About the Book

Book: The Putting Green Whisperer

Author: Zoe McCarthy

Genre: Christian fiction

Release date: 2018

Suddenly unemployed, Allie Masterson returns home to Cary, North Carolina where she caddies for her father on the PGA Seniors Tour. There, she encounters a man who possesses an alluring gift of reading the contours of the green. Fascinated with his uncanny ability, Allie is excited to meet the Green Whisperer—until she discovers that the easygoing caddy is actually Shoo Leonard, the boy who teased her relentlessly when they were kids. Despite Allie’s reservations, she agrees to use her sport science degree to become his trainer when Shoo sustains a hand injury—and then she falls for him. Shoo Leonard is grateful to Allie for her singular determination to get him ready for the PGA tour, but he isn’t ready for anything more. Still raw from a broken engagement and focused on his career, he’s content to be her fist-pumping buddy until the chemistry is undeniable. What seems like a happily-ever-after on the horizon takes a turn when Allie decides she’s become a distraction to Shoo’s career. Is it time for her to step away or can The Putting Green Whisperer find the right words to make her stay?

Author Interview

1. What would you say is the easiest aspect of writing? Where do you get your ideas for your books?
Since I was nine, story ideas have dropped into my mind unbidden or from my observations. I
usually write the stories. Often, they’re written only in my head, but in the past, many have made
it to unfinished manuscripts stored under my bed. That doesn’t mean my finished novels were
snapped up by publishers. However, in my four rejection letters for four different books, the
editors said they liked my ideas. That inspired me to keep going. The idea for The Putting Green
Whisperer came when I sat with my sister just off the green on the fifteenth hole at a PGA
Seniors Golf Tournament. Pro golfers and their caddies approached, putted, and moved on to the
next hole. In one group, I noticed two caddies standing beside each other quietly talking with
their backs to us. He was tall, and she was petite with her long blonde ponytail protruding from
the back of her pink ball cap. An idea rose and hovered over my brain. I turned to my sister,
pointed, and said, “My next book will be about those two caddies.”

2. Do you set a plot or prefer going wherever an idea takes you?
I’m a hybrid. I find doing high level plotting before I start writing, such as sketching out the
stages of the Hero’s Journey, has advantages. I have a good idea what research is needed and can
get started on it. I can brainstorm ideas for foreshadowing events that I already know will happen
later in the story. Before I launch into my story, I understand much about my protagonists and
some secondary characters—their personalities, temperaments, outlooks, and quirks. I don’t
waste time plotting the nitty-gritty details that I might not use when I enter panster mode. In this
mode, I give myself the freedom to write the scenes as ideas come to mind, but I stay within the
high-level stages I’ve plotted in the Hero’s Journey.

3. Do you need to be in a specific place or room to write, or you can just sit in the middle of a café full of people and write?
A personality test I took through my company pegged me as an expressive analytic. I know it
sounds like an oxymoron, but it fits me. I couldn’t survive without expressing my thoughts and
creative imaginings. Yet, I’m a retired, introverted actuary* who receives my energy from being
alone in my quiet home office, spewing words into my laptop.
*Actuaries perform all the mathematical analysis for insurance companies, pricing products and
estimating reserves to pay claims.

4. What is your work schedule/routine when you write?
I start my day reading the Bible and taking my prayer walk in which I pray for others on my lists.
Then I work on developing the lesson for the weekly community women’s Bible study I teach.
After that, it’s a scramble among many writing-related commitments—developing and
presenting writing workshops online and in person, writing and posting to my newsletter and
blog, promoting through social media, and snatching time to write. Then in the evenings while
my husband and I watch a show, I knit or crochet shawls for the prayer shawl ministry. After
we’ve gone to bed, I prop my laptop on my knees and quietly write from ten to midnight with no
distractions. I choose not to work on Sundays. My best writing schedules have occurred when
I’ve taken sabbaticals. One year, I enjoyed a full-month, summer sabbatical at our lake cabin. I
worked nonstop on one book in the mornings and on another book in the afternoons.

5. Do bits of yourself/friends show up in your characters?
Yes. Remember I said I was pegged as an expressive analytic? I can pull from either side of my
personality to form characters. I also use my analytical husband’s personality—how he performs
activities and how he thinks. In my first contracted book, Calculated Risk, I used my need to
express to develop the heroine, a marketing rep. I used my husband’s and my own introverted
nature to create the analytical and private hero, the actuary. I had so much fun writing that book.
I also note how people I know or meet do silly, emotional, thoughtful, mean, and bumbling actions and use them to develop characters.

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About the Author

Zoe M. McCarthy, a full-time writer and speaker, was pegged an expressive analytic in a personality test. Isn’t that an oxymoron? But it’s true. Zoe couldn’t survive without expressing her creative imaginings. Yet this retired actuary and introvert receives her energy from being alone in her home office overlooking the Virginia Blue Ridge Mountains.

More from Zoe

The Putting Green Whisperer came about when my sister and I sat under a shade tree near a green at the PGA Senior’s Tour golf tournament. As we watched senior pro golfers and their caddies come through to putt, two young caddies standing just off the green with their backs toward us caught my eye. They talked quietly while their pros prepared to putt. He was tall and she was petite with her long blonde pony tailing protruding from the back of her pink ball cap. I day-dreamed how a romance might begin between the two caddies. I turned to my sister and pointed at the couple. “My next book will be about those two caddies.” My reviews of the book tell me readers who don’t care for golf enjoyed the romance and readers that love golf said I got the golf right.