Cara C. Putman's Blog, page 109
June 13, 2013
Are you a writer? My #1 tip!
If you’ve read my blog for any length of time, you know that I am a huge proponent of American Christian Fiction Writers. I firmly believe I wouldn’t be the writer I am and published like I am but for ACFW and attending its conference. I’ve also served for years on the operating board and now executive board because I believe so much in the organization that I want to give back to Christian writers and ACFW.
I could wax eloquent about the workshops, editors and agents who attend, or about the ways I’ll serve as a mentor and with first time orientation. It could be all the friends I’ll get to reconnect with. Or celebrating at the awards banquet. All of those are pieces of the conference that make it a highlight of my year. But this year I’m super excited about the keynote speaker, the radiant Robin Jones Gunn.
In addition to being a prolific writer, Robin is a woman who radiates Jesus — to the extent that when I’m in her presence I long to be more like Him. I LOVE that!
This is what Robin has to say about the upcoming conference: “Are you ready to dream big? I mean, really dare to dream about what might happen if you fully surrender your gift of writing to the Lord? I can’t wait to be with you in September because I know God is going to shake up your heart and ruffle your imagination. I’m already praying that at the conference you will catch a glimpse of what He had in mind when He created you to be a storyteller. See you soon!”
Intrigued? Then check out the conference website. And prepare to join me in Indianapolis, Indiana, September 13-15 for an amazing conference!
June 11, 2013
Multi-Layered Summer Read
I know Irene Hannon through her romantic suspense, which I love. That’s why when I heard she had a new book out and it was straight romance, I hesitated before jumping on the blog tour. When I love an author for one genre, it can be hard to transition with them to another. Irene did it successfully for me. That Certain Summer is a layered book that explores how four people deal with the ghosts in their past one summer as they also fall in love.
This story is complex with sisters who are about as distant as you can get and a mother who is hyper-critical and pitted them against each other. Add in a secret that has crippled one of them and you have a rich texture for conflict and hope. Then there are two men (one for each sister, of course) equally on journeys that they don’t think lead to a future. A book I was hesitant to try quickly became one that pulled me in to the family relationships and the hopes for love and restoration. While it is a large departure from her other books that I’ve read, I thoroughly enjoyed this romance with women’s fiction overtones.
More about the book:
Dive into this tale of complex family relationships, transgressions revealed and forgiven and the complicated process of finding love.
Karen and Val are family – yet they’re anything but close. Karen has carried the burden of responsibility for her aging mother ever since her sister left town years ago to pursue a career in theater. But Val had darker reasons for leaving town – and had a secret to keep – so coming home has never been an option . . . until their mother suffers a stroke.
Reunited in their hometown, Karen and Val must grapple with their past mistakes, their own relationship and their issues with a mother who is far from ideal. When a physical therapist raising his daughter alone and a handsome but hurting musician enter the picture, the summer takes on a whole new dimension. As their lives intersect and entwine, can each sister learn how to forgive, how to let go and how to move on? And strengthened by the healing power of faith, might they also find the courage to love?
Irene Hannon is the author of more than 35 novels, including the bestselling Heroes of Quantico and Guardians of Justice series. Her books have been honored with two coveted RITA Awards from Romance Writers of America, a Carol Award, a HOLT Medallion, a Daphne du Maurier Award and two Reviewers’ Choice Awards from RT Book Reviews magazine. Booklist also included one of her novels in its “Top 10 Inspirational Fiction” list for 2011. She lives in Saint Louis, Missouri.
For more information about her and her books, visit her website.
June 9, 2013
4 Tips for Traveling with Kids
School is out so that means it’s time to travel as a family. No matter how big or small your family is, any time you had children to the mix, it adds to the packing joys. And the traveling angst. So here are a few ideas that help our family as we’re on the go.
If you are stopping on the way, pack one bag with everything you’ll need for that night. That way you don’t have to unpack the entire car. This has really streamlined our travel — especially with all the kiddos in tow. Shove pajamas, toothbrushes, a change of clothes for each child (and parents) in a smaller bag and keep it accessible. Then when you roll into the hotel in the late hours, you only have one bag to grab along with the sleeping kids.
Try to plan activities for the car ride. Our family is a big fan of listening to audio cds. That means for car trips, we’ll often hit the library before we leave and load up on audio books. We’ve listened to Madeline L’Engle read the Wrinkle in Time. Laughed at the antics of the Gallagher Girls and Heist Society. And Eric and the kids could listen to Adventures in Odyssey over and over. All of these are great ways to help the miles roll away. We’ve avoided videos because I’d rather have the kids read or use their imaginations with the help of an audio book.
