They Almost Always Come Home- Giveaway

Recently, I featured a review of "They Almost Always Come Home by Cynthia Ruchti. This week, her book goes on tour at many blogs and I have several fun features to share with you. Right now, you can get the Kindle edition of the book free at this link: They Almost Always Come Home

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Cynthia's Story by Cynthia Ruchti Ten years ago, my husband almost didn’t come home. His canoe adventure with our son Matt soured on Day Two when Bill grew violently ill from what we presume was either pancreatitis or a gall bladder attack. He’s an insulin-dependent diabetic, so any grave illness is a threat. One in the middle of the Canadian wilderness is morgue material. With no satellite phone with which to call for help, Matt took turns caring for his father and watching the shore for other canoeists happening past their hastily constructed campsite. The few other canoes were headed deeper into the remote areas of the park, not on their way out. None had a satellite phone. And none of them were doctors. As my husband grew sicker, his diabetes went nuclear. He couldn’t eat, yet needed insulin because his liver thought it should help out by dumping vast quantities of sugar into his system. Even in a hospital setting, the situation would have been difficult to control, and the nearest hospital was light years away across vast stretches of water and woodland, through peopleless, roadless wilderness.   Our son stretched a yellow tarp across the rocks on shore and wrote S.O.S. with charcoal from a dead fire. He scratched out countless notes on pieces of notebook paper torn from their trip journal: Send rescue! My dad is deathly ill. Read the rest of the story at the KCWC BLOG

________________________________________________________________________ An Interview with the Author, Cynthia Ruchti 1. 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? 2. How were you different as a writer and as a person when you finished writing They Almost  Always Come Home? This book changed me in a profound way. It forced me to take a more honest look at myself and my reactions to crises so I could write Libby’s character with authenticity. Libby is a composite of many women. I haven’t experienced what she did, but I identify with some of her struggles and longings, as I hope my readers will. I see my friends in her eyes and know that her tears aren’t hers alone. Her shining moments feed my courage. Libby speaks for me and for many others when she discovers that she is stronger than she realized and weaker than she wanted to admit. Writing her story was a journey for the author as much as for the character. 3. What did you feel the tug on your heart 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. 4. What books line your bookshelves? 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. ________________________________________________________________________

A Super Give-away!

Blog Tour Giveaway Includes: North Pak 20 inch cinch sack (lime) Day Runner journal Canoe Brand wild rice Canada's brand blueberry jam Coleman 60-piece mini first aid kit Wood canoe/paddle shelf ornament Six original photography notecards from video trailer "Hope" hanging ornament Mini Coleman "lantern" prayer reminder  How can you enter this terrific give-away? Comment on this blog post below and on June 18 I'll randomly select the name of one commenter and enter you into the grand prize drawing. Have you had a wilderness experience in real life? In your marriage? Tell us your story below. Or tell us why you'd like to be entered into the drawing.  Comments must be left on the blog (www.faithcreativitylife.com) and not via e-mail. ________________________________________________________________________ About the Author 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 his own tales of wilderness adventures.