Cara C. Putman's Blog, page 100

Giveaway & a Quiz: Book Launch Fun

In a week Christmas will be upon us. Are you ready? I’ve got most of my presents purchased and wrapped. Some chex mix and cookies made for gifting. And I’m ready to relax with family. One more week of homeschool and we can really kick-back. In the spirit of fun and giving, I’ve developed a couple giveaways and quizzes over at Goodreads. The links are below. We’re giving away eight copies of Shadowed by Grace.

I’ve also updated the Shadowed by Grace portion of my website. Be sure to stop by if you haven’t read the first chapter yet.

Goodreads Book Giveaway


Shadowed by Grace
by Cara C. Putman

Giveaway ends December 29, 2013.

See the giveaway details

at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Goodreads Quiz
Monuments Men in Italy
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2 times
6 questions
take quiz

 

One last fun image. ChristianBook.com is promoting the paperback version of Shadowed by Grace with a great price. I saw this image on their website this week. And remember, I will happily mail you an autographed bookplate for your copy. Just let me know that you want one here.

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Goodreads Book Giveaway


Shadowed by Grace
by Cara C. Putman

Giveaway ends December 29, 2013.

See the giveaway details

at Goodreads.

Enter to win

 

Meet Melissa Tagg!

Hey everyone, meet my author friend, Melissa Tagg. She lives in Iowa but sometimes pretends it’s London. Melissa writes romantic comedy and her first book, Made to Last, just came out this year. You can learn more about her at www.melissatagg.com. In fact, she’s giving away a fun prize pack to one lucky website visitor this week, so stop by to learn more. For our Christian Fiction Christmas giveaway, she’s chipping in a copy of Made to Last as well as the movie Christmas in Connecticut on DVD (which partially inspired her book).

The Christmas question Melissa wants YOU to answer is….what’s your favorite Christmas program memory? Her answer? That time she was chosen out of all the second graders in her school to be an elf in the local college’s Christmas production. Um, yeah, she felt cool.

Don’t forget to enter to win the Christian Fiction Christmas basket!

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Because I’m in the Christmas mood, I’m giving away two bonus copies of Shadowed by Grace, my novel that releases January 1st. You can read the first chapter here. There are two ways to enter. Leave a comment here or join my newsletter!

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What’s Your Favorite Christmas Movie?

Hi everyone! Meet two of my author friends,  Kristy Cambron and Beth Vogt.

Kristy is a debut author with Thomas Nelson Publishers in 2014. She’s a proud Hoosier who lives with Jeremy (her husband of thirteen years) and their three football-loving sons. She writes W

WII and Regency Era vintage romance titles, with Christ-centered stories primarily set in Europe. Book One in her debut series, The Butterfly and the Violin, center around the prisoner camp art of Auschwitz and will release in summer 2014. Visit Kristy’s blog this week and you could WIN a special Christmas prize package, including a chance to get your hands on an Advanced Reader’s copy of The Butterfly and the Violin, before it hits the store shelves! For our Christian Fiction Christmas Giveaway, Kristy is also contributing a Christmas CD from a vintage strings quartet – Heartstrings. She hopes the sound of the mountain dulcimer, acoustic guitar (played by her Dad) and violin add a warm note to your holiday!

The Christmas question she asks you:  What’s your favorite Christmas movie, and why? Her answer: I’m a pretty classic girl – I love the vintage books and films that get better over time. It’s a Wonderful Life (1946) takes me back to the nostalgia of watching Christmas movies as a young girl. We had a non-traditional Christmas Eve in our family – we’d eat at a Mexican restaurant and head to the cinema to see a Christmas movie together each year! We’d then head home and snuggle in by the warmth of a fire while we’d wait for Jesus’ birthday to arrive. : )

Mine (Cara’s) would have to be White Christmas. Adore that movie!

Check out her blog this week for a Top Ten List of her favorite Christmas movies and enter for the Christian Fiction Christmas basket!

Beth K. Vogt  lives in Colorado with her husband and her about-to-turn-thirteen-year-old daughter. Her three older children (and their spouses) also live in Colorado – close enough to make it home for the holidays! Beth writes contemporary romance set in the Colorado Rockies. You can find out more about her books on her website: bethvogt.com. Beth’s giving away two of her books this week on her blog as a Christmas present to her readers. So make sure you hop on over and leave a comment for a chance to win! For our Christian Fiction Christmas Giveaway, she’s chipping in a copy of Catch a Falling Star and a handmade hummingbird ornament.

The Christmas question Beth wants YOU to answer is … What is your favorite Christmas tradition? Her answer: Through the years, our family developed the tradition of opening presents on Christmas Eve and then saving our Christmas stockings for Christmas morning. Now that our kiddos are older, they have fun adding presents to the stockings too. Afterward, my husband cooks a big breakfast for everyone.

Usually, my (Cara’s) kids and I bake lots of cookies. It’s a tradition we might have to set aside this year, but I love it!

Don’t forget to enter the Christian Fiction Christmas basket!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Because I’m in the Christmas mood, I’m giving away two bonus copies of Shadowed by Grace, my novel that releases January 1st. You can read the first chapter here. There are two ways to enter. Leave a comment here or join my newsletter!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year: Christmas Memories

Christmas is always a special time of year, one I look forward to each year. Over the years, it has been a time filled with family. As a child we would spend Christmas Even with my dad’s family, Christmas Day with my mom’s family, and then swap the next year. The time would be filled with food, cousins, laughter, and games. Lots and lots of games.

My favorite Christmas memories involve both of set of grandparents.

