LOVE'S DELICATE BLOSSOM - Ada Brownell - One Free Book

Welcome back, Ada. Why do you write the kind of books you do?

Since I completed Love’s Delicate Blossom, the third novel in the Peaches and Dreams series, I’m going to rewrite the courses I taught for mid-grade youth in an after-school program when I retired. They are God in American History, Love is Dynamite, and Dynamite Decisions for Youth. Each will be a short, non-fiction book.

In addition to working 17 years as a newspaper reporter so I’d have a real job, I’ve written inspirational non-fiction and fiction for years because I feel the Lord called me to a be a witness about Him, His love, and humankind’s need for Jesus. He shed his blood to forgive our sins, give us abundant life, and most of all, eternal life. My brand is Stick-to-Your-Soul Encouragement that covers both fiction and non-fiction.

Besides when you came to know the Lord, what is the happiest day in your life?

I believe joy is an ongoing blessing when you live for Jesus. The Bible says, “In His presence is fullness of joy,” and I’ve experienced that. My husband makes me happy frequently. One time he gave me a new piano with big red bow around it. Our children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and friends make me happy. Those joys are difficult to measure.

How has being published changed your life?

I’ve grown into a different person than I would be otherwise. I was 15 when I began writing ideas for youth services 65 years ago for a leadership magazine. I’d already had hunger to know the Word, and I became a Bible student, and spent a lot of time in prayer. Everywhere I’ve been, God opened doors for ministry, and all I expected to be was a secretary someday. I taught Sunday school. I became the youth leader. In a little town in Utah that had no church, I started a Sunday school and every kid in town enrolled. I was just beginning to write. I sold an article to David C Cook, so I enrolled in a writing course, advertised my accordion, and bought a typewriter. On the advice of my writing instructor, I became a newspaper correspondent and later moved to staff jobs, taking out nearly 20 years to be a stay-at-home mom, and then going back.

The rest is history.

What are you reading right now?

I’m going through the devotional Jesus Calling again. I’ve started Faith and Physics by Joseph Callender. A favorite recently is Living Like Lions and I’m leaving that in my Kindle for re-reading. I pick up a lot of free books and my fiction right now is Temporary Bride by Linda Ford. Recently I read The River Between by Jacquelyn Cook and The Shepherd’s Voice by Robin Lee Hatcher.

How do you choose your settings for each book?

I try to choose places I’m familiar with and fit the story line.

If you could spend an evening with one person who is currently alive, who would it be and why?

I would like to see my friend that helped me start that Sunday school in Utah, Doris Louton. I lost track of her and she was a miracle God sent to me. I told God if he’d sent me a helper to that town with four bars and no church, I’d start a Sunday school. Within a week God sent Doris, a born-again Baptist gal with two little boys and all sort of talent.

What are your hobbies, besides writing and reading?

I used to like to swim and play tennis. I love to sing in groups, play the organ and piano, and board games such as Rook.

What is your most difficult writing obstacle, and how do you overcome it?

Marketing, and I overcome it by just doing it and learning, learning, learning.

What advice would you give to a beginning author?

Study, pray, practice and do it.

Please give us the first page of the book.

September 1917, Woodburn, Iowa

A horse and buggy clattered toward Ritah O’Casey, rocking. The elaborate fringed buggy swayed, and the woman sitting beside a man nearly tumbled into the street.

Ritah jumped aside, her packages scattering on the boardwalk. Clutching her pocketbook to her chest, she gasped, as Tulip Quinlan, almost fell into her path. The driver grabbed the girl’s arm and yanked her back into the buggy.

Her friend looked mighty strange. Her eyes nearly shut as a frown twisted her lipstick-smeared face into a ghastly masque.

The buggy turned the corner, the left wheels lifting off the road and Ritah shivered at the driver’s scraggly beard, bushy brows and the crooked scar puckering one eye. His vision caught hers as she stared. His dark beady eyes pulsed a warning.

Her chest heaved, while her body shaking and her throat dry, she reached for the strings binding her three packages. How she wished her young friend had responded to the gospel when she went to church with her. The girl, two years younger than Ritah, matured early and looked much older than fourteen.

