On Mother’s Day, we honour mothers. It is a beautiful celebration of this gift from God called parenthood. We say happy Mother’s Day because mothering to the glory of God is difficult but marvelous.
Here are the three that made me a mom and the two moms God gave me.
But Mother’s Day can be painful for many, so I also hold space for those who have lost a mother, long to be a mother, never got to hold their little one, or have lost a child. God sees you, loves you, and knows you.
Happy Mother’s Day to all spiritual mothers reaping eternal rewards for the kingdom.
Dec 1st is the big release day for The Sycamore Slopes!
The early reviews are in, and readers are saying:
The characters are really well done, with realistic strengths and flaws and motives behind their action and reactions.
The story is compelling and emotional on several levels.
This is a fun and mysterious story. It was great and pulled me in right away.
Did not disappoint!
Filled with everyday struggles, a little bit of mystery, & faith in God to work things according to His plan.
Dimensional characters, even most of the secondary characters.
great world-building
engaging and well-written, kept me reading.
Some favourite quotes early readers have marked:
“The average person would never guess all they had endured to get to this happy spot. But that’s the way it often was.”
Chapter 1
“Without details, history might repeat itself. God wouldn’t allow something so cruel. Except maybe He would. Because He had. Nothing occurred that God hadn’t allowed.”
Chapter 3
“The more she hoped, the greater the risk of disappointment. The pessimistic route was safer. Yet, her cheeks warmed. She couldn’t stop the lurch in her heart. Her thumb rubbed against the backside of the fourth digit on her ringless left hand. Nothing good came from running ahead of God.”
Chapter 4
“Emma hated that a stupid hill could divide them and trickle down to split others. All the way to a fifth grade classroom.”
Chapter 4
“She showed me that the only One able to right the wrongs we face on the earth had to die in order to do it and rose to new life to secure eternity for those who believe.”
The woman he hoped might mother his children destroyed a family today.
Ben Sawyer gives the vulnerable a voice and strives to protect them, but he can’t stop the avalanche of trouble descending on his nephew. His strongest opponent isn’t the grumpy Grinch stirring up the community, but the one person he believed would always side with him: Nurse Practitioner Emma Powles.
Emma Powles is busy in her newly established medical clinic. When she treats the suspicious injuries of a local child, she’s forced to intervene for the girl’s safety. Her actions rouse traumatic memories in Ben, and their relationship might not survive.
The battle lines are drawn as the fallout from sledding and skating accidents fills Emma’s clinic. Families are changed forever, and the fight to control Sycamore Hill heats up.
Small-town charm, a faith-filled community, and a high-stakes love story make The Sycamore Slopes perfect for Karen Kingsbury and Deborah Raney fans.
Click the buy now button for a compelling romance with a dash of family drama, small-town politics, and powerful themes of overcoming.
Today is the big day! To Sweet Beginnings in Sycamore Hill releases! This is the first fiction title for Grace and Love Publishing, and I am giddy with excitement. To Sweet Beginnings in Sycamore Hillis a short story sequence (also known as a short story cycle). This is different than a short story.
A short story sequence is a collection of short stories, but each story can stand alone while also building to an ending best understood and appreciated when you read the stories as a collection or group. There is an increasing tension as the reader makes story connections. This is the first short story sequence I’ve written, and it was a fun challenge.
In the sequence, To Sweet Beginnings in Sycamore Hill, you’ll meet Owen and Gloria, Ethan and Kathryn, Ben and Emma, Eli and Meg, and Jackson and Kim. (Each couple has an entire short novel dedicated to them that will release within the next 12 months. The first, The Sycamore Standoff, is up for preorder now!)
During a time when life feels a bit chaotic and out of control, I find escaping to Sycamore Hill a sweet reprieve. A few second chance romances develop that warm your heart, some family drama plays out, the past resurfaces, and tensions get high, but—SPOILER—every couple finds their happy ending because right now, we could all use a happy ending.
Read To Sweet Beginnings in Sycamore Hill, be encouraged, entertained, and filled with hope. Not hope in the right earthly relationship but hope in the Lord.
