Author Archives: Janet Sketchley

About Janet Sketchley

Janet Sketchley is an Atlantic Canadian writer whose Redemption’s Edge Christian suspense novels have each been finalists in The Word Awards. She's also the author of the devotional collection, A Year of Tenacity. Janet blogs about faith and books. She loves Jesus and her family, and enjoys reading, worship music, and tea. Fans of Christian suspense are invited to join her writing journey through her monthly newsletter: bit.ly/JanetSketchleyNews.

Be Still, My Soul

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I do not concern myself with great matters
or things too wonderful for me.
But I have stilled and quieted my soul;
like a weaned child with its mother,
like a weaned child is my soul within me.
Psalm 131: 1b-2, NIV*

This is one of those psalms God uses to remind me to draw nearer to Him, to learn to abide in Him. After He nudged me through 2 Timothy about needing to steep in His presence, I shouldn’t have been surprised to see these verses show up in my daily reading calendar.

Two more gentle invitations to abide arrived in my in-box, posted on other blogs. At Under the Cover of Prayer, Judith Lawrence’s post, “Contemplatives Without Cloisters,” lures me with the promise of ongoing communion with God, even amid life’s ordinary routines.

“The call is to prayer, to be at one with the Sacred at any and every given moment of the day or night.”

Meanwhile, at Other Food: Daily Devo’s, Violet Nesdoly posted “Walking with God”:

“When we walk with someone we go in the same direction. We move at the same speed. A walk conjures pictures of conversation and fellowship along the way. It is exercise non-strenuous enough that we don’t tire quickly — a relationship for the long haul.”

Violet’s post includes a selection of quotes from Andrew Murray. This one stirs a longing in my spirit:

“Abiding in Jesus is not a work that needs each moment the mind to be engaged, or the affections to be directly and actively occupied with it. It is an entrusting of oneself to the keeping of the Eternal Love, in the faith that it will abide near us, and with its holy presence watch over us and ward off the evil, even when we have to be most intently occupied with other things. And so the heart has rest and peace and joy in the consciousness of being kept when it cannot keep itself.” (Devotional Classics: Andrew Murray George Müller Collection [Andrew Murray Collection, Kindle Edition], Location 847)

Father God, Creator, Sustainer, my spirit longs for this awareness of “being kept when it cannot keep itself”. Only You could plant such a desire, and I thank You for it. You are also the only one to fulfill it. Help me do my part and learn to walk with You. Help me not to waste time fretting about things that are Your responsibility. Help me rest in You, securely held in Your keeping. Help me trust and love You in complete faith.

Note: Ann Voskamp has a beautiful post today at A Holy Experience: “Three Ways to Really Enter into His Rest Right Now”

∞

“You Are My Hiding Place,” by Selah, lets me reflect on God’s trustworthiness.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Co6HXUN19AY&feature=related

Review: The God Cookie, by Geoffrey Wood

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The God Cookie, by Geoffrey Wood (WaterBrook Press, 2009)

“Perhaps none of this would have happened had they not been arguing about golf balls.”

I don’t know about you, but I figure any book that opens with a line like that has to be worth reading. Especially when it’s written by Geoffrey Wood, who had me laughing frequently in his previous novel, Leaper.

The ones doing the arguing are Parrish, Mason and Duncan, three guys in their early 20’s who work together in Parrish’s coffee shop. They do a lot of this friendly hassling of one another, and on the day in question the topic somehow gets around to whether God talks to people. (Parrish thinks He’s real, the other two aren’t sure, and none of them pay Him much mind.)

Circumstances unfold in such a way that when Parrish opens a fortune cookie after the argument, he believes the words inside are from God. A little bemused and regretting he asked God to speak, he isn’t quite sure what God wants him to do.

Parrish ends up at a bus stop, where he befriends Rose and Audra and encounters a host of other characters. He thinks he’s supposed to help someone, and as he bumbles along trying to find who that someone is and what to do for them, he draws Audra along with him.

Geoffrey Wood is a thinker, as well as having a delightfully quirky sense of humour. His slightly detached, omniscient style works well in this story (although I did have some trouble in the opening pages, trying to figure out who was who among the three guys). It also lets him pull readers in as observers, and behind the surface storyline we can think about the deeper questions he raises about how we relate to one another—and to God.

