Tag Archives: Without Proof

Labour Day Weekend Ebook Sale

Without Proof only $2.99 for Kindle, Kobo, iTunes, Nook... ends Sept. 4/18. #Christianfiction #romanticsuspense #cleanreads
Looking for some long weekend reading? Without Proof is only $2.99 for Kindle, Kobo, Nook, and iTunes until Sept. 4/18. (Sorry this sale only applies in Canada and the US.)

Yes, it’s book 3 in my Redemption’s Edge series, but it reads well as a stand-alone 🙂

Buy links: my book page or books2read.com/without-proof.

Without Proof: bonus features

What if the plane crash that killed Amy’s fiancé was sabotage? Asking questions could cost her life—and ruin her second chance at love.

Since the ebook version of my romantic suspense novel, Without Proof, is on sale at 99 cents until Valentine’s Day, I thought I’d share some bonus material that’s hiding on my site. Actually, it’s not hidden well, since most of the links are all on the book page, but otherwise, it’s scattered.

Here’s one of the pictures in the Without Proof photo album post (click here for the rest):

Looking to the left, they'd have seen the iconic lighthouse, surrounded by tourists.

Peggy’s Cove, Nova Scotia. Photo credit: Janet Sketchley

Meet the characters:

  • Amy Silver, heroine and artist’s assistant
  • Michael Stratton, Amy’s very protective friend and boss
  • Aunt Bay, who’d like to talk some sense into both of them
  • More characters: a student, hotel owner, grieving father, and the journalist whose questions started it all

Without Proof on Pinterest.

Recipe: Aunt Bay’s Oatmeal Brown BreadOatmeal Brown Bread Recipe: to see the directions in print, follow the link to the Country at Heart Recipes post

Check out the Without Proof playlist: YouTube (music that complements the characters and theme)

Song list:

    • “Come as You Are” by Crowder
    • “Always” by the Newsboys
    • “Say You Need Love” by the Newsboys
    • “What Are You Waiting For?” by Nickelback
    • “Let it All Come Out” by the Newsboys
    • “The Letter” by the Newsboys
    • “I Belong” by Kathryn Scott
    • “My New Name” by Todd Agnew (belongs in the playlist, but there’s no YouTube link)
    • “Child of God” by Kathryn Scott
    • “Yours to Hold” by Skillet (Michael’s song for Amy)
    • “A Friend Like You” by Geoff Moore and The Distance (Michael’s and Gilles’ song)

Don’t know what the story’s about?

“Asking questions could cost your life.”

Two years after the plane crash that killed her fiancé, Amy Silver has fallen for his best friend, artist Michael Stratton. When a local reporter claims the small aircraft may have been sabotaged, it reopens Amy’s grief.

Anonymous warnings and threats are Amy’s only proof that the tragedy was deliberate, and she has nowhere to turn. The authorities don’t believe her, God is not an option, and Michael’s protection is starting to feel like a cage.

How will Amy find the truth?

Michael’s feisty great-aunt and the dead man’s university-student sister are the other key players in this Christian romantic suspense set in Nova Scotia, Canada.

Buy your copy at your favourite online retailer. This link should take you there: books2read.com/without-proof.

99-cent Ebook: Romantic Suspense for Valentine’s Day


99-cent ebook sale Feb. 6-14, 2017 #romanticsuspense #Christianfiction #cleanreads Without Proof
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Without Proof Photo Album

I’ve shared photos before of things my characters might have seen in Secrets and Lies, and today I have a few images from Without Proof. If you’ve read the novel, you’ll know that Amy’s estranged father wants to be part of her life, but there’s a lot of hurt for her to get past first. When he visits Nova Scotia, once she agrees to meet him, they spend part of a day prowling some of the local tourist sites to avoid the awkwardness of sitting and making conversation.

A natural spot for them to visit is Peggy’s Cove, which is not too far from where Amy lives and which is the home of perhaps the most photographed lighthouse in Canada. Here’s a brief tour:

Wooden bench on the rocks at Peggy's Cove

Amy and Neal may have sat on this bench when they shared a brief heart-to-heart.

View from the bench: plenty of ocean, with the rock-lined edge of a roadway in the foreground.

Looking straight ahead, this is what they might have seen, if the wind was calm that day.

The iconic Peggy's Cove lighthouse, surrounded by tourists.

Looking to the left, they’d have seen the iconic lighthouse, surrounded by tourists. Yes, this whole area is essentially a collection of huge rocks with a few plants growing wherever they can.

Peggy's Cove Fisherman's Monument, carved by William E. deGarthe

Amy pointed out the Fisherman’s Monument to Neal. The monument was carved by William E. deGarthe, and if you click the image, the link will take you to more information. As I said, the rocks are everywhere. So too are persistent plants. In the lower right-hand corner are wild rose bushes, and you can see grass and a few trees as well.

Wild rose growing in a crack of a granite boulder

Trivia point: the background image of my website is a huge chunk of Peggy’s Cove granite with a tenacious wild rose blooming in a crack. Here’s a smaller version of the image.

If you walked up to the restaurant and out onto the point, you’d see a greater expanse of boulders that project like hills into the sea. People love to clamber across the rocks, although, tragically, some venture onto the slippery black rocks where the water comes, and get swept into the ocean. I didn’t include that part of the locale in our photo tour, nor the restaurant and shops, because how many pictures do you really want to look at? And I didn’t include a shot of the gourmet ice cream sold on-site, because that would have just been cruel. 🙂

If you haven’t read the novel and want to know more (it’s Christian romantic suspense), check out the Without Proof book page.

