Author Interviews, Press Coverage & Media Features
Rodney D. Nielsen, author of You Will Smile Again, is available for interviews on grief, church hurt, forgiveness, and finding joy again after loss. He has spent more than thirty years alongside grieving families. He has also been one of them.
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Media inquiries:
Based in Northern California. Rodney records remote interviews from a quality broadcast setup and is available for in-person appearances by arrangement.
Interview Topics:
Rodney is glad to talk about any of these and is happy to build a segment around something else if it serves your audience better
The Five Deep Wounds: the five places deep hurt tends to settle, and how God meets people in each one
What actually helps a grieving person, and what to stop saying to them
Why joy and happiness are not the same thing, and why the difference matters when life falls apart
Healing from church hurt without walking away from your faith
Forgiving someone who never apologized and never will
What thirty years of funerals teaches a pastor about hope
When everyone thinks you should be over it by now
Rebuilding after you lose your health, your marriage, and most of what you spent twenty years building
How to help a friend through something you have never been through yourself
Why the holidays undo people, and what to do about it
What leading a church of twenty eight nationalities has taught him about how differently people grieve
How to pray the hurt out when “God, fix this” is all you know to say
About the Book:
You Will Smile Again is a practical Christian living book offering a step-by-step path toward restored joy after grief, betrayal, divorce, church hurt, and prolonged pain. It releases October 20, 2026, from Overcomer Press.
Grief does not keep a schedule. Neither does betrayal, or divorce, or the particular ache of being wounded by the church you served.
You Will Smile Again is for the person who has done the praying and the waiting and still cannot find the way back. Rodney D. Nielsen spent more than thirty years walking people through the worst weeks of their lives, and then walked through his own. What he learned is that joy is not a feeling you wait for. It is something God restores, and there is a path.
This book is that path, laid out step by step. It is honest about how long healing takes and clear about what actually helps.
"You are not crazy. You are not faithless. You are wounded. And you are seen."
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Title: You Will Smile Again
Subtitle: How God Restores Joy After Deep Pain and Heartbreak
Author: Rodney D. Nielsen
Publisher: Overcomer Press
Release date: Tuesday, October 20, 2026
Page count: Approximately 216
Categories: Christian Living · Death and Grief · Forgiveness and Mercy
Includes: A thirty-day devotional guide
Paperback: ISBN 979-8-9966938-0-1
Hardcover: ISBN 979-8-9966938-1-8
eBook: ISBN 979-8-9966938-2-5
Audiobook: ISBN 979-8-9966938-3-2, releasing early November 2026
About Rodney:
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Rodney D. Nielsen writes for people trying to find their way back to joy after loss. He is the senior pastor of East Valley Pentecostal Church, one of the largest churches in California's Silicon Valley, and has spent more than thirty years sitting with grieving and brokenhearted people. His book You Will Smile Again (Even If You Can't See How Yet): How God Restores Joy After Deep Pain and Heartbreak releases October 20, 2026.
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Rodney D. Nielsen writes for people trying to find their way back to joy after loss. He is the senior pastor of East Valley Pentecostal Church and the author of You Will Smile Again, releasing October 20, 2026.
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Rodney D. Nielsen writes for people trying to find their way back to joy after loss.
He is the senior pastor of East Valley Pentecostal Church in San Jose, California, one of the largest churches in California's Silicon Valley, where a congregation drawn from twenty eight nationalities worships in English and Spanish. He has spent more than thirty years sitting with grieving and brokenhearted people.
He has also been one of them. Rodney has walked through the loss of his health, the collapse of everything he had built, the end of his marriage, and grief he never expected to survive. He found his way back to joy. This book is the path he took, written down so someone else can walk it. It is not a memoir.
You Will Smile Again (Even If You Can't See How Yet): How God Restores Joy After Deep Pain and Heartbreak releases October 20, 2026, from Overcomer Press. It offers a practical, biblical path back to joy after grief, betrayal, divorce, church hurt, and the kind of pain that does not resolve on schedule.
This is his first book. He has spent his working life in the same calling his father and grandfather held.
Rodney and his wife Jenale live in Northern California and have four children. When he is not writing or preaching, he is usually out on a long ride, working in the family walnut orchard, or tending a bonsai.
Suggested Questions:
The title is a promise. Why were you willing to make it?
What do you say to someone who has prayed, waited, and still does not feel any better?
What is the most common thing well meaning people get wrong when someone they love is grieving?
You have sat with hundreds of families on the worst day of their lives. What changed for you when it was your turn?
A lot of people are angry at God and afraid to say so. What would you tell them?
Why does church hurt cause some people to walk away from faith altogether, and what would you say to someone who is considering it?
What do you say to someone who has forgiven the same person a hundred times and still wakes up hurting?
How long is too long to grieve?
What is the first thing someone should do tomorrow morning if they are stuck?
What would you say to someone reading this who does not believe joy is coming back for them?
Advance Praise for
You Will Smile Again
Downloads:
Author Photographs
Credit line: Photograph by Atlas Studios Pro
Images may be used for editorial and promotional coverage of Rodney D. Nielsen and You Will Smile Again. Please retain photographer credit where indicated.
Review Copies:
Available in print and as a PDF galley.
Please contact for either.