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.

How do we deal with suffering?

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The other week on the Canadian Authors Who are Christian blog, Canadian singer/songwriter and writer Carolyn Arends wrote:

I recently asked friends online what words and actions had been the least helpful in trying times, and I got a passionate and prolific response. I recognized many of the platitudes listed as things that had come out of my mouth.

If you read her full post, “Allow for Space in the Music: Acknowledging the mystery of pain,” I think you’ll be encouraged and better equipped to offer comfort. If nobody around you is hurting today, someone may be tomorrow. And if you’re hurting today, this may be something you can share with your friends to help them know how to not make it worse.

He is Able

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I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day.
2 Timothy 1:12b, NIV*

This is the first verse I ever memorized on my own initiative—well, I learned it as part of a hymn, and was delighted to recognize it in my Bible.

I’ve been reading the book Majesty in Motion: Creating an Encouragement Culture in all Your Relationships, and one thing that has challenged me is the need for personal confidence in God. This is area I’ve been working to grow in for a number of years, and confidence in God is the basis for enabling us to encourage others, so we won’t be threatened by their needs or our inadequacies.

This week I’ve chosen to pray and meditate on God’s strength and promises, as a way of cultivating that confidence. When I found this verse from 2 Timothy in my daily reading, something clicked.

I’d always taken the words to mean that God would keep my soul at the end. But it’s so much more: He is ready and able to look after me in the here and now. Exactly what I needed to read this week!

Father, You are so good to us. You show Your care in so many ways. Help me to believe You and to stay confident in Your care whatever the day brings. I won’t necessarily like what comes, but You can use it. And it’s not about me, it’s about You. Help me live in love and confidence in You so others will see the difference You make.

∞

Here’s the hymn that started teaching me Scripture: “I Know Whom I Have Believed,” from Amazing Worship.

Review: Just Between You and Me, a novel by Jenny B. Jones

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Just Between You and Me, by Jenny B. Jones (Thomas Nelson, 2009)

Maggie Montgomery has done video shoots all over the world, but the one place she doesn’t want to be is Ivy, the town where she grew up.

Maggie’s a fairly new Christian, and she senses God has brought her home for a reason…but why?

Her father doesn’t want to see her, but he’s desperate for help with her unruly niece, Riley. Riley’s mom is mentally ill and hasn’t been able to care for her.

Maggie is smart, sassy, and she comes with a lot of emotional baggage. When she shows up in her home town, her high school friend Beth is the only person who remembers her who’s not toting a huge grudge. Maggie’s feisty enough to handle it, but I found myself getting defensive on her behalf.

Handsome veterinarian Connor Blake has some harsh, preconceived ideas about Maggie, but it doesn’t take long for him to understand her almost too well. Maggie thrives on keeping everyone at arms’ length—so why does being with Connor make her want to drop her defences?

Jenny B. Jones writes with a snappy sense of humour and tight delivery. This is one of those novels that works well in the present tense, first person. Present tense usually feels contrived to me, but the character of Maggie has such a strong voice that it feels like she’s really telling us what’s happening. Combined with the title of “Just Between You and Me,” it feels like Maggie’s telling the story one-on-one to a close friend.

Like the few others I’ve read in the Christian chick-lit genre, Just Between You and Me is not all surface and fluff. Maggie’s experience changes her life, and aspects of it—and the process of her learning—can shape readers as well. For all of her daredevil reputation, Maggie has a major fear issue when it comes to relationships—and to water, because she wasn’t able to save her drowning mother.

Just Between You and Me is fresh, funny and real—and the most feel-good book I’ve read in a long time. It’s actually one of maybe five novels or short fiction that I’d count as life-changing. An added benefit for me is the title: every time I thought about the novel, I’d hear the April Wine song.

You can read chapter one of Just Between You and Me or learn more about the author at the Jenny B. Jones website. The Thomas Nelson website has a reader discussion guide you might want to check out after you’ve read the novel. Just Between You and Me is aimed at adults, but Jenny is also the author of novels for young adults: the Katie Parker Production series and A Charmed Life series. YA novels are fun, and I look forward to checking these out.

[Review copy borrowed from my local public library. If you’re in Canada, you can get it via inter-library loan… or buy your own copy. It’s worth it!]

Interview with suspense author Lynette Eason

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Lynette Eason’s website offers “Suspense with a twist. Welcome… to the edge of your seat.” With an invitation like that, who wouldn’t want to read more?

Lynette is the author of a string of romantic suspense novels from Steeple Hill, most recently A Silent Terror, A Silent Fury and A Silent Pursuit. Her new novel, Too Close to Home, is releasing April 2010 from Revell. (I posted a review of Too Close to Home recently.)

