Janet Sketchley's Blog: Tenacity, page 89

Meet Frank Warkentin

Imagine yourself in 1940. We’ll visit a farm in Saskatchewan, Canada, to meet Frank Warkentin, a young man who’s a central character in Elma Schemenauer’s new novel, Consider the Sunflowers.

Janet: It’s good to meet you, Frank. I know you’ve been in Elma’s heart for a long time. Since we can’t actually see you, how about you describe yourself?

Frank: You know that new movie Gone with the Wind? I look like the leading man, Clark Gable. Actually I’m joking. I’m taller, darker, and handsomer than...

Fixing Our Thoughts

Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me—everything you heard from me and saw me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you.

Philippians 4:8b-9, NLT*

It’s so easy to dwell on the negatives. The hurts or injustices. Sometimes we do it because we’re sulking or just plain cantankerous, but I think it’s often out of f...

Review: Blind Trust, by Sandra Orchard

Blind Trust, by Sandra Orchard (Revell Publishing, 2014)

This is not a book to read at bedtime, because Sandra Orchard is too good at motivating readers to turn “just one more page.” The tension is high, in part due to Kate’s tendencies to seize whatever opportunity she sees to get to the bottom of the mystery.

Blind Trust is book 2 in the Port Aster Secrets series, and if you jump in here you’ll understand all you need to know, but I highly recommend starting at the beginning with Deadly Devot...

New Release and Giveaways

Secrets and Lies released Nov. 5, and a huge thank you to everyone who bought a copy or spread the word. Because of you, the novel hit a few of Amazon’s “hot new release” lists, which helped more people find it.

Two giveaways are happening now:

at author Deborah M. Piccurelli’s site
at author Emilie Hendryx’s site

Print copies are available through Amazon and Barnes & Noble (for Halifax-area readers: Miracles Christian Store will also be carrying them). Canadians, Amazon.ca says the book “usually...

Service and Offering

But I will rejoice even if I lose my life, pouring it out like a liquid offering to God, just like your faithful service is an offering to God. And I want all of you to share that joy.

Philippians 2:17, NLT* (emphasis added)

Our “service” isn’t just what we do in church, or our volunteer activities. It’s also how we care for and interact with others on a daily basis. Do we make eye contact with the sales clerk, show courtesy in driving, remember to say thank you?

Service: not serving self but be...

Review: Sweetened with Honey, by Valerie Comer

Sweetened With Honey, by Valerie Comer (GreenWords Media, 2014)

Of the three friends who set out to demonstrate sustainable living on Green Acres farm, Sierra Riehl is the only one who’s still single. She’s glad Jo and Claire found such loving husbands, and she appreciates the skills the men have brought to the farm, but sometimes she feels like the odd woman out. And she’s pushing thirty.

Sierra wants to be in love, wants to get married and have children, but if she’s not careful she’ll settle...

Secrets and Lies: preorder special

I’m very excited to announce that Secrets and Lies is available to pre-order in ebook format. Print copies are in the works, too.Click the image or click the following linkto visit the Secrets and Lies book page, complete with more information (including a sample chapter) and purchase links. If you’re planning to read it as an ebook, grab it now for 99 cents (slightly higher outside the US).

Short on Motivation?

For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.

Philippians 2:13, NLT*

I’ve always thought this verse talked about those activities and roles that God leads (or pushes) us into, where we rely on His power and we’re motivated by a passion from Him.

But look a little deeper. As well as the key activities, our days are full of the mundane and the routine: opportunities to please God, to show the results of our salvation.

Those moments often escape our notice, b...

Review: Veiled at Midnight, by Christine Lindsay

Veiled at Midnight, by Christine Lindsay (WhiteFire Publishing, 2014)

Veiled at Midnight is a strong conclusion to Christine Lindsay’s Twilight of the British Raj series. If you haven’t read the previous two books, you can jump in here and understand everything, but Cam’s and Miriam’s back-stories do contain spoilers for the other books. And it’s a series well worth reading in its entirety.

Cam was a young child in book 1, Shadowed in Silk, and Miriam is his younger sister. Now adults, he’s in...

Meet Patrick Stairs

At 35 years of age, Patrick Stairs has a good life, carefully built. He has a rewarding and prestigious position as a senior investment consultant, and office gossip pegs him as the VP’s replacement within the next year.

He works long hours, plays racquetball at his club three times a week, and is a regular at business and social functions. A man with many acquaintances, but no close friends.

Patrick’s been walking empty for three years now, since his wife, Rita, lost their fight with the brain...