Some ideas are best explained. Others are best experienced through story.
Coming Up Short
A romantic comedy about church hopping, bad dating math, and what happens when the life you prayed for refuses to show up on schedule. A novel about faith, hope, and the expectations we quietly inherit.
When a faithful Christian woman becomes convinced her church has simply run out of eligible men, she begins visiting other churches in search of a husband. But what begins as a search for love slowly becomes something much bigger—a story about faith, friendship, and the expectations we quietly inherit.
For anyone who's ever wondered whether doing everything right would still lead to the life they hoped for.
"The numbers aren't numbering."
A Little About the Story
Whitney James has a theory on why she still isn’t married: her church has run out of eligible men.
So she starts visiting other churches.
What begins as a perfectly logical husband-hunting strategy—according to Whitney, anyway—quickly becomes something messier, funnier, and far more personal. It's a decision that surprises even her. After years of believing marriage would simply happen if she stayed the course, Whitney begins to confront a harder question: what happens when the life you expected stops unfolding the way you thought it would?
As she searches for a husband, she slowly discovers she's really searching for something else too: a new way of understanding her own story.
"Turns out, everybody wants a church girl…until a real one shows up."
Why I Write Stories Like This
People sometimes ask why I wrote a novel instead of another nonfiction book. The answer is simple: some conversations aren’t meant to be argued. They’re meant to be experienced.
For years, I’ve listened to Christian singles and written about the gap between the lives many faithful people expected and the lives they were actually living. Eventually, I realized some of that truth needed a story. And I wanted it to be funny.
I like funny stories about serious things. Comedy lets me heighten the absurd long enough for us to notice what the absurdity is revealing—especially in church culture, where everybody can recognize the joke even when nobody names what’s underneath it.
So yes, Whitney does the most. That’s intentional.
Underneath the jokes, I’m still asking the same questions that animate the rest of my work: What did we inherit? What happens when the script stops working? What do faith, desire, disappointment, community, and hope look like when life refuses to cooperate?
Coming Up Short is a romantic comedy because I wanted women to laugh, escape for a while, and root for love. But I also wanted the laughter to open a door.
So come for the church hopping and bad dating math. Stay long enough, and you may discover the story is asking something bigger.
Before It Was a Novel
Interestingly, Coming Up Short wasn't originally a novel. It started as a film. An early version became a finalist in Stubios, Tubi's nationwide search for emerging storytellers in partnership with Issa Rae's ColorCreative. When the film took longer than expected to make, I wasn't ready to leave the story sitting on a shelf. So I started writing. One chapter at a time. Often in public. Alongside readers who watched the story grow long before it became a finished novel. Looking back, I think the story found the medium it was always meant to have.
Stubios Finalist · Tubi × ColorCreative
Be part of the story before release day.
Follow the final stretch as Coming Up Short moves from manuscript to bookshelf. You'll get early updates, behind-the-scenes notes, and be the first to know when the book is available.
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