Everyone’s Story welcomes Cynthia Ruchti. Cynthia is known
to many as a beloved author of the novel THEY ALMOST ALWAYS COME HOME, past president of
the American Christian Fiction Writers and presently serves as its Professional
Relations Liaison, but did you know she’s also a radio show producer, a
magazine editor, and a mentor to other writers? What I appreciate the most of
Cynthia is her genuine warmth and smile—I will always remember Cynthia taking
the time to return my hello at one of the ACFW conferences.
A Few Questions For Cynthia:
Book Giveaway Special:
Cynthia is offering both one copy of her devotional HIS GRACE IS SUFFICIENT... DECAF IS NOT,
plus one copy of her upcoming release of CEDAR CREEK SEASONS to one commenter.
Please leave your email in the body of your comment for convenience. Thanks!
A Few Questions For Cynthia:
If I remember correctly, at the 2010 ACFW Conference I heard
that before the conference attendees began to arrive that you walked up and
down the halls of the hotel and prayed for God’s blessings on the conference
and for each of the attendees. I was quite touched by that. Did you receive any blessings during that
particular conference that you’d like to share?
I’m sure there are others in ACFW leadership who have done the same, but it was Robin Miller, ACFW’s conference director, who first mentioned the practice to me. After all the details, all the planning, all the scorched midnight oil preparing for a conference of the magnitude and importance of ACFW’s, it seems the perfect prelude to walk the halls, walk through all the rooms, and pray for what will happen in each of those rooms, invoking the Lord’s blessing on even the air we breathe, every conversation, every thought. Prayer has always been an undergirding foundation for ACFW…and for my life. Officially “inviting” the Lord to take over, to reign in every corner, always sets my heart in the right place and lays the groundwork for amazing things to happen. And they always do!
And at the conclusion of the conference, when I served as
president, I would seek out the prayer room, which was usually empty at that
time, get on my creaky knees, lay my hand on the open Bible in the room, and
sing “Praise God from whom all blessings flow!”
On your website you state that you prefer to think of your
lifestyle as “active” rather than busy. As an author, a radio show producer
(congratulations for accomplishing 33 years of this ministry!), a magazine
editor, a mentor to other writers, and last
but not least, a wife, mom, and a grandmother, do you ever have moments of
juggling-stress? How do you manage to pull it all together?
A better question is, “Do I ever have moments FREE from
juggling-stress?” Sure! A few. J My home
is an empty nest, but it’s amazing how many distractions and stress-producers
still hover. I’m learning to crave quiet, though. I try to find some time every
day when I shut off the noise so I can hear God “speak” to my heart. Even
music, which is a strong faith-connector for me, can sometimes mask what He
really wants me to understand. I take advantage of the fact that we live in a
quiet country home. But I’m also constantly intentional about what I’m adding
and what I’m removing, what I allow to fill my days and what I boot out. I
weigh the value of what I allow to consume my time. As active as I am, I’m
walking a more balanced path with fewer outside involvements beyond what God’s
called me to do and my family needs me to do. When I’m at my best, I lay a
blank sheet of paper before the Lord (in a virtual way) and ask HIM to write my
to-do list rather than than scribbling down a million things and asking Him to
bless those tasks, many of which don’t fit at all with His plan for my day.
I loved your novel THEY ALMOST ALWAYS COME HOME. It’s a
beautiful, moving story that touches the heart, especially for anyone in a marriage/relationship.
Did you have to “go” deep into your writer’s zone for the story? Also, because
of the novel’s more mainstream type of feel, was it a bit more difficult to
sell to a publisher?
Thank you for your kind words about THEY ALMOST ALWAYS COME
HOME. Yes, I did dive deep into that one…but I find it imperative for any novel
I write. I knew that to authentically express the kinds of emotions Libby
experienced, I’d have to allow myself to relive a few things, imagine others,
and draw on all the empathy the Lord built into me.
About ten years before the book released, my own husband
almost didn’t come home from a disastrous canoe trip to the Canadian
wilderness. Two days into his trip, he grew deathly ill with no way to get to
help or for him to communicate with the outside world. His rescue came just an
hour, the doctors said, before he would have breathed his last.
I revisited some of the gut-twisting trauma of that
personal experience when writing Libby’s unique story. It’s been an incredible blessing
to hear how the story has had an impact on people, on their relationships, on
their approach to grief and disappointment.
I’m grateful that Abingdon Press was open to the idea of a
story that didn’t shy away from real and raw concerns with pitch lines like
these: She’d leave her husband…if she could find him. He was supposed to be
fishing. He was supposed to come home. And she was supposed to care.
A few months ago, a mainstream national magazine
spotlighted the book. The women who picked up that magazine and were drawn to
order the book have joined other readers who are perpetually in my heart and
thoughts.
