Donna:
My guest today is best-selling Christian romance writer Deborah Raney. Deb,
welcome to ICFW! Please introduce yourself to our readers—how long you’ve been
writing, what got you started, that sort of thing.
Deb: Thanks
so much for the warm welcome, Donna! I began my first novel on New Year’s Day
1994, as part of a New Year’s resolution to finally write that novel I’d been
dreaming about since I was eleven years old. That novel, A Vow to Cherish,
ended up getting three contract offers, was published by Bethany House
Publishers, and became the inspiration for the award-winning World Wide
Pictures film of the same title. That launched my career and I’ve been happily
writing ever since! I’ve now written over thirty books, including a couple of
non-fiction books and several novellas. In addition, I teach at writers
conferences all over the country, and am on the board of the 2600-member
American Christian Fiction Writers organization.
Donna:
And tell us something about your personal life. I know you’re a grandmother and
we share an enthusiasm for gardening.
Deb: I’m
a farmer’s daughter who married a small-town boy, who dragged me to New York
City early in our marriage, but brought me back to his small town in Kansas
when we found out we were expecting our first child. We raised our four
children in a small town, then when they were grown and all living
out-of-state, we decided to try city life again. Nothing so big as New York
this time though! We moved to Wichita, Kansas, four years ago and have just
loved our lives here!
We now
have seven grandchildren and spend a lot of time on the road or in the air
traveling to visit them.
And
yes, we love our gardening. Ken is the outdoor gardener, though I do weed and
water with him. I’m the indoor gardener who’s had a love of houseplants since
our newlywed days in New York.
Along
with that, Ken and I have spent the past three years exploring Wichita’s
neighborhoods every Thursday morning when we stop for donuts and coffee before
heading out to the local garage sales, estate sales, flea markets, and farmers
markets. We just love spending a few pennies on treasures for our house and the
home offices we keep there.
Donna:
And I know you and your husband, the brilliant artist Ken Raney, have launched
your own publishing company Raney Day Press. Tell us about that venture.
Deb: Since
I’ve been writing for over 22 years now, many of my older books had gone out of
print. Once we began to get the rights to my books back from the
publishers, we wanted to update those books and give them a new life. Mostly that
involved bringing the “contemporary” stories into the 21st Century by giving my
characters cell phones and laptop computers! (Just goes to show how much the
world has changed in two short decades!)
The
new indie market has made it very feasible for authors with an established
readership to publish their own novels. I’m so grateful that my husband’s
skills as an illustrator and graphic designer have made this process so much
easier. We’ve published through our own imprint, Raney Day Press, and we’re
very pleased with the results! We’ve done the books in both print and e-book
formats, and have even tried an audio book, though so far the jury is still out
on that venture.
I
still write for traditional publishers, so I guess you’d call me a hybrid
author. I’m very grateful for both avenues of publishing.
Donna:
I think you have two or three books with international settings—and all of them
have been award-winning. Tell us about those books.
Deb: Yes,
my fourth and fifth novels, Beneath a Southern Sky and its sequel, After
the Rains, both from WaterBrook Press, are set in the Amazon rain forests
of Colombia, South American. Beneath a Southern Sky was a RITA Award
winner and went on to win several other awards, as did the sequel.
My
novel Over the Waters from Steeple Hill/Harlequin is set in Haiti. It
was inspired by my parents’ short-term mission work in a girls’ home near Port
au Prince. They spent two weeks each summer there for over twenty-five years
beginning in their early empty nest years. They, each of my siblings, and Ken
and I have supported girls through The Love of Jesus Children’s Home in Haiti.
It is a privilege and a wonderful legacy, passed down from my dad and my late
mom, to be a part of the work being done in Christ’s name in that impoverished
part of the world.
Donna:
How interesting. What stirred your interest in Latin America?
Deb: We
became dear friends with a retired missionary to Bogota from our church. Linda
had served her entire adult life as a midwife, and as a nurse to the lepers of
Colombia, and her stories inspired my story of a young missionary doctor and
his wife who travel to a far-off (fictional) South American village. When the
husband goes to help during an epidemic in a neighboring village, and
reportedly dies there, his grieving wife returns home, having discovered she is
pregnant, and attempts to put her life back together. She remarries and is
happily pregnant with her second child when she receives word that her first
husband has been found alive. The dilemma is one that happened more than once
in wartime situations. I wanted to find a way to bring that dilemma into a
contemporary story. It seemed to capture the hearts of many readers, as did After
the Rains. I will soon be writing a third book to complete the trilogy—more
than fifteen years after it first began.
Donna:
Do you find writing books with international settings to be a different
experience from writing ones set in America?
Deb: Very
definitely! Research is not my favorite part of writing, but when you are
writing about a country you’ve never visited, let alone lived in, the challenge
is daunting! My missionary friend, and another woman my age who had lived in
Colombia as a young girl while her father worked in the oil industry, were
invaluable resources to me as I researched not just my plot and characters, but
every nuance of the setting. I even “invented” a dialect for my native
villagers based on a mix of Spanish, Portuguese, and Swahili.
Remembering
how difficult that research was, not being able to experience the Colombian
rain forest for myself, when it came time to write my novel set in Haiti, I
planned a research trip there with my parents, my husband, and our youngest
daughter. A few days before we were to depart, there was a coup on the
presidential palace and flights were cancelled. We rescheduled the trip, but
again, unrest in that volatile country cancelled our flights.
Almost
miraculously, the Lord began to place people in my life who had spent time in
Haiti and could answer my questions, read my manuscript, translate some dialogue
into Creole, tell me about the sounds and smells and foods and customs that I
wasn’t able to experience for myself. One writer friend sent me hours of video
she and her husband had shot while on a mission trip to Haiti. My childhood
doctor who traveled to Port au Prince often with my parents was a wonderful
resource. I give God the glory when readers and reviewers say, “it is obvious
that Ms. Raney intimately knows the country about which she writes.”
Donna:
That all sounds absolutely fascinating! Thank you so much for being my guest
today, Deb, and congratulations on all your success. Please tell our readers
where they can find you online.
Deb: Thank
you, Donna. It’s been my pleasure! Readers can find out more on my
website, www.deborahraney.com. The blog where
I’ve featured your beautiful garden spaces, Donna, along with those of dozens
of other authors, including my own, is at novelgarden.blogspot.com. I also
love social media and love to connect with readers in the following places:
Posted by Donna Fletcher Crow whose historical romance
series Where
There is Love has been newly issued in a boxed set with covers
designed by Deb’s husband Ken Raney.
