• Announcing an exciting new project!
• 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!

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.
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.
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.
• 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.
• Best-ever Granola
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 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. • 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
• The best things in life are...kids!
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!
• 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.
