Only a few weeks ago, Ritah had tried to leave a Christian witness with the girl when her parents died of diphtheria.

“Move into town,” she told her. You might be able to stay with my parents. I’m leaving for college and maybe you could use my room.”

Her lovely chin set firmly Tulip had said, “I’m not moving. I am young, but I want to stay home and try to make it on the farm. I know how to do farm work. My parents are buried on this land. What I need is a good older man who needs a job and knows how to farm to help me.”

How can readers find you on the Internet?

Connect with Ada:

Amazon Ada Brownell author page: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001KJ2C06

Book Fun Network: http://www.bookfun.org

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/#!/AdaBrownellWritingMinistries

Twitter: @adabrownell

Google https://plus.google.com/u/0/+AdaBrownell/posts

Goodreads https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1654534.Ada_Brownell

Blog: http://inkfromanearthenvessel.blogspot.com Stick-to-Your-Soul Encouragement

Thank you, Ada, for sharing this new book with my blog readers and me.

Readers, here are links to the book.

Love's Delicate Blossom (Peaches and Dreams) - Paperback
Love's Delicate Blossom (Peaches and Dreams Book 3) - Kindle

Leave a comment for a chance to win a free copy of the book. You must follow these instructions to be in the drawing. Please tell us where you live, at least the state or territory or country if outside North America. (Comments containing links may be subject to removal by blog owner.)

Void where prohibited; the odds of winning depend on the number of entrants. Entering the giveaway is considered a confirmation of eligibility on behalf of the enterer in accord with these rules and any pertaining local/federal/international laws.

The only notification you’ll receive is the winner post on this blog. So be sure to check back a week from Saturday to see if you won. You will have 4 weeks from the posting of the winners to claim your book.

If you’re reading this on Goodreads, Google+, Feedblitz, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, or Amazon, please come to the blog to leave your comment if you want to be included in the drawing. Here’s a link:

Http://lenanelsondooley.blogspot.com

WHAT PRAYER CAN DO - Ada Brownell - One Free Book

Welcome back, Ada. What would you like for our readers to know about you personally?

Writers are ordinary people. Every once in a while I meet people awed by writers. Many of those saw my byline frequently in The Pueblo Chieftain where I worked many years as a journalist. Once I gave my library card to a young man when I checked out books. He recognized my name and was so excited to meet me.

 I’d give my credit card to a cashier and my name would be noticed, or I’d be in a check at the supermarket and the person behind me would say, “Ooh, I know you!”

 Made me think I should quit wearing dirty tennis shoes and a sweatshirt on my day off and make sure my hair wasn’t windblown.

 I write articles and books about faith, miracles, and victorious Christian living, and even though God uses me, it’s all Him. Without Jesus I am nothing.

Tell us about your family.

My husband and I have been married 65 years in October. We had five beautiful talented children (one of them in heaven), married to amazing Christian achievers. All have done some sort of Christian ministry, have great marriages, and gave us wonderful grandchildren and 3 great-grandchildren.

Our oldest son, Gary, is a media/ lighting/ electronics expert/sound engineer/ stage designer for churches. The youngest son, Jaron, is a computer software designer and church worship leader.

 The next daughter, Gwen, is near earning her doctorate in nursing, has taught nursing and works at a hospital.  She went on a summer mission to Kenya, taught Sunday school and does health screenings at church.

 Our youngest daughter, Jeanette, the wife of a hospice chaplain, works in Human Resources in a steel mill, taught Missionettes for years, and is a wonderful soloist.

We lost our oldest daughter to lymphoma at age 31 when she and her husband worked with youth and she was a church musician and office worker.

Have you written other nonfiction books?

Confessions of a Pentecostal, out of print but sells now as an e-book. Originally published by the Assemblies of God in 1978, the book was listed in 2011 and many other years among 10 top recommendations on Pentecostalism by The Library Thing.

Swallowed by Life: Mysteries of Death, Resurrection and the Eternal, a book for people with chronic or terminal illness, individuals who fear death or are curious about it, the grieving, and those who give them counsel. Great for support groups. I did the research and used what I’d learned in the Bible and by spending seven years on the medical beat to write that book after we lost our daughter to cancer. I wanted to be sure I believed what I thought I did about the eternal.

