Thursday, July 28, 2016

WORTH FORGIVING








Now available for preorder:


WORTH FORGIVING

By Janet K. Brown



Prejudice and mistrust hinders an ex-con, drug addict’s new beginning.



The state of Texas releases from prison Katie Smith. Full of optimism, she sets out to get a job, rent her own place, and make a home for her eight-year-old daughter, but Katie gave away her daughter three years ago. She could use a friend, but her past choices threaten to doom her to continued failure.



Larry Pullman graduated from seminary with high marks, but the fact that he has no wife makes finding a preaching job almost impossible. It doesn’t help that running from God as a teenager gave him a past that he can’t undo. All he needs is an ex-con, drug addict messing up his life, but then why did God lead him to her? Or did He?



Isn’t it enough that Lacey Chandler gave her sister’s daughter a home? Does that mean she has to clean up Katie’s messes forever?



Could Katie be not Worth Forgiving?

Tuesday, July 26, 2016

WHY WRITE A NOVEL? BIRTH OF PEACH BLOSSOM RANCHER




 


By Ada Brownell



When I completed The Lady Fugitive some important stories had not been told.

How about Jennifer Louise Parks’ friend Roberta Bellea Peabody, who had been assaulted by her employer’s son and left bruised and the sheriff would do nothing about it? This girl’s plight was mentioned in the first chapter and was one of the reasons Jenny became a fugitive. Jenny feared her physically abusive uncle who stared at her with lust in her eyes and doubted her aunt would believe her. So she ran away in the middle of the night scared of being left alone with him.

She is found in John Parks’ barn about to give birth to the rapist’s son in the first chapter of Peach Blossom Rancher. Bellea becomes a significant character.

John Parks is Jenny’s twin brother and after his uncle is murdered in The Lady Fugitive, in Book Two of The Peaches and Dreams series, he inherits the neglected peach and horse ranch. He doesn’t have much money, but he has spunk and determination.

Polly, the black cook from the first book, is a vital part of Peach Blossom Rancher and her husband, Abe, has returned after going elsewhere in an effort to make enough money for him and wife to get out on their own and away from the judge. But they enjoy working for John, so they stay and bless him and everyone else they meet. Well, except Wellington Davenport, the rapist, who finds Polly a formidable foe when he tries to get his baby for his wealthy mother to raise. But eventually Polly blesses him too.

Stuart, the young orphan who adds humor and fun to The Lady Fugitive when he latches on to Jenny and William is adopted by them and he spends the summer with John, his uncle, on the peach and horse ranch. The kid brightens up almost every scene he barges into.

Valerie MacDougal, the beautiful widow who lived on the homestead near Yucca Blossom and gave it to Jenny, sweeps into John Parks life in the second book. He walked her down the aisle during Jenny’s wedding and he can’t forget her. He’s wanting a wife and there is no one like Valerie, who also is an attorney. Valerie’s doing great things with her life, too. Living now in Boston with her parents, she writes to John, and they have an unspoken understanding. But she hasn’t cast aside her mourning clothes, although she’s joined her father’s law practice and is trying to get a doctor who had one seizure released from the state asylum.

John Parks has another problem in the second book. A neighbor gal, Edwina Jorgenson who is running her crippled father’s ranch, has had a crush on John since grade school and she makes a pest of herself. But John has to help her once in a while. A peeper is looking in her windows at night and he wears boots with a heel identical to those worn by the person who dumped a dead body in John’s barn.

You need to read Peach Blossom Rancher to see what happens.

In contrast to The Lady Fugitive, where the first daft was completed in about six weeks, Peach Blossom Rancher took nearly a year to write. Enjoy!










Monday, July 18, 2016

Troubled? Worried? Have you lost hope?




By Tamera Lynn Kraft






We all hope for things. If our flowers need watering, we hope it will rain. If we have a picnic scheduled, we hope it will be sunny. We all hope life will be easy. Hope in the Bible is different than this kind of hope of wishing something would happen or wanting something.



What is Hope?



In the New Testament, the word hope is translated from the word elpizo. Elpizo means confidently trusting in and waiting for something or someone. The book of Hebrews calls it an anchor for our souls.



