• Announcing an exciting new project!

I'm thrilled to announce a new novella scheduled to release as an ebook on Christmas Eve this year! A January Bride is a "remake" of my 2004 Christy Award finalist Playing by Heart, with all new scenes from Art and Maddie's wedding as the centerpiece of the story. Most exciting of all, A January Bride is just one in a new series from HarperCollins. This "A Year of Weddings" series will offer a lovely, romantic story for every month of the year! And aren't these covers stunning? These ebook-first novellas will then be collected into gorgeous print book collections––one for every season––starting next year.

I'm delighted to share the Winter Brides collection with author friends Denise Hunter and Betsy St. Amant (who, Betsy and I discovered, just may be my distant relative by marriage on the Raney side!) And I'm sharing a sneak preview of the launch cover of the Spring Brides collection from Rachel Hauck. 

The launch book in the series, A December Bride, by one of my favorite authors, Denise Hunter, will release just before Thanksgiving, so start watching at your favorite ebook outlet. I'll be sure to keep you posted here, and on Facebook, Twitter, and any other place I can shout the news from! 

• The Writing Life

The Face of the Earth released last month from Howard/Simon & Schuster! Always an exciting time for me, and I thought you'd enjoy seeing some of the cover designs we went through before arriving at the final cover for The Face of the Earth. That moment when I finally get to see what the designers have come up with for the cover is always so much fun. This cover is from Dogeared Design and I had a very tough time deciding which was my favorite! But I think we picked a huge winner in the end. The Face of the Earth should be at your favorite bookstore NOW!

My Dutch readers will be happy to know that The Face of the Earth will soon be out in the Netherlands. The Dutch translation cover is just beautiful, too! Spoorloos translates as "Traceless" (or "Without a Trace," which is actually a title I considered.)

I'm excited about also having a Christmas book out this year! Silver Bells, is part of Summerside Press & Guideposts "Songs of the Season" series and will release in October. It was such a fun story to write and I hope you'll enjoy it! I got the copyedits sent back, so I'll soon have galleys to read, and then I can put this project to bed.

Meanwhile, I'm frantically writing toward a July 1 deadline with the first of my new Chicory Lane novels for Abingdon Press.

I'll soon have a fun little surprise to share about another new project. All in all, I'm having a blast at this writing gig!

CONTEST NEWS:
After All, the third book in the Hanover Falls Novels series, was the winner in the inspirational category of the Winter Rose Contest for Yellow Rose RWA, as well as being an Award of Merit Winner for the 2013 HOLT Medallion, and a finalist for the Gayle Wilson Award of Excellence. As always, so much credit for this kind of award goes to the editors and publisher, and to my critique partner Tamera Alexander, and other early readers, who all help make my books the very best they can be.

Reading for endorsement right now:
Poison Town by Creston Mapes. This is the second in The Crittendon Files series. Creston's books are just a touch scarier than I usually read, but SO good! If you haven't read any of his books, start with Nobody. My favorite of all his novels so far.

Reading for fun right now: The Offering by Angela Hunt. Angie's novel releases from Howard Books the same week my novel The Face of the Earth does. I am thoroughly enjoying The Offering and finding it very thought-provoking––as Angela Hunt novels always are. 

Currently reading in the Bible: My husband, Ken, and I are reading through the Bible this year. We finally finished II Chronicles, and are in the book of Ezra. We have a long way to go in our reading-through-the-Bible venture, but as always, it's a joy and privilege to begin our days this way. For the past twenty-plus years of our marriage, Ken and I have been meeting on the sofa in our bedroom early every weekday morning for a few minutes of Bible reading and prayer. It makes all the difference in how life goes!

Listening to right now: Emmy Award winner Jeff Beal's score to the Jesse Stone movie, Stone Cold. This is haunting, beautiful, perfect-to-write-by music and since it's all instrumental I'm not in danger of starting to type lyrics instead of my novel. I love writing to music and this soundtrack is one of the best I've ever discovered! (Love Tom Selleck in the Jesse Stone movies and in the Blue Bloods TV series, too!)

Movie we recommend: We rarely go to the theater, but we recently watched the new James Bond movie, Skyfall, and Steven Spielberg's Lincoln back-to-back. A real treat, and we loved both movies, but Lincoln was especially wonderful.

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


The Plot Thickens, a blog I've put together of my writer friends' garden spots. I've added and updated several gardens and recently the blog was featured in Family Fiction Magazine!
  



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

Skyped most recently with:

Our youngest daughter, now a newlywed. We gave her a Skype tour of our new house since she won't get to see it in person until June. And with four kids living so far away from home, am I ever thankful for Skype!

Currently working on:

Turned in the rewrite of Silver Bells, a full-length Christmas novel for Summerside Press/Guideposts. Now I'm in the thick of writing the first of my new Chicory Lane series for Abingdon Press. The first book is set to release Summer 2014.

Next up:

We are feeling wonderfully settled in our new house, and we're looking forward to having our kids and grandkids all here in June. But we experienced a bit of a setback when a powerful hailstorm hit our city mid-May. We'll be getting a new roof, and guttering, broken window repaired, deck refinished, and maybe even new siding out of the deal, so there's always a silver lining. And compared to what the folks in Oklahoma are facing, we feel very fortunate. I think I'm more upset about our beautiful trees and flowers and shrubs getting pulverized than I am about the damage to the house. But things will grow back, or they can be replaced, and God has a way of using EVERYTHING for our good.

• 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.

IN OTHER BOOK NEWS:

• The first two Hanover Falls Novels are now available as audio books, and also available on Crossings Book Club. 

• Remember to Forget has been translated to German, as Die Nacht am Fluss (The Night at the River) and Yesterday's Embers (translated as Detours of the Heart) is also available in German. This was especially fun news for me since our oldest son lived in Berlin for two years.

• New Dutch editions of Almost Forever or Zo Goed Als Altijd (As Good As Always) and Forever After or Wat er ook gebeurt (Whatever Happens) are available, and the Clayburn novels are also available in Dutch now.

• 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 Texas to New York City now, so the times are too rare when we're all (plus our two sons-in-law, daughter-in-law, and our precious grandkids) home at the same time. But when that happens, we have such a great time just hanging out together.

Our oldest son didn't make it home for Christmas last year since he was living in Germany, and times like that we are very grateful for Skype!

When we get 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. And we couldn't love the ones they've married more. Children are truly a blessing from the Lord. Best of all, our quiver of grandchildren is filling up fast with (so far) three little grandsons and 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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