This week author Donna Schlachter shares a guest blog along with an excerpt from her recent release, Double Jeopardy. Stick around for a chance to win a copy of her book!

God is Like an Evergreen by Donna Schlachter

I love to walk in the woods in the fall, kicking the fallen leaves this way and that. The tree started out bare in the spring. As the seasons progress, leaves fill out the bareness, blossoms  attract insects, and, finally, the fruit appears, a wonder of creation. By winter, the fruit is gone, the leaves are dead, and the tree hibernates for another year. This reminds me so much of the world, striving for glamor and beauty. Always reaching for the top, never quite getting there. And if, they do get there, for most people, the only thing waiting for them at the end of this season of their life, is death.

In contrast stands the evergreen tree. Quiet, solid, not shouting the changing of the seasons, but merely whispering. Evergreens live much longer lives, and tend to withstand storms, drought, even forest fires, better than leaf trees. They are deeply rooted, and even when cut down or burnt, can spring new life from the old root. Green all year long, they bear fruit in all seasons.

Living a life with God is like that. The storms of life don’t destroy us, because we have our feet on a solid Rock, Jesus. We are called to bear good fruit at all times. We are destined for more than a mere season on this earth. We have been promised eternal life with the Father.

In Double Jeopardy, Becky and Zeke both learn that when they trust God and each other, when they stop listening to the lies in their heads and out of other’s mouths, they have a firm foundation to their relationship.

I hope you enjoy this excerpt. Keep reading to see how you can enter to win a free print or ebook.

Excerpt: Chapter 1

1880 Silver Valley, Colorado

Dead. Dead as her dreams and her hopes. Dead as a door-nail, as her mother would say.

Just thinking about the woman drove a steel rod through Becky Campbell’s slumping back. Perched on a chair in the sheriff’s office, she drew a deep breath, lifted her shoulders, and raised her chin a notch. She would not be like the woman who birthed her. Pretty and pampered. A silly socialite finding nothing better to do with her days than tea with the mayor’s spinster daughter or bridge with the banker’s wife.

No, she’d much rather be like her father. Adventuresome. Charismatic. Always on the lookout for the next big thing.

Now her breath came in a shudder, and down went her shoulders again. She tied her fingers into knots before looking up at the grizzled lawman across the desk from her. “There’s no chance there’s been a mistake in identification, is there?”

He slid open the top drawer of his desk and pulled out a pocket watch, a lapel pin, and a fountain pen, which he pushed across the desk to her. “He was pretty well-known around here. I’m really sorry, miss.”

Becky picked up the timepiece and flicked open the cover. Inside was a photograph of her family, taken about ten years earlier when she was a mere child of eight and Father stayed around long enough to sit still for the portrait. Her mother, petite and somber, and she, all ringlets and ribbons. She rubbed a finger across the engraving. To R. Love M. Always.

Yes, this was his.

And the lapel pin, a tiny silver basket designed to hold a sprig of baby’s breath or a miniature rosebud—a wedding gift from her mother twenty years before.

She looked up at the sheriff, tears blurring her vision. “And his ring?”

The lawman shook his head. “No ring. Not on his body or in his shack.”

“But he always wore it. Never took it off.”

He shrugged. “Maybe he lost it. Or sold it.”

“I doubt he’d do either. My mother gave it to him when I was born.”

She peered at him. Had he stolen her father’s ring? Or maybe Sheriff Freemont was correct. Maybe something as important as her birth hadn’t meant much to her father. Maybe she didn’t either. Was that why he left?

Because surely his absences couldn’t be explained by any rift between her parents.

Although, what Matilda Applewhite saw in Robert Campbell—Robbie to his friends and family—Becky had never understood. Her mother, who ran in the same circles as the Rockefellers and the Astors, with presidents and admirals—yet much to the consternation of her family, chose a ne’er-do-well like Becky’s father.

Becky set the two items side by side on the scarred wooden desk, next to the fountain pen. The same one he’d used to write his letters to her. Signing them, Give your mother all my love too. Your devoted father. She needed no more information. No more proof…

Be sure to enter the Rafflecopter giveaway below for a chance to win either a print copy (US addresses only) or an e-book copy of Double Jeopardy.

Launch Event at: https://www.facebook.com/events/2220456174726867/

Double Jeopardy is available at https://shoplpc.com/double-jeopardy/ & Amazon.com

Donna lives in Denver with husband Patrick. As a hybrid author, she writes historical suspense under her own name, and contemporary suspense under her alter ego of Leeann Betts, and has been published more than 30 times in novellas and full-length novels. She is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers, Writers on the Rock, Sisters In Crime, and Christian Authors Network; facilitates a critique group; and teaches writing classes online and in person. Donna also ghostwrites, edits, and judges in writing contests. She loves history and research, and travels extensively for both. Donna is represented by Terrie Wolf of AKA Literary Management.

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Books: Amazon: http://amzn.to/2ci5Xqq and Smashwords: http://bit.ly/2gZATjm

Cynthia Roemer’s PRAIRIE SKY SERIES: Stories of faith and resilience on the Midwest prairie Inspirational Historical Romance

UNDER THIS SAME SKY ~ BOOK ONE
UNDER PRAIRIE SKIES ~ BOOK TWO
UNDER MOONLIT SKIES ~ BOOK THREE

~Available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble
**Connect with Cynthia Roemer on FacebookGoodreads and Twitter.

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