We love authors here at MBT, and love to celebrate great reads (especially the kind that you could pick up and read over the weekend!!

I love Cynthia’s stories – and did you know her books have been recognized by RT Reviewers’ Choice Award, Retailers’ Choice Award, Gayle Wilson Award of Excellence, and Carol Award nominations, among other honors, including a Family Fiction Readers’ Choice Award.  Most of all, Cynthia is a genuinely caring, awesome person who I LOVE hanging out with!!

I asked her to come by and share with you a bit about her newest story!

All My Belongings by Cynthia Ruchti

Hey Cynthia – Thanks for stopping by!  So…what is your book about?

Cynthia: A new identity can’t protect Becca from a past that refuses to go away.

(Susie May – Hey!  I love that pitch! )

Cynthia:    Where do you turn when changing your name doesn’t give you the anonymity you want? When running hundreds of miles away isn’t far enough? When your search for a place to belong lands you right back where you began?

(SMW:  And a FANTASTIC story question!)

Cynthia:  One reviewer describes the story this way:

“The shame and humiliation that follows the widely publicized court case and resultant imprisonment of her father for the euthanasia of her terminally ill mother left Jayne Dennegee devastated. In an effort to escape the mounting pressure and trauma of community bias and unfounded judgment Jayne took on a new identity, as Becca Morrow. She legally changed her name and accepted a position as nurse and companion to an incurable elderly woman in California, two thousand miles from her home in Iowa.

“Cynthia Ruchti skillfully challenges the reader to come to grips with the reality of the dilemma faced by caregivers dealing with loved ones suffering with a terminal illness or incapacitated by dementia. (Ruchti) used the medium of the novel to bring a message of the results of the poison of prejudice, the entrapment of deception, the reward of revealing truth, and the healing of forgiveness. A timely must read for counselors, pastors, hospice workers, and extended care facilitators.

Susie: Sounds Awesome!  Now…give us a bit of your heart…How did your faith influence the way you wrote your book, and your life as you wrote it?

Cynthia:  I have yet to write a book that didn’t change me in some way, and yet to write a word that wasn’t influenced by faith. Even press releases or bios or contest applications. I’m keenly aware that every move I make, every thought I think, and anything good in me is a gift from the Father’s Hand. Every opportunity is one He carved for me. And my responsibility and act of worship back to Him is to use it well.

All My Belongings was another book strongly influenced by my faith in a sovereign God who can be trusted, no matter the circumstance. Even when life looks miserable, He’s there, whispering notes of grace and hope worth hanging onto. I watched Becca–the main character–live out a level of caregiving and mercy that I aspire to. As I wrote, I was confronted with my own attitudes toward the things she faced and found myself even more deeply rooted in the confidence that acknowledging God’s claim on our lives–every detail–is both safe and gloriously dangerous. I’ll never be the same after living with these characters and their story.

Susie May:  Oh, I know what I’m reading this weekend!   Head over to www.cynthiaruchti.com and check it out!  Thanks, Cynthia!

Go – read something awesome this weekend!

Susie May