Book Spotlight: Soul Matters by Yolonda Tonette Sanders

 

Understanding that answers to our prayers may not look like we expect, but they are what we need…

 

Title: SOUL MATTERS

Author: Yolonda Tonette Sanders

Publisher: Yo Productions LLC

Pages: 360

Genre: Contemporary Christian Fiction

Format: Hardcover, Paperback, Kindle

With a successful husband, a fulfilling teaching career, and a baby on the way, Wendy Phillips seems to have it all. She’s certain God is on her side. After all, the woman she’s become wouldn’t exist without the strength of her close-knit family or her own determination to be a model daughter, sister, and wife.

But one phone call shatters Wendy’s illusion of perfection, turning her carefully crafted life upside down. Suddenly, everything she believed about herself, her family, and her faith is called into question.

As her marriage crumbles and her faith wavers, Wendy finds herself needing more support than she ever imagined. Her journey to healing will require a sister’s unexpected strength, a mother’s surprising honesty, and a truth Wendy never saw coming.

Now only God’s grace can help her confront the pain she didn’t expect and discover the soul-deep freedom she never dreamed possible.

Soul Matters is available at Amazon and Walmart.

Book Excerpt

Shaking and short of breath, Wendy wiped her sweaty palms on her clothing and dialed the number. “Hi, this is Wendy Phillips,” she said, trying to hold back tears. “I’m returning a call to Dr. Korva. Will she be able to see me today? I can be there in about half an hour?” She altered her traveling time, hoping to increase her chance of being seen. 

“Oh,” she said solemnly when the receptionist said Dr. Korva was running behind schedule. Wendy couldn’t be seen until Monday morning. “Well, can you tell her I’m on the line? Maybe she can just tell me the results over the phone.” She crossed her fingers, praying that she would be transferred to the doctor. No such luck. Dr. Korva preferred to talk in person. “Okay, I’ll be there at nine on Monday,” she said, confirming the time of her appointment before hanging up the phone in despair. 

How am I going to make it until then? She dreaded going back to the office and arranging for a substitute through Ms. Burchett. Forget it. I’ll just call in, she opted. Sure, not submitting a request for a substitute beforehand was inconsiderate and unprofessional, but she didn’t care at this point. Her main concern was finding some way to make it through the weekend without losing her mind. 

– Excerpted from Soul Matters by Yolonda Tonette Sanders, Yo Productions LLC, 2025. Reprinted with permission.

The Inspiration Behind Soul Matters

I appreciate reading material that supports my spiritual growth. Yet, I have at least a half-dozen daily devotionals on my bookshelf, and I have never finished a single one. The problem I have with 365 daily devotionals (especially when also committing to daily Bible reading) is that it’s easy to get behind schedule if one day is missed. One missed day easily multiplies to twenty, and then it becomes impossible to catch up. Or, if catching up is possible, reading becomes a checklist item to get back on par, and the spiritual nourishment becomes secondary or gets lost completely.

My goal was to create a yearly devotional that was both practical and applicable. It’s much simpler to commit to reading a weekly devotional than a daily one. Plus, the devotionals will not stand in the way of daily Bible reading. Let’s face it. Sometimes we don’t always get devotional lessons during the first read-through. I didn’t want anyone to feel rushed to complete each devotional just to keep a up with a daily schedule. I want the lessons to stick!

There are 18 authors, including me, who contributed to this project. The 52 devotionals are broken down into 12 over-arching themes. I challenged everyone to be real. I didn’t want any pie-in-the sky stories, but real-life accounts with which others could identify and find encouragement. As the editor, I’ve read each devotional more times than I can recall, and yet, each time I read something, it’s like I’m seeing it for the first time . . . even the ones that I wrote. This collection of works contains a level of transparency that is rarely displayed by authors. I hope that readers will enjoy Connecting with Christ. It’s raw, encouraging, and transformative.

About the Author

Yolonda Tonette Sanders, Ph.D., is a storyteller at heart with a passion for both words and people. She is the co-founder of the Faith and Fellowship Book Festival and the author of numerous works, including novels, poetry, short stories, and academic publications. Her writing blends authenticity, emotional depth, and spiritual insight, often drawing from her own journey of faith and resilience.

Yolonda earned her doctorate in organizational leadership from Indiana Wesleyan University and is certified in emotional intelligence. She enjoys teaching, mentoring, consulting, and helping others discover their own voices through writing. When she’s not creating or consulting, you’ll likely find her spending time with her husband or enjoying heartfelt moments with loved ones.

Her latest book is the contemporary Christian fiction, Soul Matters.

You can visit her website at www.yoproductions.net .

Watch her YouTube channel!

Connect with her at  X, Facebook, Instagram and Goodreads.

Sponsored By:

Book Spotlight: The House of Gold by Joni Parker

 

Lady Alexin Dumwalt—Alex to those who know better—just got booted from her mortal-world job. Her response? Return to Eledon, reclaim her title as Keeper of the Keys, and dive headfirst into a mission that reeks of politics and secrets. Her task: escort Lord Quasar of the Star Elves to Nimbus. Her reality: arrested at Moonbase, locked up by a power-hungry Lord Governor, and caught in a prison break that exposes a gold-smuggling operation buried beneath the surface.

The gold? Stolen from Eledon. The ship? Not what it seems. The Fire Elves? Gone—taken by someone who wasn’t supposed to be watching.

