Talkshow Thursday: Welcome back, Ada Brownell
Linda: Thanks
for joining me today. Congratulations on your upcoming release, Love’s Delicate Blossom. Where did you get the inspiration for the story
and its characters?
Ada: Some of
the characters were fashioned somewhat from some of my family. Some big events
that happened to them, happen to my fictional people. Some hard times were
reality in that era a century ago. Part of my inspiration came from growing up
in Colorado’s peach country. That’s where the comparison between love and a
blossom comes from, and Love’s Delicate Blossom is the third romantic suspense in
my Peaches and Dreams series. First, The Lady Fugitive; then Peach Blossom
Rancher. Now Love’s Delicate Blossom. I
do need to tell you I had hoped the book would be out by now, but nearly three
months ago I came down with shingles—after having the immunization! It has been
so painful, making it difficult to work. Hopefully I’m doing the last edits now,
and the pain is finally easing.
LM: You write for teens and adult, fiction and
nonfiction. What do you do differently in your writing to appeal to these very
different audiences?
Ada: My brand is Stick-to-Your-Soul Encouragement, which
has a large reach. My “real job” to make money and put our five children
through college was as a newspaper reporter, mainly for The Pueblo Chieftain in Colorado. I loved my job, but I’ve been
writing for Christian publications since I was 15, so that’s in my blood too
and part of me. But I had fiction stories to tell, the first being Joe the Dreamer: The Castle and the
Catapult, and biblical truths to share. That came out in Swallowed by Life: Mysteries of Death,
Resurrection and the Eternal—which grew from my medical writing and losing
a daughter to cancer. Also since I taught church teens for 30 years, I wrote Imagine the Future You, and Facts, Faith and Propaganda. I have a
total of eight books. The most recent is What
Prayer Can Do, testimonies of how God intervenes and answers prayer.
LM: Research is an important part of writing a book.
What sort of “aha” moment did you had while researching one of your books?
Ada: In
Love’s
Delicate Blossom I discovered what I’ve always known that “Love is dynamite.” meaning it’s similar to the dynamite that will make a tunnel through a
mountain, and can help people ram through their troubles cleanly without
blasting away the whole hillside and hurting others. Yet love is delicate and
should be cared for. Yes, a blossom is delicate and can be killed with just a
little frost—but a blossom also is filled with God-given power to do great
things, and I explain that in the book. It was awesome to discover in my
research that amazing power.
LM: What is your
favorite part of the writing process?
Ada: Creating
characters—even the animals—but especially humorous folks.
LM: Here are some quickies:
Favorite Color:
Fall shades
Favorite authors:
Josh McDowell, Max Lucado, Mark Batterson, Liz Tolsma, Jennifer Hudson Taylor,
Lillian Duncan, and dozens more.
Favorite Food: Green
chili and Tamales made by my great friend, Gloria Vigil.
LM: What is something you wish you knew how to do?
Ada: Computer
design.
LM: What is your next project?
Ada: After
Love’s Delicate Blossom I plan to do short works, fiction and non-fiction, and
more op--ed pieces for newspapers.
LM: Where can folks find you on the web?
Ada:
Twitter: @adellerella
MAGIC IN A BLOSSOM
By Ada Brownell
Ever thought about the DNA in a flower? Or the wonder of love?
In my new book, Love’s Delicate Blossom, being edited now after I was sidelined by the shingles—not those on my roof, but a disease that feels like you’ve had something nailed to your body—I discovered fruit blossoms are much more than pretty flowers. Maybe that’s why bouquets are part of weddings. Here’s what the leading man in the book has to say about blossoms and love. Joe Nichols, explains it to the beautiful redhead, Ritah O’Casey, who has another fellow after her.
They were almost to Aunt Charlotte’s house, and Joe slowed the team to a crawl. He turned his dark-haired head toward Ritah. “The way I figger it—“He paused, looked away and then back to her. “Love is sort of like growing peaches in an orchard. Doesn’t you uncle have a peach ranch?”
She adjusted her pretty hat trimmed with white roses and moved the hat pin a little to hold it atop her head. “Yes. In Colorado. Uncle John and Mama inherited it.”
Ritah wondered where he was going with his thought. “He grows wonderful tree-ripened peaches and it’s the best fruit I’ve ever eaten. It’s so sweet, juicy and wonderful.”
