No doubt about it, writing novels is a dream job, but it's not all fun and games. And when it's time for a break or a change of scenery, many novelists retreat to a special garden spot in the backyard, front porch, courtyard or garden shed. We'd like to invite you into the garden spaces that offer us respite and inspiration. So grab a mug of coffee or a cup of tea and come sit with us a spell. . .
welcome!
tamera alexander
Tamera Alexander is the author of the bestselling Fountain Creek Chronicles historical series (including Revealed, a RITA® Winner) and From a Distance. With a recent move from Colorado to Tennessee with their two children, Tamera and her husband, Joe, are just completing the landscaping and gardens at their new home. Vistas of the surrounding countryside, a swing Joe built, and a cozy covered deck where Tamera writes, offer plenty of inspiration. Visit Tamera’s website at www.tameraalexander.com.
Tamera doing research at Claude Monet's gardens in Giverny, France.nikki arana
Nikki Arana is an award-winning author of women's fiction, essays, poetry, and magazine articles. Her work has been published in the United States and Canada. Her first three novels make up the Regalo Grande series, set alternately in Guadalajara, Mexico and California wine country. Nikki's newest title is As I Have Loved You, inspired by a true story. She and her husband of thirty-one years, Antonio, live in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. Visit Nikki's website at www.nikkiarana.com.
karen ball
Karen Ball has been writing stories since she was a little girl. The first novel in her Family Honor series, Shattered Justice, was given the 2006 Inspirational Reader's Choice Award. The much anticipated final book in that series, What Lies Within, will release in November '07. Karen's love of all things nature came from her mother and father, who raised pansies and roses, respectively. As a result, Karen's garden today has an abundance of both flowers, and she loves creating bouquets from her garden to fill the house with the sweet fragrances. The color and aroma are a definite inspiration to her as she writes. Visit Karen's website at www.karenballbooks.com.
terri blackstock
Terri Blackstock is the author of over thirty Christian fiction titles, many of which have been number one best-sellers. Her new Restoration novels include Last Light, Night Light, True Light, and the newest book in the series, Dawn's Light, which will hit bookstores across the country this spring. Terri's garden spot is in her beautiful native Mississippi where she shares a home with husband, Ken. Visit Terri's website at www.terriblackstock.com.
sandra byrd
Sandra Byrd is a prolific writer of fiction, including the popular Friends for a Season series for teens, and the bestselling Girls Like You and Secret Sisters series for young girls. She is a regular contributor to national Christian publications. Before she began writing full time, Sandra worked in marketing, sales, and acquisitions for an educational publisher. She and her husband have two children, and keep house and garden in Seattle. Find out more about Sandra here.
mindy starns clark
Mindy Starns Clark is the author of the Smart Chick Mystery series and the Million Dollar Mysteries series, as well as the nonfiction book The House That Cleans Itself. Mindy lives near Valley Forge, PA, with her husband John, two teenage daughters, and two shih tzus. As the daughter of an avid organic gardener, Mindy would rather look at beautiful flowers than do all the work that makes them that way, as the weeds in this photo of her "leftover tulip garden" will attest. She explains: "Every Christmas, I like to send a gift to everyone at my publishing house. The year my novel, The Trouble with Tulip, came out, I sent out a bunch of individually-wrapped tulip bulbs. I didn't know what to do with the leftover bulbs, but a strangely warm winter day came along, so I stuck them in the ground around our front lamp post. I forgot all about them, but that spring they popped up, blooming beautifully - and they have continued to bless us year after year ever since!" Visit Mindy's website at www.mindystarnsclark.com.
mary demuth
Mary DeMuth lives with her husband, Patrick, and their three children in Texas. They recently returned from Southern France where they planted a church and tended the garden shown below. Mary’s novels are Watching the Tree Limbs, and Wishing on Dandelions, which was a finalist for the Retailer's Choice Award and the ACFW Book of the Year Award. Mary also writes non-fiction, including: Ordinary Mom, Extraordinary God; Building the Christian Family You Never Had, and Authentic Parenting in a Postmodern Culture. Mary's home on the web is www.marydemuth.com.
megan dimaria
Megan DiMaria shares the same garden and patio as Linda Revere, the character in her debut novel Searching for Spice. As far as Megan is concerned, a perfect summer weekend includes some hang time in her garden hammock. When she’s not tapping out another story on her computer, she loves to spend time with her husband and three adult children in the beautiful Rocky Mountain state of Colorado. Visit Megan online at megandimaria.blogspot.com.