Now Alex is under guard, headed to Nimbus, and neck-deep in a conspiracy that could shatter the fragile balance between Elf factions. She’s got questions, she’s got enemies, and she’s got zero patience for anyone standing in her way.

Magic. Betrayal. One Elf with nothing left to lose.

Joni Parker’s story reads like a cross-continental odyssey with grit at every turn. Born in the heart of Chicago, she was just eight when her family uprooted to Japan so her father could chase a dream most wouldn’t dare—becoming a professional golfer. He made it. And when the dust settled, they landed in Phoenix, Arizona, where Joni carved her own path. After high school, she didn’t just serve—she committed. Twenty-two years in the U.S. Navy, followed by seven more in federal civil service, Joni built a career on discipline, resilience, and a no-nonsense drive to get things done. Now retired in Tucson, Arizona, she’s traded uniforms for imagination, channelling her fire into writing, devouring books, and catching the sunrise like it’s a daily ritual of renewal. Her stories reflect the same edge she’s lived with—bold, unflinching, and full of heart.

Her most recent book is the science fantasy, The House of Gold (Book 4 in the Golden Harvest Series).

Visit her website at http://www.joni-parker.com or connect with her on Facebook, Goodreads and  Bluesky.

Trouble With Titles? Here Are My Tips by author Rhea Thomas

 

Let Birds Fly by Rhea Thomas is a magical realism short story collection where the extraordinary sparks everyday lives toward transformation. Connected by Ripple Media, each of the fifteen characters navigates personal struggles, such as an impossible itch, a mercurial third eye, and hallucinating coffee. They discover hidden truths, purpose, or power. With whimsy and emotional depth, these stories explore identity, passion, and self-discovery through moments of enchantment that crack open ordinary reality. Let these tales remind you: sometimes, the most magical thing is becoming who you were always meant to be.

 GoodReads: https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/234299217-let-birds-fly

Main Street Rag: https://mainstreetragbookstore.com/product/let-birds-fly-rhea-thomas/

Trouble With Titles? Here Are My Tips

I enjoy the challenge of naming things. I love finding the perfect title for a piece of writing. Here are a handful of examples from my short story collection, starting with the title I initially chose versus the title I ultimately settled on. I almost always choose an easy title that easily and immediately reminds me what I’m writing about, in the first draft of a story. By the end of the story and multiple revisions, I usually choose a more solid title. One that is interesting but also fits just right.

Flight of the Blue Fairy

I often give stories self-explanatory names, such as “Shedding Skin” for the story about a woman who unzips her skin at the end. But after I completed the story, I realized that the title gave too much away, so I changed it to “Flight of the Blue Fairy”, referencing a fairytale that had been important to the main character as a child and became her adult pedicab persona. And this story was about her finding her wings, in a way. It was perfect.  

Sprouting

This story is about a woman who has to get a breast ultrasound after a mass shows up on her mammogram. To her surprise, she does not have a tumor or some benign growth … it’s a superfood, a miracle bean, and it’s close to sprouting. “Boob Beans” was the catchy in-progress title, but the story was not just about these special beans … it was about this woman finding her way. Not only is the bean sprouting, but so is she. She’s bursting at the confines and in a period of growth.

A Fearsome Thing

This story is about a young man who wants to become a writer but is intimidated by his best-selling crime-writing mother. She seems to be actively trying to prevent him from becoming a writer. So, he’s writing on the sly with low self-confidence and then, a mysterious, murderous woman appears in his attic. He’s genuinely fearing for his life. I don’t want to give much away, but that title has multiple meanings. I originally called it “The Muse” which was super boring and unoriginal.

To The Fairest

I originally called this story “Greek Goddesses”, just to remind myself what it was about and where I was going with it. Kind of a boring title. “To The Fairest” is the inscription on a golden apple coveted by Greek goddesses in mythology and in this story. And throughout the story, three Greek goddesses are vying for this apple and title. But at the end, without giving too much away, my main character plays on the “fairest” bit as just, not beautiful.

The Works

This story isn’t published yet, but I almost titled it “Soul Carwash.” The main character is a good guy who starts committing crimes, but he doesn’t like the guilt he feels afterward, so he finds different ways to absolve himself. Eventually, a strange flyer shows up in his mail for a soul wash. The main character is intrigued and goes to investigate. So, the title “Soul Wash” was a bit too obvious. The package he selects at this special soul-washing place is called The Works, and I love how that also subtly explains his situation.

The best practice for giving your piece its permanent title is to find something that is interesting (makes the reader want to check it out) and has some symbolism or relation to the subject. It’s something to have fun with. Get feedback from your writing group or beta readers. But it’s not something you need to worry about until the end, in my opinion. Wait until you’ve told the whole story, then ideally, the story itself will tell you what it wants the title to be.

 

About the Author

Rhea Thomas lives in Austin, Texas where she works as a program manager in the digital media world. Her short stories have been published in multiple publications, including, most recently, The Fictional Café, Toasted Cheese and Does It Have Pockets. She spends her free time hoarding books, walking her stubborn Labrador retriever, playing games with her sons, kayaking and swimming in rivers, searching for mysteries and writing short stories that explore magical moments in the mundane. Her first book, a collection of short stories, is due out in August 2025, and she’s currently working on a literary mystery novel.

You can find her online at:

https://rheathomasauthor.com/

https://www.facebook.com/rheathomasauthor

https://www.instagram.com/rheatellstales/

https://x.com/rheatellstales