Author in SE Kansas lands book deal

? Landing a book deal with a major publisher is every author’s dream.

For Deborah Vogts, a contemporary Christian romance writer who lives near Erie in southeast Kansas, that dream was finally fulfilled. Her book “Snow Melts in Spring,” the first of a three-part “Seasons of the Tallgrass” series, was released this past summer by Zondervan, one of the largest Christian publishing companies in the nation.

Her next book in the series, “Seeds of Summer,” will be released in May by Zondervan.

Both books are set in the Flint Hills area of Kansas and draw from Vogts’ background of living in the country.

In a recent phone interview, Vogts said she wrote her first book when she was in high school. She held onto her dream of becoming a writer after she attended Emporia State University, where she studied English and journalism.

“Then life happened,” she said. “I didn’t finish my degree, but the love of writing stayed with me.”

In 2002, Vogts joined an online writing group called the American Christian Fiction Writers. She started writing again and at a 2005 conference found an agent willing to shop her book to publishers.

That agent came close to landing a book deal, but after a year, nothing firm materialized.

About ready to put her dream on the back burner once again, she found another agent, Rachelle Gardner, who lined her up with the three-book contract with Zondervan.

Vogts said she “has heard back from a lot” of her readers through her Web site, deborahvogts.com, and has received much positive feedback.