By
Ada Brownell
I’ve
studied and written about love many times, but writing my historical romance, The Lady Fugitive and Peach Blossom Rancher stretched me some.
After
all, although I wrote some fiction, I spent the majority of my life writing
news and non-fiction. Which of the available people would capture the hearts of
my characters?
As with my own love story, real love usually takes
a while to burst into full bloom.
Truth
is, I wasn’t looking for romance when for some reason I caught the eye of my
future husband. He’s my brother-in-law’s brother and I at almost 15 barely
noticed him, except I knew several girls in our church were crazy about him. He
was handsome, but nearly five years older and working for the railroad.
I was president of the youth group
and busy with summer jobs, school, and ministry. I’d had a couple of dates but
I didn’t like either of the guys much. I didn’t expect romance until I was a
abonafide adult and I thought I’d be mighty lucky if I caught a good guy’s eye
then. After all, a freckled redhead would never have a bunch of handsome
suitors.
I’d noticed L.C. watching me before,
but it was at a Sunday school ice skating party that I knew something was going
on. He had taken skating lessons while in telegraph school in Minneapolis. My
dad found skates at an auction for me and my brother and I spent part of every
winter on frozen ponds and canals.
L.C. and I were about the only ones
at the party who knew how to skate. Others spent their time wobbling on their
blades and drinking hot chocolate around the fire.
This young man began talking to me
as we went around the moon-lit curves in the canal. I wondered why he was
talking to me. Then he asked if he could take me home. Afterward, he asked me
for a date. Flattered, I accepted, but I didn’t expect love. After all, my
sister was engaged five times before she married.
I didn’t know he was smitten and
hunting for a wife.
Was he fooled! I’d taken a beautiful
apple pie to a church dinner. I think he thought I knew how to cook. I was good
at washing dishes, but you can’t eat them.
The first date led to a year of
dating, breaking up, making up, and then a proposal and engagement. But even
then I broke up with him and almost refused to have anything to do with him. He
wanted to tell me what to do. I wanted no part of him bossing me around. Yet,
he persisted and finally we married on my 16th birthday.
We’ve had a wonderful life together, have five
children (all Christians and one in heaven), and have been married 62 years.
I finished high school, later earned
my college degree, and I’ve studied love a long time.
Falling in love is an act of the will.
Cupid doesn’t shoot you with a poison love arrow and “twang!” you’re a goner.
Love happens because of several circumstances.
1. You are around the person of the
opposite sex frequently (that’s called propinquity—what happens when you are
near in time and space).
2. You desire someone in your life.
3. Your God-given instincts are
telling you to create a family.
4. The person will build your ego
5. Because you decide to fall in
love to create excitement in your life.
6. Because no one better is
available.
7. Because you have similar
interests.
8. Because you are lonely.
9. Because someone else thinks it’s
a good idea.
10. Most important: Because while
you were in the womb God had a plan for your lives, and your love is so strong
you feel you can’t live without one another (Psalm 37:23).
Finally, long marriages happen
because you decide to continue to
love one another, obey God’s Word, and honor the vows made before God to
cherish only each other until death—the most romantic words ever spoken.
--copyright Ada Brownell 2016
:
Peach Blossom Rancher
RELEASED BY ELK LAKE PUBLISHING AUG. 1, 2016
Peach Blossom Rancher, an historical romance
Sequel
to The Lady Fugitive; second in Peaches and Dreams
series
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.
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 bootprints are like the person’s who dumped a body in John’s barn. Will
John even marry, or be hanged for the murder?
Paperback also available wherever
books are sold.
Get e-book or paperback on Amazon now at http://amzn.to/2arRVgG
THE LADY FUGITIVE
By Ada Brownell
Released Aug. 1, the sequel to The Lady
Fugitive, The Peach Blossom Rancher
A book the editor says book clubs will
love to discuss.
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. How will they achieve their
dreams?
Published by Elk Lake Publishing, a division of
Book Club Network
Jennifer Louise
Parks escapes from an abusive uncle. Will she avoid the bounty hunters? Can she
forgive the person who turns her in?
Reviewer: The adventures and
mishaps that JL Parks gets into will have you laughing out loud, biting your
nails and perhaps even wishing you had a gun with which to help.
The most common
remarks among readers of The Lady
Fugitive “I couldn’t put it down;” “I love the characters;” “Sorry when it
was over.” “I was hooked from the opening page.”
Available in
paper and for Kindle
The Lady Fugitive 2015 Laurel Award runner-up.
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