Sycamore Hill’s prodigal daughter returns, shaking up the small town, righting a wrong, and finding the faith and family she’d lost along the way. Gloria hasn’t returned to Sycamore Hill since her university declared her guilty of cheating. She’d lost more than her home that day; she’d lost her faith in humanity. But when a questionable drug study with ties to the university endangers the residents of a Sycamore Hill ministry, Gloria can no longer remain quiet. She returns to town, and Owen—the town’s unmarried pastor and the only person who believed in her innocence—helps her to finally and truly come home.
Ethan and Kathryn: Thursday 11:59 p.m.
When you mix two former sweethearts, one missing recipe, and a dash of secrecy, what do you get? A recipe for romance! Kathryn took something that belongs to Ethan. Correction. It belongs to his family. Taking it back isn’t stealing, and letting himself into Kathryn’s house to get it is not breaking and entering if he has a key. However, Kathryn’s not a thief. She’d found Ethan’s recipe. But when her actions threaten to spoil Ethan’s bakery, they whip up a solution on Kathryn’s internet morning show, Sycamore Hill at Sunrise.
Ben and Emma:Friday3:00 a.m.
God closes a door, but He opens a skylight, entwining Ben and Emma’s future in the twilight hours of a winter’s eve. Nursing school made dating impossible for Emma, and now that she finally had time to think about a relationship, the pickings were slim, especially in a small town like Sycamore Hill. She’d begun petitioning the Lord to drop Mr. Right into her life, ideally before a black-tie gala fundraiser. She couldn’t bear the idea of attending alone—again. When Ben—a local reporter—chases the scoop of a lifetime, he falls painfully into Emma’s kitchen. With a whistleblower about to rip the lid off a scandal that’ll put the small town on the map, Ben needs Emma’s help to follow the career-making lead and protect the residents of Sycamore Hill.
Eli and Meg:Friday 7:35 a.m.
At some point, a girl has to stop running and fight. Eli is willing to help Meg, but how can he fight an unknown enemy? Eli and Meg trained together every morning to prepare for an annual road race. When Meg is uncharacteristically late on race day, Eli knows in his gut that something is wrong. He finds Meg facing her greatest fear, and Eli thrusts himself between her and an aggressive dog. However, when Meg passes up an opportunity to escape to safety, he realizes no one in Sycamore Hill really knows Meg at all.
Jackson and Kim:Friday, 6:00 p.m. and Saturday morning
Kimdidn’t want to like her ex’s twin brother, but how could she not like the man returning her son? Kim doesn’t have the mental headspace to host the black-tie gala on the eve of her abducted son’s homecoming, but she must. As she grapples with conflicting emotions about the morning reunion, she clings to the message of Christmas: God with us. Returning his nephew to Canada destroyed Jackson’s relationship with his twin brother. And after all his brother had put Kim through, she might not welcome the continued presence of Jackson or his parents in Sycamore Hill. Sorting out the legalities won’t be easy, but the right thing rarely is. Jackson will do what is right, whatever the personal cost, trusting the message of the season.
Weary. That single word captures the last two years. Losses piled upon losses as creation claws its way out of a worldwide event that has left many of us weary right down to the bones.
It’s with worn and troubled hearts that we enter the holiday season. We are exhausted souls. We are determined to celebrate amid desperate circumstances, believing there’s peace in the hardship because that is the message of Christmas. Christ comes for the broken and weary.
That’s why the books in the Mistletoe Meadows Anthology tackle deep themes of what it means to offer sacrifices of praise to the God who gives and takes away. The stories stir all of the warm and fuzzy holiday feelings we love but also dig into the issues pressing the air from our lungs—issues about survival, hardship, and suffering while not growing weary of doing good (Gal 6:9). These stories are not about making the hard seem jolly and bright. They are about a victory secured on our behalf, hope in the hardship, and joy in the suffering.