Have a flight coming up? Those can be especially challenging for the younger kids. This is a great time to pull out new books and toys. A friend introduced us to wikki sticks
– a lifesaver for long flights. These wax sticks can be used over and over and provide lots of creative activities.Once your there, plan activities for all ages. Sometimes that means we can’t do something I’d love because it’s not right for the 18 month old. Other times we plan something the 11 year old loves. But make sure the activities are a mix. And be aware that little kids won’t enjoy museums unless they’re hands-on, so maybe save the art lectures until they are older.
What do you do to make travel work with your kids?
June 6, 2013
Treasuring the Life I have
Summer is here…and with it I keep waiting for life to slow down. To settle into a dull, boring routine.
We haven’t found that yet in Putman-ville. How about y’all?
It has me on a quest to define normal. Yesterday we went strawberry picking and to the library. Follow that with a chaser of school (yes, I am that mom who makes her kids do school year round), swim team and gymnastics. We even managed to learn a new game. Tomorrow will have it’s own rhythm. Followed by an overnight men’s retreat, Sunday, and then my 12 y.o. leaves for youth camp…for four nights. Not sure this momma’s heart is ready for that…even as I know she is.
So is there normal? Should I seek it? Would we be happy with a life of mind-numbing routine and sameness? The adjectives I used there kind of indicate which way I lean. I have to face reality that I bore easily. I enjoy interacting with others too much. I almost jumped into several conversations as I was picking strawberries. Mind you these were total strangers!
Maybe my focus needs to shift to finding God’s presence in the whispers that are so easy to miss as I race about. Listen for that moment of insight as we enjoy a book in the car. Pause when the Holy Spirit urges me to crouch at my 2 y.o.’s eye level. To slow down long enough to bandage my 5 y.o.’s knees for the second time in thirty minutes. Maybe in seeing the pauses in my day…really seeing them…maybe then I can begin to really live.
June 4, 2013
A Most Peculiar Circumstance
I loved Jen Turano’s free novella Gentleman of Her Dreams and thoroughly enjoyed her debut novel A Change of Fortune. While I enjoyed A Most Peculiar Circumstance, it didn’t have the same level of fun that floated through the other two.
Arabella is a heroine determined to do good in the world with a penchant for finding trouble. Toward the end of that book, that stretched believability but I could tell it was coming and gladly went along for the ride. The hero is a very stiff and proper bloke who doesn’t know what to do with the non-traditional Arabella. At times his dialogue was stilted, but I enjoyed watching him unfold and loosen up. He really didn’t know what to do…and the fits and starts added plenty of opporutnities for explosions between the hero and heroine. The history isn’t new, but this book will be an enjoyable read for those who like the 1880s.
June 3, 2013
Catch a Falling Star Review
If you’re looking for a romance with a few twists, but that stays focused on the true north of finding a lifelong love, then this book may be for you. Kendall is someone with a plan, who finds her plans not going as she’d imagined. Instead, she’s 36, a successful doctor, but resigned to staying single. Griffin is an Air Force pilot who’s grounded and suddenly the guardian of his 16 y.o. adopted brother. Life isn’t going the way either imagined. If you open the pages, you’ll find a tale of two reluctant people confronting the realities of their messed up worlds and moving toward a future. The only question is will it be together?
ABOUT THE BOOK
What does a girl do when life doesn’t go according to her plan? At 36, Kendall Haynes has seen some of her dreams come true. She’s a family physician helping kids with severe allergies and asthma achieve more fulfilling lives—a childhood struggle she knows all too well. But the feeling of being “the kid never picked” looms large when romance continues to evade her and yet another one of her closest friends gets engaged. Are Kendall’s dreams of having it all—a career, a husband, children—nothing more than childish wishing upon a star? Should she hold out for her elusive Plan A? Dust off Plan B? Or is it time to settle? God says he knows the plans he has for her—why can’t Kendall figure them out and be content with her life?
Griffin Walker prefers flying solo—both as an Air Force pilot and in his personal life. But a wrong choice and health problems pulled him out of the cockpit. His attempts to get out of “flying a desk” are complicated by his parents’ death—making Griffin the reluctant guardian of his sixteen-year-old brother, Ian. How did his life get so off course? Can God get his life back on track … or has there been a divine plan all along?
