Denise Hunter was once encouraged to "dream big." So she did. Literally.

"I did dream about having a book made into a movie," she says. "I even wrote it down."

The local author of 30 romance novels, Hunter saw her career sent skyward recently when her novel, "The Convenient Groom," was adapted into a movie that was seen this month by nearly 2.5 million on the Hallmark Channel.

But the dream continues.

Hunter announced that another book, "A December Bride," has been filmed and will appear on the Hallmark network, presumably around Christmas. But unlike with her first novel-turned-TV movie, Hunter and her husband, Kevin, will make a brief appearance in "A December Bride."

"They gave my husband and I a bit part, so we should be on screen," she says.

By the time Hunter attended a writer’s conference in 2011, she had already made a name for herself as a successful author of roughly 20 books. Her readers, mostly women, were loyal followers of her work that began with her first Christian romance novel published in 1999, "Stranger’s Bride."

But when fellow author Debbie Macomber, who spoke at the conference, told the gathering to dream big, Hunter took the advice to heart.

"She had index cards and told everybody to write down three of your biggest dreams to happen with your career, so I did it," Hunter says. "The first one was being on the Christian bestseller list. The second one was a Hallmark movie – literally, a Hallmark movie. And the third one was being on the New York Times bestseller list."

Hunter has now accomplished the first two.

The dream began long ago on the solitary drive back to Fort Wayne from Ohio after seeing her dying grandfather.

"I had always wanted to write a novel, but I guess I just kind of put it on the back burner," she says, perched at the end of a leather sofa of her living room. "I got married, I was in college, I started having kids, life was busy. And then I got the phone call that my grandfather was going to pass away, so I drove to Ohio and I was sitting in his hospital room, by his bed, reflecting on his life. He was a good, godly man, and he had done so many things with his life. He let God direct his life. I felt like he finished with no regrets.

"When I was on my way home – it was a long drive and I was by myself – I really just felt the urge of writing and to take it off the back burner. I didn’t want to get to the end of my life and think, ‘Well, it’s too late now.’ I didn’t want to have regrets. And my thinking at the time was, ‘Well, if I have what it takes, it’ll get published, and if not, it won’t. And I won’t know until I try.’ "

So the dream was about to take form. Writing in longhand, Hunter began her first novel. She wrote while sons Justin and Chad slept (another son, Trevor, would come later). She would call the book "Stranger’s Bride."

"Miraculously, it was published," she says. "I don’t know if I would have continued writing had I not gotten that published."

That was 20 years ago. Today, she’s traded in the pen for the laptop – the one she takes daily to a nearby coffee shop, where she dutifully stays until six pages are completed. The next day is the same, as is the next. Her publisher, HarperCollins, has her contracted to write two books a year.

Even though her sons are 23, 20 and 17, and her northeast home is often quiet, Hunter prefers to write amid the chatter of the coffee shop.

"People will ask me why I do that, and I will say, ‘There are fewer distractions there,’ " Hunter says. "People think, how in the world can there be fewer distractions at a coffee shop than there are at home?, especially when my kids are older. But the distractions I’m referring to are the dishes and dinner and the laundry and the cleaning that I know need to be done, and that’s not there when I’m at the coffee shop. I can block out the noise. I just can’t block out everything on my to-do list for the day."

So for a few hours at least, it’s Denise Hunter and her coffee in pursuit of her dream, six pages at a time.

stwarden@jg.net