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Here is what you can expect from these (roughly) monthly emails:
Special offers for subscribers only; Advance copy of articles, blog posts, and special content. Latest updates on new projects; News about my appearances, online interviews and discussions, book tours etc.; Feedback from other subscribers, and your own comments.
This Substack is replacement for my previous MailerLite Newsletter. The 2 most recent previous Newsletters are shown below. For all 21 previous Newsletters from August 2020 to May 2024, click on the Archive.
RECENT NewsletterS (#22 & #21)
Sy’s News #22
November 2024
Welcome back—or, if you are a new reader, welcome—to my first Newsletter since May!. I write about the writing life, including advanced notices on upcoming books, excerpts, stories, and giveaways. (See below for the latest one).
I mentioned in my last Newsletter that my second book, Science and Faith in Harmony (Kregel Publications, 2024, Foreword by Sean McDowell), had gotten off to a great start: it was #1 on Amazon’s best seller list for new books on Science and Religion for almost a month. Here is what Lee Strobel said about it:
Sy Garte has a gift for winsomely demonstrating the truth and goodness of the gospel message. His extensive knowledge of scientific issues enables him to deftly explain how advanced processes… provide evidence for the Creator and his intimate care for us. Sy’s insightful chapters in “Science and Faith in Harmony” will keep you engaged as you learn more about how God’s voice is revealed in his creation.
And Fazale “Fuz” Rana, president, CEO, and senior scholar at Reasons to Believe, wrote:
In his latest book, biochemist Sy Garte inspires a sense of wonder as he demonstrates the many ways that science—the study of God’s spoken word—harmonizes with Scripture—God’s written Word—in profoundly beautiful and meaningful ways…Sy Garte’s short yet rich reflections on the compatibility of science and the Christian faith illuminate God’s fingerprints in nature and in our lives, each set inspiring us to love the Lord and love others more deeply.
The following excerpt from the Introduction explains the title and theme of the book:
… harmony requires that two different notes—or ideas, colors, statements, photographs in an arrangement, decorations—go well together, not just despite their differences but because of them.
This book is based on the idea that the scientific worldview is harmonious with Christian faith. The two rarely say the exact same thing, and they are played on different instruments, but they combine to produce a deeply satisfying and spiritually uplifting picture of our world and everything in it, including us.
The short chapters make this book work well as a devotional, and it has also been used in Bible study classes for youth and adults. It includes QR codes in each chapter that link to videos, articles, books, and blog posts with more details about how science and faith sing the truth together.
New Giveaway!
I am now offering (to Newsletter readers only) a chance at a “two for one” giveaway. If you buy a copy of Science and Faith in Harmony, or if you have already bought a copy, you could win a free signed copy—to keep or to give someone else. If you would like to use the book as a Christmas gift, I will include this signed gift card:
To enter the drawing for the free book, write to me using the contact page on my website – sygarte.com – with your address and the name of the person to whom the book should be signed. Please include the date you purchased your copy. I will be giving away five books. If you are not one of the lucky five winners, I will send you a personalized signed adhesive bookplate and a signed Christmas gift card.
The only thing I ask of recipients is that after reading the book, please submit a review to Amazon and/or Goodreads.
To order Science and Faith in Harmony from Amazon, click below. Of course, if you still haven’t read my award-winning first book, The Works of His Hands: A Scientist’s Journey from Atheism to Faith, there is a button for that also. You can also order both books at my website.
Thanks for reading, and stay tuned for more news and assorted freebies. I will announce the winners of the free book in the next Newsletter, and will also start telling you about my next book, to be released in 2025. Until then, Blessings to all,
Sy
| Sy’s News #21 May 2024 |
Welcome back to my aperiodic newsletter,
First, the news. Science and Faith in Harmony was officially released on February 13, but even before that it had reached #1 in new releases for the category of “Science and Religion” on Amazon. It stayed at the #1 spot for 23 days from February through March 13, when it was no longer considered a new release. Since then, sales are good, and to date, the book has garnered some very positive reviews.
Speaking of reviews, if you have read the book and didn’t like it much, please skip to the next paragraph. But if you did like it, I would ask you to spend about 30 seconds going to the bottom of the Amazon book page, and clicking on the 5 star rating. If you are motivated to write a review as well, that would be great. It doesn’t need to be longer than a sentence or two, and it will not be graded for composition, grammar or syntax. A simple statement like “This is the greatest book I have ever read” will do quite nicely.
I have been kept very busy with post-publication marketing activity, giving interviews to radio shows, doing podcasts and You Tube videos about the new book, and about my testimony in general. Mostly it’s been fun, but also tiring. See below for some samples of recent interviews.
At the same I have been writing my third book and getting it ready to submit to the publisher.
I am also the co-chair of the program committee for the upcoming annual meeting of the American Scientific Affiliation (ASA) to be held in Washington DC in late July. And I am still the Editor-in-Chief of the ASA’s online magazine God and Nature and need to get the Spring issue out the door later this month.
What’s that you ask? You thought I was retired? So did I. I mention all these obligations and deadlines not to brag, but to explain why this will probably be my last Newsletter coming to you for a while.
I want to thank many of you for your kind expressions of pleasure after reading Science and Faith in Harmony. I am still sending signed bookplates to all who ask (go to sygarte.com/contact for requests), and please spread the word to friends and neighbors.
Finally, as I begin to deal with the long, all-consuming process of editing and final preparation for publication of my third book, I will reactivate this newsletter with details (including title, cover, sample extracts, etc) which I hope will prepare you for a very different kind of book than my first two. Until then, may you prosper with the peace of Christ, find solace in these “interesting” times, and stay blessed by our Lord.
| Blessings, Sy |