Although the narrative feels a bit distant, it offers glimpses into individuals’ daily struggles that let readers empathize. I hope it teaches us, as the events teach John Parrish, to listen. Really listen to the people around us.

WaterBrook is a Christian publisher, but The God Cookie is a novel that should cross over well to the mainstream market. It’s definitely not “formula Christian material” (whatever that is). None of the characters go to church or do all “the right things”.

Some Christian readers may look only at the surface and close the book as moderately irreverent. That would be a mistake. Read to the end, and while you won’t find fancy theology, you’ll find spiritual truth (suitable to Christianity, not just vague truth). And it’s not irreverent, it’s honest about where these three men are in their spiritual lives at the start of the story.

We all know people like that. They don’t mean to be offensive to God, they just don’t have Him on their radars. Everyone starts that way until He pings us with His.

I’d like to know where the novel is set. It’s somewhere in the United States I presume, northern enough to need hats and gloves in February but where snow that late in the season is not a given.

Canadian readers, be warned: the novel refers to people wearing toboggans. I puzzled a bit about why one would wear a toboggan that was meant for coasting on snow, and then I wondered if an intrepid Canadian had pulled the wool over the author’s and editors’ eyes. (Bad pun intended.)

We call them toques, (or tuques, depending on who you believe). For the uninitiated, that’s pronounced to rhyme with “Luke” and it’s a knitted hat. According to Wikipedia, “toboggan” is a short form of “toboggan hat”. But on the toboggan page it sends you to the tuque page to read about the hat. It also says a toque is a chef’s hat and a tuque is a knitted hat, but any knitting pattern I’ve seen has spelled it toque. Google search obligingly provides hats for both spellings.

A traditional book review shouldn’t rabbit-trail like this, but somehow I think Parrish and his buddies would approve. Nonetheless, back on track. Here are some snippets from the novel, to show the fresh delivery Geoffrey Wood gives his prose and his ideas:

“Duncan…leaned on the espresso bar, nervously patting the top of his head with his hand, as if gentle persistence might nudge his thoughts out of hiding.” (p. 162)

“My strangling a bus sign cannot, unfortunately, be blamed on my head wound.” (p. 188, and my personal favourite line in the novel.)

“What God did next for Audra was interesting, mainly because God had been doing it all along. [without it yet being seen]” (p.266)

I laughed less with The God Cookie than with Leaper, but I thought more and got the message better. I hate to use a word like “message” because neither novel is “about” an agenda. Neither preaches. They’re about the characters. Those characters, at least the protagonists, grow and change, but it comes organically from their natures and their experiences.

The God Cookie is a brilliant novel, and I hope we’ll see more from Geoffrey Wood very soon.

Check out chapter one of The God Cookie and see if you don’t want to read more. You can read an interview with Geoffrey Wood at Novel Journey.

Here’s a video introduction to The God Cookie from the author himself. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87ROs9DvQ6o]

[Review copy courtesy of my local public library.]

The INSPY Awards: fiction and creative non-fiction

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Do you have a favourite novel or creative non-fiction book published in the United States between July 1st, 2009 and June 30th, 2010? Hardcovers and paperbacks only, no eBooks.

The INSPYs are “the Bloggers’ Award for Excellent Faith-Driven Literature.”

From the INSPY website:

The innovative award is designed to help readers in their search for the preeminent faith-inspired literature of today. The INSPYs were created to select and showcase books with the highest literary standards that grapple with the Christian faith. To find these works, the INSPYs net is cast wide, accepting nominations of books aimed at the Christian bookstore market as well as those from the general market.

Award organizers are seeking book nominations in the following genres: Historical Fiction; Amish Fiction; Thriller, Suspense, Crime Fiction; General and Literary Fiction; Romance and Romantic Suspense; Speculative Fiction; Creative nonfiction; and Young Adult Fiction. The deadline to nominate a book is July 31.

Now I just have to remember which books I’ve read and loved fall into this publishing-date window.

Fireflies in Brooklyn

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Today’s my day to post over at InScribe Writers Online. Click here to read “Fireflies in Brooklyn“.

Of Tea and Spiritual Maturity

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You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
2 Timothy 2:1, NIV*

I often read pages of Scripture before something nudges my spirit. Other times the same verse catches me for days.

This is one of those times. Today I’m looking at the “be strong in” segment of this verse.

