Ada Brownell grew up in the peach country of Colorado. The youngest of eight children, she began writing at age fifteen.
As a freelance writer, Ada has sold stories and articles to forty-five publications. She also worked as a news reporter, mostly at The Pueblo Chieftain, for seventeen years. She is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers.
Ada and her husband have five children—one in heaven. Her book Swallowed by Life was inspired by her daughter’s death. The Lady Fugitive is her fifth book.
Let’s talk about The Lady Fugitive (Elk Lake Publishing, July 2014). Please tell us about it.
The day Jenny Louise Parks escapes from her uncle’s razor strap and lustful eyes, she takes off on her horse and tries to go to her brother. Her face soon appears on Wanted Posters in every community she visits. Her uncle wants her back because he won’t inherit her parents’ ranch unless he keeps her until she’s twenty-one. Dressed as a man, Jenny meets a handsome peddler, William O’Casey, who recognizes her from her singing and elocuation performances at the Opera House in Peachville, Colorado. There’s a hint of romance, but she’s hunting a safe place to live and he’s peddling household goods and showing a Passion of the Christ moving picture show. He’s also looking for his brother.
Still disguising her identity, Jenny ends up running a farm with a collection of ornery critters for a homesteader where the woman rushes off to Boston to give birth. Her husband’s death is suspicious.
William has to drop everything and go back to Iowa where his father was attacked and murdered.
Will Jenny avoid the bounty hunters? Can she forgive the person who turns her in? Will she find peace, joy and love?
What was the inspiration for the story?
I long dreamed of writing this novel. The idea came from what I was told about my maternal grandparents. My grandmother was an elocutionist who performed her original poems and songs on stage in Colorado as a teenager in the late 1800s. Some relatives tell me she had to flee when she lived with an uncle, a judge. I never met my grandfather, but he traveled about the country in his youth showing one of the first Passion of the Christ moving picture shows created. My brother has the reel. Like William in this story, Grandpa’s father was murdered.
Yet, The Lady Fugitive isn’t based on my grandparents. It’s a love story between Jenny and William who experience trouble, heartache, but discover love and God’s blessings.
You’ve written a lot of non-fiction and some children’s fiction in the past. Is this your first adult fiction book?
I have a novel, Joe the Dreamer: The Castle and the Catapult, originally written for teens but read by many adults. My prior fiction writing was for Sunday school papers, but I’ve been writing for years and sold my work to forty-five different Christian publications and worked as a journalist a good hunk of my life. I have five books on Amazon, and chapters in several others.
In the story, Jenny experiences a number of detours. Meeting William was, perhaps, divine—and a detour that taught her about God’s love. Please tell us about a recent “detour” in your life that taught you something.
One of the biggest detours was after retiring when I took a part-time job, office work and public relations, about five years ago. I thought it would be nice to be out of the house sometimes and make a little extra money. The offer came to increase my hours to full time and I wasn’t interested. I went on vacation and discovered someone was hired to take my place.
Had I stayed there, my last four books wouldn’t exist, and yet God used that job to help me. There I had to update the website often, and I learned enough to gain confidence to create my own website/blog and also make my out-of-print book published in 1978 by the Assemblies of God into an e-book. I was given rights to the book to do that.
I’ve been writing furiously almost since losing that job. Before, I’d been discouraged because I didn’t enjoy many of the assignments editors gave me. I needed the jump start I got from working those several months to dig in and complete things I dreamed of doing. Books were published in 2011, 2012, 2013, using Amazon editors and cover designers—Imagine the Future You; Swallowed by Life: Mysteries of Death, Resurrection and the Eternal; Joe the Dreamer: The Castle and the Catapult. The Lady Fugitive was released by Elk Lake Publishers on July 18, 2014. My Amazon Author Page.
A few fun questions…
What’s the title of the last GREAT book you’ve read?
Non-fiction: I’m re-reading Into All Truth by Stanley Horton. Fiction: I’ll Cross the River by C. Hope Flinchbaugh.
What’s your current favorite song on the radio or your mp3 player?
O, the Blood of the Lamb
What verse or story in the Bible best describes your faith journey?
Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost. ~ Titus 3:5
Thank you, Ada! It’s nice to have you back at DivineDetour.
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For more information about Ada, visit her website.
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Thank you Kathy for inviting me to be your guest! God bless you and your followers.
Ada, it’s a pleasure to have you back again!