Catch a Falling Star reminds readers that romance isn’t just for twenty-somethings and that sometimes letting go of your “wish I may, wish I might” dreams is the only way to embrace everything God has waiting for you.
Purchase a copy here.
June 2, 2013
Ebooks & a Survey
This year, one of my publishers has been playing with the prices on my ebooks they published. Currently, A Wedding Transpires on Mackinac Island, is on sale for $2.99. While it’s a full length novel, the publisher has put some of my shorter World War II novels at 99 cents at various times.
I’m very curious to see how all this playing with prices effects sales. It also has me wondering…do you have an ereader?
If so, will you humor me? I’d love to know what you think. Just take a minute to answer this survey. I promise it won’t take long, and I’ll give a couple books away — selecting from those who complete the survey.
Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey , the world’s leading questionnaire tool.
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May 30, 2013
A Baby Changes Everything: Cynthia Ruchti
It is my pleasure and delight to share my blog with my friend and to share my friend with you. Cynthia Ruchti is a delightful person, one I wish I lived much closer to so that we could spend hours talking, brainstorming, and encouraging each other. Fortunately there are phones — even though it is not the same.
Cynthia is a gifted writer. She writes from deep places and that pulls me deep into the pages of her books. Her first, They Almost Always Come Home, was not an easy read because of the subject. Yet I couldn’t put it down. When the Morning Glory Blooms is even better. Between the covers she weaves compelling stories about four women and how in different times they each deal with unplanned pregnancies. Grace stitches the story together while hope sings from its pages. This is a book to savor, weep over, and pray through. I adored it. Now here’s Cynthia:
Does it give away my age if I tell you my first babysitting jobs netted me 25 cents an hour? No, that’s wrong. I was the oldest of five children, so my first babysitting netted me nothing but my parents’ appreciation, which in the long run was worth far more.
As a young woman, a dozen or more career choices called to me. All of them had this common denominator: I wanted to be a wife and mother.
At twenty, I married my grade school sweetheart. At twenty-two, our first child was born. A baby changes everything.
The chemistry lab where I worked lost some of its luster—as if a chem lab has any true luster; more odors and whirling equipment—after our daughter was born. Three years later, a son. Nine years after we thought we were done expanding our family, another son. Babies change everything. Make room for more love. Can we convert that closet into another bedroom? We gave away all our baby things; now what? Oh, dear. I’ll be nursing during canning season.
Sometimes a positive pregnancy test stirs a dance of joy and a little wave of nausea. Sometimes it falls from a shocked teen’s limp hands. Almost always, it says, “This changes everything.”
When I wrote the novel When the Morning Glory Blooms, I drew from the dual wells of experience and imagination. What did an unplanned pregnancy feel like in the 1890s? I don’t know, but I can imagine. How did it affect the family, the community, the church family? How would a single mom navigate the 1950s when her life was anything but June Cleaver-like? A sea of teen moms in 2013 stand in need of our help and in an ageless, desperate need of grace. Imagination made me ask, “Who’s reaching out to the moms of those teen moms? Aren’t they as desperate for answers, grace, hope?”
A baby changes everything. A baby’s absence changes everything. Longed-for or feared, pregnancy induces a seismic shift that registers most profoundly in the heart. I went from woman to mother with one final push in the delivery room. Some move from teen to woman to mother with the same ten-count kind of push.
What was I thinking about when I wrote When the Morning Glory Blooms? How different our reactions can be when we first learn a baby is on the way. The indescribable sensation of life fluttering inside. The fervent and absolutely sincere cry, “I don’t think I can do this!” The millisecond following delivery when all labor is forgotten and the focus turns to a child who had been faceless until that moment. The feel of a newborn’s weight in the crook of a mom’s arm. The shift to protector/nurturer. The beginning of a lifetime of prayer.
What was on my mind? The pregnant woman who hasn’t felt the baby move for far too long. The woman rudely reminded that she’s not expecting, again. The teen carrying a secret that will make itself visible before she can figure out a way to tell her parents. The young man who will never know there once was a baby…
A baby changes everything. Mostly in the depths of the heart.
Cynthia Ruchti is an author and speaker who tells stories of Hope-that-glows-in-the-dark through her novels, novellas, nonfiction, and through speaking engagements for women’s groups and writers’ events. Her latest novel—When the Morning Glory Blooms—tells the story of three eras and three women facing the afterpains of unplanned pregnancy. You can learn more about that book or the others Cynthia has written through her website www.cynthiaruchti.com or by connecting through www.facebook.com/cynthiaruchtireaderpage or www.twitter.com/cynthiaruchti .
