Jan Thompson

USA Today Bestselling Author

InspyRomance blog

A Thankful Heart (InspyRomance November Blog)

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I’m blogging at InspyRomance today about thankfulness and the callings of God in our lives. A random reader who comments will get a free ebook from me. Check it out.

A Thankful Heart blog post: https://wp.me/p47ZZG-83O

Do you know what your calling in life is? Has it changed over the years? Do you think that there are some callings that don’t ever change?

Here we are in the weeks between the Canadian Thanksgiving (October) and the American Thanksgiving (November). During this Thanksgiving season, I think about the many things I am thankful to God for, the many near-misses He has delivered me from (some of the “saves” are probably unknown to me until I get to heaven), and the wonderful blessings that God has poured out on us as Christians. Blessings to overflowing, and blessings upon blessings.

Which leads me back to my initial question. Dear friend, what has God called you to do? In your own heart, do you know if you’re closer to achieving it or if you’re still struggling along?

Regardless of our individual callings, God has called us to be thankful:

“In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you” (I Thessalonians 5:18).

As I was thinking about being thankful to God as I press on toward His upward call for my life to write Christian books, I made a list of three points of thankfulness:

  1. Always thank God.
  2. Always praise God.
  3. Always remember God.

Regardless of how far along we are in our journey, we can go so much farther if we are thankful to God for everything. When we obey God, we have peace, and our hearts are filled with gratitude.

What are you most thankful for? Whom are you most grateful for? Feel free to comment.

If you’re the USA, I wish you and your family a very happy and blessed Thanksgiving coming up at the end of the month!

Happy Thanksgiving month, everyone!

Thanking God for my salvation in Jesus Christ,
Jan Thompson

Seaside Chapel Music (InspyRomance Blog)

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Do you like music? Listen to it a lot? Sing? Play an instrument?

As you may know, I blog once a month at InspyRomance, where a few dozen contemporary Christian authors gather to chat with our readers and potential readers. Check out my blog post for October 2019.

https://www.inspyromance.com/seaside-chapel-music

In my blog post, I featured my Seaside Chapel series, which is filled with music and instruments of the orchestra. Books 1-2 have been out a while, and Lord willing, Book 3 will be out soon.

“Praise ye the Lord. Sing unto the Lord a new song, and His praise in the congregation of saints” (Psalm 149:1, KJV).

My Seaside Chapel series has an undertone of music, featuring a local area classical orchestra and a small church orchestra. While these two entities are a figment of my imagination, I chose a real life setting by the Atlantic Ocean. One of my most favorite beaches is St. Simon’s Island on the coast of Georgia, USA. Superimposing my imagined story world into a real world setting has been the most delightful and fun thing ever that this author can do.

In Share with Me:

“Sing unto Him a new song; play skilfully with a loud noise” (Psalm 33:3, KJV).

In Share with Me (Seaside Chapel Book 1), Ivan McMillan is a crossover violinist with a concert career in front of him until his grandfather dies and he goes home to St. Simon’s Island to take care of his elderly Grandma Yun.

For the next six years, Ivan busies himself teaching violin in a studio, playing first violin in the local symphony orchestra, and serving as a violinist at Seaside Chapel’s sanctuary orchestra. Every now and then he dreams of touring the world again, but those concert days are pretty much over for him.

In the same novel but only playing the piano occasionally, billionaire heiress Brinley Brooks has inherited quite a collection of musical instruments from her now-deceased Grandpa Brooks. She keeps those expensive violins in a vault that is rarely opened. The violins are precious to her because they once belonged to her grandfather. She cannot imagine anyone playing them… Except maybe one particular musician…

In Share with Me, Brinley gets embarrassed a little bit when she tries to play a classical piece she hasn’t practiced, but she knows that her parents won’t mind her mistakes at the keyboard because they love her anyway.

In Step with Me:

“I will sing a new song unto Thee, O God: upon a psaltery and an instrument of ten strings will I sing praises unto Thee” (Psalm 144:9, KJV)).

The next novel in the series, Step with Me (Seaside Chapel Book 2), has more orchestral music. This time, I feature the pedal harp, another lovely string instrument found in orchestras. While my musician character, Emmeline O’Hanlon, can play several types of harps, including the Irish and lap harps, her preference is for the pedal harp. Her father taught her and her older brother to play the harp. The two siblings also compose music. Actually, her brother will get his own book, but that’s another story I will tell soon.

Sing with Me (Seaside Chapel Book 3) will be coming soon. Preorder the novel now on Amazon!

 

How long does it take to write a book?

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For my August blog post at InspyRomance.com, I asked some of my author friends how long it takes them to write some of their books. Find out what they say in today’s blog post.

http://www.inspyromance.com/how-long-does-it-take-to-write-a-book-and-giveaway

As for me, my latest novel, Call You Home, has taken me a few years to complete, from draft to polished book. From the time I wrote Know You More, the first book in the Savannah Sweethearts series, back in 2014-2015, I knew that chef and restaurateur Piper Peyton was going to get her own book. Unfortunately she had to wait ten Savannah Sweethearts years, or four real life years, before her story is published.