Hot tea steeps in 3-7 minutes. Sun-brewed tea takes 2 – 5 hours. Refrigerator tea steeps 6 hours or overnight. One starts with boiling water, the others with cold.

If we’re the water, the steeping time depends on our temperature—how much heat we’ve been exposed to before we come to Jesus.

As water that hasn’t been heated enough to boil, I’m drawn to the sun tea image. Not that I can go sit in the sun and relax, but as I go through the day, can I keep that spirit-focus to be held in His Light?

Tea has an optimum strength, depending on the variety and on the taster’s preference. Leave the bags in too long and it’ll get bitter. Not so with us.

Steeping in the Lord’s grace takes a lifetime.

Father, help me rest in You—steep in Your Spirit and Your grace. Let it change and flavour me as I learn to abide in You. Quiet me, remind me, draw me ever nearer to Yourself. Cradle and sustain me until You brew me into that which You’ve designed me to be.

∞

This week’s song is “If I Could Just Sit With You Awhile,” written by Dennis Jernigan. I’m glad I found the version sung by Todd Agnew on one of his early indie CDs. Please ignore the typing issues in the video. I work with what’s available on YouTube.

Review: This Isn’t the Life I Signed Up For, by Donna Partow

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This Isn’t the Life I Signed Up For, by Donna Partow (Bethany House, 2003)

The subtitle of this book is “A 10-week journey to hope and healing.” Donna Partow’s openness in sharing her own struggles gives her the credibility to write such a book.

She’s not a perfect woman dispensing packaged answers. In the journey toward hope and healing, she invites readers to “enroll in a class taught by a fellow student of life…guaranteed to include 0 percent oughts and shoulds. Instead, it’s 100 percent real life.” (page 16, 2003 edition)

We’ve all had disappointments and painful circumstances in our lives, the results of our own poor choices or things that just happened. We didn’t sign up for these—we want things like happiness, health and love.

The straight talk in this book offers us perspective on the past, and a way to move forward. It requires us to be open—real—with God, ourselves and others. Letting go and forgiving the hurts we’ve endured, big and small, can free us to embrace hope and healing: the life we’d like to sign up for.

I pulled this review from my ‘archives’ file, only to discover that This Isn’t the Life I Signed Up For has been re-released in 2010 from Baker Publishing Group with a new format.

From the Chapters-Indigo website:

“This new edition of This Isn’t the Life I Signed Up For now follows the format of Donna Partow’s most popular book, Becoming a Vessel God Can Use. Each of the ten chapters includes an integrated Bible study, along with helps for group leaders.”

I like this. My 2003 version has all the teaching but required a separate book for the Bible study aspect. As I check my shelves, I see I don’t have the book anymore. If you buy a copy, beware lending it out–your friend may want to keep it!

From the Baker website:

“The tools you need to make positive life changes are all here: In-depth Bible study, practical life application, Scripture memorization, and more. As Donna says, ‘If God can breathe new life into my weary heart and soul•there’s hope for everyone!’”

Donna Partow’s style is fresh and direct, and her message is timely. Her previous books include the bestselling Becoming a Vessel God Can Use, Walking in Total God-Confidence, and Standing Firm. More recent books are Becoming the Woman I Want to Be, Becoming a Vessel of God’s Power, and Making Money From Home: How to Run A Successful Home-Based Business.

You can find plenty of resources including online classes, news updates and tips on faith, family, fitness and finances at Donna’ website, Maximize Your Life for Maximum Kingdom Impact.

New Places I’ve Found on the Web

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Here are some of the new or new-to-me places I’ve found on the Internet:

My Utmost for His Highest provides daily devotionals by Oswald Chambers

Under the Cover of Prayer shares insights, revelations and stories that will show the power of prayer.

Kyria is an online, subscription-based magazine for Christian women. You can check out a free sample here: Kyria: December 2009: Rest.

Listening to My Hair Grow is a new blog from Rose McCormick Brandon with posts on various topics that arise from “a search to regain quietness in my life”.

Live Green, Live Better is a garden-related blog by Kim Burgsma, offering “tips, tricks and true confessions from a landscape designer”.

Heartfelt Devotionals offers a variety of “Thoughts for Common Sense Living” from Brenda Wood.

Return Home and Tell is a new blog from Kimberley Payne, acting on Jesus’ words in Luke 8:39, “Return home and tell how much God has done for you.”

Free2soar offers flight-themed poetry and Scripture.

