Resume: Debby Alten

Debby Alten graduated from the Institute of Children’s Literature in 1995. She has attended the Mount Hermon Christian Writers’ Conference as well as CLASS (the Christian Leaders, Authors, and Speakers Seminar) and the Orange County Fellowship of Writers. She is currently going through a two-year writing course with CWG (Christian Writer’s Guild) which is headed by Jerry B. Jenkins.

Debby is a single mother of two. Until her recent move to the California desert, she lived in El Monte, California (where her father has served as pastor), for more than twenty years. In recent years, Debby has written and edited her father’s short sermons for his video series.

The local newspaper, Mid Valley News, published her article, Paradise Lost, which is an account of her father’s war-filled childhood. She has also written a short story, Of Whisperers, Warriors and Canaanites, published by DKA magazine (Dragons, Knights and Angels Magazine). Debby currently serves as the editor of Newsong Church’s online magazine, The Gate. Her family cookbook, Come and Dine, is in print and she has completed her first novel, Paragon: The Swords of the Watchers.

Debby has worked for Mary Rice Hopkins (Christian singer and author) as a freelance writer creating Sunday School curricula based on Mary’s children’s songs.

Once a month she meets with a writers’ group whose members range from children’s authors such as Marilyn J. Woody (High Chair Devotions), Sandra Shoger Foster (Daddy Will You Dance With Me) to non-fiction authors/editors like Jane Rumph (Stories From the Front Lines).

Born on the island of New Guinea, war forced her and her parents to move to the Netherlands. After eight years in that country, they migrated to Australia, and then relocated to the United States in 1976.