Welcome to Stitches Thru Time, Ada. Tell us a bit about yourself.
Yesterday one of my special friends told me I’m “Spicy.”
I wondered, “Is that a compliment?”
So I looked it up. Since I’m a committed child of God, I scratched risqué. Three of the definitions told me I’m not the tasteless cooked cereal type. An editor once told me I look at many things from a unique point of view. I guess that’s my source of writing and conversational ideas.
The “high-spirited and lively” spicy definition is true and comes from heredity. I’m a freckled- faced redhead who gets the color now from a bottle. I talk fast, think fast, and usually plan two days work for one, and get it done, although I’m slowing down.
I’m the mother of five amazing children, nine exceptional grandchildren, and three greats, married 62 years, a retired journalist, the author of 350 articles in Christian magazines, and seven books.
I might be spicy, but I’m not complete in myself. I need Jesus and He adds the flavor to my life.
Yes, He does. :)
It's so great to meet another freckled-faced redhead. :) Congratulations on your upcoming release! Tell us a bit about your story.
Well, I have to admit the newest book isn’t released yet, but I’m hoping it will be out by June 1.
I’m half-way through the rewrite. I’m excited about it. It’s a sequel to The Lady Fugitive, an
historical romance.Here’s the summary of The Peach Blossom Rancher:
John Lincoln Parks’ is working to rebuild his deceased father’s peach and horse ranch, thrown into ruin by a wicked uncle, murdered in the last book. John yearns for a wife and his eye is on his sister’s elegant matron of honor, Valerie MacDougal, a young widow who homesteaded in Colorado with her first husband. But Valerie, a law school graduate, returns to Boston to live with her parents. John and Valerie write, he’s kissed her a few times, but while in Boston Valerie and one of her father’s law partners work together to get three patients out of the Boston asylum. They believe the patients were wrongfully judged as insane.
The patients are Pete, a 10-year-old Down’s Syndrome boy who can read; Dillon Haskill, a young medical doctor who had one seizure; and Jimmy Cook, an outstanding teacher paralyzed in an accident.
Will John marry Valerie or Edwina, the feisty rancher-neighbor who has been in love with John since they were in grade school? John tries to protect Ed from a Peeping Tom with huge boot prints like the person’s who dumped a body in John’s barn. Will John even be able to wed, or be hanged for the murder?
Sounds like you've got some mystery woven into this story. Where did you get the inspiration for your new book?
I grew up in peach country on Colorado’s Western Slope. Picked fruit, worked in a packing shed inspecting peaches, and had a job for a short time serving lunch to peach pickers. I’ve had a little experience with horses. I’ve had even more experience with the mentally ill while working seven years on the medical beat while I was a reporter for The Pueblo Chieftain. The Colorado Mental Health Institute at Pueblo was on my beat.You're definitely putting those experiences to good use. What do you hope folks will take away from your story?
The theme is “God directs the footsteps of a righteous man and will be with you.”A great lesson to learn. Do you have a favorite scene in the book? If so, can you tell us a bit about it?
Edwina Jorgenson visits John Parker hoping he’ll invite her to the church picnic.Edwina sniffed the air. “What’s that terrible odor?”
John stepped to the fence. Might be coming from my prize pigs. See that big one over there I call Gertie?” Gertie trotted close and rubbed her prickly mud-covered back on the wire, jigging the whole pen.
John rested his elbow on a post and leaned his muscled shoulders. “I expect to make big money from pork while I’m rebuilding the horse herd and working in the orchards. You ought to try a few pigs. You get a quicker turnover with your money than with horses. Your papa used to raise them. Besides, it’s always nice to have smoked ham and bacon available.”
Edwina peeped into the pen. The pigs grappled with each other over the slop, snorting and grunting. “I might do that. You know since Papa is in the wheelchair I’m running everything. How is the pork market doing?”
“It sounds great to me It...”
Gertie stuck her snout through the pig wire and sucked Edwina’s frilly pink dress. “Eeeeewwww!” she squeaked, pulling the front of the skirt up to her knees. Pig saliva slid down her shapely legs. “I didn’t know pigs will eat clothing!”
It was all John could do to keep from laughing. He put his fist over his mouth until his insides quit quaking in case she was mad enough to use that gun strapped on her middle. “Gertie probably sensed the corn starch you used in your dress. I’d guess for her it was quite tasty. I’ll get you a towel.”
“Don’t bother.” She grabbed a large print handkerchief from the buggy, wiped at her legs and jumped in the driver’s seat. “You probably wanted me to stand by the fence so that would happen. You are incorrigible, John Parks. Get someone else to go to the church picnic with you!”
As the dust rose from her departure, she almost ran into the mailman.
A frilly pink dress and a gun. Now there's a combination you don't see everyday. :) That's for sharing that humorous scene with us.
What do you plan to work on next?
I plan another sequel to my historical romances, and three children’s books I have partly written.Sounds like you're gonna be busy. :)
Where can readers connect with you? Where can readers buy your book(s)?
- Amazon Ada Brownell author page: https://www.amazon.com/author/adabrownell
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/#!/AdaBrownellWritingMinistries
- Twitter: @AdaBrownell
- Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1654534.Ada_Brownell
- Blog: http://inkfromanearthenvessel.blogspot.com
- Barnesandnoble.com http://ow.ly/PUWHO
- Imagine the Future You audio book is available at www.Audible.com Free book with new Audible membership. Or read or listen to first chapter free!
- Amazon Links:
- ITunes: http://ow.ly/TY6uO
No, I haven't read any of Ada's stories and she is so busy! Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteConnie