Taylor-Made by Sherryle K. Jackson

About the Book

Pamela "Pill" Jones has more than baggage; she has a whole storage unit. Partially raised by her older sister, she is accustomed to struggling to survive by any means necessary. Pill has vowed to always have the best. Priding herself on being a fashionista and living the life of a commercially successful hairstylist, Pill has just one problem: money runs through her hands like water through a sieve. When she taps out her bank account, Pill is forced to realize there are some things the makeup at the MAC counter can't cover, and some burdens her Dooney and Burke bag can't carry.


Living in the shadow of his cousin, Pill's husband of six months, Corey, is trying to forge his own identity with a spiritual foundation. After falling head over heels with the very sexy and self-confident Pill, Corey finds that his treasure of a wife comes with a promissory note. During the course of the Marriage Maintenance class at their church, Corey finds there is no end to their relationship issues. He hopes through prayer and devotion that they can find the source of their own individual pain, so they can heal together.

With Pill and Corey, keeping up with the Joneses means chasing after their own desires on the raw fuel of their convictions.

Book Review

Taylor-Made by Sherryle Kiser Jackson is an in depth look at how quickly marriages can fall apart when there is no communication, no trust and a failure to heal from past hurts. Ms Jackson did a wonderful job introducing her characters and allowing you to connect with them. Ms. Jackson has the ability to pull you into the story from the very beginning.


Corey and Pamela (Pill) Taylor are a newlywed couple of nearly six month and they are already having marital issues. They lack communication, they lack trust and they lack financial fidelity. He is a simple hard working man who is trying to make it on his own without the help of his family. Corey is tired of depending on and ridding on the coattails of his famous uncle and cousin. He has several unresolved issues related to his cousin that seeps its way into his relationship with his wife. Pamela works hard and she likes to look good even at the cost of the mounting bills that go unpaid.

Corey and Pamela participates in the Marriage maintenance classes at their church where the motto is We pray often, We pray together, We pray for each other, Before we let the Devil win, In our marriage, We go back and pray again, Divorce is not an option. Corey truly believes in the motto and wonders if Pamela feels the same. They go through many ups and down and ultimately come to a decision about what they want to do with their marriage.

I enjoyed reading Taylor-Made. I really pulled for Pamela and Corey. I would definitely recommend this book to others .

Taylor-Made is available wherever fine books are sold and at online retailers like Amazon.com
Readers may learn more about the author, Sherrlye K. Jackson at her website http://wwwsherrylejackson.com/

Book Review - Soon After

Soon After, is Sherryle Kiser Jackson’s follow up novel to Soon and Very Soon. Soon After picks up where Soon and Very Soon ends. Even though this was a follow-up novel, I was able to read it and follow the storyline without the benefit of having read Soon and Very Soon. The story picks up after the destructive fire at Harvest Baptist Church, and reporter, Alexis Montgomery is determined to get to the real cause of the fire. Ms. Jackson did an excellent job telling the story without one having to wonder what happened in the first book. Soon After gives us a gives us a glimpse into the lives of Pastors Willie and Vanessa Green. Their lives are full of twists and turns. I hope Ms. Jackson bring Willie and Vanessa back for another installment of this series. This is a must read, and you will not be disappointed.

Readers my learn more about Sherryle K. Jackson and her books at http://www.sherrylejackson.com/ or View the blog tour schedule at http://bit.ly/SoonAfterTour.

Reviewed by Deneice Shelman.

About the Reviewer

Deniece Shelman is a member of SistahFriend Book Club and the Site Leader for the Greenwood, SC branch of the club. She is married and has three children. To learn more about SistahFriends visit their site at http://sistahfriends.com/

A copy of this book was provided by the author for the review purposes.

Soon After Blog Tour - Day One

Multi-published author, teacher, wife and mother, Sherryle seeks to be a fresh voice in Christian Fiction. Her triumphant debut novel, Soon and Very Soon (2007) was followed up by her sophomore release, The Manual (2009). Soon After marks the return of her franchise characters, Pastors WIllie and Vanessa Green and the Harvest Baptist church saga. Sherrryle is currently working on her fourth novel for Urban Christian (Urban/Kensington) titled Taylor-Made. She currently lives in Maryland with her husband and two children.


