Author Interview (and a Giveaway!) Ruth Reid

Funny story about when I met my guest today – I happened to be hanging out in the vendor’s room at ACFW this past August, a place where publishers and the like can set up tables and sell stuff. Or give things away for free. I was waiting on my friend, Bonnie, to finish up her own transactions (mine already in my trusty bag) and found a chair to plop down in while I waited. Because, hello, still recovering from CFRR which was FUN but also exhausting. Someone else comes in and stops to talk to the guy at the booth across from where I’m sitting…. where I’m also now thinking to myself “I think that’s Ruth Reid.” Everyone at ACFW (except lobby lurkers like me) wears name tags, so I decided to try and catch a peek at hers. Quite surreptitiously, I’m sure, I leaned around to see if I could make out her name. Maybe that’s an R? So I try to stand up nonchalantly – with the plan of making my way closer to her – but by the name I’d dragged my weary body nonchalantly out of the chair she was on her way past me. I may have eeped. And I may have leaped toward her a bit. But I really did try to politely and nonfangirl-ily ask if she was Ruth Reid. She was! Yay!

And that brings us to today lol… when I get to chat with her here on the blog 🙂

Ruth Reid is a CBA and ECPA best-selling author of the Heaven on Earth series. She’s a full-time pharmacist who lives in Florida with her husband and three children. When attending Ferris State University School of Pharmacy in Big Rapids, Michigan, she lived on the outskirts of an Amish community and had several occasions to visit the Amish farms. Her interest grew into love as she saw the beauty in living a simple life.

You can connect with Ruth at her website, and Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.

Her most recent release is “A Flicker of Hope”, included in An Amish Home collection, releasing February 7th from Thomas Nelson. An Amish Home also includes novellas by Beth Wiseman, Amy Clipston, and Kathleen Fuller.

A Flicker of Hope by Ruth Reid

Fifteen years ago, Thomas and Noreen King were blissful newlyweds. Young, naive, and in love, life was rosy . . . for a while.

Then trials and tribulations rocked their foundation, shattering them emotionally, and soon, their marriage was in shards. All hope for restoring their previously unshakable union seems lost.

When fire destroys their home, Thomas and Noreen are left to sift through the rubble. As uncovered items from the remains of the house shake loose memories of the past, Thomas and Noreen begin to draw closer and a flicker of hope—and love—is re-ignited.

Hi Ruth! Welcome to the blog! I start all of my guests out with a fast four:

Ruth: Apples! I have fond memories of growing up in Michigan and playing outdoors from morning to night. We used to climb the apple trees and snack on fruit throughout the day so we didn’t have to go inside.

Carrie: Yay! Apples getting some author love again! I love that story from your childhood too 🙂

Ruth: Summer. I love the warmth of the sun.

Carrie: I love the sun… i just prefer it to be cold lol.

Ruth: Dogs. I’ve always had a dog (sometimes two). Mine spreads out on the couch and thinks he owns the bed, but I still love him. The only time I remember not having a dog was while I was in college. I remember talking to my (now husband) about what I wanted after graduation from pharmacy school and I told him that I was buying a truck and getting a dog, and I was naming the dog after the last question on the last test in pharmacy school. Later that year, I had a blue-eyed Weimaraner named Zoloft. Yes, I love dogs! 

Carrie: Oh what a great name for a pharmacist’s dog!! haha!! Especially since dogs help so much with depression and anxiety 😀

Ruth: Coffee. Gotta have it.

Carrie: Have you thought about naming a dog “Coffee” next? 😉

Around here I like to say that reading is my superpower. If YOU had a superpower, what would it be?

Ruth: Writing is my superpower—at least it is when the characters are talking.

Carrie: Writing is definitely a superpower I am thankful you have!

When you walk into a bookstore, where do you head first?

Ruth: I head to the sales table first, then make my way to the fiction inspirational section.

Carrie: My kind of bookstore stop!

Writing spaces are as diverse as authors and books. Where is your favorite space to write?

Ruth: I do most of my writing in my office where I’m surrounded by things my children have made me over the years, plants I haven’t killed off yet (well, two are dead. I just haven’t given up on them yet. I keep thinking if I water them they’ll come back), pictures—lots of pictures, loads of other books, and a painting of a moonlight ice-covered lake and old cabin, which I titled on the back of the canvas in 1988 where I would write my best selling novel. (No, I don’t have a cabin on the lake yet)

Carrie: I sense we are kindred gardening spirits. I have never met a plant I couldn’t kill.

In your novella “A Flicker of Hope”, we meet Thomas and Noreen King, an Amish couple whose marriage has definitely seen better days. Between these two characters, who did you most relate to?

Ruth: I think I have the stubbornness of both characters.

Carrie: They were both quite stubborn, weren’t they?

Your novella is part of a four-author collection called An Amish Home. What does “home” mean to you?

Ruth: Home is the place where family and friends are free to be themselves. A place where memories are created, hopes and dreams are shared, good things are celebrated, and disappointments and hard times are toughed out together. 

Carrie: I love this. Yes.

What do you most want readers to take away from A Flicker of Hope?

Ruth: That even when it seems we’ve lost everything, God hasn’t left us to fend for ourselves. He is able to rebuild and reignite lost relationships in a mighty way.

Carrie: Oh so true. Amen.

Ruth, thank you so much for taking time to talk with me! 🙂 Before we say goodbye for today, tell us what‘s coming up next for you.

Ruth: Abiding Mercy (book one) in the Mercies series will release in 2017.

What do you do when the right thing only seems to lead to more heartache?

 Sixteen-year-old Faith has worked full time in her parents’ Amish restaurant since she finished eighth grade. She loves her Amish community—and the recent romantic attentions of her longtime friend, Gideon. When her sister seems to be getting too friendly with Englischers, and her parents are in a buggy accident, Faith only wants to escape into her dream of joining the church and getting married.

When a local newspaper runs a story about a child named Adriana who was kidnapped fifteen years earlier, everything Faith has held true comes into question.

Suddenly the community Faith has known her whole life seems unreal. Can she even trust her own family? And how will she ever find home again if she no longer belongs in the world she knows best?

Ruth is giving away a copy of An Amish Home to one of my readers. Due to shipping costs and international regulations, this is open to US entries only. Giveaway is subject to Reading Is My SuperPower’s giveaway policies.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

What about you? What does ‘home’ mean to you?