robin lee hatcher
Robin Lee Hatcher is the bestselling author of more than fifty novels, including Return to Me. Her Christian fiction has won two RITA Awards, ACFW's Book of the Year, the Christy Award for Excellence in Christian Fiction, the Inspirational Readers Choice, two Booksellers Best Awards, and the Silver Angel for Excellence in Media. In 2001, she was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award from Romance Writers of America. Her garden at her new home consists mostly of pots on the patio (no weeding!) which both she and her Papillon, Poppet, enjoy on a summer's day. Be sure to visit Robin's web site at www.robinleehatcher.com.
roxanne henke
Roxanne Henke is the author of the beloved Coming Home to Brewster series that began with After Anne. Roxy gardens in a small town in North Dakota where the "national holiday" is Sauerkraut Day. Roxy is married to Lorren and is Mom to two grown daughters. Her newest novel is Learning to Fly, a novel about the joys and challenges of parenting, and follows The Secret of Us, a story about the joys and trials of marriage. Visit Roxy's website at www.roxannehenke.com.
patti hill
Gardens are Patti Hill's bread and butter, literally. Her husband Dennis owns a garden center in Colorado. Just like the main character of her books, Patti's garden is in a constant state of flux. "There's always room for one more flower," is her gardening motto, and she breaks for all botanical gardens. Her first novel, book one of the Garden Gates series, Like a Watered Garden, was a 2006 Christy Award finalist. Always Green and In Every Flower complete the trilogy. Patti's home on the Web is www.pattihillauthor.com.
sharon hinck
Sharon Hinck, author of The Becky Miller Series has been a church youth worker, a choreographer and ballet teacher, a church organist, a home-school mom, and a bookstore clerk. One day she’ll figure out what to be when she grows up! In the meantime she is pouring her imagination into writing. She released her first novel in 2006. Her newest book is The Restorer. Sharon and her family make their home in Minnesota. When she's not writing, she loves to spend time in her raised bed, organic vegetable garden. "Tomatoes and peppers are a great distraction from plot arcs and edits," she says. Sharon's website is www.sharonhinck.com.
angela hunt
Angela Elwell Hunt is the best-selling author of The Tale of Three Trees, The Note, and Doesnt' She Look Natural, with over three million copies of her books sold worldwide. Eight of her novels have won Angel Awards from Excellence in Media. Hunt has also won four silver medals and a gold medal from ForeWord Magazine’s Book of the Year Award as well as a Christy Award. Romantic Times Book Club presented her with a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2006. Three of her novels have been optioned for film. She and her husband make their home in Florida.
Angela's garden includes one flower that exemplifies her professional brand, Expect the Unexpected. "A night-blooming cereus blooms only once," Angie says, "and that in the middle of the night. I have two plants, and both had buds in June. I missed the first plant’s bloom (the flowers always fade by sunrise) so the second night I sat outside on my back porch with the plant to snap this picture... The bud began to open around midnight, and was in full flower by three am. After that, I went to bed! My neighbors probably thought I was nuts, sitting outside, surrounded by flickering candles, with my notepad and my camera. But it was worth it!" For more about Angela Hunt, visit www.angelaelwellhunt.com.
nancy jo jenkins
Nancy Jo Jenkins' garden is a "hothouse" and featured below are the leaves of an ivy plant she "ditched" in the greenhouse several years ago. "The greenhouse is like a rain forest where our plants thrive, both wintertime and summer," Nancy says. Nancy Jo is a retired teacher who loves to write Christian novels. She lives with her husband in Austin, Texas, near their children and grandchildren. She loves attending writers conferences and fellowshipping with other writers. Coldwater Revival is her debut novel. You can visit her website at www.nancyjojenkins.com.
gail gaymer martin
Gail Gaymer Martin is an award-winning novelist with over one million books in print and forty novels and novellas, including her newest title, Family in His Heart. Her non-fiction book, Writing The Christian Romance, is a new release from Writers Digest Books. Gail gardens with her husband, Bob, in a suburb of Detroit. You can visit her website at www.gailmartin.com.
susan meissner
Susan Meissner is a former newspaper editor and the author of numerous novels, including A Seahorse in the Thames, In All Deep Places, A Window to the World (named one of the Top Ten Christian Novels of 2005 by Booklist magazine), as well as the Rachael Flynn Mystery series, and her newest novel, Blue Heart Blessed. Susan and her pastor husband, Bob, have four children. Susan bought the plants for her mini-cactus garden at a farmer's market where a man played a violin next to a stall of fresh tulips while Susan shopped for cacti. Her cactus garden thrives in the hot sun on the south side of her home in southern California. Visit Susan on the Web at www.susanmeissner.com.