Sherryle, list your published books.

• Soon and Very Soon (2007)
• The Manual (2009)
• Soon After (2010)

Which book did you find the hardest to birth? I would say that Soon and Very Soon was hardest only because it was my first. Soon and Very Soon had been over ten years in the making. The actual writing of this manuscript took no more than 2 years. At that time I had a skeleton of what the book is now and was naïve enough to think it was ready for publication when I began shopping around to Literary Agents. I was blessed to receive some of the best rejection letters. I say that because most were encouraging and offered insight which is rare for an agent inundated with manuscripts not to just send a form-letter and be done with it. I was picked up and signed a contract with a major publishing house. That deal went sour and held up my book for two years (2003-2005), but the Lord sent me to Urban Christian where I signed a two-book contract.

Which book is your current favorite? It’s hard to choose. I love them both for different reasons. The Manual, my poor step child of a novel is dear to me because it has a teenager which is an amalgamation of kids that I teach in the middle school.

How would you describe your writing style? My writing is mostly character driven. Once I understand the characters, it makes way for the themes and plot I want to create for them.

Do you listen to music while you write? If so, what kind? I listen to all kinds of music, basically to drown out the background noise. It is amazing then I begin to pull songs into a playlist that embody the themes or a particular character’s emotion. It’s like a soundtrack.

What advice do you have for aspiring writers? Write everyday and collect seeds from what you have written. Sometimes when you can’t get to the computer, meditating on a character or scene is still the process of writing.

Writers are often encouraged to write what they know. Have you found that to be the case with your writing? Most of my books are semi-autobiographical. The Lord manages to take me through the phases of my book. In Soon and Very Soon the female pastor, Vanessa was single and then married. It was symbolic to the marriage between my passion and my faith.

In The Manual, I write from three of my character’s point of view. The voice that was speaking to me the loudest was that of the fourteen year old son. He was having trouble in school. As a teacher I got to ascend my soapbox to write about issues such as the lack of Art Education and the disproportion of African American males in Special Education.

In Soon After, I wanted to explore the notion that some churches, ‘preach to the choir.’ I thought about churches that I would see that flourish and develop in a declining community. When looking to expand, my pastor decided to revitalize in an area that was declining, but he didn’t stop there. We, as a church, empowered the community around us and invited them in through various evangelism efforts. I have always felt a weight to demystify the church for that unchurched generation. I gave them a peek inside a ministry couple’s home in Soon and Very Soon. In Soon After I let them take a peek inside a ministry by literally burning the walls down.

About the Book

The Ministry birthed by one will be exploited by another. Can Willie Green stand idly by and let that happen?

When Pastors Willie Green and Vanessa Morton got married and moved to merge their churches, they never expected so much resistance. Now it seems someone is sending a strong message by setting fire to the Harvest Baptist Church building.

The newly unified Pleasant Harvest Baptist Church is no more than four months into business as usual before Co-Pastor Willie Green is drawn into the middle of an arson investigation. Alexis Montgomery, an overzealous reporter, sees the experienced pastor as a great source to latch onto as she tries to unearth the stories that might solve the crime. Instead of being bothered by the presence of this woman, Co-Pastor Vanessa uses it as a distraction to help conceal her own secrets.

Orchestrating the unification rift makes Deacon Charley Thompson a prime suspect. His unexpected silence only fuels the accusations of guilt, and his meek wife becomes his unlikely spokesperson. Meanwhile, his nephew, Abe Townsend, couldn’t care less about family allegiances. Led by an anonymous publicist, Abe and the remaining displaced members of Harvest Baptist Church gain notoriety when news reports garner an outcry of sympathy and support.

What should have been a simple unification of two churches has turned into something much more complicated, and it will take plenty of faith to hold it all.