Imagine the Future You, a motivational Bible Study for youth. Ready or not, you are headed into your future. Would you like to achieve your dreams of being all you can be inside and out? Would you like to deposit good information in your brain you can spend and invest in your future? This book will help in every area of your life.

Facts, Faith and Propaganda. Everything about who we are, how we came to be, and why we are here, is settled by faith. Evolution is taught as fact only because it is so widely accepted. Although scientists claim evolution can be proved, changes in any species is still the same species. See how to separate propaganda, false science and skepticism from truth. From a writer who has interviewed educators, Bible experts, scientists, and written numerous articles about evolution, studied propaganda in college and taught the Bible and Science in churches.

 Do you have any other books in the works right now?

The first draft of the third book in my historical Peaches and Dreams fiction series, Love’s Delicate Blossom, is nearly complete.

What kinds of hobbies and leisure activities do you enjoy?

I love, table games, walking, singing in groups, and used to love swimming and tennis. I still enjoy playing active games on the Wii.

 

Why did you write the featured book?

You don’t hear much about how God intervenes in people’s lives today in answer to prayer. I didn’t want these amazing testimonies, published over the years in The Pentecostal Evangel, to be forgotten.

What do you want the reader to take away from the book?

Awe, greater faith, and encouragement.

Is there anything else you’d like to tell my readers about you or your book? Every testimony in What Prayer Can Do is true. I know these people.

Please give us the first page or two from the book.

Chapter One Excerpt: WHAT PRAYER CAN DO (The article that inspired the book).

By Ada Nicholson Brownell

“Without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who diligently seek him” (Hebrews 11:6 NIV).

A strong wind propelled a raging brush fire up the side of Grand Mesa near Cedaredge, Colorado, leaving only blackness and ashes where it passed.

Suddenly the billowing smoke and hungry flames came into view of a mother and three children who were alone in a white two-story house.

The roaring mass of flames raced directly toward the home. The father had gone to help fight the fire, which began near Cedaredge. He had no idea the wind would take the fire to his family—now stranded without a car or any other means of escape.

Inside the house the mother and children ran to the bedroom, took the Bible, and read the 91st Psalm. Then they knelt and prayed fervently, but only briefly. They went back to the living room and watched the fire, now almost upon them.

Suddenly they saw the flames turn away from them as the direction of the wind changed. Their prayer had reached God, and He had answered!

This true experience is one of several miraculous answers to prayer experienced by persons who attend the First Assembly in Lakewood, Colorado.

Recently I was asked to speak to the youth meeting at our church, so I decided to talk about “What Prayer Can Do.” While meditating and praying for the service, I felt I should let people in our church tell from their own experience what prayer can do.

So I began asking individuals to help me. My only problem was choosing which miraculous answer to prayer to use! I found so many examples of the power of prayer that I couldn’t use half of them.

One woman said she uttered a simple prayer as their family’s truck, loaded with apples, rolled over the side of a mountain. Her three children rode on top of the apple boxes under a tarp. After she scrambled out of the truck which was crushed by the huge boulders, she began calling her children’s names.

“Tim? Are you all right?”

“Yes,” a voice answered from beneath the boxes.

“Steve?”

“Here!” he answered.

“Connie?”

“Here, Mom!”

The entire family escaped uninjured.

“Sometime let me tell how the Lord made an empty fuel barrel keep the house warm for a week,” she added.

A deacon told how God stopped the rain so he could work on a road construction project. The deacon had five small children to feed and needed all the work he could get. If it rained, he couldn’t work.

One day he noticed big black clouds rolling toward the road construction area. He prayed the Lord would let him keep working.

It was the deacon’s job to send supplies to the men on a paving machine. For three days the rain followed close behind the paving machine, but it never rained where the men worked. Occasionally the showers came right up to where they were, but then would go back again…

Where on the Internet can the readers find you?