I outlined Call You Home in 2016, wrote the draft entirely by pen on paper in 2016-2017, took a hiatus in 2018, and then I began revising it in 2019. When I was done with the book, it went to my copyeditor-proofreader, plus two other proofreaders, and also a few of my trusted early readers. From concept to publication-ready, it spanned three years of my life.

I am giving away a copy of my latest novel, Call You Home (Savannah Sweethearts Book 10) to a random commenter, so stop by and don’t miss out on the giveaway!

Joyfully in Jesus,
Jan Thompson

Art Imitating Life? Life Imitating Art?

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Once a month, I blog at InspyRomance, where I talk about random writerly things or about my books. This time, I mentioned two books in the Savannah Sweethearts series: Wish You Joy (Book 9) and Call You Home (Book 10). Check it out:

Jan’s July 2019 Blog at InspyRomance:

https://www.inspyromance.com/art-imitating-life-life-imitating-art-and-giveaway

If you haven’t preordered Book 10, it’s releasing on July 16, 2019. It’s almost 83,000 words long. Buy it on Amazon or read it via your Kindle Unlimited subscription.

Call You Home (Savannah Sweethearts Book 10): JanThompson.com/call-amazon

Happy reading!

Joyfully in Jesus,
Jan Thompson

Twenty-Twenty Hindsight (InspyRomance Blog)

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Today I am blogging at InspyRomance about twenty-twenty hindsight in both real life and in my story world

http://inspyromance.com/twenty-twenty-hindsight

Check it out. Comment to be entered into a giveaway. This time, I am featuring my book Find You Again (Savannah Sweethearts Book 8).

Here are some of my own comments from the post.

In response to someone saying that they don’t like to look back in their lives and feel “down” here is what I said:

Yes, as they say, that is why God puts eyes in front of our head (and not at the back so we’re not looking backwards as we walk forward).

I think it’s wonderful that you never look back. In fact, I also don’t, but for the purpose of evaluating how far God has brought us, I think it’s healthy for me to analyze where I could have been had God not rescued me. For example, if God hadn’t saved me, I don’t know what kind of life I would be leading now in the secular world. Because God saved me almost 30 years ago now, I have peace and joy in Jesus Christ.

Authors tend to be known for thinking about a bazillion “what ifs” for their characters. The “what ifs” are even more pronounced and expanded in other genres such as mystery and suspense, but in contemporary Christian fiction, there are also “what ifs.” That’s how this blog post began, as I mentioned. 🙂

And Roger Patel… When I wrote Find You Again (Savannah Sweethearts Book 8), I felt sorry for him because I had to give him a backstory. Readers who read Books 1-3 would know that Roger is human, even though sometimes Pastor Flores asks him to preach on Sunday nights. In Book 2, Ming was a bit upset that Roger was interested in “his girl” even before she was ever Ming’s girl LOL. But when I outlined the Savannah Sweethearts series some 4-5 years ago, I knew that Roger had something he had to deal with from his past.

I hope my blog doesn’t get “someone down” at all. I hope that we can look back at our lives and THANK GOD that by His mercy and grace, we made it! We have come this far in the palm of His loving hands, underneath His everlasting arms.

In response to someone saying that she met her husband in college:

Praise the Lord that He does bring people together for such a time as that. Isn’t it incredible how God worked out everything way back then! When I was going to college, I could have gone to several. I had scholarship in one state, my aunt lived in another state, but in the sovereignty of God, He led my father to choose the college I eventually went to, that didn’t give me a scholarship. But when I got there, I met a bunch of Christians and then I trusted Jesus as my Lord and Savior. Even though it was a secular college, God sent Christians there, and I got saved. Romans 8:28 again. Had I gone to another college, perhaps the story would have been different. I know God pursues you regardless of where you go, but the timing was perfect for me. God knew it.

In response to someone saying things can be outside their control:

Isn’t God amazing! God is good all the time, for sure. I do believe that God does orchestrate all our circumstances (as I mentioned in the blog re: Romans 8:28) and works out all the details for our good. Indeed, I remind myself to surrender my daily life to God and let Him filter my daily activities through His capable hands. God knows best. He is the Potter, and I am the clay. There is calm and peace in the palm of His hands.

In response to a few people saying they dare not or don’t want to look back:

Speaking for myself, it’s sometimes hard to look back and see what went on and how God delivered me through various situations, both big and small.

A small example is this: One time I was running late for a meeting because I got caught in a super heavy traffic. I regretted not adding 30 minutes to my drive (knowing that I have never gone to that city, and who knows, I might have gotten lost, even with GPS). So I was regretting not having left sooner. In any case, I prayed all the way over there. And lo and behold! There was ONE SPOT right in front of the front door! Just for me – haha! I knew God’s mercy overflowed that day, and you can be sure I was going THANK YOU GOD the whole way in.

