One of the most exciting moments in the publishing process for me is when I first get to see the cover my publisher has chosen for a novel. I've had two such moments recently, though neither was for a brand new book. Instead, one is a reissue of a 2001 title, and the other is a Dutch edition cover. Beneath a Southern Sky will be reissued in February as part of the new value line fiction from WaterBrook Press. I love this cover and am so happy this novel is getting a new life, since it's always been one of my favorites.
Ommekeer is the title given the Dutch translation of Leaving November, Book 2 in the Clayburn Novels series. The title isn't a direct translation of "Leaving November" but means something like "turnaround." The mug and coffee shop in the background beautifully capture the story. Two winning covers, in my opinion!
Right now I'm eagerly awaiting a peek at the cover for my new Howard/Simon & Schuster series, The Hanover Falls Novels. Any day now, I should see what the designers have come up with for the first book, Almost Forever. It's beginning to feel like I've been waiting "almost forever" to see it!
• Book News
• ACFW Central get-together
Had a great lunch at the Breadbasket in Newton, Kansas, with Wichita-area members of ACFW. Great time of fellowship and organizing for a possible chapter in American Christian Fiction Writers.
• Autumn in the Mountains Novelists Retreat
I spent most of last week teaching at the Autumn in the Mountains Novelists Retreat headed by author Yvonne Lehman. It was a wonderful time with other writers in the gorgeous Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. The trees turned color before our eyes (at right, the view from my room!) and in spite of many rainy days, it was a great conference. I especially enjoyed hanging out with other faculty (left to right, below: Eva Marie Everson, Angela Hunt, Dennis Hensley, me, and Tom Morrisey. Not pictured, Steven James, Yvonne Lehman, DiAnn Mills, and Ann Tatlock.) Next year's conference will be October 3-7, 2010. Click here for more info.
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.
• A few photos from ACFW in Denver
A few photos from the American Christian Fiction Writers conference in Denver Sept. 17-20.
We all showed up at breakfast one morning wearing purple!
My conference roomie, Roxanne Henke, is not only one of my favorite authors,but one of the nicest people I know. We stayed up way too late
way too many nights talking and laughing.
The beautiful Denver Marriott Tech Center was fullto overflowing with more than 500 conference attendees.
With Dan Walsh, author of The Unfinished Gift.
With fellow Kansan Deborah Vogts, author of Snow Melts in Spring.For more photos from the event, click here.
• The Plot Thickens. . .
Autumn has taken over our gardens, and soon even the beautiful leaves will be history as winter sets in, but you can revisit spring and summer in the beautiful prairie garden my husband has created in our backyard at A Kansas Prairie Garden (a sneak peek at left) or take a virtual tour of the lovely gardens where some of my favorite novelists write at The Plot Thickens.
• International Christian Retail Show in Denver
I spent time in Denver at an authors retreat before the International Christian Retail Show at the Colorado Convention Center July 13. Within ten minutes of being on the convention floor, I ran into my friends from Faith & Life Bookstore in Newton, KS, who do such a great job selling and promoting my books.
I had a wonderful time with some of my favorite author friends at the retreat where we learned from, among others, story and script consultant Michael Hauge and police detective/novelist Mark Mynheir.
Saturday night was the Christy Awards, where my friend and critique partner, Tamera Alexander, won her second Christy! Tammy and I enjoyed lunch together at Marlowe's on Sunday (see below). On Monday I signed copies of Yesterday's Embers at the Howard/Simon & Schuster booth. It was a fun week and great to connect with my agent and publishers (Marieke van den Hazel in blue, is with my Dutch publisher, Voorhoeve/Kok), and to hang out with roommate Roxy Henke (in white at the Christy Awards) and other friends. But oh, how thankful I am to be home, sweet home.
• Book Club fun in "Clayburn," Kansas!
A book club group who read my Clayburn Novels decided to spend a day in Lindsborg, the small Kansas town that was the inspiration for Clayburn.
They invited me to join them for brunch at "Wren's Nest" (known in the real world as the Swedish Country Inn.) What a fun group and what wonderful friendships have been formed around a love of books and love for God.
• A bestseller!
Yesterday's Embers hit the ECPA (Evangelical Christian Publishers Association) bestsellers list for June! I've only been on a bestsellers list once before, years ago with a Christmas novella, so I'm pretty excited. 
Okay...full disclosure, true confessions and all that: I'm #20 on the list which goes 1 through, um...20. But hey, on the list is on the list, and I'm delighted to be there with enduring and endearing bestsellers like Francine Rivers, Terri Blackstock, Karen Kingsbury, Beverly Lewis and Tamera Alexander! ; )
Above All Things (Steeple Hill) released early in June, on the heels of Yesterday's Embers and Insight, so it's been a very busy year.
I'm excited to be working on a brand new series with Howard/Simon & Schuster, set in a small Missouri town, and following the survivors of five firefighters who perish in a tragic blaze at a homeless shelter. 
Already the research for this book has stretched me and taken me way out of my comfort zone. That's always a good thing for a writer. This week I'm reading galleys, my final pass on the first book Almost Forever. Once that's finished, I'll be back on a tight deadline with the first draft of the second book, Forever After (due the first week of January). I'll be excited to share more with you as the Hanover Falls Novels series progresses. Almost Forever releases early in May.
I'm also happy to announce that Leaving November was a finalist for two writing awards this season: the National Readers Choice Award and the Booksellers Best Award.
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.)
• The many faces of A Vow to Cherish
A reader emailed me recently because she had picked up a rather rare first edition of A Vow to Cherish, first published by Bethany House in 1996. She was confused by the fact that my protagonist in that edition is named "Jake," while in all other editions, his name is "John." I thought other readers might be interested in my response:
When my novel was made into a movie by World Wide Pictures in 1998, 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 don't know why). My publisher felt that most people picking up this new addition would be doing so because they had seen the movie (which has aired on national TV and been shown in thousands 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
The DVD cover is at left. The movie is available in seven languages and has a lovely, haunting score by John Campbell. (If you want to be even more confused, watch the film, which was beautifully done and won several film awards, but which changed many of the details from my novel, as often happens when a book is translated to the screen.) 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 7000 more words than the original and is much improved, in my humble opinion.
A Vow to Cherish has also been translated into Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, and Dutch (see Toeverlaat, the Dutch edition, right).So, now you know the rest of the story. Watch the movie trailer below:
• 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.
Voorhoeve, a Kok imprint, has put out beautiful editions of (from top left) Beneath a Southern Sky (the title translates as "Contest," or literally, "two fight"), Over the Waters (the Dutch title is "Rain Season") and A Nest of Sparrows, renamed "Father Love." I'm excited that Voorhoeve plans to translate more of my books in the future. I just discovered two new titles available soon: A Scarlet Cord is Hartenkreet ("Heart's Cry") and Remember to Forget, called Vluchtplaats ("Flight Place," appropriate, since Maggie "took flight." Besides "tweaked" titles, these foreign editions have stunning new covers.
This makes seven titles I've had translated to Dutch, with at least two more to come. 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. (Thank-you, Hella, for translating my greeting!)
• 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!
Three of our four kids are grown and living out of state now, so the times are all too rare when all four of them, plus our son-in-law, new daughter-in-law––and of course, our two little grandsons––are 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, entertain extended family 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 grandkids!
Almost four years ago, my husband and I got the sweetest Christmas present we could ever have wished for when our very first grandbaby was born—a precious boy. Now he has a little brother who's almost two! These two little guys have stolen our hearts and made the six hundred miles between our house and theirs seem like six thousand. They are growing up far too quickly, but oh what a joy to hear little voices call us "Papa" and "Mimi!"
