The Deepest Waters it is!

I received an email from Revell's marketing department yesterday, informing me that the title team has decided they liked my title idea for the 3rd book. So it's official...my 3rd novel will be called The Deepest Waters.

This is a first for me. The titles I came up with for the first two books got changed during this process. With the first book, The Unfinished Gift, I liked their idea WAY better. For the sequel, The Homecoming, I still liked my idea better at first. But in time, I've warmed up to it. After you read the book, it really does fit well.

This is fun. I actually got the title for The Deepest Waters at the very beginning, almost right after the story came together. Now that it's settled, they can move on to the next phase--the cover! I have loved both covers so far. Very curious to see what the Art Department comes up with next. The Deepest Waters begins a brand new storyline.

Here's a preview...

It's September 1857. A couple on their honeymoon is separated by a shipwreck. Their beautiful steamship, the SS Vandervere, has collided with a fierce hurricane and is damaged beyond repair. Just before she goes down, an old wooden ship comes to their rescue. But it only has room to take the women and children aboard. The couple is pulled apart, weeping, certain they will never see each other again. She sails off alone to New York, aboard a ship full of grieving widows and orphans, to face a family she has never met.

Inspired by a true story, The Deepest Waters weaves a tale full of action and suspense, and yet it is also an amazing love story that could only happen if miracles do come true.

Das Unvollendete Geschenk...say what?

I'm guessing most Americans won't know what the first 3 words in the title line mean. I'd be among them, except for one of the free online translator sites on the internet.

Das = The

Unvollendete = Unfinished

Geschenk = Gift

In German.

I received an exciting email from my publisher yesterday, saying Francke-Buchandlung GmbH, an organization based in Germany, has officially signed a contract with Baker Publishing for a German-language edition of The Unfinished Gift.

The book is already available in a few other countries, like Canada and England, and will soon be available in South Africa. But these are still the same English editions available in the US. This represents the first translation of the book into a foreign language. An editor from the firm said they plan to market the book in Switzerland and Austria, as well.

I'm grateful to the folks at Francke-Buchandlung for this marvelous opportunity. Who knows... God may someday allow me to see Das Unvollendete Geschenk on a shelf somewhere in Germany.

More Audio Book News

I've just learned that Oasis Audio plans to release the audio book version of The Homecoming the first week of June. That's the same week the book hits the shelves.

That means The Unfinished Gift will come out mid-April, then 6 weeks later the sequel.

It's pretty exciting. I can't wait to hear who they pick to narrate the book and how it turns out!