A Nest of Sparrows (and a free e-book!)

My novel A Nest of Sparrows is free today in ebook format. Of the forty-plus books I’ve written, this one is my favorite of all time. I don’t think I could say that about any of my books until I’d written at least a dozen or so. And interestingly enough, A Nest of Sparrows is the hardest book I’ve ever written, mostly because of the research involved—and the fact that I turned the book in at a whopping 120,000 words! (My books are usually 80-90,000 words. I was asked to cut about 20,000 and managed to cut 10,000, and the book is better for it.)

When I was working on the manuscript for WaterBrook Press, my working title was The Path Home. The entire year I worked on the book, I thought of it as The Path Home. Very late in the game, my editor called one day to say that marketing had rejected the title because it was too similar to a book they’d recently published, and they were afraid people would confuse the two.

We brainstormed dozens of titles over the next two days and nothing sounded quite right to me. At the eleventh hour, desperately needing a title, my editor suggested A Nest of Sparrows. My heart instantly knew it was perfect!

Two weeks later, the cover image came (the yellow and orange scene above) and I instantly loved it. I think it’s the only time I haven’t asked for at least a few tweaks on the cover. I loved that the three children from my story were playing in the field.

At an author dinner given by the publisher that year, there was a gift certificate to one of my favorite stores in a card at each author’s place. I had such fun shopping the Coldwater Creek catalog and was thrilled to find this little sparrow bud vase. It sits in our kitchen to this day, a lovely reminder of my own “nest of sparrows” and of the fact that God’s eye is on the sparrow ( ♫♪ so I know He watches me. ♫♪ )

It was such an encouragement to me at a pivotal time in my writing life when A Nest of Sparrows was a finalist for nine different awards, winning the HOLT Medallion and the More Than Magic Award.

• HOLT Medallion winner • More Than Magic Award • RITA Award finalist • National Readers Choice Award finalist • Booksellers Best Award finalist • ACFW Carol Award, finalist • Colorado Romance Writers Award of Excellence finalist • Gayle Wilson Award of Excellence finalist • Golden Quill finalist •

Best of all, after some rather brutal reviews for my novels in Publishers Weekly Magazine, A Nest of Sparrows got a wonderful blurb that said in part, “In this thoughtful novel by Raney, multifaceted characters and a fresh storyline keep the pages turning. … Raney intertwines poignant moments with genuine humor and refuses to make her characters one-dimensional… This is one of Raney’s best novels…”

Huge sigh of relief. Then, three years after it was first published, the book was translated into Dutch. The title, Vaderliefde, translates “Fatherly Love.”

A baker’s dozen of years passed, and eventually, I got the rights back to my book. We reissued it through Raney Day Press with a gorgeous new cover by my husband, Ken Raney. (Authors don’t usually get the rights back to original book covers, and besides, it’s nice to have a fresh, updated cover for a book that’s been around for a while.) I’m thrilled that now my favorite book I’ve ever written has my favorite cover of all time.

And today only (Monday, April 11) you can get the ebook of A Nest of Sparrows FREE! Click on the book cover above. (Again, the deal is only for today, so don’t delay!) Which reminds me, if you haven’t discovered BookBub, I hope you’ll check it out! It’s a great way to follow your favorite authors and be notified whenever they have a new book releasing or a special deal on an older title. It also allows you to see every book an author has published, so you’ll know if you’ve missed one. I’ve shared this before, but it’s time for an update. Here are the links to follow each of the authors of Inspired by Life…and Fiction on BookBub:

Tamera Alexander

Robin Lee Hatcher

Jody Hedlund

Angela Hunt

Julie Klassen

Anne Mateer

Dani Pettrey

Cara Putman

Deborah Raney

Becky Wade

Karen Witemeyer

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Deborah Raney

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. Forty books later, she's still creating stories that touch hearts and lives. Her novels have won RWA's RITA Award, the ACFW Carol Award, the National Readers Choice Award, and the HOLT Medallion. She is also a three-time Christy Award finalist. Deb is on faculty for several national writers’ conferences and served on the executive board of the 2,500-member American Christian Fiction Writers organization for 18 years before retiring in 2022. She is a recent transplant to Missouri, having moved with her husband, Ken Raney, from their native Kansas to be closer to kids and grandkids. They love road trips, e-biking, Friday garage sale dates, and breakfast on the screened porch overlooking their wooded backyard.

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