Janet: Welcome, Lynette, and thanks for taking time to stop by. I’m glad to get to know you a bit. Your name is familiar through American Christian Fiction Writers but before Too Close to Home I’d only read one of your books, Lethal Deception. That’s going to change!

Lynette: Thanks SO much for having me here!

Janet: Your new series is called “Women of Justice.” Samantha from is an FBI agent. Can you tell us what occupations the next women in the series will have?

Lynette: The next woman in the series is Samantha’s sister, Jamie. She’s a Forensic Anthropologist who does contract work for the local police department. Kit Kenyon is a detective with the local police force, but she’s also on the emergency response team as a hostage negotiator.

Janet: I see the second book in the series, Don’t Look Back, is scheduled to release this September. Are you in the middle of revisions for it, or are you already working on the story after that?

Lynette: I am finished with that one as well as the third book that’s yet to be titled. I just received my revisions for the third book and hope to be done with those in a few days.

Janet: Sounds like some celebratory chocolate is in order! With all the novels you’ve written so far, do you have a favourite character or story?

Lynette: I think my favorite is Don’t Look Back. That story was the easiest one to write as far as the words just flowing. Jamie is a great character and the story just surprised me with all of the twists and turns it ended up taking. I hope it does really well and that readers enjoy it.

Janet: Sounds like it’ll be a good read. When the story flows like that, it’s great. Speaking of readers, what has their response been like for your books?

Lynette: I don’t know yet. LOL. My Steeple Hill books have sold great and I get a lot of emails from readers who really like them, but since this is my first Revell book, I can’t answer that question yet.

Janet: I know I enjoyed Too Close to Home! What got you started writing?

Lynette: Loneliness. Ha.

Janet: Your website says you’re a homeschooling mom by day and a writer by night. Have you picked up some time management secrets to share? Or do we simply have to give up sleep?

Lynette: Well, I can see it’s time to change my website. I no longer homeschool. I just found I couldn’t do it all. The kids are back in school and I now work an outside job. But yeah, giving up sleep is basically how it all gets done. I could crawl in bed every night around 7:00 and sleep till 7:00 the next morning, but I can’t do that and do everything else I want to do so I generally go to bed around 11:00 and get up about 6:30.

Janet: If I write in the evening, I can’t turn off my mind to get to sleep. Any advice?

Lynette: I think everyone is different. I don’t have a bit of trouble turning my mind off. I actually get some good ideas while falling asleep. Sometimes I remember them, sometimes not, but I don’t really ever have problems falling asleep.

Janet: Suspense writing requires its own forms of research. What’s the weirdest bit of trivia you’ve picked up along the way?

Lynette: The people who work in morgues like to do that kind of job mostly because the people they work with don’t talk back.

Janet: I hear they develop interesting senses of humour too. Writers and readers who wonder how you come up with your story elements may want to visit the elements page on your website. I won’t repeat those questions here, but I wonder… what do you like best about the writing life?

Lynette: The words, “The End” LOL. Seriously, I love the creative process. I love it when I get a new idea and the brainstorming starts. I think I’m the rare person that likes to write proposals almost more than the book itself. 🙂

Janet: Liking to write proposals is rare indeed…. What do you like least?

Lynette: Revisions, I suppose, although I don’t really mind them too much.

Janet: What does your family think of your writing?

Lynette: They’re very supportive and proud of me. I have to credit a lot of my success to my family. If not for them, I wouldn’t be where I am today.

Janet: Writers read, but we like music too. What are you listening to these days?

Lynette: LOL! That’s an easy one. My husband and his band, JupiterWind just had a new CD release this month! I’ve been listening to a song on there that keeps playing over and over in my head. It’s called, “Who would ever let a love like this go?” It reminds me of an old 80’s tune by Air Supply or something. I love it.

Janet: That is so cool. Plenty of creativity in your household, then! Readers can learn more about JupiterWind at the band’s website and check out their video, “He’s Alive,” at the 33 Hope Community website. I really like their sound!

Thanks so much for taking time to let us get to know you a bit, Lynette. May the Lord continue to bless you and make you a blessing to others—in every area of your life.

===

Too Close to Home, by Lynette Eason (Revell, April 2010)

“Samantha Cash is the FBI’s secret weapon. Her methods are invisible, and she never stops til the case is closed. When missing teens begin turning up dead in a small Southern town, Samantha is assigned to help local Detective Connor Wolfe find the killer. And he has two problems with that. There’s her faith-in God and herself. And then there’s the fact that she looks exactly like his late wife. As they get close to an answer, the case becomes personal. The killer seems to be taking an interest in Connor’s sixteen-year-old daughter, who thinks her dad is getting way too protective. Can’t a girl just have some fun?”