Talk on the Way is a website “dedicated to helping our generation know more than just facts about Jesus–to know Him personally” with articles and conversations to deepen personal spiritual growth and relationships.

Maureen’s Musings is the art-and-words blog of Nova Scotia folk artist and writer Maureen Newman. Maureen’s Rural Moments site will let you see all of her paintings.

Dreaming Big shares “reflections about identity, freedom and dreaming with God” from Christian speaker Heather Boersma.

And a hearty thank-you to Ann Voskamp of A Holy Experience, whose blog is not new to me but whose Write! Canada workshop on blogging challenged Christian writers to remember Jesus’ upside-down definition of success and to serve with our words.

Grace for Today

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You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
2 Timothy 2:1, NIV*

No, I didn’t leave last week’s verse here by mistake. Same text, different focal point: grace.

Often when we speak of God’s grace it’s in terms of forgiveness, salvation, eternity with Him after we die. And it is.

But it’s also strength for today and for all of the tomorrows until we reach the end. It’s God—His presence with us.

I’ve been thinking about grace and what it means. It’s something given by a person who “has” to a person who “has not” with no strings attached.

There’s no obligation to give, just a valid need that will otherwise go unmet. The giver acts out of goodness, compassion or a similar motivation. The recipient can’t earn it but desperately needs it.

The recipient has no claim on the giver. The recipient is unworthy, but with the gift comes worth. I am worthy because God conferred worthiness on me along with the gift of His grace.

I am not entitled. But I’m valued—validated—by God.

Father, on our own we’re nothing, and what little we have, we’ve damaged. But You love us. And You choose to rescue and mend us, and to dwell in us. Amazing grace indeed!

∞

Listen to this beautiful song from the band Fee: “Grace Will Be My Song“.

Review: Caught Dead, A Dean Constable Mystery, by Jayne E. Self

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Caught Dead: A Dean Constable Mystery, by Jayne E. Self (Serialized in the Presbyterian Record, 2010)

After 16 years in Buffalo, Dean Constable has returned to the town of Lynngate, New York, to help his brother care for their aging father and to serve in his first pastorate. He’s still settling in when his long-time friend Justin is killed in a car accident.

A former police officer, Dean is determined to leave investigating to the experts—until Justin’s sister Paige pleads for his help. And until he sees signs of an official cover-up.

The story takes place just after Christmas, and Dean has charge of his father, Tony, for the holidays. As well as finding the truth about Justin’s death, Dean must prove himself to his parishioners, his father, and himself.

The mystery is well done, with hints and clues and complications, and the characters have a depth that drew me into the story. Not only did I want to see what happened, I cared about the people it was happening to.

Jayne Self knows churches and small towns. She gives us the usual background characters: the busybody neighbour, the big shot who wants church run his way, the single church lady with an eye for the new minister. We recognize them, but these aren’t flat stereotypes. Just like real people, they come with surprises.

Even more real and complex are the main players: Dean, Tony, and Paige. Dean’s an adopted son and he’s never felt like he belonged. Paige grew up in her brother’s shadow. Tony is in the early stages of Alzheimer’s. These, plus each one’s lifetime of experiences, shape them into believable individuals worth spending time with. In that sense, I was disappointed to reach the end of the book. I’m looking forward to Dean’s next mystery, Hit’N Miss.

Jayne writes with compassion for her characters, and this is especially clear in Dean’s attempts to care for his father. He makes mistakes, but he treats Tony with a gentle dignity. Often we don’t know how to respond to people suffering dementia, and Dean gives us a positive example.

Caught Dead is a mystery complete with poignant moments, humour, and evocative descriptions. Check out this one from the scene of Justin’s crash:

“Crooked headlights shone on a row of weathered monuments. Their narrow shadows pointed toward the church like bony fingers reaching for a second chance at life.” [The police] “strung their yellow tape around the cemetery like a macabre Christmas garland.”

Or Dean, observing wildlife tracks in the woods:

“Signs Dad taught me, familiar bits of creation that spoke to my heart long before I ever recognized the voice of their Creator.”

As a minister, part of Dean’s job is to preach. But the novel isn’t preachy. Dean is an authentic Christian, a fairly recent convert, with strengths and weaknesses. The spiritual element of the novel flows naturally because it’s part of Dean’s story. He’s growing spiritually as well as in other areas of character. What stuck with me was his discovery that he’d been doing well trusting the Head (Jesus) of the church, but not so well trusting the rest of the body (his fellow believers).