It’s my prayer that the Mistletoe Meadows Anthology will lead us to rejoice because God made a way through our soul-crushing brokenness. Christmas proves that God knows about our greatest need. Christmas makes a way out from under the heap of wrath poured onto all sinners. Christmas is our way through.
God rips open the heavens, and the angels proclaim that salvation has come. The flesh-wrapped Deity bears the brokenness suffocating you and me. He pieces us back together with His perfection. He doesn’t always change our circumstances, but He always changes us. Christ has come, and He invites us to follow Him from the manger all the way to the cross—where a weary world can finally lay its burden down.
I try to get into BookSweeps when the categories are appropriate for my writing. The spring promotional, Light in the Dark: Inspirational Mysteries, Thrillers & Suspense was such a fantastic fit for Fatal Homecoming that I jumped at the chance to enter. If you like to enter contests, check out the link. The prize includes Fatal Homecoming and several other titles AND an e-reader! The contest runs from April 26-May 5.
Maybe, you’re like me, and you don’t enter too many contests. And maybe you are wondering what a book with a title like Fatal Homecoming has to do with light of any kind.
The themes explored in my stories always relate to our faith. I’m not sure if you noticed 1 Cor 2:2 on my website homepage, “I’ve decided to show nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” This is my anchor when I write, even when I write books with titles like Fatal Homecoming.
As Jessie Berns slogs through dangerous valleys in Fatal Homecoming, she comes to realize that she does not have to endure her valleys alone. Despite the absence of her physical family, God has provided a friend. Rick Chandler will not only walk with her, but he will face death to protect her. And even better than that – God will never leave her.
I don’t know what kind of valley you face, and I cannot speak into how God might resolve things for you. But I encourage you to resist the lie that you must endure your hardship alone. Find your people. Find the faith community that will walk with you, encourage you, and prepare you to stand before the Lord.
FLASH SALE:
In Too Deep
99 cents from April 29-May 1st through Pelican Book Group ONLY.
A cautious lifeguard and an adventurous camp director face a saboteur determined to destroy the camp.
Winner of the 2018 Word Awards for Best Christian Romance!
99 cents from April 29-May 1st through Pelican Book Group ONLY.
School secretary, Miranda Wilkins is thrilled when Paul Green walks into her life. The handsome gym coach is everything she wants in a man–except for one problem. He’s stopped trusting in a loving God.
Due to a mild illness, Grandma Mandy sends her young friend, Jason, to meet her granddaughter, Lissa, when she arrives in New Mexico. Lissa’s attraction to him is immediate. Yet she refuses to be tempted into romance with a man in a creative profession. She knows from experience that the insecurity of his job would cause her stress. She has worked too hard, even at the expense of a guilty secret, to be the only one making a living. Nonetheless, they are brought together because of their mutual tie with Lissa’s grandmother and Lissa finds it increasingly hard to deny her growing interest in Jason. Will she be able to ignore the attraction or will her heart lead her down the path of love? Jason also experiences an instant attraction to Lissa. However, his experience with his previous career woman girlfriend left him wary. Her devotion to her job often came before spending time with him. Can he take the chance that Lissa will be different? Does she share his devotion to God? If he takes a chance with her, will she break his heart?
There are more FREE titles on kecogan.blog and Made for Each Other is available through other providers.
Karen publisher has also put on sale Forget Me Not as a bonus for this promotion. You can find Forget Me Not
In an effort to avoid a matchmaking nightmare Heather RSVP’s two for her cousin’s wedding, without a date. Three days before the wedding, her pesky co-worker, Jake, with an obnoxious crush on her agrees to go as her fake date. Will Heather survive the evening, or even possibly see there’s more to Jake than meets the eye?
I’ve spent much of March editing my latest suspense novel, and since I’m in the mystery/suspense mood, I decided it was the perfect time to partner with other authors and offer a steep discount. (Make sure you check out Fatal Homecoming – it’s only $0.99 American currency.)
This link below will take you to a handful of Christian suspense titles that are also on sale for $0.99 (US dollars). You won’t want to miss these! The sale runs from March 24th – April 6th, so get them while you can!
