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
