Deborah Raney (born 1955) is an American Christian novelist who has written or contributed to more than 40 books.
Raney was born in San Antonio, Texas in 1955 [1] and grew up in Rice County, Kansas, the eldest of five children. Raised on a farm, she was inspired by Laura Ingalls Wilder's popular Little House on the Prairie series. She graduated from Lyons High School in Lyons, Kansas, and subsequently attended Emporia State University and later, Kansas State University. [2]
Raney wrote A Vow to Cherish, her first novel, which was borne from a discussion with her husband and teenage children about Alzheimer's disease that drew on her experiences working in a New York nursing home early in her marriage. The book, published by Bethany House Publishers, won the 1997 Angel Award from Excellence in Media. It has since been translated into Danish, Norwegian, Swedish and Dutch, [3] [4] and was also published in a hardcover large-print edition by Thorndike Press.
In 1999, World Wide Pictures adapted the book into a screenplay that became a made-for-television movie and was aired in 200 major markets. The movie was rebroadcast a second time in December 2004, and was released on video and DVD in seven languages. Ten years after its first publication, A Vow to Cherish was reissued in trade and mass market formats by Steeple Hill books. [1]
After the releases of two additional novels, In the Still of the Night (Bethany House 1997) and Kindred Bond (Bethany House 1998), Raney penned Beneath a Southern Sky in 2001. The Waterbrook Press (Random House) novel won the 2001 Romantic Times Reviewers' Choice Award, the 2002 Inspirational Readers' Choice Award, Book of the Year for American Christian Romance Writers, and Romance Writers of America's 2002 RITA Award.
After the Rains was published by Waterbrook Press in 2002 earned Book of the Year Honors (2003) from the American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW), was a Romantic Times Reviewers' Choice nominee (2002) and named a Top 20 Fiction book (2002) by Christian Book Distributors.
Raney's next release, Playing by Heart, a novella, was published by Barbour Books in 2003. It earned ACFW Book of the Year honors (2004), was a 2004 Christy Award Finalist, and recognized with the National Readers Choice Award for Best Novella (2003). [5]
Since then, Raney has written or contributed to more than 40 other books, most notably her Clayburn Novels series and Hanover Falls Novels series from Howard, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, and her Chicory Inn Novels series from Abingdon Press. [1] She served on the executive board of the 2600-member American Christian Fiction Writers for 18 years, and has been on faculty at the organization's annual writers conference since 2001. She has also served on faculty at other writers conferences, including Christian Writers Guild Write for the Soul, Oregon Christian Writers Conference, Mount Hermon Christian Writers Conference, Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers Conference, Colorado Christian Writers Conference, Autumn in the Mountains Novelists Retreat, and others.
With her husband, Ken Raney, who she met in met in 1973, [1] she reissued many of her early books through Raney Day Press, including Beneath a Southern Sky, After the Rains, A Scarlet Cord, Because of the Rain, Above All Things, A Nest of Sparrows, A Scarlet Cord, The Face of the Earth, Insight, Over the Waters, A Vow to Cherish, Within This Circle and other works. The Raney's have four children. [1]
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