--Amazon Ada Brownell author page:  http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001KJ2C06

--Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/#!/AdaBrownellWritingMinistries

--Twitter: @adabrownell

--Blog: http://inkfromanearthenvessel.blogspot.com Stick to Your Soul Encouragement

--Book Fun Network

Thank you, Ada, for sharing this book with us. I love testimonies of how God answered prayers in people’s lives. Every Christian should have many of those stories. I know I do.

Readers, here are links to the book.

What Prayer Can Do: A Collection of articles written by Ada Nicholson Brownell published by THE PENTECOSTAL EVANGEL - Paperback
What Prayer Can Do: A Collection of Articles Written by Ada Nicholson Brownell Published by The Pentecostal Evangel - Kindle

Leave a comment for a chance to win a free copy of the book. You must follow these instructions to be in the drawing. Please tell us where you live, at least the state or territory or country if outside North America. (Comments containing links may be subject to removal by blog owner.)

Void where prohibited; the odds of winning depend on the number of entrants. Entering the giveaway is considered a confirmation of eligibility on behalf of the enterer in accord with these rules and any pertaining local/federal/international laws.

The only notification you’ll receive is the winner post on this blog. So be sure to check back a week from Saturday to see if you won. You will have 4 weeks from the posting of the winners to claim your book.

If you’re reading this on Goodreads, Google+, Feedblitz, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, or Amazon, please come to the blog to leave your comment if you want to be included in the drawing. Here’s a link:

Http://lenanelsondooley.blogspot.com

WHAT PRAYER CAN DO - Ada Brownell - One Free Book

Welcome back, Ada. What would you like for our readers to know about you personally?

I began writing in my teens as a ministry, and spent more than 30 years teaching youth classes. I’ve always been an idea person, and that helped me work with young people and gave me direction in my writing. It was my top talent when I became a newspaper reporter. I found important news stories everywhere, as well as interesting features.

 Now as I’m writing the third novel in my Peaches and Dreams series, I dig for ideas to complicate the lead character’s life, which is how I plot. I only hope I can get him or her out of the mess I create.

Knowing the Lord personally gives me joy beyond any idea I dream up, however.

Tell us about your family.

My husband of 64 years, L.C. is romantic, a great helper, and the father of our five talented children. They are Gary, well known for his talents in a technical aspects of a church, and he’s designed church stages featured in magazines. Gwen, involved in healthcare, is working on her doctorate in nursing. Jaron is a computer software designer and works part-time as a worship leader. Jeanette is the #2 person in human resources at a steel mill in Pueblo, Colorado, and the wife of a pastor who now is a hospice chaplain. Our oldest daughter, Carolyn, a great pianist with perfect pitch passed away at age 31 from cancer. She worked with youth in a California church.

We have a group of talented grandchildren, as well. I thank God for family.

Have you written other nonfiction books?

My first, published by the Assemblies of God, was Confessions of a Pentecostal. Later, Swallowed by Life: Mysteries of Death, Resurrection and the Eternal; Imagine the Future You; and Facts, Faith and Propaganda. I have three novels: Joe the Dreamer, The Castle and the Catapult, The Lady Fugitive, and Peach Blossom Rancher.

Do you have any other books in the works right now?

I’m working on the third book in the Peaches and Dreams series. It’s tentatively title Ritah, but that probably will be changed.

What kinds of hobbies and leisure activities do you enjoy?

I love singing in groups, playing the piano, playing board games, and I used to play tennis.

Why did you write the featured book.

My brand is “Stick-to-Your-Soul Encouragement” and that’s the reason I wrote all my books. What Prayer Can Do is a compilation of 55 articles of the more than 100 articles I’ve had published in The Pentecostal Evangel. The book is filled with testimonies of answers to prayer among people I’ve known and interviewed. Some I ghost wrote under the other person’s byline so the stories could be told in first person.

What do you want the reader to take away from What Prayer Can Do?

I want the reader to believe God exists and He rewards those who diligently seek Him (see Hebrews 11:6).

Is there anything else you’d like to tell my readers about you or your book?