Hebrews 16:19-20 (NIV) We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, where our forerunner, Jesus, has entered on our behalf…



What is Our Hope Built On?



The old hymn says “Our hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.” That pretty much sums it up. Our hope is built on the fact that Jesus Christ, the Son of God came to Earth to die on the cross for our sins, to rise from the grave in victory, and to ascend to Heaven. We also confidently hope that He is one day coming again.



Romans 5:2 (ESV) Through him, we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.



Hope in Christ Brings Peace and Joy



When our hope is in Christ instead of in our circumstances, that kind of confident expectation bring us a peace the world can’t understand and a joy that doesn’t depend on everything happening exactly right. We can rely upon Christ to work things out for our good. That relieves us of the pressure to fix things we can’t fix.



Romans 15:13 (ESV) May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.



In my soon to be released novella, Resurrection of Hope, Vivian visits a friend named Hope who has just lost a child and was told she couldn’t have children. Here’s a short excerpt from that scene.



Vivian swallowed. "I… I don't know what to say. I expected to find you distraught after what happened, but you seem to be… almost cheerful."



Hope's eyes closed and her head tilted back into the pillow. "I have my moments. Trust me." She opened her eyes and smiled. "I keep my hope in Jesus Christ, and He gives me the peace I need to get through this."



Vivian held back a snort. "How can you of all people talk of hope knowing you'll never have any children?"



Hope pressed her lips together as she propped herself up on her pillow. "If my hope rested on having children, then you're right. There would be no reason, but my hope is the kind they talk about in Psalms. 'But now, Lord, what do I look for? My hope is in you.'"



Book Blurb:

Resurrection of Hope

She thought he was her knight in shining armor, but will a marriage of convenience prove her wrong?

After Vivian’s fiancĂ© dies in the Great War, she thinks her life is over. But Henry, her fiancĂ©’s best friend, comes to the rescue offering a marriage of convenience. He claims he promised his friend he would take care of her. She grows to love him, but she knows it will never work because he never shows any love for her.

Henry adores Vivian and has pledged to take care of her, but he won’t risk their friendship by letting her know. She’s still in love with the man who died in the Great War. He won’t risk heartache by revealing his true emotions.

Resurrection of Hope is available at these online stores:


Bio: (for shorter bio, use only first paragraph)

Tamera Lynn Kraft has always loved adventures. She loves to write historical fiction set in the United States because there are so many stories in American history. There are strong elements of faith, romance, suspense and adventure in her stories. She has received 2nd place in the NOCW contest, 3rd place TARA writer’s contest, and is a finalist in the Frasier Writing Contest and has other novellas in print. She’s been married for 37 years to the love of her life, Rick, and has two married adult children and two grandchildren.

Tamera has been a children’s pastor for over 20 years. She is the leader of a ministry called Revival Fire For Kids where she mentors other children’s leaders, teaches workshops, and is a children’s ministry consultant and children’s evangelist and has written children’s church curriculum. She is a recipient of the 2007 National Children’s Leaders Association Shepherd’s Cup for lifetime achievement in children’s ministry.

You can contact Tamera on her website at http://tameralynnkraft.net



You can contact Tamera online at these sites.


Word Sharpeners Blog: http://tameralynnkraft.com














Wednesday, July 13, 2016

What do you know about epilepsy? A significant part of this book,




By Ada Brownell



In my soon-to-be released book, Peach Blossom Rancher, one significant character is a medical doctor who had a seizure after a head injury. Dr. Dillon Haskill has been in the state asylum four years. He’s housed in a crowded ward, but he helps James Cook, a teacher, sent to the asylum because he’s paralyzed, and Pete, a young boy with Down’s Syndrome who often is abused by other patients.

In the early 1900s people like these three were thought to be imbeciles or demon possessed.

The only time I’ve seen a person have a seizure was during a high school graduation. The newspaper I worked for published reports on Graduation ceremonies, including snippets of the valedictorian’s speech.

A shrill scream pieced the air, and several people ran to the girl, dressed in a graduation gown. I wasn’t close, but from where I stood, a reporter for The Pueblo Chieftain, I saw her become rigid, shudder and shake violently. She appeared unconscious.