ruth axtell morren
Ruth Axtell Morren gained her first recognition as a writer when she made the finals in the Romance Writers of America Golden Heart Contest while living in the Netherlands with her husband. In Holland Ruth began crafting her first serious story in between having her three children. The family lived in the U.S. for a time, and are now back in the Netherlands. Ruth says, "When we moved back to the Netherlands from Maine, we gave up our 35-acre garden and forest for a small, narrow "brickyard. There wasn't a plant or a shrub in the backyard, only bricks. I almost wept when I first saw it. Slowly, we began digging up bricks and creating semi-raised beds. Thankfully, with the damp Dutch weather, things grow quickly and now we can sit out back and enjoy it. I can transpose the title of my fifth book, The Healing Season, to the transformation that took place in our own backyard." Visit Ruth online at www.ruthaxtellmorren.com.
elizabeth musser
Elizabeth Musser, a native of Atlanta, creates her novels in a charming "writing chalet," a revamped tool shed in her yard in Lyon, France. With their two sons, Elizabeth and her husband, Paul, have lived in France for over twenty years while involved in mission work there. Her newest novel is Searching for Eternity, and she is currently at work on her seventh novel. Visit Elizabeth's website at www.elizabethmusser.com.
donita k. paul
Donita K. Paul is a mother of two (and grandmother of two) who retired early from teaching school, but soon got bored! The result: a determination to start a new career. Now she is an award-winning novelist writing Christian Romance and Fantasy. Her newest title is Dragonfire. "My garden is right outside my office window," Donita says. "I found the ducks at a thrift shop and they just make the little spot more playful and inviting. My grandsons are allowed to play in the water but not with the ducks. I'd like to put dragons out there, but haven't found any I like well enough." Visit Donita's website at www.donitakpaul.com.
cara putman
Cara Putman is a woman living a dream. Her Nebraska series, of which Canteen Dreams is the first installment, tells the stories of three couples finding love on the Homefront during World War Two. Cara also has a romantic suspense releasing next summer. When not writing into the wee hours of the night, Cara is a wife, mom to two active children, ministry leader at her church, and sometimes attorney. She loves to spend time tending her garden (even weeding - a perfect task for perfectionists) and watching God breath life into it. You can catch up with Cara on the Web at carasmusings.blogspot.com.
deborah raney
Deborah Raney enjoys writing in the garden tended by her artist husband, Ken, at their little house on the prairie in Kansas. They have four children, and two little grandsons. A Vow to Cherish, Deb's first novel, was the inspiration for the World Wide Pictures award-winning film of the same title. Her newest release, Remember to Forget, is the first in the Clayburn Novels series from Howard/Simon & Schuster. Visit her website at www.deborahraney.com.
(For more photos of the Raney garden, visit A Kansas Prairie Garden.)
kim vogel sawyer
The favorite garden spot of Kansas author Kim Vogel Sawyer is "borrowed." Kim considers it a blessing to live near her parents' home with its beautiful, shady backyard full of treasures for her and husband Don's five young grandsons (and a soon-to-be granddaughter!) to explore. Kim, mother of three daughters, is the author of both historical and contemporary novels, many of them set in Kansas. Her best-selling books include The Sommerfeld Trilogy and her newest title, My Heart Remembers, an anthology releasing in February. Visit Kim's website at www.kimvogelsawyer.com.
carrie turansky
Carrie Turansky and her husband Scott live with their family in beautiful central New Jersey, which is known as the Garden State. Carrie (pictured below, flanked by her twin daughters) writes women's fiction and inspirational romance. Her books have been finalists for the ACFW Genesis contest and ACFW Book of the Year contest. Her newest title is a novella in A Big Apple Christmas. Spending time digging in the dirt is one of her favorite ways to relax. Visit Carrie at www.carrieturansky.com.
amy wallace
Amy Wallace, author of the Defenders of Hope series, loves tending the garden of kiddos God has given her. That's where she spends most of her time planting seeds for the future and watching God grow them up. But she can, at times, be found growing sunflowers and trying to keep the weeds at bay at her Atlanta, Georgia home. Besides writing and blogging, Amy homeschools three active little girls, leads Bible studies, and works semi-hard at overcoming her chocoholic tendencies. Amy's website is www.amywallace.com.
elizabeth white
Elizabeth White is the author of numerous novellas and novels, including Fair Game, Fireworks, and The Texas Gatekeepers series. Her newest title is Controlling Interest. Beth's most valued roles are wife and mom, but she also teaches a second-grade Sunday school class, is a flutist in her church orchestra and is an artist. Beth and her husband, Scott, a pastor, live with their children in Alabama, where the azaleas in their back yard bloom even before the calendar officially says spring. Visit Beth's home on the Web at www.elizabethwhite.net
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