PODCAST 1 - About the Book

PODCAST 2 - For Readers

PODCAST 3 - Excerpt

Purchase the Book Online at:


• Amazon , BarnesandNoble ,  Borders , Books A Million , Indiebound 

For More Information:

• Visit the author online at http://www.sherrylejackson.com/

• View the blog tour schedule at http://bit.ly/SoonAfterTour.

The Manual by Sherryle Jackson

"Blessed are the children, for they shall inherit the earth."

Need a manual on raising children and having healthy relationships? Refer to the Bible. That's what Deidre Collins' inner spirit is telling her to do now that Andre, her son's father, is back in town after deserting them eight years ago.

At fourteen years old, her son, DeAndre, is struggling with his own issues—peer pressure, problems at school, and figuring out how to navigate his first crush.

When DeAndre gets suspended from school for ten days, Andre sees it as the perfect opportunity to get to know his son—and to get closer to Deidre. Can this couple overcome the past for the sake of their son's future?

The Manual is available where ever books are sold and on Amazon.com and  Barnes and Nobles.com

Please visit Sherryle's website at www.sherrylejackson.com  to learn more.

Interview with Sherryle K. Jackson

Today I welcome one of my label-mates at Urban Christian Books, Sherryle Jackson. Sherryle's preparing for the release of her second novel, The Manual. I asked her stop by and tell us a little about it.

Hi Sherryle. Introduce yourself to my readers.

I'm a wife and mother of two, an educator by profession, but a writer by passion.

Tell us about your latest release The Manual.

The Manual is about former high school sweethearts who must come to a meeting of the minds after eight years to raise their teenage son. Deidre Collins has a chip on her shoulder since the break up. She can’t seem to forgive and forget. Andre Hicks resurfaces with a determination t make up for time lost with his son. Caught in the middle, their son, De Andre Hicks is destined to make the same mistakes his parents have unless they can reconcile their past to secure his future.

Interesting premise and very original. Where did the inspiration come from for this novel?

There were multiple streams of inspiration, recurring thoughts and prevailing truths from the Bible that made its way into the book. No other characters that I have created in the past was more influenced by people I encountered in my real life than DeAndre and his friends, the Dempsey twins, Rob and Rajah. I am a Middle School teacher. These teens are a mesh of the many teenaged males that I teach. They manage to get themselves into one predicament after another just by immaturity and a sense of immortality.

The title The Manual came from the old notion that all men read from the same manual. In this case the Hicks men have a very distinct trait of nonchalant self-sabotaging behaviors. The question is where does the cycle end?

What’s the spiritual takeaway for this story?

Like a manual explains the basics of a particular operation, The Manual highlights the basics of our faith which is love, forgiveness and sharing Christ with others.

Sherryle, now that you’re multi-published, what would you say is the most rewarding and not so rewarding aspect of this business? The most rewarding part has to be the cycle of the Lord speaking to you as your writing , and then finding your words have touched someone who has read it. The hard part is getting it in the hands of that reader. To be honest that is the hard part.

What keeps you writing when it’s so competitive for writers in this current environment? Belief in my stories keeps me writing. I am always saying something in my books that I believe God laid on my heart. Just like He gives an author like me that message I believe He has readers waiting to hear that message.

What’s been a successful marketing/promotion tool for you?

I found the internet to be so vast and quite an effective marketing tool. Social networking and touring popular literary sites to talk about your book can be equivalent to a traditional bookstore.

Tell us something that Sherryle likes to do when she’s not writing.

I love to read and virtually sit still! I am an observation station and going out to a crowded place to watch the world turn or just people watch is fulfilling to me. My grandmother use to call it piddling. I can’t say I get to do it much, but when I can sit quietly for any period of time I am immediately thankful.

How can readers find out more about you? Readers can find me on the world wide web at my website www.sherrylejackson.com or follow my blog at www.makingthemanual.blogspot.com. I also have a fan page on Facebook (search for Sherryle Kiser Jackson Readers) that will keep you updated on signing and contest as The Manual releases.

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com