The people around her, I think paramedics, two or three on each side, picked her up and carried her out, and in only minutes all was quiet and the celebration continued as if nothing happened.

Later, someone told me the school prepared for such an event. Sometimes the girl’s seizures were triggered by excitement.

I’ve known parents who had a child plagued by seizures, and they could tell in advance when one was coming on and they’d take the person to a private area, and in a fairly short time it was over.

The seizures began in one of the young men I knew when he had a high sustained fever as an infant, which caused brain damage. Doctors then often called what happened convulsions.

Throughout history seizures were not well understood. Even in the early 20th Century people afflicted by  convulsions were often thought to be demon possessed. Then it was thought to be a form of insanity.

In 400 B.C. Hippocrates, the father of medicine, offered another view of epilepsy, that it was just another natural disease and could be treated through natural methods.

In a report from the psychology department of North Dakota State University, Robert Bentley Todd in 1849 was the first to present the electrical theory of epilepsy. John Hughlings Jackson in 1873, however, is credited for devising the theory. When Hans Berger invented the electroencephalogram in the 1930s, during an epileptic seizure the EEG showed the problem originated in the brain and was electrical.

Drugs were developed and over the decades a number of effective treatments became available, including surgical removal of a damaged section of the brain, and today even a device similar to a heart pacemaker sometimes helps.

I learned about epilepsy and the different treatments as a medical reporter. But another thing I learned is that epilepsy is a specific condition and seizures can be caused by other problems such as brain tumors and other events.

I interviewed a Christian psychiatrist about the difference between mental illness and demon possession in his patients.

“It’s sometime difficult to determine the difference,” he said. “But I pray for them all.“

The bottom line seemed to be that mental illness and seizures are a physical problem that occurs in the brain, while demon possession is a spiritual problem.

I think you will enjoy Peach Blossom Rancher.



Here’s the book summary:

NEW RANCHER SUMMARY



The Peach Blossom Rancher, an historical romance


Sequel to The Lady Fugitive, second in Peaches and Dreams series




By Ada Brownell




A handsome young man with a ranch in ruin and a brilliant doctor 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.

Will John marry Valerie or Edwina Jorgenson, the feisty rancher-neighbor who he constantly fusses with? This neighbor who 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?

Look for the release July 2016 by http://www.elklakepublishing.com

Also available on Amazon







           


Wednesday, July 6, 2016

A Child's Salvation: I Want to Tell Him One More Thing







By Ada Brownell



“I want Jesus to come into my heart,” my 5-year-old daughter announced after she’d said her nightly prayers.

Now that Carolyn is in heaven, I love the memories of precious times like that. She was a special child, but all of our five children are special in their own unique ways. Carolyn had perfect pitch, which we didn’t recognize until she was nine years old.  When she was 3 years old she picked out “Jesus Loves Me” on a little toy piano similar to Schroeder’s in the Peanuts cartoon.

By the time she was seven or eight, Carolyn was playing difficult Bach and Beethoven music. She wasn’t much older when she began accompanying her older brother when he played trumpet solos. Then in her teens, she became pianist for a gospel group in which I sang. She exactly copied professionals who accompanied groups that sang the music we used. She’d sit down on the floor, listen to a recording, take a few notes, and was ready.

She played the piano for our church choir while she was in high school. One of her big accomplishments and great moments was Denver churches’ If My People event in honor of our nation’s 200th birthday in 1976. A mass choir from many denominations sang, and she was accompanist. The event was held in Red Rocks Amphitheater near Denver that seats 10,000 people--and it was packed.

Carolyn, still a teenager, had another couple of exciting events at Red Rocks. She was a fan of the gospel pianist Dino Kartsonakis, and he was on stage where she prepared for choir practice at the biannual General Council of the Assemblies of God.


It was hot in the amphitheater and we’d brought an ice chest of snacks and she had a large cup of ice.


“Where did you get your ice?” he asked.


“My family brought it. I’ll get you some.”


At the same event, the piano hadn’t been delivered to the Red Rocks stage. Composer/arranger Ralph Carmichael asked if anyone in the choir had perfect pitch so they could practice without accompaniment. Carolyn didn’t volunteer. She didn’t like to flaunt her talent, but her friends told.