My Dad’s parents were deeply in love until the day my Grandpa died. One of the things that was fun to watch year after year was them receiving gifts from Santa. It didn’t matter their age, each year Grandma would receive a gift from Santa. Grandpa would, too. All of us knew the gifts were really from each other, but they kept up the illusion to the very end.

My mom’s parents had a quieter love. Several years ago, Grandpa asked me to help him hind a rose. It was a single white rose, beautiful in its stark simplicity, each petal pristine and pure. As we were sharing gifts with the great-grandchildren (my kids and their cousins), Grandpa stopped everything and nodded that I should get the rose. He then presented it to Grandma in front of her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. It was a precious moment as he told us it was the first flower he had bought her in almost 60 years of marriage.

The scene was so touching I used it as the epilogue in my novel Captive Dreams. Just as Grandpa looked back and celebrated a lifetime with his wife, my hero celebrated. If you read it, you can substitute my Grandma and Grandpa and our family and you will know who I based Sid and Anna’s life on.

Our family Christmas celebrations have evolved as our family has grown and we’ve added people our family. But the key is that spending time with family remains a priority. I can’t wait to see what memories we make this year at our Christmas celebrations.

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway
Because I’m in the Christmas mood, I’m giving away two bonus copies of  Shadowed by Grace , my novel that releases January 1st. You can read the first chapter here. There are two ways to enter. Leave a comment here or join my newsletter!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Shadowed by Grace is available! How to help an Author

“With an authentic knowledge of World War II history, a gentle hand of artistry, and a heart for true love, Cara Putman has written a story that stole my heart.” Cindy Woodsmall.

Last night I was thrilled to discover that Amazon already has Shadowed by Grace available on Kindle. It releases everywhere January 1st, so this is early, but I’m not disappointed. I also know that Christianbook.com plans to ship the paper copy of the book tomorrow (December 9th). I love that it will be available by Christmas — just in time for gift giving. If you would like a signed bookplate for gift giving, just complete the form below.

As books release, there’s a lot of excitement. It’s like the birth of a baby. Months of hard work come to fruition in the release of the package of cover and pages. Sometimes people ask how they can help.

So here are a few very simple, but meaningful things you can do to help me and any author whose books you enjoy:

1) Tell your friends about our books. If you’re on social media, talk about them. Share a post from the author on Facebook. If you just bought the book, let everyone know. Take a photo of the

cover and post it on Instagram as a book you enjoyed.

2) Ask your library to buy the book. Most libraries have a system for collecting patron requests. Libraries are a great place for readers to discover our books. If they read one, my hope is they’ll want to read more.

3) Post reviews. Have you read one of my books? Did you enjoy it? Then posting a review can be a great help! People make purchasing decisions based on consumer feedback. A few places you can post a review: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Christian Book, Goodreads, Library Thing, etc. Each review helps people understand that the book is being read…and hopefully enjoyed.

4) Pray for us. This really shouldn’t be listed at the end. Writing is a ministry, and so much of it is in God’s control. I believe Shadowed by Grace is the best book I’ve written so far. I love the story, the history, the characters. But God is the one who controls what happens with the story.

Thanks for joining me on this journey!

A Christmas Pause

My Gift to Him

As Christmas nears, I’ve staggering under a year that’s been too full. A fall that’s been too busy. A season of good, but overwhelming, days.

Does anyone else feel the same?

There’s nothing bad – life is just full. Too full.

And I feel emptied. So empty.

It would be easy to enter this season with a sense of exhaustion, feeling like I just want to get through and on to January.

Instead, I want to offer my life again. May my gift be my life. My dreams. My talents. My all. May I be available to Him to transform from the inside out. I want my life to be lived for His glory.

Yet I fail. And on the days that I am most tired and overwhelmed I seem to fail more. It is then that I take comfort in the reality that He is the King born in a manager. A King who gave up heaven in order to save me. You. All of us. He has good plans for my life. Plans that exceed my wildest dreams. Plans fit for the daughter of the Most High.

He has plans like that for you, too. Plans that may be different from your plans, but plans that are wonderful and good.

So in this season of busyness. A season when it is easy to focus on things, duties, parties, family and friends, will you join me? I’m offering myself as a gift to Him. Will you?

History Comes to Life in Rebellious Heart

As a history lover, I love the rare author who gives me a sweeping historical novel yet demonstrates a great love and appreciation for history and getting it right. Jody Hedlund is such an author and her latest novel Rebellious Heart is such a book.

The love story of John and Abigail Adams, so I was thrilled to discover after reading a few pages that this book is a fictional retelling. The author cares deeply about the history and clearly states what is true and where she had to guess. Rebellious Heart is an engaging tale of Susanna Smith’s struggle to become her own person. Society has rigid rules that she’s always abided by…but now some of them don’t fit as well as they used to fit. Add in a lawyer who seems to only spar with her and murders that have the community and region on edge, and this is a rich story set against the Colonial backdrop. A wonderful read for historical fiction fans who love a strong taste of real history in their novels.

It’s a Christmas Giveaway!

 

It’s a Christian Fiction Christmas Giveaway!

 

Enter to win 8 novels, including Made to Last, Shadowed by Grace, The Butterfly and the Violin, Catch a Falling Star, Wildflowers from Winter, Wishing on Willows, The Headmistress of Rosemere, and A Sweethaven Christmas. The prize also includes several gifts, including a Christmas in Connecticut DVD, Peppermint Twist lotion, a Heartstrings Stringed Quartet CD, a handmade ceramic hummingbird ornament, a $5 Starbucks gift card, a journal, and an art print!

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