[All photos on this page are my own, taken by me.]

Novel Research: the fun and the strange

“What’s the strangest tidbit you discovered in researching your novel?”

That’s a question I like to ask other writers in interviews. Or, “what’s the most interesting thing you learned,” or “what was the most fun to research?”

Today I’m asking myself those questions. Writing suspense novels means most of what I research is unpleasant. Sometimes I even wonder if someone in a uniform will show up at my door to take away my laptop. I try to get the difficult topics out of the way first, so I can reward myself with the lighter things.

So… here’s what I’d call the most fun… and the strangest:

Heaven’s Prey: most fun: definitely the racing. In the name of research, I attended the movie Kart Racer, about a boy learning to race competive go-karts. Much later in the process, I discovered a slew of online videos on driving tips and engine sounds.

Secrets and Lies: most fun: spending a day with my husband, visiting the Centre Island Park where Carol and Joey picnicked in the novel.

Paddleboard and sailboat as seen from Toronto's Island park.

Carol and Joey may have seen views like this.

Without Proof: strangest: causes of small plane crashes. In all seriousness, plane crashes are not funny. People get hurt or killed, costly damage happens. But setting the tragedy aside momentarily, some of the circumstances of these accidents are highly amusing. My favourite, I think, is the crocodile incident as described below:

A passenger brought aboard a crocodile hidden in a sports bag. The crocodile escaped, causing a panic among passengers who all rushed to one end of the plane. This caused an imbalance in the aircraft which led to loss of control and a crash.
[source: http://www.planecrashinfo.com/unusual.htm]

The article at the PlaneCrashInfo.com site is lengthy, but it’s an interesting history of unusual accidents from 1933 to 2010. Some are sabotage, others are stupidity. If you’re so inclined, there’s a lot more things to check out on the site.

What about my new series? The crime and health resources would give spoilers for the books, and they’ve been neither fun nor strange so far. One thing I’ve been looking at is dory photos, to find out what the boat looks like in front of the Green Dory Inn. (The boat’s not seaworthy, and the owner has turned it into a flower garden.)

Oh — and what I think may be the most fun research? I’d like to know what the best chocolate dessert is in the Town of Lunenburg, and where it’s available. Who says research can’t be hands-on?

Without Proof Short-listed for Award

Without Proof [Redemption's Edge 3]The Word Awards short-list is out, for work published in 2015. I’m excited that Without Proof is one of the three novels in the Suspense category.

I’ve read the other two novels in that category, and they’re excellent reads: Shadow of a Butterfly, by J.A. Menzies, and Desperate Measures, by Sandra Orchard.

You can see the full list of books, articles, songs etc here: The Word Awards short-list. Results will be announced in June.

On the Wonder of Flying

Last week I had the opportunity to share a guest post at the Castle Gate Press blog, on a “behind the scenes” aspect of writing Without Proof.

Flying has always caught at my imagination, and this post let me chat about how it led to the small plane flight in the novel. You can read it here: Behind the Scenes: Author Janet Sketchley and the Wonder of Flying.

Without Proof: the Playlist

Each of the Redemption’s Edge novels has an associated soundtrack in my head. For Secrets and Lies, it may have leaked into readers’ heads, too, because the novel is full of references to songs. For Heaven’s Prey and Without Proof, the music isn’t mentioned by name, but my imagination links certain songs with certain characters or situations.

Here’s my playlist for Without Proof: music that complements the characters and theme. Below the YouTube screen, I’ve listed each title and artist. Most connect with Amy’s identity struggles, but there’s also Michael’s song for Amy and what I think of as Michael’s and Gilles’ song from back in the day. Scroll down and have a look 🙂

Without Proof playlist:
Come as You Are” by Crowder
Always” by the Newsboys
Say You Need Love” by the Newsboys
What Are You Waiting For?” by Nickelback
Let it All Come Out” by the Newsboys
The Letter” by the Newsboys
I Belong” by Kathryn Scott
“My New Name” by Todd Agnew (not in the YouTube mix… I couldn’t find it there)
Child of God” by Kathryn Scott
Yours to Hold” by Skillet (Michael’s song for Amy)
A Friend Like You” by Geoff Moore and The Distance (Michael’s and Gilles’ song)

Oatmeal Brown Bread

Each novel in my Redemption’s Edge series has a recipe that’s significant to one of the characters. For Without Proof, it’s Aunt Bay’s brown bread, which is suspiciously like my adaptation of Grammie W’s…

For the rest of the story, head over to Country at Heart Recipes.

Oatmeal Brown Bread Recipe: to see the directions in print, follow the link to the Country at Heart Recipes post

Without Proof: Christmas Prologue

Whether or not you’ve read my new romantic suspense, Without Proof, here’s a short peek into Amy’s world that first Christmas after the plane crash:

Without Proof [Redemption's Edge 3]One of Amy’s spun glass Christmas angels twisted on its golden thread, sparkling in the tree lights. Of the original six, five remained, treasured links to her childhood.

Michael and his great-aunt had invited her to add a few ornaments to the bushy spruce he’d brought home this afternoon. Another thoughtful gesture in a string of kindnesses they’d shown her since the plane crash.

Amy inhaled the pungent sharpness of a real tree. She’d had a tabletop artificial one when she lived alone, and in the excitement of wedding plans, she and Gilles hadn’t thought ahead to Christmas.

Now it was moot. Amy’s fiancé lay in a frozen cemetery while she took refuge with his best friend.

Her injuries were healing. Her heart, not so much.

[To read the rest, click here: Without Proof Bonus Christmas Prologue.pdf.]