So to answer my own question: I wish I had left the house sooner for the meeting since I had no idea if I would run into traffic BUT God’s mercy rescued me by giving me that parking spot closest to the front door so I wasn’t too late and people were still coming in after I got there.

On a bigger scale, sneak peek into the future (we know this!): There is always a happy ending in Jesus Christ!

And this:

Yes, for sure, we have to be careful not to “regret” on things that God has already delivered us through. God has already dealt with the past, and while we can look back objectively to see how God has rescued us “out of the miry pit,” I wouldn’t want to walk back (or fall back) into it.

Of course, as authors we have great imagination. Good reminder not to go on wild speculations. For example, something out on the left field like: What could have happened had I gone to college (university) in England (or Australia or Japan or anywhere else), for example, rather than in the USA. But I can see all through my life how God has led me all the way. He makes streams in the desert!

“…for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert” (Isaiah 35:6).

Ultimately, to God be the glory!

In response to someone who doesn’t like me asking people if they have regrets (although I did say make sure to say how God has delivered you from them):

I’m glad that you’re helping others move forward, and absolutely, I agree that each of us has different spiritual gifts, and we have to be careful how we exercise those gifts.

“So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another. Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith; Or ministry, let us wait on our ministering: or he that teacheth, on teaching; Or he that exhorteth, on exhortation: he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity; he that ruleth, with diligence; he that sheweth mercy, with cheerfulness” (Romans 12:5-8).

Some of us can be emotionally affected when looking back at their own lives or when hearing about other people’s life stories. God has given them great compassion and their hearts are moved greatly when hearing about pain and sorrow.

OTOH, some of us can objectively look into our lives and see what’s what, analyze what happened, what the responses are, what God is teaching, what the lesson is, what the Bible says. But not everyone can do that without getting emotionally distraught over the past.

Thank you for the reminder that we are all created so uniquely and gifted with various gifts.

At the end of the day, praise the Lord that we have a Redeemer in Jesus Christ. God makes all things new. He makes streams in the desert. He is ultimately sovereign, and to God be all the glory!

And in reply again:

I don’t know how griping and complaining (about the past) can be edifying to both themselves and other Christians around them TBH. I recall that verse in the Bible saying not to let “the root of bitterness” spring up. Second guessing God or what He has cleaned up, fixed, repaired, and so forth is also not productive IMHO.

Good perspective, and indeed we do need to know “why we’re looking back” and not everyone can look at their past and not be hurt all over again. I think growing in the Lord will help. I am reminded of Paul, who was able to give a testimony of how far he had come in his walk before and after salvation in Christ. He was able to say what he had done, and how God had delivered him.

That was why the second part of my blog post today dealt with “BUT GOD” — that is, what did God do to deliver you from your past regrets.

In reply to someone who has much regrets:

God’s grace is always deeper still, regardless of where we have been or could have been. I do believe that God will never come up short. He is always ahead of us and works out all things for our good (Romans 8:28 indeed).

What a blessing it is to both you and your mom that you could take care of her. God honors it and great is your reward in heaven! When my own mom suffered the massive stroke some years ago, I wish that I could have been there to care for her for more than just the 3 weeks I was able to be away from my then young son. I had to leave Mom in God’s hands, and in the care of my brothers (who have their own lives). But God worked it all out, and to this day, I still wish I could see Mom more often, but she understands that it’s hard to travel back and forth over long distances. God knows our hearts.

Praise the Lord that you and I can look back to see that God has been faithful to us and our families, regardless of our circumstances, and that with God’s strength and in His joy, we can press on toward the upward call of Christ!

“But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ” (Philippians 3:7).

“I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:14).

I am reminded of Ivan McMillan in my novel, Share with Me (Seaside Chapel Book 1). I wrote the story some years ago, about a violinist who was on the verge of becoming world class famous, when suddenly his grandfather died and he had to return to his hometown to care for his widowed grandmother. In the process, he gave up his concert touring days, his band, his career, his dreams, his everything. He spent the next years struggling to pay off his grandfather’s debts, teaching violin in a small studio, and basically having a hard life. And that’s where my story begins.

And that’s where my story begins…

BUT GOD. God makes all the difference in his life, and also in mine.

You know, sometimes Christians look at their lives with tears of sorrow, when truly, our lives are our testimony to the faithfulness of God. He saved is through Jesus Christ. Our tears of joy should be a praise to the Lord of Heaven who has delivered us from the domain of darkness to the kingdom of light.

In Christ,
Jan Thompson

Reflections of an Empty-Nesting Christian Mother

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Today I’m blogging at InspyRomance for Mother’s Day weekend, in which I’m reflecting on experiencing motherhood, missing my own dear mom who lives on the other side of the world, and mentioning one of my Savannah Sweethearts books (the one about Amy going home to Savannah to see her mother and check on the family business in Wish You Joy).

https://www.inspyromance.com/reflections-of-an-empty-nesting-christian-mother

Happy Mother’s Day!

In Christ,
Jan Thompson