Life + Imagination + Inspiration + Experiences = A Novel
by Cynthia Ruchti
Elaine, thanks for setting such a lovely “table” and
inviting so many fascinating friends of ours to this virtual gathering! And
thanks for the invitation to take a few moments to share something from my
heart.
For 33 years of writing scripts for a fifteen-minute daily
radio drama/devotional broadcast called The
Heartbeat of the Home, one of the most frequent questions listeners asked
was, “Where do you get all your ideas?”
Now that I’m writing novels, devotional books, and
inspirational non-fiction, I’m often asked, “Where do you get all your ideas?”
The short answer is, “Life.”
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| The view from Cynthia's front porch, which stirs her muse and soul |
Using a few more words, I might answer, “Life plus
imagination.”
A Twitter-length response might be, “Life plus imagination
plus inspiration equals a novel.” In fact, pardon me for a moment while I go
Tweet that!
Maybe a quote worth stenciling or cross-stitching (used to
do that before writing deadlines) would read: “Life plus imagination plus
inspiration plus what you’ve been through equals a novel.”
My mom experienced multiple traumas and dramas related to
her heart disease. She had
countless heart attacks, every heart procedure known to man, and a few that
resembled things seen only in science fiction movies…like the one where the
surgeon went in under her arm, opened the ribs, then bore tunnels through her
heart muscle with a laser beam to try to create artificial blood flow to dying
areas. It didn’t work.
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| Cynthia's gaze often strays away from the kitchen sink as she does dishes--do you blame her? |
She was especially traumatized when she woke from one
procedure to find the skin on her chest bruised and burned. They’d had to
“shock” her heart six times to bring her back to life when it stopped beating.
“Why didn’t they let me go? Why didn't…they…let…me…go?” Hot tears accompanied
her grief.
An especially compassionate nurse stood at the hospital
bedside and listened as Mom listed every heart episode, every reason for her
pain, every surgery and procedure, poke and prod.
Rather than responding with, “How awful for you!” the
nurse said, “Oh, Dorothy! The things you’ve come through!”
That line changed Mom’s perspective.
She no longer took inventory of how horrible it had been,
but of how many things she’d survived. Rather than dragged down by the anchor
of what had been done to her, she was buoyed by the growing raft of
circumstances on which she floated.
I wrote a radio script about it. The script became a
newspaper article. The family sent a copy to the nurse whose gentle, profound
statement changed Mom’s perspective. The nurse wrote that she received the copy
and our thank you note on a day when she had her pen raised to sign her
resignation from nursing. The story let her know she was making a difference.
She’s still nursing today.
The concept became a devotion that will appear next month
on The Christian Pulse. It’s working its way into the fabric of a novel that
will release in 2014.
And it’s part of the answer to the question, “So, where do
you get your ideas?”
Life. Imagination. Inspiration. And what I’ve come
through…by God’s grace.
All those factors weave their way into the stories I
write. My husband’s near-death experience in the Canadian wilderness helped
inspire my debut novel—They Almost Always
Come Home http://www.cynthiaruchti.com/books/they-almost-always-come-home
. Vacations with my daughter added realism to “The Heart’s Harbor” in A Door County Christmas (no longer
available in paperback, but still accessible in digital form) http://www.amazon.com/Door-County-Christmas-Wisconsins-Romancing/dp/1602609683
. Life showed up in the devotions I wrote for His Grace is Sufficient…Decaf is Not http://www.amazon.com/His-Grace-Sufficient-Decaf-ebook/dp/B0078X1222/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2 . Imagination colored between the
lines in “Maybe Us” in the upcoming September release, Cedar Creek Seasons http://www.christianbook.com/cedar-creek-seasons-wisconsin/becky-melby/9781616266455/pd/266455
. What I’ve been through appears more than once in two key projects
releasing in 2013—a non-fiction book titled Ragged
Hope—Surviving the Fallout of Other People’s Choices (Abingdon Press
Christian Living) and When the Morning
Glory Blooms, a full-length novel from Abingdon Press Fiction.
I’d be honored if readers and prospective readers would
join the conversation about how something they’ve come through has become
encouragement for others, whether in print or face-to-face. I’d be doubly
honored if you’d join me on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/pages/Cynthia-Ruchti-Reader-Page/111854048844444
, Twitter https://twitter.com/cynthiaruchti , or through my website: www.cynthiaruchti.com.
Thanks again for hosting this discussion, Elaine, and for
giving me an opportunity to share why and how I write stories of
Hope-that-glows-in-the-dark!
Author Bio:
Cynthia Ruchti is an author and speaker who writes stories of Hope-that-glows-in-the-dark. She teaches at writers' conferences and women's retreats. Currently, she serves as professional relations liaison for ACFW (American Christian Fiction Writers) after serving as president for two years. She and her plot-tweaking husband live in the heart of Wisconsin.
