Deborah Raney: A Self Portrait
Deborah Raney Revealed
About Deborah Raney
Revealing Questions
- Q. How would you describe your life in only 8 words?
- A. Faith, family, friends, fun, food, felicity, fabulous, (and going by much too) FAST!
- Q. What is your motto or maxim?
- A. "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose." ~Martyred missionary Jim Elliot
- Q. How would you describe perfect happiness?
- A. I think perfect happiness has everything to do with learning to be content with what I have. With comparing myself to those who have less and feeling blessed, rather than looking across the fence and bemoaning what I don't have.
- Q. If you could be anywhere in the world right now, where would you choose to be?
- A. Home. I love to travel, I love to go out with my friends, but what I love most is being home with my family.
- Q. What are your most overused words or phrases?
- A. A few years ago I read one of my books aloud to my then 13-year-old daughter. We got the giggles as my hero winked every third page. I also have to be careful my heroines don't rake a hand through their hair more than once or twice per book.
- Q. What do you regret most?
- A. Wasted time and thoughtless words.
- Q. If you could acquire any talent, what would it be?
- A. I would love to be bilingual. I think having a second or third language at my bidding would open up the world in amazing ways.
- Q. What is your greatest achievement?
- A. My children. Not that I can take any credit for the amazing people they have become, but I think anyone who meets them can't help but say we did a few things right.
- Q. What’s your greatest flaw?
- A. Wasting time and speaking without thinking how it might make others feel.
- Q. What’s your best quality?
- A. God has blessed me with the gift of cheerfulness. I hope that is a blessing to others.
- Q. What is your biggest pet peeve?
- A. Price stickers that ruin the product to which they are affixed.
- Q. What is your favorite occupation, when you’re not writing?
- A. Reading. But I also love working in our flower gardens with my husband.
- Q. What’s your fantasy profession?
- A. I would love to decorate and manage a bed and breakfast. But only if I could afford to have a cleaning staff. It's the talking to interesting people, and baking yummy breakfast fare that appeal to me about that dream.
- Q. What 3 personal qualities are most important to you?
- A. Honesty, loyalty and selflessness.
- Q. If you could eat only one thing for the rest of your days, what would it be?
- A. That's easy: ice cream!
On Books and Writing
- Q. Who are your favorite authors?
- A. Tamera Alexander, James Scott Bell, Roxanne Henke, BJ Hoff, Cynthia Ruchti, Randy Singer, Ann Tatlock
- Q. What are your 5 favorite books of all time?
- A. Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burns
Christy by Catherine Marshall
The Help by Kathryn Stockett
Jan Karon's Mitford series
- Q. Is there a book you love to reread?
- A. Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burns
- Q. Do you have one sentence of advice for new writers?
- A. Read, read, read! Read the kind of book you'd like to write. You learn a ton by osmosis.
- Q. What comment do you hear most often from your readers?
- A. Thanks a lot for keeping me up all night!
- Q. How did you come to write Yesterday's Embers?
- A. I fell in love with Doug and Kaye DeVore in the first two Clayburn novels and wanted to explore their lives in another book. Then a reader wrote me, saying she wanted to know more about Mickey Valdez. It intrigued me that a reader had been intrigued by a character who appeared in mere paragraphs of the novel, so of course, I had to follow that trail.