People’s testimonies I wrote in this book still bless me. The healed child admitted to a children’s institution with hydrocephalus (water on the brain where the head grows faster than the body) communicates with us yet today, many years after her miracle when their pastor visited, prayed for the child and the workers call the parents (our close friends) to come and get their baby because she suddenly was normal. The doctor wrote “absolute miracle” across her records after comparing X-rays of the brain before and after.

Please give us the first page or two from the book.

A strong wind propelled a raging brush fire up the side of Grand Mesa near Cedaredge, Colorado, leaving only blackness and ashes where it passed.

Suddenly the billowing smoke and hungry flames came into view of a mother and three children who were alone in a white two-story house.

The roaring mass of flames raced directly toward the home. The father had gone to help fight the fire, which began near Cedaredge. He had no idea the wind would take the fire to his family—now stranded without a car or any other means of escape.

Inside the house the mother and children ran to the bedroom, took the Bible, and read the 91st Psalm. Then they knelt and prayed fervently, but only briefly. They went back to the living room and watched the fire, now almost upon them.

Suddenly they saw the flames turn away from them as the direction of the wind changed. Their prayer had reached God, and He had answered!

This true experience is one of several miraculous answers to prayer experienced by persons who attend the First Assembly in Lakewood, Colorado.

Recently I was asked to speak to the youth meeting at our church, so I decided to talk about “What Prayer Can Do.” While meditating and praying for the service, I felt I should let people in our church tell from their own experience what prayer can do.

So I began asking individuals to help me. My only problem was choosing which miraculous answer to prayer to use! I found so many examples of the power of prayer that I couldn’t use half of them.

One woman said she uttered a simple prayer as their family’s truck, loaded with apples, rolled over the side of a mountain. Her three children rode on top of the apple boxes under a tarp. After she scrambled out of the truck which was crushed by the huge boulders, she began calling her children’s names.

“Tim? Are you all right?”

“Yes,” a voice answered from beneath the boxes.

“Steve?”

“Here!” he answered.

“Connie?”

“Here, Mom!”

The entire family escaped uninjured.

“Sometime let me tell how the Lord made an empty fuel barrel keep the house warm for a week,” she added.

A deacon told how God stopped the rain so he could work on a road construction project. The deacon had five small children to feed and needed all the work he could get. If it rained, he couldn’t work.

One day he noticed big black clouds rolling toward the road construction area. He prayed the Lord would let him keep working.

It was the deacon’s job to send supplies to the men on a paving machine. For three days the rain followed close behind the paving machine, but it never rained where the men worked. Occasionally the showers came right up to where they were, but then would go back again.

Where on the Internet can the readers find you?

Amazon Ada Brownell author page: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001KJ2C06

Amazon hadn’t added What Prayer Can Do to the page yet. You can get the book, paperback or for Kindle, at http://ow.ly/9CEI30h4IdL

Thank you, Ada, for sharing this book with us. I love to hear about the wonderful things God has done for other Christians.

Readers, leave a comment for a chance to win a free copy of the book. You must follow these instructions to be in the drawing. Please tell us where you live, at least the state or territory or country if outside North America. (Comments containing links may be subject to removal by blog owner.)

Void where prohibited; the odds of winning depend on the number of entrants. Entering the giveaway is considered a confirmation of eligibility on behalf of the enterer in accord with these rules and any pertaining local/federal/international laws.

The only notification you’ll receive is the winner post on this blog. So be sure to check back a week from Saturday to see if you won. You will have 4 weeks from the posting of the winners to claim your book.

If you’re reading this on Goodreads, Google+, Feedblitz, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, or Amazon, please come to the blog to leave your comment if you want to be included in the drawing. Here’s a link:

Http://lenanelsondooley.blogspot.com

PEACH BLOSSOM RANCHER - Ada Brownell - One Free Book

Dear Readers, I recently finished reading Peach Blossom Ranch. I really enjoyed the book and both of the plotlines. The characters were fun for the most part, and the bad ones were really bad. This author had really done her research on both plot lines. I love historical novels that are true to the real history of the time period.

Welcome, Ada. Why do you write the kind of books you do?

Because I enjoy history, people who lived in that era, and I like mystery and conflict, entwined in romance and humor. But telling a story that encourages and enriches readers spiritually is the main goal.

