncomfortable. At their best, these words sound dead or confusing, like incomplete fossils that belong to a distant past awkwardly enshrined in a museum. At worst, they signify a prejudiced past, when these words were wielded like weapons.
Yet in medieval writing, the language of the virtues and vices was powerful, lively, and delightfully weird. Patience is described as a peppercorn. Unicorns preach chastity. Knightly virtues fend off devious vices by throwing roses at them. In medieval books, words like avarice and meekness meant different things and carried different weight than they do today. And great medieval preachers and poets taught the virtues as crucial to what it meant to live a life of holiness, right alongside the Lord’s Prayer and the Creed.
Ask of Old Paths, by Grace Hamman meditates upon those strange and wonderful word-pictures and explanations of virtues and vices found in medieval traditions of poetry, sermons, and treatises long confined to dusty corners of the library. It focuses on the ancient tradition of virtue language called the Seven Capital Vices and their Virtue Remedies: pride and humility, envy and love, wrath and meekness, avarice and mercy, sloth and perseverance, gluttony and abstinence, lust and chastity.
In accessible and thoughtful chapters, scholar and writer Grace Hamman shows how learning about these pairs of medieval virtues and vices can help us reevaluate our own washed out and insipid moral vocabulary in modernity. Our imaginations for the good life are expanded; our longing for sanctification sharpens. Old ideas can give us new fire in our practice of the virtues—and in that practice, we imitate Jesus and become more human.
Congratulations to Todd Korpi with IV Press for the September 30th release of AI Goes to Church: Pastoral Wisdom for Artificial Intelligence.
AI Goes to Church unpacks one of the most significant technological advancements of our time―artificial intelligence―and what it means for the ministry. More than just another tech fad, AI presents both profound challenges and extraordinary opportunities for the church. This book equips pastors, ministry leaders, and thoughtful laypeople to engage with AI through a biblical and theological lens, fostering human flourishing while remaining grounded in Christ’s teachings.
Writing in an accessible, nontechnical style, pastor and missiologist Todd Korpi seamlessly integrates theological reflection with practical application. Whether you’re grappling with ethical concerns, curious about leveraging AI for mission, or simply seeking clarity in this rapidly changing landscape, this book provides the guidance you need to steward AI wisely in service of God’s kingdom.
With its emphasis on thoughtful, lasting principles over fleeting technical hacks, AI Goes to Church serves as your road map to faithfully navigating the complexities of faith, technology, and human flourishing.
In AI Goes to Church, you’ll find:
- A Theological Foundation: Gain a deep understanding of how AI intersects with Christian theology, exploring implications for human identity, the image of God, and the church’s mission.
- Ethical Discernment: Learn to critically evaluate AI’s potential to enhance human flourishing while remaining vigilant to its risks, such as harm to vulnerable populations.
- Practical Integration: Explore actionable insights for leveraging AI in areas like discipleship and mission, while staying true to the gospel.
- A Missional Vision: Understand how to see digital spaces as mission fields and use AI creatively to engage those who might not be reached otherwise.
- Hopeful Engagement: Approach the technological age with confidence, holding on to biblical principles while discerning how to innovate with integrity.
AI represents a profound challenge―but also extraordinary opportunities―for today’s church. Whether you’re a pastor, ministry leader, or thoughtful believer―discover how faith and technology can intersect in meaningful ways. Get your copy of AI Goes to Church today and navigate this new era with a gospel-centered vision.
Contracts
Jerry Jamison signed with Bloomsbury Publishing for the July 2026 release of 11 HOURS: A True Tell of Madness, Mob Mentality, and the Media and the September 2026 release of Just Desserts: The Shocking true Tale of America’s Most Prolific Femail Murderer.
KatyMcCown signed with Andrews McMeel Publishing for the October 2026 release of Pray It Out: 40 Days of Casting Your Cares on Jesus.
Courtney Ellis signed with Augsburg Press for the March 2027 release of The UnDevotional.
Bonnie Kristian signed with Penguin Random House for the January 2027 release of In Defense of Evangelicalism.
New Clients
Matt Daniels and Grace Stark recently signed with WordServe. Welcome,
WordServe Water Cooler 