Deanna Roy

Six-Time USA Today Bestselling Author

May 31, 2010

Writing Happy Dances

Deanna / Writing /

My favorite things in life involve high-pitched squeals. Having two girls, aged 8 and 11, help with that a lot.

Writing a good sentence will get the happy squeak from me. For young Elizabeth, it’s anything pink. For Emily, it’s achieving a high score on her favorite games.

But there’s been a whole lot of guinea pig impressions at the Roy house lately. First, Jinnie Wishmaker, my book for 9-12 year olds, was named a finalist in the Writers League of Texas Manuscript Contest. That’s top five. Whoop! The winner will be announced June 26.

I’ve also been working with a team to produce an iPhone application with an original story and some killer technology. They needed a writer, and I pitched a story that would work well not only for the current app, but also for sequels and product tie ins. That project is hurtling through production, and all three of us girls get a good squeal in every time the illustrator forwards a new set of images from the story.

There’s nothing better than seeing your characters become real! I’ve already pitched story number two with an open door for number three, and that one may go international, with the setting in Japan.

So many exciting things! Wish me luck!

The Trail to Rom Com Land

I’m known for my ugly-cry books. I’ve always landed on the dramatic end of the scale, which has served me well for my biggest bestselling books like Forever Innocent and Baby Dust. I’d written a few rom coms here and there, almost by accident. (I’m funny? No. No one thinks the Queen of the Ugly(…)
Seizures, daughters, and books that matter

In the life of an epilepsy mom, the longest minute of your life is the one when your child stops breathing. I’ve been through it more than once. I’ve seen Elizabeth turn completely blue on the floor of a restaurant. I’ve dried her off, shivering, after seizing in a downpour at Disneyland. I’ve snatched her(…)
Forever Innocent, 7 years later

Late last year, I was contacted by Radish, a reading app for phones, asking to publish a long serialized version of my series that begins with Forever Innocent. With six books, they told me, I would have a successful run with their readers. So in January, we began the process of breaking the books into(…)
On My Friend John J Asher

Sometimes the people who become your best friends are who’d you expect. The kid your age who ends up living next door. The neighborhood family expecting a baby the same time as you. A coworker you laugh with at lunch. But then there are the ones who are only on the periphery of your life(…)
New year, new pen name!

I haven’t written a Deanna-book in a while, as I’ve been focused on branded pen names that write very specific types of books. The Sweetest Match and The Perfect Disaster both take place in the fall of 2018 in Applebottom, Missouri. The two books can be read in any order and are completely standalone. You(…)
The Little Dude Book is here!

I’ve never had a book more people have asked for than this one! A couple years ago, before we adopted Little Dude, I typed up the very first conversation between him and Elizabeth. We were out walking, hoping to find a good spot to view the super moon. It went like this: Eliza: Look at(…)
Forever Christmas, my rainbow baby book, has arrived

It’s here! My mission to help grieving moms through story has come to its conclusion! The rainbow baby is often the end of the grief journey, even though losing a child to miscarriage or stillbirth or infant death is forever part of your life story, one that will create feelings of sorrow at unexpected moments(…)