The book will be released October 19, 2015!!!

We are so excited to announce that Journey for Jonathan will be officially released on Amazon.com in a physical book form on October 19, 2015! Kindle version to follow soon after!

     It is amazing how God works because this date is the day three years ago that Winston made his promise to Jonathan that he would put his saddle on a good horse and ride it all the way to Wind River Ranch. We didn’t plan it this way but it is so poetic and we love that Jonathan’s spirit is still such a big part of this Journey.

     During the proofreading of this book, (numerous, numerous times!!), I am still brought to tears by the love and friendship that Winston shared with Jonathan for 26 years. The book is actually like two books, first the story of our Journey and the kindness we encountered along the way and then secondly, the amazing story of Jonathan and Winston’s lifelong friendship. He structured the book so that it alternates between those two themes and it is brilliantly done. The book is 538 pages and I know that it easily could have been twice as long because they shared so many stories in their lives. When faced with the decision of whether or not to cut some of the stories out that are in the book to make it shorter Winston said, “I only get one chance to tell the story of my friendship with Jonathan and I want it to be right.” The way that it is written, it never feels like it is long. You can’t wait to get to the next chapter to see what the next adventure will be.

     This book will make you laugh and cry and will make you appreciate the loved ones in your life. It will make you realize the effect of your friends and to what heights they can take you. It will remind you that life is short and you should cherish every moment with the ones you love because you never know which day will change your life forever. It will touch your heart in ways you can’t even imagine. I think this book will touch people in so many different ways and we love that in every person whose heart it touches, Jonathan will become known to them and they will come to love him and respect him as much as we do.

     Journey for Jonathan has been such a huge undertaking and Winston worked so hard on it for these last 17 months. I am so proud of him and of this huge accomplishment. It takes so much time and commitment to write a book of this length. It was no easy task but he poured his heart and soul into it and that is so evident in every word of this book. I knew and loved Jonathan for 6 years but I learned so many new stories about him that only he and Winston shared. I know everyone will love reading about their adventures and about our amazing Journey from Winston’s perspective. This book is a tribute to a life well lived and to the genius, compassionate, silly, loving best friend that Jonathan was.

     Winston and I have picked charities that will receive a portion of the book sales. These charities benefit cancer support and many other great causes. All of these will be donated in Jonathan’s memory.

     Once you read the book, whether you purchased it on Amazon or in person at a signing, please go to Amazon.com and review the book for us. On Amazon, it is not as important about how many books you sell as it is about how many people review it. If a book gets between 25-50 reviews, it automatically goes to Amazon’s bestseller list. The great result of that is the story reaches more and more people like a wonderful domino effect. We want this message of friendship, kindness and Jonathan’s name to get out to as many people as possible so that his memory will never die. We are so excited to get this story out into the world!

On to Glory!!
Donna and Winston

 

 

Home at last!

   We are home now and trying to get back to normal life.  We left Wind River with heavy hearts having to say goodbye to Durango and to all of our friends at Wind River.  We miss Durango and hope to see him later this summer.  I felt really bad leaving him with people he didn't know yet but I know that there are horse wranglers there who are hopefully getting to know him and spoiling him and I hope he is getting to be friends with his "herd."  As amazing as this journey was, I was so excited to get home to my own bed!  It is amazing the things you take for granted like SPACE and a toilet that you don't have to go empty every few days!!!  I ended up having to turn down the movie I was supposed to start working on because they needed me to commit to a start date a month ago and honestly I don't think I could have started working immediately on a movie working 16-18 hour days.  Luckily, I was able to go and celebrate my mom's 70th birthday celebration and her retirement from 46 years of teaching!  If there is anything I have learned from my brother's death and Jonathan's, it is that life is short.  Faith, good health, good friends and family are the most important things in life, work is not.  Don't ever give up life things in place of work.  It simply isn't worth it in the end.  Work will always be there, your family may not be.  Appreciate every moment you have with the ones you love. 

     We are thankful for every person we met on this journey and for all of the experiences that we will never forget.....Never.  Winston and I are both changed by this journey and we can only hope that we will be able to continue to share this story with others.  We have been contacted to do a presentation to a group already and we hope to do more of that.  I made a slide show of my favorite photos from the journey which I have included a link to below and which I am sure we will use when doing presentations.  I am also working on the photo book that was one of the rewards for our highest backer category and hope to have that finished in the next month or so.  The framed photos are also in the works for our next category of backers but it was really hard to choose from the photos!!  We are still talking about publishing my blog possibly in the photo book or separately and Winston has been diligently writing the novel about the journey and about his friendship with Jonathan.  All I can tell you from what I have seen so far is that you will not be disappointed!  As I have said before, he is an amazing writer and I know you will all love the book when it is completed.  We are looking into publishers right now and hoping to get someone who can help market the book nationally and internationally when it is done.  If we get proceeds from the book, we have a few organizations in mind to make donations to.  He is still working towards the March 2015 release date.

     I have been so touched by the emails, texts and facebook messages asking me what we are doing because you miss the blog and miss knowing what we are up to on a daily basis!  Believe me, we miss you all too.  We achieved Glory and fulfilled a final promise and we will try every day to relay that message to anyone that wants to listen to our story.  I know Jonathan is proud of Winston and I know he is still with us every day.  

    These are a few photos from our last day at Wind River and me when I got to my bed!!  I am sorry that we missed photos with Don and Rob on our last day so I have also included the group photo from the building dedication.  And the link to the slide show.  Hope you will all enjoy reliving the journey through photos!  We sure did enjoy reminiscing and remembering all of the people we met in each of these places!  We will keep you posted on the progress of the books! 

 

Love, Donna (aka the Trail Boss!)

Link to slide show of photos from the journey:   

http://youtu.be/Vk78QjU6Ovg