Besides when you came to know the Lord, what is the happiest day in your life?

Every day I live has joy, but one of the most amazing days I’ve lived came when I discovered I really believe what I thought I did about the eternal. I accepted Jesus as Savior when I was age 5. I began fervently studying the Bible at age 14 and worked with youth about thirty years.  Yet when we lost our daughter to cancer at age 31, I my foundation shook. Was I sure those who believe in Jesus will never die (John 11:26)?

I read through the New Testament again and underlined every scripture about eternal life. The New Testament is full of the eternal!

As a medical journalist I did research and also asked neurologists questions about death. One of the doctors certifies brain death when it occurs.

I added common sense. I started life as a tiny egg—and I was me. I weighed about six pounds at birth. I gained and lost weight. I could have organs, even my heart removed and someone else’s inserted, but I’d still be me. My body is rebuilt about every seven years because of cell death and regeneration, and I’m still me. I’m not walking around in the same body I was born with, but I’m still me.

When I put the medical with the spiritual together, I knew we’re more than a body. Jesus came to earth and died to redeem us, so if we accept salvation, we will live forever. Our bodies eventually will join our spirits when Jesus returns. 1 Corinthians 15:50 talks about how we mortals become immortal. My favorite is 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 which ends with “The Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout…and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we which are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord; and so shall we ever be with the Lord.”

That joy remains. Jesus did something about death! As a result of my studies, I wrote the book, Swallowed by Life, but even in my romance, Peach Blossom Rancher, this same joy flows through Polly, who dances in little circles near a church cemetery, remembering the scriptures.

How has being published changed your life?

In some ways, you become a public figure, especially in news work where your byline appears almost every day. I love people and I loved most of the stories I did, but I’m not crazy about fame. I’m not awesome. I’m an ordinary woman, wife, mother, and grandmother. I am embarrassed when people got excited when my name is recognized in the supermarket line or when I present a credit card at the library. One time when I tried to impress one of our five children by saying, “Some people think I’m sophisticated,” they all broke into laughter. If I get to thinking I’m special the Lord humbles me and helps me make a fool of myself.

What are you reading right now?

Non-fiction I read slowly because I’m meditating on what I read. Now, Managing Interruptions with Moments of Intercession by Sandy Goodwin Clopine Drake. To help my marketing, Ziglar On Selling. Fiction, Irish Meadows by Susan Ann Mason.

What is your current work in progress?

Ritah, (working title) the third book in the Peaches and Dreams series. Ritah will experience some of the huge life problems that occurred in my mother’s life. Ritah is departing for college (my mom went in about 1915), despite the man who wants to marry her, while one of her young friends whose parents died is in danger of being forced to work in a brothel.

What would be your dream vacation?

Hawaii.

My husband and I would love to go there, too. How do you choose your settings for each book?

I use places I’ve been, although they’re not authentic or called by the same name. The Lady Fugitive is set on Colorado’s Western Slope, as is Peach Blossom Rancher.

If you could spend an evening with one person who is currently alive, who would it be and why?

I’d like to be able to find the wonderful gal God sent to help me with a Sunday school that we started in the early ’60s at Thompson, Utah, which had no church.

What are your hobbies, besides writing and reading?

Decorating, gardening, playing games such as Rook.

What is your most difficult writing obstacle, and how do you overcome it?

Lack of time.

What advice would you give to a beginning author?

Study books such as Word Painting by Rebecca McClanahan; Words that Work by Frank Luntz; and a book on how to show instead of tell. Read good writing. Make list of ideas, and then flesh out a few, choose one, and get to work.

Tell us about the featured book.

You won’t believe the work required to run a peach and horse ranch, or the types of diagnoses that could get you committed to an asylum in the early 1900s.

To write this historical romance I drew from my experiences working at a peach and horse ranch in Palisade, Colorado, and from my years as a journalist covering the Colorado Mental Health Institute at Pueblo, a former asylum.

