So super excited to have Deb Raney with us today. I’ve always loved her writing. And now, she’s out with a new book, Close to Home. Here’s a little bit about the book:

Bree Cordel Whitman is a Whitman by marriage, but sometimes she forgets she wasn’t born into Grant and Audrey’s family. Her late husband, Timothy Whitman, gave his life for his country on a windblown hill in Afghanistan. Bree has let the love of Tim’s family keep her ties to him strong–in the same way she keeps Tim’s memory alive for them. But it’s been almost five years, and she can’t hang onto the past forever.

Fighting the guilt she feels for wanting to love again, she can’t help her dreams about a tall, dark, and handsome man–a man who is not her Tim. How can she accept the flirtations from Drew Brooks without throwing the Whitman family back into grieving? And how can Drew compete with the ghost of a hero and the hero’s very alive family who seem to hold some spell over the woman who shares their name . . . a woman he might just love?

Welcome, Deb.

1.    What inspired you to write Close to Home?
Since this is the fourth novel in the Chicory Inn Novels series, some of the parameters had already been set for what the story would be. Each novel in my series is the story of one of Grant and Audrey Whitman’s children. In this case, the heroine is Bree Cordel Whitman, their daughter-in-law who was married to their U.S. Marine son at the time of his death in Afghanistan.

2.    What parts are of the book are based on something real?
I try so hard NOT to base any of my stories on things that have happened with my own family members. While there are many lovely, funny, heartbreaking, and fascinating stories to be told about my family, I decided early in my writing career that I would never (intentionally) embarrass my siblings or my own children by telling stories that weren’t mine to tell. But that’s easier said than done, and more often than I’d like, I do find similarities from real life creeping into my stories. My kids will tell you they see our family in everything I write!

In the case of Close to Home, I examined an issue I hadn’t even realized mirrored one in my family’s life until I was talking to one of my sisters about the synopses for the series one day. That issue—allowing a beloved in-law by marriage to move on after the death of the one who ties that person to the family—is the main theme of Close to Home.

While the details of the story in Close to Home are different in almost every way, the themes are similar to what we experienced when the young man my younger sister had been married to at the time of her death in a car accident, came to my parents and asked their blessing to begin dating again. My sister, 21, had only been married for three months, yet we loved her husband as if he were our own brother. We are so blessed and grateful that the woman God ultimately brought into his life embraced our family in a way few in her position would have. To this day, almost thirty-seven years later, we love her like a sister, and she quickly calmed one of our greatest fears—that we would lose touch with the brother-in-law we loved. Now we love the two of them together and count them among our most precious blessings (along with their four sons and their growing families.)

Whenever my idea or plot has come from a real story, especially if it’s a painful one, I change as many details as possible to protect the privacy of those who’ve lived the story I’m writing as “entertainment.” There’s a real danger in appearing to “profit” from someone else’s tragedy, and I don’t ever want to be accused of that!

3.    Did you get to talk to any military families when writing the book?
Because the circumstances of my Marine’s death are all long-ago backstory (Timothy was killed almost five years before the novel opens) I haven’t used a lot of details from his actual death. I did have to research how a family member would be informed of such a death, and some details like that. I have a former Marine nephew who served several terms in the Middle East, so I knew firsthand what it was like for family members to worry about and pray for a loved on in harm’s way—and the pride of having a close family member serving his country and risking his very life…and as a mother of two sons, I could certainly understand what it might feel like to lose a son. But it was the personal struggle over feeling you’ve also lost their spouse, that I drew on for this novel.

4.    What’s next for the Whitman family?
The final novel, releasing next February, Home at Last, is the remaining Whitman son’s story. Link has watched each of his siblings marry and have children, and he’s often teased about being the “last man standing.” But he doesn’t want to settle for just any woman. And he’s not sure he has his own life figured out yet, let alone drag a woman into his uncertainties about what he wants from life. He certainly didn’t expect to fall in love with a woman with a child, and a woman whose father strongly opposes their relationship. Home at Last may very well be my favorite book in the series. Its themes of forgiveness and racial reconciliation are those I’ve explored as sub-plots in other books, but never so boldly as I do in this one. I can hardly wait for it to land in bookstores! (And at the same time, I’m a little nervous about how it might be received because of those themes!)

5.    One reviewer said the next one sounds good, and she wished she didn’t have to wait so long to read it. Why can it take a while for the next book in a series to be released?
For me, it’s mostly because I’m a very slow writer! I may be able to write the first draft in 4 months or even less, but that is preceded by months and months of research and reading other books (non-fiction as well as novels) about my topics. I’m a very visual writer, so I find photographs that resemble my characters, and I use house plans and photos from home decor magazines so I can visualize the rooms where my scenes take place. I simply have to live with my characters for a good while before I can get their story on paper.
And then, the editing process takes much more time than readers might imagine. Most publishers have at least 3 or 4 layers of editing—substantive, line edits, copy edits, and final galley reads—that each take the time and efforts of an entire team. And of course, that doesn’t count the cover design, interior book design, setting up promotions with the publicity department, getting advance reader copies out for review, and of course, getting the book to press (often in many formats…e-book, audio book, foreign editions, etc.)
I honestly sometimes feel guilty that my name is the only one on the cover! There are SO many other people involved in bringing a book into the world! And I appreciate each one more than I can say!

DEBORAH RANEY’s first novel, A Vow to Cherish, inspired the World Wide Pictures film of the same title and launched Deb’s writing career. Twenty years, thirty books, and numerous awards later, she’s still creating stories that touch hearts and lives. She and husband, Ken, recently traded small-town life in Kansas for life in the city of Wichita. They love traveling to visit four grown children and seven grandchildren who all live much too far away.

Deb is giving away a copy of her new book. Enter below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thanks for visiting with us, Deb! It’s been great to have you.