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
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?
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
Twitter: @adabrownell
Stick-to-Your-Soul
Encouragement
Thank you, Ada
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)
- PaperbackPeach Blossom Rancher (Peaches and Dreams Book 2) - Kindle
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