Disclaimer: By posting this interview I am in no way endorsing any of the authors work but rather simply giving a forum so that we as readers can get to know them and the authors can promote their stories.
DLC: I want to welcome Jason and Debby Coleman. So that my readers can get to know who you are, here is a bit of background on this lovely couple.
Background
Debby was raised in western Washington. Prior to having children, she worked as a legal secretary. Debby quit her job several months after the birth of their first daughter and was a stay-at-home mom for fourteen years. For the past four years, she has worked as a part-time substitute secretary for our local school district.
Jason was born in Louisville, Kentucky, and raised in Arizona, moving to Washington while a sophomore in high school. He was raised by his mother, with his brother and two sisters. Jason went to work on a part-time basis for a sporting goods company when he was nineteen years old and has worked his way up the corporate ladder, where he is currently a District Supervisor in the greater Seattle-Tacoma vicinity. He has twenty-four years of retail sporting goods experience, twenty-one of which have been in various leadership roles.
Jason and Debby have both been active in the local church for the majority of their marriage, working in various ministries with their main focus working with teens and children. They have led small group Bible studies for several years and have been active leaders in the Awana ministry for twenty years as well as serving on the Awana Ministry Team for the Pacific Northwest. Jason has also served as an elder-elect and he has coordinated the Outreach Ministry in a local church. They have a heart for missions and have been on several mission trips to Rio de Janeiro, Brasil.
Jason and Debby have four children, three daughters and a son, ranging in age from nineteen to eleven. They are extremely involved in the lives of their children, as the kids are active in sports, school activities, church youth groups, and much more.
Jason and Debby Coleman celebrated their twenty-first wedding anniversary in September of 2010, and they currently live in Federal Way, Washington.
DLC: Discovering Your Amazing Marriage is a great title for a book. Please tell us more about it.
J&D: Between the Tiger Woods scandal, the Jesse James cheating shocker, and the Gores recent announcement of their split, it feels like we live in a world where it’s impossible to keep marriages strong, stay faithful, and last forever. We all want to keep that thrill alive that we experience during a first kiss or first date but where does that anticipation, overwhelming joy, pure devotion, and bright hope of romance go, once you’re married?
My wife Debby and I have experienced our fair share of challenges, even infidelity, and now we share our secrets and meditations on marriage in our new book Discovering Your Amazing Marriage.
Within the first six months of our marriage, we had to deal with the consequences of infidelity and the very real possibility of divorce. These things aren’t supposed to happen at all; but if they do, it’s usually later in life when married people drift away from each other. Or so we thought.
Keeping passion alive once the doldrums of daily family life sets in is easier said than done. After having children, moving to a new place, advancing in a career, or experiencing a trauma or loss—marriage can become a habit or even worse, rote duty.
We now know through our own experiences that nothing can destroy a marriage quicker than infidelity, but we also know that we have a story to tell that may encourage couples to stay the course and make their marriage work, no matter what challenges they may face. We are a living testimony of the power of forgiveness and restoration.
No matter how long you’ve been married, we believe that with the timely, honest and spiritually relevant advice in this book, a marriage filled with respect, love, passion, and devotion is within your reach.
DLC: So you've gone through some really difficult times in your marriage and God has seen you through. What made you decide to write about it?
J&D: Debby first had the idea about four years ago. When she came to me and said she felt we needed to write a book on marriage, I was very hesitant. I mean, who are we to write a marriage book? We put the idea on the shelf for about a year, until we realized that a large majority of our friends were locked in mediocre marriages. Most of our friends weren’t happy or were dealing with major problems in their relationship.
We had been mentoring several couples at the time and decided that it was time we put our story our there. If we could encourage couples and help other people avoid some of the disasters we have bee through, than we were determined to help. We realize we don’t have all the answers, but we believe we have something that will encourage you in some way.
DLC: Maybe there's people reading this interview right now that have been through something tough or challenging in their life and they've been feeling like they may want to write about it also, what advice would you give?
J&D: Start writing today. If you have ideas floating around in your head, start writing. Even if you just jot down the ideas or begin a journal, let those thoughts out and worry about arranging them later. The hardest step is the first step, and I believe the majority of people out there have a story to share; they are just too intimidated to share it.
I keep a note pad next to my bed. Oftentimes I have thoughts as I lay in bed and I turn on the light and write them down while they are fresh. I began doing that after we began writing; I only wish I had done that sooner, as I know I have “lost” quite a few great ideas and thoughts.
DLC: What were some of the sources personally that you had to draw from when writing your book?
J&D: Our story is primarily personal experiences we’ve had, as well as influences from our faith. We really attempted to do something different, and were actually at odds with our editor over this. We did not want a strictly ‘religious’ book that would only appeal to the faith-based reader, nor did we want to write a marriage book without including the impact of God and faith. So we wrote what we like to describe as a cross-over, or to use a popular term, a hybrid book.
The majority of each chapter is written from a mainstream perspective without any religious references or advice. We believe that most anyone could read our book and gain some real practical advice for his or her relationship. Because faith plays a significant role in our lives, at the end of each chapter we wrote a Biblical Perspective, where we support our advice and thoughts with Bible references. For the faith-based community, we believe they will be challenged with God’s perspective on marriage and the individual topics and we include numerous verses.
DLC: That's great. I would imagine there were some challenges personally when writing your book. Tell us about some of them.
J&D: Because this is primarily a true story based on our personal experiences, clearly the greatest challenge was in deciding how transparent we would be. Nobody likes to air out their dirty laundry in a public forum, yet in the book we write about the affair that nearly ended our relationship and many of our other faults and weaknesses.
DLC: How did you and your wife work together on this project?
J&D: Debby is primarily the ‘ideas’ girl and I’m the writer. I love her immensely, but when she writes, she is very blunt, short, and to the point. I needed to massage her words quite a bit, so as it turns out I did most of the writing and editing, and she was perfectly happy with that!
DLC: Do you have any favorite authors?
J&D: My favorite authors are in a different genre’. I love Louis L’Amour and Tom Clancy. I don’t care too much for Clancy’s Op Force series, but his earlier Jack Ryan novels are my favorites. Harold Coyle is another favorite of mine. Similar to Clancy, he wrote military-based novels. I am also an avid reader of leadership books and enjoy both Andy Stanley and John Maxwell.
Debby loves to read missionary biographies and books on doctrine. Her reading list is far too complex to list it here. She’s read books ranging from “Fast Food Nation” to an autobiography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
DLC: Are you working on another book now and if so tell us a little bit about it?
J&D: I started writing a small leadership book while we were working on our marriage book, but I put it aside to focus on “Discovering Your Amazing Marriage.” It’s a book I want to return to and finish, but it’s not a priority right now. My goal is to publish it as a graduation-type gift book. It will be a guide for young people as they enter the business world and begin to take on leadership roles.
DLC: That's a great idea. So tell us where can people go to get more information about you and your book?
J&D: Our website is
http://www.youramazingmarriage.com/ and our book is available on all the .com bookseller sites. If you are in the Seattle area, we are stocked in most of the Borders Bookstores here. You can e-mail us at
contact@youramazingmarriage.com for information on how to purchase an autographed copy. We offer the Foreword and the first 10 pages of the book for free on our web site and we have a photo page with pictures from our wedding through the present day. We would be honored if you spent some time on our site and if you invested in your relationship by purchasing a book.
DLC: Thank you so much for sharing with us and I pray your book is a huge success and a blessing to many.
Blessings,
Daniel L Carter
Author of
The Unwanted Trilogy