May 28, 2013
A Day in the Life
Sometimes it’s fun to step behind the curtain and see what life is really like in Oz — err — Putman mayhem. It also helps everyone to see just how insanely normal the life of this writing mom is. 
7 a.m. Wake up thanks to the 2 y.o., but played possum as much as possible until 8. Not easy with changing a diaper and two kids bouncing off my head.
8 a.m. Bound out of bed and run through the ritual of waking other kids, getting me ready, getting them ready, getting us all some form of breakfast because at…
9:10 a.m. it’s out the door for daughter’s follow-up dental appointment. Corral three kiddos while she’s ushered to the back.
9:30 a.m. we hurry back to the house. It’s time for school … well fifteen minutes of it by the time everyone’s back in the house and 5 y.o. is ready for gymnastics. Checked email and approved blog comments, too. then it’s time for…
10:20 pick up neighbor girl, chat with her mom about gymnastics placement for our younger girls who are moving up NEXT week. Yipes! Need to sign them up. Then on to the gym. Older two kids work on math and English, while 5 y.o. tumbles on equipment and 2 y.o. tumbles on me.
12:15 p.m. back home and time to make lunch. 5 y.o. is now invited to other neighbor’s house. Send her over at 1:15 after lunch (a very delish grilled cheese and then some cherries) is consumed.
1:30 get 2 y.o. down for his nap — a must since he has gym in evening — then back to school with the older two. Yes, I am that mom who never entirely quits school…
2:30 p.m. 9 y.o. is invited to friend’s house for an hour before friend and his younger brother come back our way. I say we have to finish school first, so ten minutes later J heads across the street. I grade math and check email again.
3:30 my two are back home and thirty minutes later their friends arrive. An hour later the extra kiddos leave, we scarf down a spaghetti bake and broccoli, then it’s back to the gym.
5:45 p.m. Our gymnastics marathon begins. 9 y.o. at 5:45, 2 y.o. at 6:15, 12 y.o. at 7. Fortunately, she gets a ride home from friends — Woot for friends! — and the rest of us head to Wal-Mart at 7. Ugh.
8:20 we’re finally home and it’s time to FaceTime my husband who is on his way back from a family visit. 9:20 12 y.o.makes it home and 2 y.o. finally admits he’s tired and goes to sleep. I work on some legal matters while keeping the little two company. All of a sudden it’s 10:45 and I need a blog post for the a.m.
Tomorrow, I teach, my daughter has an orthodontist appointment, we have church small groups, swim team and gymnastics practice. Oh, and I’ll get edits on a book. Anyone still want my life 
What’s your brand of chaos look like?
May 27, 2013
A Perfect Fairytale: Once Upon a Prince Review & Giveaway
I have been waiting for a series a long time and the first book is finally here! Rachel Hauck’s new Once Upon a Prince is a dream of a book. From the first page I wanted Susanna to find herself and happiness, and Prince Nathaniel — happy sigh — is the perfect hero. He’s romantic. He’s honorable. He’s conflicted. And Susanna, instead of trying to steal him away, tries to help him be more the man he was created to be. This book reads like a fairy tale. Ancient kingdom. Beautiful country. Beautiful girl who can’t be chosen to be princess. While I adored the romance, the spiritual thread is what left me sighing with contentment and what has my thoughts returning to the pages. It is a beautiful book — perfect for summer reading.
I loved this book so much I bought a copy to giveaway. Continue to the bottom to participate!
ABOUT THE BOOK
The Royal Wedding Series Book One
Susanna Truitt never dreamed of a great romance or being treated like a princess—just to marry the man she has loved for twelve years. But life isn’t going according to plan. When her high-school-sweetheart-turned-Marine-officer breaks up instead of proposing, Susanna scrambles to rebuild her life.
The last thing Prince Nathaniel expects to find on his American holiday to St. Simon’s Island is the queen of his heart. A prince has duties, and his family’s tense political situation has chosen his bride for him. When Prince Nathaniel comes to Susanna’s aid under the fabled Lover’s Oak, he is blindsided by love.
Their lives are worlds apart. He’s a royal prince. She’s a ordinary girl. But everything changes when Susanna receives an invitation to Nathaniel’s coronation.
It’s the ultimate choice. His kingdom or her heart? God’s will or their own?
Purchase a copy here.
{WATCH THE TRAILER}