Too Close to Home is available through your local bookstore, or online at chapters.indigo, amazon.ca, amazon.com and ChristianBook.com.

Learn more about Lynette Eason at her website and her blog, Suspense with a Twist. Lynette also blogs at Craftie Ladies of Suspense, and you can find her on Facebook.

Love One Another

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A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.
John 13:34-34, NIV*

Last week at Whatever He Says, Belinda posted on the importance of relationships, including the quote, “Relationship—with God and with people—nothing else matters”. It’s a powerful post, and worth reading (scroll up from where the link takes you). The novel I finished on the weekend, Just Between You and Me, made me think about it too. And the book I’m currently reading, Majesty in Motion, focuses on…you guessed it: relationships.

I didn’t plan any of this.

Did I mention our Bible study group at church is using the Experiencing God Workbook? We’re at the “relationships” section now.

God can be subtle with some people, but He knows I take a bit of prodding.

Loving one another doesn’t have a lot to do with warm, fuzzy feelings. Singer/songwriter Don Francisco called it an act of the will.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails [stops/ends]. 1 Corinthians 13:4-8a, NIV*

It’s intentional, deliberate, a choice we make. A choice we can only follow through on by relying on God’s love in us.

Father, I’m so thankful that You meet us where we are, but You love us too much to leave us there. You promised to grow us to be more like Your Son. Jesus saw people through Your eyes—with Your heart. Help me learn to do that too, and to be useful to You in encouraging and loving them.

∞

Our song this week is Matt Maher’s “Hold Us Together”.

Review: The Weed that Strings the Hangman’s Bag, by Alan Bradley

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The Weed that Strings the Hangman’s Bag, by Alan Bradley (2010, Doubleday Canada)

The Weed that Strings the Hangman’s Bag is the second mystery from Alan Bradley featuring 11-year-old Flavia de Luce. The series is set in 1950 in rural England.

Flavia, her sisters and their father live in a huge old house, where she spends her happiest times in the lab of a mad (now dead) chemist.

The mystery surrounds a murder that doesn’t happen until part-way through the book. I knew it was coming, having read some promotional material. Getting to know the soon-to-be victim was an odd sensation.

A secondary plot thread involves the death of a local boy some years earlier, and Flavia is determined to get to the bottom of that too.

The world through Flavia’s eyes is an interesting place. She observes, rarely judging, and leaves readers to draw their own conclusions.

Although she’s a child, this is a novel for adults. Since I usually review books for the Christian market, I’ll add that it’s a general market book containing some mild profanity.

Flavia is one of those enjoyable fictional characters you probably wouldn’t want to live with. She has a dry sense of humour and a vocabulary that includes words like pustulent, pristine and diminutive, along with a variety of chemical terms.

When she successfully ducks an assignment from her father, he laments that she’s unreliable. Her comment as narrator: “Of course I was! It was one of the things I loved most about myself. Eleven-year-olds are supposed to be unreliable.” (p. 86)

Another character calls her terrifying, and Flavia tells us with all modesty, “It was true—and there was no use denying it.” (p. 90)

I suspect Inspector Hewitt of the local constabulary would describe her as terrifying too—but she does have his grudging respect.

The Weed that Strings the Hangman’s Bag is a sadder story to me than the first novel in the series, but it’s still a very good read with plenty that made me smile. You don’t have to read The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie first, but don’t miss it!

Alan Bradley is a Canadian author now living in Malta. You can find him online at the Flavia de Luce website, and Flavia de Luce has her own online fan club.

You might also be interested in this interview with Alan Bradley in the Ottawa Sun, or this article by Andrea Baillie of the Canadian Press.

The next book in the series is A Red Herring Without Mustard, releasing in 2011. I’m looking forward to it.

Here’s a video trailer for The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, to introduce you to Flavia. The voice is perfect. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVkxr7e9YGs]

Review copy purchased from Kobo Books and enjoyed on my Aluratek Libre e-reader.

Introverts and Extroverts

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If introverts recharge their strength by being alone, and extroverts draw their energy from being around others, aren’t Christians designed to be ‘God-verts’? Theo-verts, if we want to keep with the Latin theme?

Drawing our strength from God, whether alone or in a group…. He’s an unending power supply.