Like any good mystery, Caught Dead is hard to put down. It’s currently available online as a weekly serial at the Presbyterian Record. One of the reasons I leapt at the chance to review it is I’d get to read the rest of the novel without the enforced breaks.

Jayne E. Self is a Canadian author whose previous credits include articles and short stories. Caught Dead is her first published novel. It was a finalist in 2009 for The Best New Canadian Christian Author Award (for unpublished work). To learn more about Jayne and her novel, see the Caught Dead book trailer on her website.

[Electronic review copy provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.]

2010 Canadian Christian Writing Awards

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The Word Guild’s 2010 Canadian Christian Writing Awards were presented on June 16 in Mississauga, Ontario, recognizing work published in 2009. For a complete list, see The Word Guild Awards site.

The awards cover articles, blog entries, reviews, short fiction… and books. Some of these books I’ve reviewed, and others are on my ‘to read’ list. If you’re looking for some good reading this summer, you might check these out:

Apologetics: Red Letter Revolution: If We Did Revolution Jesus’ Way by Colin McCartney (Castle Quay Books)

Biblical Studies: Jesus, the Final Days by Craig Evans (Augsburg Fortress Canada)

Children: Terrific Tuesday by Wendy van Leeuwen (Gumboot Books)

Christian Living: Beyond the Clutter: Discovering Personal Authenticity by David Wiens (Word Alive Press)

Christian Living Award of Merit: Master Mind: Thinking Like God by Dwight J. Olney (Word Alive Press)

Culture: Ninety-Nine Windows: Reflections of a Reporter from Arabia to Africa and Other Roads Less Travelled by Thomas Froese (Essence Publishing)

Culture Award of Merit: The Tender Heart of a Beast by Michael “Bull” Roberts (Trimatrix Management Consulting Inc.)

General Readership: The Tender Heart of a Beast by Michael “Bull” Roberts (Trimatrix Management Consulting Inc.)

General Readership Award of Merit: The Little Ones by M.D. Meyer (Word Alive Press)

Independently Published Fiction: The Lathe of God—A Quest For Noah’s Ark by Angus L. Franklin (iUniverse Inc.)

Independently Published Fiction Award of Merit: The Little Ones by M.D. Meyer (Word Alive Press)

Independently Published Non-fiction: In the Arms of my Beloved – A Journey through Breast Cancer by Sandra Crawford (independently published)

Independently Published Non-fiction Award of Merit: The Bishop or the King: How the Anglican Church of Canada Has Failed to Defend Its King by Ron Corcoran (Essence Publishing)

Instructional: The Leadership Edge: Seven Keys to Dynamic Christian Leadership for Women by Eileen Stewart-Rhude (Castle Quay Books)

Instructional Award of Merit: Your Best You: Discovering and Developing the Strengths God Gave You by Bonnie Grove (Beacon Hill Press)

Leadership/Theoretical: Desiring the Kingdom: Worship, Worldview and Cultural Formation by James K.A. Smith (Baker Publishing Group)

Leadership/Theoretical Award of Merit: 1 and 2 Peter: Brazos Theological Commentary on the Bible by Douglas Harink (Brazos Press)

Life Stories: In the Eye of Deception by Nikki Rosen (McMaster University: Innovative Press)

Life Stories Award of Merit: The Bishop or the King: How the Anglican Church of Canada Has Failed to Defend Its King by Ron Corcoron (Essence Publishing)

Relationship: Majesty in Motion: Creating an Encouragement Culture in All Your Relationships by Stewart Brown (Word Alive Press)

Special: One Goal: A Praise and Prayer Journal by Gerry Organ (Word Alive Press)

Novel—Young Adult: If Only You Knew by Mags Storey (Kregel Publishing)

Novel—Contemporary: Talking to the Dead: A Novel by Bonnie Grove (David C. Cook)

Novel—Futuristic/Fantasy: After the Flood by Shane Joseph (Hidden Book Press)

Novel—Mystery/Suspense: Captives of Minara by Eric E. Wright (Word Alive Press)

Novel—Romance: If Only You Knew by Mags Storey (Kregel Publishing)

Novel—Romance Award of Merit: Shadows on the River by Linda Hall (Harlequin/Steeple Hill)