In this inspirational squeaky clean Historical Romance, a handsome young man inherits a ranch in ruin and hopes to marry a beautiful young widow who is an attorney. But she takes up the case of a brilliant doctor committed to an asylum because of one seizure. Will the rancher, the attorney, and the asylum patient achieve their dreams?

Suspense, romance, humor, murder, insanity, hope, fun, wrapped in an inspiring Western you won’t forget.

The first page of Peach Blossom Rancher:

March 1, 1909

“Come on, boy. Your hard life is over.”

 The sleek stallion pulled back, snorted, grunted, yanked his head upward, and tried to whirl away. John Lincoln Parks held the reins tight.

 “Come on. The judge isn’t here. The whip’s in your past.”

 Bringing the animal all the way from Colorado’s Eastern Slope after the judge’s death hadn’t been easy and tiredness hung from him. The judge, John’s uncle, murdered near Yucca Blossom, would never return to the horse ranch and acres of peach orchards he expected to inherit from John’s father.

 Sweat glistened on Abe’s crinkled chocolate brow. “He look like he a good ’un to breed. But an animal abused like ’im usually disobedient or loses his spirit.”

John rubbed the stallion’s neck and then extended a sugar cube in his hand. “I don’t want to give up on him yet. Come on, boy. We’re friends. You should be tired and hungry after your train trip.”

 A long red tongue licked the sugar cube into the toothy mouth. Abe followed John to the horse barn.

“I’ll get ’im some oats and fill the water trough. He a right pretty animal except fa the welts the judge left on ’im.”

 “If I’d stayed with the judge, my back would look like his. But you know more about whippings than I do since you went to work for the plantation owner who couldn’t get it through his head you’re not a slave.”

How can readers find you on the Internet?

Amazon Ada Brownell author page: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001KJ2C06

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/#!/AdaBrownellWritingMinistries

Twitter: @adabrownell

Blog: http://inkfromanearthenvessel.blogspot.com

Stick-to-Your-Soul Encouragement

Thank you, Ada, for sharing this book with me and my readers.

Readers, here are links to the book. By using one when you order, you help support this blog.

Peach Blossom Rancher (Peaches and Dreams) (Volume 2) - Paperback
Peach Blossom Rancher (Peaches and Dreams Book 2) - Kindle

Leave a comment for a chance to win a free copy of the book. You must follow these instructions to be in the drawing. Please tell us where you live, at least the state or territory or country if outside North America. (Comments containing links may be subject to removal by blog owner.)

Void where prohibited; the odds of winning depend on the number of entrants. Entering the giveaway is considered a confirmation of eligibility on behalf of the enterer in accord with these rules and any pertaining local/federal/international laws.

The only notification you’ll receive is the winner post on this blog. So be sure to check back a week from Saturday to see if you won. You will have 4 weeks from the posting of the winners to claim your book.

If you’re reading this on Goodreads, Google+, Feedblitz, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, or Amazon, please come to the blog to leave your comment if you want to be included in the drawing. Here’s a link:

Http://lenanelsondooley.blogspot.com

PEACH BLOSSOM RANCHER - Ada Brownell - Ebook Free Through November 24

Peach Blossom Rancher, an historical romance by Ada Brownell is free today through Nov. 24. Suspense, romance, humor, murder, insanity, hope, fun, wrapped in a Western you won’t forget. If you are reading this before November 25, you get a free ebook.

Get it here: http://amzn.to/2arRVgG

Welcome, Ada. Tell us how much of yourself you write into your characters.

Well, I used some experiences I had in my youth, such as when a pig sucked my dress while I poured slop over the top of the fence. I held out my skirt and ran to the house while pig saliva strung down my legs. I took great pleasure in letting that happen to Edwina, a gal who thinks she’s in love with Peach Blossom Rancher’s leading man, John Parks. Edwina has a temper, and it shows. I think the sow sucked my dress because of the corn starch we used in those days.

Also a horse steps on the foot of Stuart, a kid just learning how to ride. That happened to me and my brother who usually helped me mount, etc., already had ridden away. I beat on that horse’s big belly and yelled, “Get off! Get off.” She wouldn’t budge until I had sense enough to reach down and lift her hoof.

What is the quirkiest thing you have ever done?