So she hummed on the needed note. The people near her picked it up and hummed, and soon everyone in the choir had the pitch, just as if someone had brought a pitch pipe. They practiced with no problem and I’m sure Carmichael—and Carolyn—were happy the piano arrived in time for the service.

A few weeks later Carmichael sent her a big packet of autographed music in the mail and a note thanking her for giving the pitches.

I was all excited and when we walked into the house after the celebration. I told everybody, “Carolyn shared her ice with Dino and gave the pitches to Ralph Carmichael!”

Carolyn said, “It wasn’t like that.”

“No?” I asked, confused.

“Well, it’s just that you’re so dramatic!”

She could tell you what note a vacuum sweeper hummed on, the washer motor’s pitch, and fill bottles with varying amounts of water and play a tune on them.


Her great sense of humor often set me back. Since she was the oldest daughter, I often asked her opinion.

“What do you think of this?” I handed her an article I planned to submit to a Christian magazine that I’d pounded out that day on my typewriter. It was in rough form. I wasn’t much of a typist.

Carolyn proceeded to read all my typos aloud, creating words no one heard before or since, and then she laughed so hard she rolled on the floor with the mirth. I had to smile. So much for her opinion on my piece.

It probably was about that time that Carolyn started the trend to pronounce words backward. I couldn’t do it, but the other children picked it up and did it, too. I guess since I spoke Pig Latin, they did me one better.

Another time I asked her opinion when I spoke at a women’s special event she attended.

“Did I do okay?” I asked.

“You know, Mom,” she said, grinning and touching her neck. “When you talk, you have this little double chin right here that wiggles every time you open your mouth.”

I really miss those humorous jabs now. Although she never told me, I heard later from people she worked with in a publishing house how proud she was of my writing. Even her friends, some that I’ve met recently, said she bragged on me.

As any parent is of their children, I was proud of her.

Our family revolved around Carolyn because of her caring spirit and her humor. She babysat the younger children often while I was transporting a child to an allergy shot or other appointment. I had surgery not long after Jeanette was born, and she was as comfortable with Carolyn as she was with me. They had a close bond.

We missed Carolyn being so far away when she attended college in California and married a classmate whose home was in San Jose.

Seven years later she was diagnosed with Burkitt’s Lymphoma, an aggressive form of cancer. In only two months she was gone.

The previous day she prayed with us and sang from her bed and went to heaven peacefully. She had listened to gospel music in her hours at home alone when she was dismissed for a short time from the hospital between treatments. “It is Well With My Soul,” by Sandi Patti was among her favorites that filled the house and her heart. That was in 1990.

Her spiritual journey with the Lord began on her knees at age 5, when she asked Jesus into her heart as I knelt next to her beside her bed. Afterward, she jumped under the covers and I kissed her goodnight.

“Oh,” she said, throwing the blankets aside and kneeling again. “I want to tell Him one more thing.”

Amazing that even a child can have intimacy with God, and continue the relationship throughout life and for eternity. I’m looking forward to a grand reunion!
Copyright Ada Brownell 2016

Note: I share some of Carolyn's story in my book Swallowed by Life





Shorter swallowed summary

Peter wrote, "For we did not follow cunningly devised fables...but were eyewitnesses of his majesty." (2 Peter 1:16).

Jesus is alive!



SWALLOWED BY LIFE: Mysteries of Death, Resurrection and the Eternal

By Ada Brownell

Do you believe you could live with someone else’s heart or kidneys, but not without your body? Evidence shows we’re more than flesh. The author, a prolific religion writer and retired medical journalist, talks about the evidence; the wonder of life with all its electrical systems; the awesome truth about cell death and regeneration; mysteries surrounding the change from mortal to immortal; where we go when our body dies; resurrection; and a glimpse at what we will do in heaven. Questions and answers make this non-fiction inspirational book a great text for group study. It’s written for support groups, religion classes, people with chronic or terminal illness, individuals who fear death or are curious about it, the grieving, and those who give them counsel.

Review: “It was wonderful how the author merged the medical with the spiritual.”