Isaiah says “…those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength.” (Isaiah 40:31a, NIV)

Gladwell Musau of Rainbow Gulf of Love shared some key insights this week in her post, “Encourage Yourself in the Lord“. Check it out–you’ll be blessed.

Happy Ending to a Long Story

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God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels.
2 Thessalonians 1:6-7, NIV*

I love happy endings. They can make even the most difficult story worthwhile. Sometimes it’s a hard slog to get there, but at last things work out.

Around the world, people are suffering. Christians aren’t the only ones, but they’re doing their share In North America, Christians have it easy: we’re only treated as irrelevant or repressive. (Some of that we’ve earned, but that’s another story.)

In Paul’s day, the believers in Thessalonica were suffering because of their faith The verses I shared above were to give them hope, but also to give them perspective: help is on the way, just hang on until He gets here

It looks like they expected Jesus to return any day and wrap things up. Good thing they didn’t know we’d still be waiting in 2010! But He is coming, when the Author and Finisher of our faith declares that the time is right.

I don’t understand everything in the Bible, but I’ve read the end of the Book: we win. Revelation chapters 21-22 are some of my favourite passages. After all the hardship, suffering and false turns, we’ll reach the end—and what a glorious end it will be!

Father, thank You for Your Holy Spirit—God with us, who strengthens and keeps us in the hard times. Help us fix our eyes and hearts on You and live by faith. Thank You that we have Your promises, including Your promise that in the end we’ll be with You.

∞

“Reading to the end of the book” brought to mind a song I hadn’t heard in years. Here’s Michael W. Smith with “End of the Book.” This is a long concert clip, and the first half is a cool instrumental piece. If you’re short on time, slide the progress button over to the three-minute mark. Prepare yourself for a trip back to 1985….

Review: The Real Enemy, by Kathy Herman

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The Real Enemy, by Kathy Herman (David C. Cook, 2009)

As the first female chief of police in the town of Sophie Trace, Brill Jessup expects to have to prove her worth. She doesn’t expect citizens to start disappearing before the paint is dry on her office walls. Now she’s dealing with a territorial sheriff , the FBI, and a panicky town council… not to mention the local superstitions.

It does keep her from having to spend much time with her husband, Kurt, but she knows it’s hard on their daughter, Emily.

Brill is understandably angry over her husband’s one night of infidelity. They’ve agreed to stay together for Emily, but Brill has no interest in rebuilding the marriage.

The novel opens with Brill on the defensive at work and bitter towards her husband—not a sympathetic heroine. She’s very good at her job (the nickname “Brill” is short for “brilliant”) but I found the strength of her anger kept me from really connecting. Kurt is almost too nice, on the other hand. His goal is to overcome the evil he’s caused with good. (The novel’s theme verse is Romans 12:21.)

Nine-year-old Emily (the older kids are away at university) is serious and well-spoken for her age, but there are children like that—and I think her parents’ struggle has matured her beyond her years.

I always enjoy Kathy Herman’s novels, for the suspense and for the relationships. She draws believable characters, and it was partly on the strength of this knowledge that I was comfortable sticking with Brill through the opening pages. I’m glad I did, because I really enjoyed the novel.

The Real Enemy is the first in Kathy Herman’s new Sophie Trace series, and I’m looking forward to reading book 2, The Last Word, and book 3, The Right Call. You can read the prologue and first chapter of The Real Enemy here, and learn more about Kathy here.

Review copy from my personal library.

What If, and Stepping Stones

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Last Friday I said there were only a few blogs I get as daily emails. The rest I catch up on as I can through Bloglines.

It’s been a very full week (including a weekend at the Sunrise Division Barbershop competition where my husband’s and father-in-law’s chorus and quartet did very well!) Suffice to say, I got behind in those daily readings. I wanted to actually read them, not skim-and-delete.

Yesterday I caught up on posts at Whatever He Says. As always, Belinda and Susan gave me plenty to think about. It started with Belinda’s post, “What If…”–not “what if a certain thing happened” but “what if I made certain choices?”–and actually thinking through how to make and implement those choices.

Susan followed that post with one called “More on ‘What If'” and also talked about stepping stones–crossing a river on the stones Jesus pointed out, ignoring others that looked solid too.

Why not set aside some time, pour a cup of tea or other nice treat, and check these out? Then follow through the rest of them to get up to date and you’ll see some encouraging examples of what this what if/stepping stones can look like in action. I particularly recommend Susan’s “Friday Report” posted today. It’s a bit long, but it’s worth taking the time. She takes it beyond the ordering of daily activities to the working out of new behaviours and attitudes. I’ll need to read it again a few times over the days ahead. Some of us are slow processors!