Letting my high heel shoe slip off the volume pedal of the organ while I played softly as the pastor spoke. The heel slipped, the shoe stuck, and the music was the loudest it could get before I told myself, “Take your hands off the keys, stupid.” My clunky shoe stuck in the pedal volume slot, and I had to kneel down and pull my shoe out.

When did you first discover that you were a writer?

When I went to work as a reporter for The Pueblo Chieftain. I’d read you aren’t a professional writer unless you make a living at it.

Tell us the range of the kinds of books you enjoy reading.

I love the Bible and inspirational non-fiction. Historical novels are my favorite fiction books.

How do you keep your sanity in our run, run, run world?

Reading inspirational novels where great characters honor the Lord or come to him, despite adversity, carries me to other places where problems are solved with the help of the Lord and grit. These books stimulate spiritual joy and peace.

How do you choose your characters’ names?

Sometimes I look up ethnic names for a certain era, but often match the name to the character.

What is the accomplishment that you are most proud of?

Raising five wonderful children and staying married to the man I’ve loved for 63 years.

If you were an animal, which one would you be, and why?

Maybe a poodle. I have curly hair, always run from here to there, and sometimes I bark.

What is your favorite food?

It depends on the day. I like variety.

What is the problem with writing that was your greatest roadblock, and how did you overcome it?

In one of my writing courses I took in my youth I was told 1,000 novels were rejected to each one sold to a traditional publisher. I didn’t like those odds, but later in life felt I had stories to tell and took the risk.

Tell us about the featured book.

Published by Elk Lake Publishing, a new traditional small publisher. Suspense, romance, humor, murder, insanity, hope, fun, wrapped in a Western you won’t forget.

A handsome young man inherits a ranch in ruin and a brilliant doctor is confined to an insane asylum because of one seizure. Yet their lives intersect.

John Lincoln Parks yearns for a wife to help rebuild the ranch and eyes Valerie MacDougal, a young widow who homesteaded, but also is an attorney.

Will the doctor ever be released from the asylum? Will John marry Valerie or Edwina Jorgenson, the feisty rancher-neighbor he constantly fusses with? This neighbor has a Peeping Tom whose boot prints are like the person’s who dumped a body in John’s barn. Will John even marry, or be hanged for the murder?

As a reporter I covered the Colorado Mental Health Institute at Pueblo, a former asylum, on my beat and I worked on a peach ranch for my aunt and they also had horses.

Please give us the first page of the book.

March 1, 1909

“Come on, boy. Your hard life is over.”

The sleek stallion pulled back, snorted, grunted, yanked his head upward, and tried to whirl away. John Lincoln Parks held the reins tight. “Come on. The judge isn’t here. The whip’s in your past.”

Bringing the animal all the way from Colorado’s Eastern Slope after the judge’s death hadn’t been easy. The judge, John’s uncle, murdered near Yucca Blossom, would never return to the horse ranch and acres of peach orchards he expected to inherit from John’s father.

“He look like he a good ’un to breed.” Sweat glistened on Abe’s crinkled chocolate brow. “But an animal abused like ’im usually disobedient or loses his spirit.”

John rubbed the stallion’s neck and then extended a sugar cube in his hand. “I don’t want to give up on him yet. Come on, boy. We’re friends. You should be tired and hungry after your train trip.”

A long red tongue licked the sugar cube into the toothy mouth.

Abe followed John to the horse barn. “I’ll get ’im some oats and fill the water trough. He a right pretty animal except fa the welts the judge left on ’im.”

“If I’d stayed with the judge, my back would look like his. Where’s Polly? I hope she’s made chicken and noodles and apple pie.”

How can readers find you on the Internet?

Read sample chapters on Amazon. My Amazon author page is https://www.amazon.com/author/adabrownell

Facebook: Ada Brownell

Twitter: @adabrownell

Google https://plus.google.com/u/0/+AdaBrownell/posts

Goodreads https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1654534.Ada_Brownell

Blog: http://inkfromanearthenvessel.blogspot.com Stick-to-Your-Soul Encouragement

Thank you, Ada, for sharing this new book with us.

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