• The Writing Life

I recently got a sneak peek at front and back covers for After All, the final Hanover Falls novel. This third book in the series will be in bookstores and libraries early in May! I hope you will enjoy one last visit to Hanover Falls!


Later this year I'll be writing a stand-alone novel for Howard/Simon & Schuster––my seventh book for this wonderful publisher––and I'm very excited about that story. My husband's three brothers helped me brainstorm the story last summer and two other writers groups have added their input, too. And wow! did they all come up with some great ideas for Face of the Earth!

I'm working on Love Finds You in Madison County, Iowa for Summerside Press. I have loved my visits to the charming town of Winterset, Iowa, and the beautiful covered bridges of Madison County, which will provide the setting for the novel. 






I've also finished the first draft for another title, a Christmas story, tentatively titled, Silver Bells.

IN OTHER BOOK NEWS:

• Remember to Forget has been translated to German, as Die Nacht am Fluss (The Night at the River.) This was especially fun news for me since our oldest son lives in Berlin, Germany!

• A Prairie Christmas Collection has done very well! It was on the CBA Bestsellers list for several months, even after Christmas was past! In addition, it was named Family Fiction Magazine's #3 favorite collection of 2010. My novella "Circle of Blessings" is one of nine featured in the beautiful volume with deckled-edge pages and foil stamping.

• Within This Circle, the sequel to A Vow to Cherish, will be coming out in Dutch, releasing in September. I think the Dutch cover beautifully captured the story! (The title translates as "lifelike"––or something like that.) A new Dutch edition of Almost Forever or Zo Goed Als Altijd (As Good As Always) is coming out in April, and Forever After or Wat er ook gebeurt (Whatever Happens) will come out in Fall of 2012. The third Clayburn novel, Yesterday's Embers, is available in Dutch now, as well––with the title, Weerklank.

• Beneath a Southern Sky has been re-released by WaterBrook Press with a great new cover, and has gotten some nice reviews as well. The sequel, After the Rains, is also available again as a print-on-demand book from the publisher.

Reading for fun right now:
The Daughter's Walk by Jane Kirkpatrick



Reading for endorsement right now:
Wildflowers from Winter  by Katie Ganshert

Currently reading in the Bible: My husband, Ken, and I are reading through the Bible this year. We've finally finished the book of Deuteronomy and are starting Joshua. (Might take more like ten years to reach Revelation.) For the past 18 years of our marriage, we've been meeting on the sofa early every weekday morning for a few minutes of Bible reading and prayer, and it makes all the difference in how life goes!

Listening to right now: Pandora! If you haven't discovered Pandora.com, you're in for a treat for your ears! My favorite current "station" is Jim Chappell.

Movie we recommend: We rarely go to the theater, but we wanted to support the new film from Sherwood Pictures, Courageous. We loved it! Great movie for the entire family!

Surfing on the Web:
The website for Christian teens that my husband designed, ClashEntertainment.com.


The Plot Thickens, a blog I've put together of my writer friends garden spots. I've added and updated gardens recently, so if you haven't visited for a while, it's a great way to cure winter doldrums.  







And Raney Day Designs, our daughter-in-law's baby goods blog!

Skyped most recently with:
Our almost six-month-old granddaughter born on her great-nana's birthday! We got to "visit" with her while her mommy was at symphony practice.




Snack of choice right now:Homemade ice cream in our Cuisinart machine! Delish! Especially chocolate peanut butter! But the bathroom scales tell the sad tale. :(

In the oven:

Granola! Scroll down for the recipe. So delicious with yogurt!

Currently working on:

I'm enjoying work on a stand-alone novel for Howard/Simon & Schuster titled Face of the Earth. After completing the three books in the Hanover Falls series, it's been fun to work with a whole new setting and cast of characters!

Next up:

I'll get my edits for Silver Bells any day now and know I will have quite a bit of rewrite to accomplish before it's ready to send back. It will release in October of this year, just in time for Christmas gifting.

• Take a trip to Clayburn, Kansas

The Clayburn Novels series from Howard, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, is still available in bookstores, including Yesterday's Embers, which spent time on the ECPA (Evangelical Christian Publishers Association) bestsellers list. Remember to Forget won the Carol Award for American Christian Fiction Writers. Leaving November was also a finalist for two writing awards: the National Readers Choice Award and the Booksellers Best Award. The titles in the Clayburn series are, in order, Remember to Forget, Leaving November, Yesterday's Embers.

For those of you who have asked, yes, there is a recipe for Wren's Peaches-and-Cream Cheesecake! It just happens to be a long-time Raney family favorite and I'm delighted to be able to share the recipe with you. (Click on the peaches.)

• Best-ever Granola

So many people have asked for my recipe that I'm posting it here. Credit goes to author Tamara Leigh whose recipe I tweaked to come up with this. (Tamara's recipe has much less coconut, no sunflower seeds, and adds raisins and craisins. And we bake ours longer so it's chewy, with just a little crunch.)

BEST EVER GRANOLA
4  Cup Old Fashioned Oats
1  Cup Flaked Coconut
½ Cup Chopped Pecans or Walnuts
¼ Cup Sunflower Nuts
½ Cup Brown Sugar
½ Cup Olive Oil
½ Cup Honey
1  Teaspoon Vanilla

In a large cookie sheet with sides (jelly roll pan), bake dry oats at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, mix nuts, coconut, sunflower seeds and brown sugar in large mixing bowl; stir well.