Joe smiled at her, his white even teeth reflecting the evening sun. “That’s what I think love is like. Some of the girls I know are like a sour pie cherry. Others are like a plum, sweet but still a little sour. I’ve gone out with one or two who never laughed, smiled, and I felt after I got home like I’d been eating green apples. Yet peaches aren’t as easy to raise as many other fruits. The blossoms are so delicate it doesn’t take much cool weather to kill them. Real love is something special that must be cared for, like a peach.”
Ritah jerked her head up and blinked at him. “That’s awesome. I’ll have to think on that, and sometime maybe I can tell you why Edmund is in love.”
“Edmund?”
“That’s his name.”
He grinned. “Interesting.”
Then she realized she’d never said she was in love. Her smile flashed back at him and the connection they made with their eyes sent sparks through her.
***
Toward the end of the book Ritah discovers lots more about peach blossoms, and it has to do with the pesky seed.
Hopefully Love’s Delicate Blossom will be published by Sept. 15.
Here’s the summary and links to the other two books in the series, The Lady Fugitive and Peach Blossom Rancher.
Love’s Delicate Blossom Summary:
Ritah Irene O’Casey has three goals: Graduate from college, teach school, and persuade other women to use their brains, talents and ministries. But in 1917 few women attended college and in many districts teachers weren’t allowed to marry. Some women in their Iowa town are throwing their lives away working as prostitutes in the new brothel. Yet, a few don’t even have basic skills for survival as old maids or widows.
Ritah knows the war will make widows of many more women. Too many already sent their children to orphanages when illness, death, or alcohol invade their home.
Ritah believes a woman is as intelligent as a man, and a woman shouldn’t view herself as a slave or a plaything for men. In her mind, women should be respected. First they need to live for God. Then even though they might not have much schooling, they should study like their lives depend on it, because they often do.
The week before Ritah leaves for college, she rescues Tulip, whose parents died of cholera and a man tries to enslave the young lady, only age 14, in prostitution. Ritah finds a feisty widow lady for the gal to live with, but there’s still a mess of trouble.
PEACH BLOSSOM RANCHER, an historical romance
The sequel to The Lady Fugitive; Book 2 in the Peaches and Dreams series.
Suspense, romance, humor, murder, insanity, hope
For Christians who love a great book they feel good about reading.
By Ada Brownell
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 interested in helping patients wrongly held at the asylum.
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?
Ada’s Qualifications to write this book
The author is a journalist who spent a good chunk of her life in the newsroom at The Pueblo Chieftain. She grew up in peach country, knows a little about horses, but more about the mentally ill. The Colorado Mental Health Institute at Pueblo, a former asylum, was on her beat.
Look on Amazon for the first book in the series, The Lady Fugitive
THE LADY FUGITIVE
Jenny takes off on her horse in the middle of the night dressed as a young man to escape abuse from her uncle, a judge. He offers a reward for her return. The judge, who gambled away his home, won’t inherit Jenny’s father’s ranch unless he keeps her until she’s age 21.
William, a peddler who travels around Colorado in a covered wagon showing one of the first Passion of the Christ moving pictures, searches for his brother because their father is near death after being attacked by an enemy.
William saves Jenny when she’s threatened by a rattlesnake in an abandoned house. The two cross paths often. Will they fall in love? Or will William claim the reward when he discovers she’s wanted?
Published by Elk Lake Publishers, a division of Book Club Network.
Available in paper and for Kindle.
Manufacturing quadrupled to nearly two million dollars
by 1944. From Port Arthur to Corpus Christi, a multitude of petrochemical
plants dotted the Gulf Coast, producing millions of gallons of fuel for
military equipment. The Gulf Coast also boast extensive shipyards in Beaumont,
Port Arthur, Houston, Galveston, and Corpus Christi. Aircraft factories went up
in Garland, Grand Prairie, and Fort Worth. The paper and wood-pulp industry was
revitalized. The largest tin smelter in the world was in Texas City, and steel
mills popped up in Houston and Daingerfield. Like many other states, Texas
produced munitions by the truck-load. More than 500,000 Texans (men and women) moved to the
big cities to work in these manufacturing plants to do their bit.
