Meet and Greet Monday: Cynthia Ruchti

Book giveaway drawing! Read the details, below.

Cynthia Ruchti writes stories of hope that glows in the dark. She writes and produces The Heartbeat of the Home, a syndicated drama/devotional radio broadcast, and is editor for the ministry's Backyard Friends magazine. She also serves as current president of American Christian Fiction Writers. Cynthia married her childhood sweetheart, who tells her his own tales of wilderness adventures.

BRC: How would you describe your book?
The tagline for the book is “She’d leave her husband…if she could find him.”

When Libby’s husband Greg doesn’t return from a two-week canoe trip to the Canadian wilderness, the authorities write off his disappearance as an unhappy husband’s escape from an oatmeal marriage and mind-numbing career. Their marriage might have survived if their daughter Lacey hadn’t died and if Greg hadn’t been responsible. Libby enlists the aid of her wilderness-savvy father-in-law and her faith-walking best friend to help her search for clues to her husband’s disappearance. What the trio discovers in the wilderness search upends Libby’s assumptions about her husband and rearranges her faith.

It’s my prayer that this fictional adventure story and emotional journey will reveal its own hope-laden clues for those struggling to survive or longing to exit what they believe are uninspiring marriages. How can a woman survive a season or a lifetime when she finds it difficult to like the man she loves?

BRC: What message do you hope your book conveys?
THEY ALMOST ALWAYS COME HOME will resonate with women who thought they’d never consider divorce but can’t stomach the pain and distance that mark their marriage relationship. From the newly married to the long married, women readers will identify with unmet expectations and the discovery—both unnerving and endearing—that their husband is not at all who they thought. And neither are they. They’re stronger, more culpable, more courageous, and more vulnerable than they knew.

Also key to the story is the unfolding of a deeper faith (If God is here in my pain, why haven’t I felt Him) and the power of female friendships as evidenced through Libby’s relationship with her comforter-but-truth-teller friend, Jenika.

BRC: What did you enjoy most about writing this book?
I’m hard-pressed to think of any part of this process that I didn’t enjoy. Hard work? Definitely. But laced with joy all along the way.

BRC: What did you dislike most about writing this book?
It was good for me but unnerving to have to confront attitudes in my own heart in order to write Libby’s story with authenticity and empathy. I grew. Growing pains are no more comfortable at this age than when I was ten.

BRC: What inspired you to become a writer?
My journey toward a lifetime of writing began by reading books that stirred me, changed me, convinced me that imagination is a gift from an imaginative Creator. As a child, I read when I should have been sleeping…and still do. I couldn’t wait for the BookMobile (library on wheels) to pull up in front of the post office in our small town and open its arms to me. Somewhere between the pages of a book, my heart warmed to the idea that one day I too might tell stories that made readers stay up past their bedtimes.

BRC: Tell us about your writing process.
I’m a “snatch” writer and a “cranny” writer. A file of ideas for future projects bulges with 80 or more one-liners, Scripture verses that could spawn a novel, or intriguing concepts. For me, a novel often begins with a snippet of conversation, a snatch of a phrase, a title, a single word. It’s fleshed out in crannies of time bolstered with occasional glorious longer stretches. After writing myself into corners, I’ve now changed my tactic to include a little more preplanning and a rough outline. My characters and storylines sometimes rebel against the constraints of the outline, and usually win. Discovering where they wanted to go is half the fun of writing.

BRC: What are you working on now?
One of the stories I ache to tell pierced my heart in a single, poignant moment. I still have difficulty talking about it without a catch in my throat. During a sweet time of communion with a wafer in one hand and a miniature cup of grape juice in the other, I heard those familiar words of Scripture read yet again: “On the night He was betrayed, Jesus took the cup and—”

Not just any night. Not on a night following a breakthrough moment when His disciples finally understood what He’d been telling them. No.

Jesus declared His love in unprecedented extravagance on the night He was betrayed.

The thought took my breath away. I haven’t regained it. The storyteller in me asked what that extravagance might look like in a marriage. I’m working now to finish the story ON THE NIGHT HE WAS BETRAYED. Where does a relationship expert turn when his wife leaves him and takes a tiny heartbeat with her?

Another project waiting to connect with readers is ALL MY BELONGINGS. The main character’s father killed people as his community service project. No wonder she changed her name and her path. His reputation threatens to undermine her attempts to find a place to belong and a legacy worth repeating. ALL MY BELONGINGS explores the difference between what we want to believe and what we do believe regarding end of life issues. What do we do if that gap is wider than we thought?

BRC: What books do you enjoy reading?
My bookshelves—don’t ask how many!—hold a wide variety of genres. The collection expands faster than a good yeast dough. I’m a mood reader, grabbing a light comedy one day and a literarily rich work the next. Although I appreciate well-written nonfiction, I gravitate toward an emotionally engaging contemporary women’s fiction story.

BRC: Where can readers buy your book?
THEY ALMOST ALWAYS COME HOME is available at cokesbury.com, Amazon.com, christianbooks.com, and your neighborhood bookstore.

BRC: Where can readers find you online?
http://www.cynthiaruchti.com/ or http://www.hopethatglowsinthedark.com/

They can also connect with me through Facebook, Twitter, and Shoutlife.

Book giveaway drawing: Enter for a chance to win a free copy of THEY ALMOST ALWAYS COME HOME by leaving a comment on this post. Entrants will be accepted until this Wednesday at midnight, US/Pacific time. The winner will be announced on this blog on Friday. For more detailed rules, click on the link in the right sidebar of this blog.

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