In a small bowl, mix oil, honey, and vanilla. Remove oats from oven and add to nut mixture. Pour oil and honey mixture over all, stirring well. Return to cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes till dark golden brown, stirring every 5-8 minutes. Cool. (Stir again several times while cooling as it tends to clump.)

Store in zip-lock bag or other air-tight container. (We use a gallon-size ice cream tub.)

Enjoy!

• Welcome to my Dutch readers

Welkom aan mijn Nederlandse lezers!
Ik ben heel blij dat uitgeverij Voorhoeve veel van mijn boeken in het Nederlands uitgeeft. Helaas spreek ik uw prachtige taal niet, maar gelukkig kunnen wij desondanks, door het vakmanschap van de vertalers, samen iets delen - namelijk verhalen over Gods liefde en genade. Dank u voor uw belangstelling voor mijn romans, en ik wens u veel plezier bij uw bezoek aan mijn website. (Thank-you, Hella, for translating my greeting!)

It's been fun to see many of my novels translated into foreign languages. But to have written a book I can't read is a bit disconcerting! I've had the privilege of meeting with Hella Willering and Marieke van den Hazel, editors with Kok Publishers of the Netherlands, several times, and it is fascinating to hear some of the challenges they face in translating a novel. American humor doesn't always translate well, and a motif from Scripture, etc. may depend heavily on the sound or spelling of the English word. It can be a challenge to find an alternative.

Voorhoeve, a Kok imprint, has put out beautiful editions of most of my recent books and I'm excited that they plan to translate more of my books in the future. I just discovered several new titles available. Besides "tweaked" titles, these foreign editions have stunning new covers.

The Dutch edition of my novella Playing by Heart is also available! I love the title, Twinkeling, and the cover Kok Publishers chose really captures the heart of this romantic comedy. The English version of Playing by Heart has been out of print for some time, but it's one of my favorite books I've written, and was a winner of the National Readers' Choice Award for novella (a secular category), as well as being a Christy Award finalist.

I've had a dozen titles translated to Dutch now, with more to come. 

• Calling all book discussion leaders...

If you lead a book discussion group and plan to discuss one of my novels in the coming months, I'd love to know about it. Many of my books have discussion questions in the back, and you can find study guides for many other novels HERE. I'll be glad to answer any questions your group might have about one of my books, or about the process of writing that particular book. If your group has 15 members or more, I'll even send some goodies for you to use as door prizes. If your group qualifies, CONTACT ME and let me know the date of your meeting and which book you've selected.

Readers often say, "I loved your book; now how can I help get the word out to my friends?" Click here for a whole list of ideas and thank you for asking!

• Hanging out at Club Deb

I'm blessed with a bevy of friends who just happen to share my name. During a getaway at a bed and breakfast a couple of years ago, one of the guests dubbed us "Club Deb" after being introduced at the breakfast table. The name stuck, and we've been sharing birthdays and other special occasions together ever since (although we'll use any excuse to get together!) I count my wonderful "Deb" friends as one of the great blessings of my life.

• The best things in life are...kids!

Our four kids are all grown and scattered from Missouri to Iowa to Germany now, so the times are too rare when we're all (plus our son-in-law, daughter-in-law––and of course, our precious grandkids) home at the same time. But when that happens, we have such a great time just hanging out together.

We play cards and board games, work jigsaw puzzles, watch movies, cook and eat together, visit the great-grandparents, and just enjoy being all in one place together. It's a joy to discover that the children we raised are such genuinely nice people. Children are truly a blessing from the Lord and best of all our quiver of grandchildren is filling up fast with (so far) three little grandsons and this past July, our first granddaughter!

• The many faces of A Vow to Cherish

When my novel was made into a movie by World Wide Pictures in 1999, my publisher went back to press with the book, giving it a new movie tie-in cover. The screenwriters/movie director changed the name of my character from Jake to John (we're not sure why) and my publisher felt that most people picking up this new version would be doing so because they had seen the movie (which has aired on national TV and been shown in hundreds of churches across the country). So we decided to change Jake's name to John in this new edition of the book. I also added or changed a few minor character descriptions to match the actors from the film.

"No motion picture could ever define
the power behind the Billy Graham ministry
more effectively. I have not been so moved
by any movie, maybe ever. Not just entertainment."
~Paul Harvey

"Powerful. A family attains the courage to persevere."
~Phil Boatwright

The movie is now available in seven languages and has a lovely, haunting score by John Campbell. Ten years after the first release of my novel, it was out of print, when another publisher, Steeple Hill, purchased the rights to reissue it, and asked me to write a sequel as well.

A Vow to Cherish is available in trade size as well as mass market, while the sequel, Within This Circle, is only available in mass market size. I should also note that this newest version of A Vow to Cherish has been updated to reflect current medical information about Alzheimer's disease, and hopefully, to reflect how much I've learned about the craft of writing since penning that first version. To my surprise, as I was working on the rewrite, I realized that I also needed to move my story into the 21st century and give my characters cell phones and computers! The newest edition has about 7,000 more words than the original and is much improved, in my humble opinion.

At left I'm with Carol Johnson of Bethany House at the Hollywood premiere in June 1999.

The novel has also been translated into Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, and Dutch (see Toeverlaat, the Dutch edition, right).

Click on the link above to purchase this great new resource for writers! I'm honored to have three articles included in A Novel Idea, including one written with my writing critique partner, Tamera Alexander.

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