Today I welcome an inspirational woman. She is a lawyer, mom, AND author! To meet this lady of grace is to know you've met someone called to serve Christ: Cara Putman
Enter to win Cara's new release,
A Wedding Transpires
Scroll to the end of the post to see how to enter.
I met Cara through the newbie loop a few months before the conference. She guided, answered questions, prayed, expressed concerns and encouraged us. An absolute icon in my mind. At the conference I timidly went up to her and asked if I could have my picture taken with her. She didn't even blink an eye. "Of course", then came her beautiful smile.
With her new book release, I asked Cara to share with us how God has led her on her exciting writing journey. Here is her answer:
The Dream Never Died
Many writers will tell you that their dreams of writing
started as a child or teenager. Mine certainly did. I still have my creative
writing journal from 3rd grade with its cute stories about Toad and
Frog.
The beauty of being homeschooled was that my mom let me work
on books as part of the homeschool curriculum. I started two as a 14 and 15
year old…books my dad swears he can find on one of the computers languishing in
the basement…but books I really don’t want to pick up now. Even then I was
drawn to historical fiction: one was set on the lost colony of Roanoke and the
other during the American Revolution. Today I’ve just moved forward to WWII.
Then college and life intervened but the dream never died.
Through
college, marriage, launching a career, law school, starting a family, the dream
would be reborn every few years. My husband and I would go to dinner or be in
the car and it would come up in the context of “I wonder if I’ll ever…”
It wasn’t
until 2005 that I got the release to start writing. I’d finished law school.
We’d started a family. One fate-filled day in April 2005 I attended a
booksigning and my husband asked Colleen Coble if I’d told her I wanted to be a
writer.
Colleen latched onto Eric’s question with her trademark
enthusiasm. With her encouragement, I looked into ACFW and decided to attend
the national conference. That meant I needed to start writing, so I began
working on a romantic suspense along the lines of a Mary Higgins Clark. That
year I met editors and soaked in everything I could. I rushed home and wrote a
proposal based on an idea that developed at the conference. In 2006 I received
a contract for that book at the next ACFW conference. Since 2007, I’ve held 15
new books in my hands plus three repackages with two more coming in the next months.
From
2005 to first sale took one year. Don’t shoot me. But it really was a little
over a year…but that doesn’t count the many times I’d write, read books on
writing, or just pray about the dream.
Cara C. Putman lives in Indiana with her husband and four children. She’s an attorney and a teacher at her church as well as lecturer at Purdue. She has loved reading and writing from a young age and now realizes it was all training for writing books. She loves bringing history and romance to life.
An honors graduate of the University of Nebraska and George Mason University School of Law, Cara left small town Nebraska and headed to Washington, D.C., to launch her career in public policy.
Cara is an author chasing hard after God as she lives a crazy life. She invites you to join her on that journey.
Readers can interact with Cara online at:
http://caraputman.com
http://caraputman.com/blog
http://www.facebook.com/caraputman
http://www.twitter.com/cara_putman
http://www.pinterest.com/caraputman
To enter the contest for an autographed copy of Cara's book: "A Wedding Transpires":
leave a comment (and email address)
and become a follower of this site if you aren't already.
U.S. residents only.
Winner announced on my facebook page.
Thank you, Cara, for Joining us This Weekend!
Reader, what is your next step to publication? For me, I plan to go to this year's conference and meet with agents, and I have been writing way longer than one year. How about you?
Comments
For me, being published is still just a dream. Right now I'm just trying to get back into writing my tiny little blog.
Cara, I remember seeing your name in the comments when Brandilyn Collins was writing her blog on the writing process. Congrats to you.
Mary, thanks for writing your blog and doing the interviews.
Keeroga(at)yahoo(dot)com
Oh, yes, Brandilyn is a key part of the conference, too. She is the MC and has tons of jokes. Of course these two fantastic ladies are good friends and are a pleasure to get to know.
Barbara Thompson
barbmaci61(at)yahoo(dot)
Also, I'm a follower!
pattymh2000(at)Yahoo(dot)com
MAXIE mac262(at)me(dot)com
So nice to see you. I always enjoy your visits.
And one is never "just" a reader. Imagine all we would lose if we did not read or have someone read to us from a small child to an elderly person, reading opens the doors or God's world.
Loved seeing you here today. So you designed clothes, how fortunate for your children. So many blessings in your life. :)
Thanks for sharing today.
Kelly Espinoza
kellyespy@yahoo.com
bonnieroof60(at)yahoo(dot)com
A fellow Michigander. I know, isn't Mackinac Island the perfect setting for a book!
I am so glad you joined us today, loved chatting with you.
Hope to see you again.
Thanks for joining us today. We've had such a great crowd here. I think I need to break out the virtual Mackinaw Island fudge. Yum!
I totally know what you mean about the some day part. Guess what? Totally unplanned, my anniversary is on Monday. Hubby spilled the beans and told me we are going there. I can't believe it. Seems like every Michigander talks about it, but I am one of the few who hadn't been there yet. I am so excited. I can't wait until you get to go. You'll have to let me know so we can compare notes. :)
Yes, Cara is a very inspiring person. I hope you get to meet her in person some day. You will simply love her.
Linda Ortiz
strgth4yu@hotmail.com
Thank you for becoming a follower. Looking forward to chatting with you again.
Welcome back today.
You've read Cara's books? Which one/s? I am so jealous! I'll catch up, though.
It was fun to see you here today.
jrs362 at Hotmail dot com
Of course you are entered. I'm glad you are friends with Cara on FB and I enjoy your visits here. Can we be friends of FB, too? Thanks for stopping by tonight. :)
bonnieroof60(at)yahoo(dot)com