with
Deborah Dee Harper
Christian author of humorous and inspirational books for both children and adults
"But may the righteous be glad and rejoice before God; may they be happy and joyful." (Psalms 68:3 NIV)
The Lord has seen fit to give us all the beauty, glory, and awesome diversity of His creation for our pleasure and survival. As if that weren't enough, He also gave us (among countless other gifts and abilities) a sense of humor with which to appreciate those aspects of human behavior we can't quite explain any other way.
​
Please join me as I explore, through my books, blogs, newsletter, and photography, what makes us human beings different from the other creatures in our world--those humorous, irritating, unexplainable, witty, and hilarious character traits we see in others, and yes, let's face it, that others see in us.
​
If you'd like to receive my newsletter, STILL Laughing with the Lord, you may go to the CONTACT ME tab or the NEWSLETTER tab on the menu to the right, and you will be redirected. I hope to be visiting you soon!
A PEEK AT ME...
Hello! I'm Deborah Dee Harper, author of inspirational and humorous books for both children and adults. I live in Murfreesboro, TN now after spending a year in Alaska. Before that, I lived in Murfreesboro for five years, and prior to that, I lived on Elmendorf Air Force Base in Anchorage, Alaska, for four years. Confused? Sometimes I am too. Basically, it was four years in Alaska, five in Tennessee, one back up in Alaska, and now back in Tennessee.
While I was in Alaska I enjoyed all that the Last Frontier had to offer---beautiful mountains, lakes, rivers, trails, forests, glaciers, and of course, wild animals. We saw moose, black bears and grizzly bears, whales, sea lions, bald eagles, foxes, wolves, Dall sheep, ptmarigans, otters, you-name-it. If it lived in Alaska, we saw it, and in the wild, no less. We also survived several earthquakes and even a volcano!
A few years before my Anchorage experience, I lived at another base, Eielsen Air Force Base near Fairbanks, Alaska (yes, yet another Alaska visit), where we weathered temperatures that often reach -50 degrees! But the Aurora Borealis (northern lights) more than made up for the frigid cold. They danced across the nighttime sky in curtains of green and red---glorious beyond words.
I worked at a mid-sized school district in Michigan for 24 years before taking an early retirement and writing fulltime. I've written newspaper columns, feature articles, poetry, essays, greeting cards, and also been published in several anthologies, Chicken Soup for the Sister's Soul, and extensively online.
I'm the proud mother of three grown children. Derek lives in Michigan with his lovely wife, Renee, and their two handsome boys, Tyler and Adam. My youngest child, daughter Dennae, lives in Kentucky with her husband, Richie, and their also handsome boys, Dustin, Hunter, and Cannon. I live with my middle child, Darice, and her beautiful little girl, Molly.
My family, experiences, and love for my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ have impacted my writing enormously. I hope you'll enjoy my work. I love hearing from readers, so please feel free to contact me by checking out my Contact page.
For the Media
Deborah Dee Harper writes inspirational and humorous books for both children and adults. She currently resides in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, where she writes fulltime.
In addition to writing, Deborah enjoys being a mother and grandmother, herb gardening, (very) amateur astronomy, and photography. She's lived in Michigan, Kentucky, Mississippi, and Alaska (twice), before moving to Tennessee.
Before writing children and adult novels, Deborah wrote two newspaper columns, feature articles, essays, poetry, greeting cards, extensive online work, speeches, obituaries, was featured in anthologies and Chicken Soup for the Sister's Soul--you name it, she's tried it.
Eventually, she realized the Lord was prompting her to write for His glory and she's loved doing so ever since.
The Books~
~ Laramie on the Lam (children's)
~ Misstep (adult) Book #1 of Road's End series
~ Faux Pas and Misjudge Books #2 and # of Road's End series
Short bio:
Prior to moving to Tennessee, Deborah Dee Harper lived in Anchorage, Alaska, where she stalked moose, survived earthquakes, prepared their house and car for a volcanic eruption, took thousands of photographs (really, thousands), hiked mountain trails to blue glaciers, watched magnificent whales, sea lions, Dall sheep, bald eagles, wolves, foxes, and black bears in the wild, and chased a grizzly bear down a lonely dirt road to get a picture. Thanks be to God, she survived (and got her picture). She still takes photographs when she’s not writing, but her kids have forbidden her to chase bears. She writes inspirational and humorous Christian books for both adults and children.
Possible interview questions and answers
1. What do you mean by inspirational humor?
I believe our sense of humor is one of God's greatest gifts to us. Humor is a great way to defuse arguments, enjoy one another, relax, make new friends, and relay information. Christians are often seen as stuffed shirts (because some of us are, no doubt!) and I'd like to change that perception by showing that Christians are just as adept at making fun of ourselves as others are of making fun of us! We're no different from anyone else in that regard. We love to laugh. We can enjoy the humor in what we say, do, or think. Writing books that showcase that humor is my way of showing others that being a Christian doesn't stop us from having fun. After all, if God gave us a sense of humor, He most certainly has one too.
2. Will there be other books in the Road's End series?
Yes, there will! Books two and three, Faux Pas and Misjudge will also be published by Write Integrity Press following Misstep. The folks of Road's End, Virginia, are alive and well in these sequel books and up to their usual (and not-so-usual) hijinks. I think readers will enjoy keeping up with the Road's Enders as they welcome the President of the United States in Faux Pas, and host an international peace summit in Misjudge as only the fine (some would say downright weird) folks of Road's End can.
Hopefully, the first three books will be popular enough to warrant even more books. I have enough ideas for the good people of Road's End to keep me writing the rest of my life!
3. Tell us about Misstep.
Colonel Hugh Foster, a chaplain in the United States Air Force, and his wife, Melanie, retire after 27 years in the military and buy The Inn at Road's End in Road's End, Virginia. They envision a quiet life as innkeepers. They picked the wrong town.
Misstep, a small village of 149 souls (two of which are Hugh and Melanie), is populated with senior citizens--ornery, opinionated, loyal, God-loving, stubborn senior citizens. When Hugh is drafted to replace the current pastor when he leaves for medical reasons, he thinks it will be a simple matter of Sunday sermons, a few funerals, and one or two hospital visits. Wrong again.
Just hours after Hugh accepts the position of pastor of the Christ Is Lord Church, someone breaks into the church to vandalize it in the middle of the worst blizzard Road's End has seen in decades. Even worse, the vandalism points to danger for one of their beloved citizens. Someone should have warned the bad guys.
Let the good times begin.
4. Tell us about your children's books.
I've written a children's adventure series called Laramie on the Lam. It was originally published as six individual online installments titled Laramie and the Law, Laramie and the Land of Liberty, Laramie and the Great Yorktown Battle, Laramie's Superior Quest, Laramie and the Great Yukon Rescue, and finally, Laramie Conquers the Last Frontier.
All six installments are stand-alone stories, but are also tied together, and the whole story wraps up with the last one. They were published in one compilation volume in print form in 2012 and I have several of those compilation books available for purchase. Unfortunately, the publisher had to close her doors for health reasons, so I have retrieved the rights and will be re-publishing them as individual print books soon.
They're about a boy, 10-year-old Laramie Wyoming (who lives ... where else? Laramie, Wyoming) who accidentally gets caught up in a bank robbery. The thieves think he has $30,000 of their loot and chase Laramie, his foster brother/worst enemy, and Laramie's unsuspecting family across the country while his mother writes a travel book. It's filled with great adventures, bad guys, good guys, a wonderful black lab, Maestro, named and modeled after our own black lab (also Maestro), inspiration, humor, and mystery.