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ABOUT DONNA
Donna VanLiere is a New York Times and USA Today best-selling author and gifted conference speaker. She has published ten titles including The Christmas Shoes and The Christmas Blessing, both of which were adapted into movies (starring Rob Lowe, Kimberly Williams-Perry and Neil Patrick Harris) and garnered big ratings for CBS television. LifetimeTelevision adapted The Christmas Hope (starring Madeline Stowe) and premiered it December 2009. Donna's non-seasonal novel, The Angels of Morgan Hill, has captured the same warmth as her Christmas books and continues to please loyal and new fans alike.
Donna is the recipient of a Retailer's Choice Award for Fiction, a Dove Award, a Silver Angel Award, an Audie Award for best inspirational fiction, a nominee for a Gold Medallion Book of the Year and was recently inducted into the Ohio Foundation of Independent Colleges Hall of Excellence joining such luminaries as Coretta Scott King, Hugh Downs, Dr. Norman Vincent Peale and Senator John Glenn. Donna is an in-demand conference speaker having appeared at countless women's and family events, including select Women of Faith conferences.
Finding Grace (March 2009) is a powerful and often humorous story of her journey of broken dreams. There comes a time when the wheels come off in everybody's life. No one plans to get a divorce, go bankrupt, suffer depression, or get cancer. The wheels come off and we're left asking, "Now what?" This is the story of how pain and shattered dreams can be confronted and met with peace - simply put, it is the story of finding grace.
Donna's latest book, The Christmas Secret (October 2009) is the fifth title in The Christmas Hope Series and has galvanized her as a perennial favorite by entering the NY Times Bestsellers list a full two months prior to Christmas. USA Today selected the book as one of their "12 Books of Christmas" picks.
Donna lives in Franklin, Tennessee, with her husband, Troy, and their children, Grace, Kate and David, their labradoodle Lucy, their cats Cindy and Katrina and several raccoons who desperately want to be part of their family.
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IN HER OWN WORDS
I was born and raised in Northeastern Ohio. The winters were snowy and cold, much more there than where we now live in middle Tennessee. I would wait inside our garage, bouncing and pacing to keep warm, and when I saw the school bus stop three houses down the street, I'd run down our driveway just in time to step on board. School children would pray for snow days but those are rare in the North; school buses pick shivering children up regardless of rain, sleet, ice, or snow. I remember writing my first story in those early years; I was in the second-grade, I believe. It was about a bear and his family but I abandoned it soon after the first page when a kid named Mike looked over my shoulder and asked why in the world I was writing a stupid story about a bear. I wish I had kept it, better yet, I wish I had finished it; after all, I had gotten through the hardest part of writing... beginning something.
After my husband and I married, we moved to Nashville. I was constantly writing "on the side" but wasn't aware that I could make my living at it. Theater, commercial, voiceover, and radio work helped pay the bills but wasn't fulfilling work. Since I earned degrees in those areas, I thought I should be faithful to the years I logged studying them and follow through with as much work as possible. But odd writing jobs continued to come my way. One day I sat down to write a book and was stunned to hear that a publisher had picked it up. That book turned into another and then I went to see my friends NewSong in concert one hot July day. Eddie Carswell told me the premise of a Christmas song he was writing. He asked if I thought it would make a good Christmas song and I told him I thought it would make a great book. I began to work on an outline so I could flesh out the story and characters. In the meantime, NewSong released The Christmas Shoes single to radio in the winter of 2000. In three weeks, it shot to the top of the Billboard radio charts, tying the record for the fastest charting number one song. The Christmas Shoes novel released it at the end of October of 2001 and CBS brought it to the small screen on December 1, 2002. It is a beautiful, touching film about family and the power of the human spirit. Because the screen version differs from the novel, I do encourage readers to read the book first before watching the movie--but the film will stay with you long after you turn off the television. CBS aired The Christmas Blessing (Neil Patrick Harris) in December 05 and it became one of the most watched programs the week it aired. Lifetime will air The Christmas Hope in winter 09.
As blessed as I am to make my living doing what I love, my writing pales in comparison to my title of "mom". After years and tears of trying to conceive a child, God answered our prayers in March of 2002 when my husband and I traveled to China to bring home our ten-month-old daughter. In July of 04 we traveled across the sea again to bring home another China doll. In July of 07 we brought home a little guy from Guatemala! David is a smiling, happy toddler and our children are by far the most exciting part of our lives. These days, I write during naps and spend the rest of my time watching them grow.
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FACT SHEET
B.A., Theater and Broadcasting Cedarville University
Bibliography
They Walked With Him (Howard Publishing, 2001)
Sheltering Trees: The Power, Promise, and Refuge of Friendship (Howard Publishing, 2001)
The Christmas Shoes (St. Martin's Press, 2001)
The Christmas Blessing (St. Martin's Press, 2003)
High Calling: The Courageous Life and Faith of Space Shuttle Columbia Commander Rick Husband, by Evelyn Husband & Donna VanLiere (Thomas Nelson, 2004)
The Christmas Hope (St. Martin's Press, 2005)
The Angels of Morgan Hill (St. Martin's Press, 2006)
The Christmas Promise (St. Martin's Press, 2007)
The Angels of Morgan Hill, paperback (St. Martin's Paperbacks, 2007)
Finding Grace (St. Martin's Press, March 2009)
The Christmas Secret (St. Martin's Press, October 2009)
The Christmas Journey (St. Martin's Press, October 2010)
Filmography
The Christmas Shoes (CBS, 2002)
The Christmas Blessing (CBS, 2005)
The Christmas Hope (LifeTime, 2009)
Recognitions
New York Times™ Bestselling Author, Fiction
USA Today™ Bestselling Author, Fiction
Retailer's Choice Award for Fiction
Dove Award™ (and multiple nominations)
Silver Angel Award for Inspirational Book
Gold Medallion Book of the Year Fiction nominee
Audie Award for Inspirational Fiction (and multiple nominations)
Other
Inspirational Conference Speaker
Featured Speaker for select Women of Faith Conference events
Books translated into Japanese, Italian, French, German, Indonesian and others.
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