IDEAS TO HELP YOU WRITE A REVIEW

By Ada Brownell

IF YOU ENJOYED FOLLOWING THE TRACKS, PLEASE WRITE A REVIEW AND POST IT ON AMAZON AND GOOD READS.

Questions to give you ideas for a review, or to discuss with your book club.

When you read my new non-fiction book, Following the Tracks: Life With the Railroad, what did you expect from such a book?

What caught your interest? The author, the topic, the location, the history, the characters, an expected theme?

How about the first scene? Was the telegraph operator fighting for his life in the first pages relevant to the book?

What did you think of the way telegraphers delivered urgent messages to engineers in the 1950s?

Why were changes necessary that took communication from telegraph to teletype, and then computers and Centralized Traffic Control?

 Why was it necessary to have an agent-telegrapher in depots in every little town and junction along the tracks, even after they quit selling passenger train tickets?

How does CTC work and why has it made so many changes in the railroad operations?

Why would readers cry, laugh, rejoice, and enjoy a book about railroad tracks, trains, and people? Would you still call the book “historical?” Why?

© Ada Brownell

Here’s what one of my endorsers wrote:

My family shared this story with the Brownells, as did many families along the tracks of the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad. As I read Ada’s book, I was moved to tears, laughter, and prayers as the memories and old stories came bubbling up from the past. But it was not only the past that grabbed my attention, it was the assurance that each of us had, has, and will have, the grace of God on our lives no matter what our circumstances. As we follow the tracks with a young bride through the mountains, into the desert, and then to the city, we find proofs that the choice to trust God is never a mistake.  Ada’s concise reporter style makes this an enjoyable, encouraging journey along the tracks.

--Lucretia Smith, Nurse, Educator, and Railroad Family

 You should be able to get the book here:

https://tinyurl.com/y9ky7vn5

Links don't seem to work. Search for

Following the Tracks By Ada Brownell on Amazon

 

  

How I Write Reviews

 How I write reviews

  By Ada Brownell

I’ve reviewed more than 60 books for authors who are members of American Christian Fiction Writers. Besides that, I wrote reviews for non-fiction Christian books for The Denver Post in the 1980s.

When I open a book to read, I usually look to see where it was published. Because I’m a writer, too, I am familiar with a few secular and most Christian publishers so that sometimes tells me what to expect. The publisher’s name often tells me the denomination represented; doctrines; and sometimes even the type of story or premise that will be inside the book’s cover.

Since independent publishing has gained more respect, I don’t frown on an author going with Amazon or other reputable print-on-demand publishers. But I won’t review one from a publisher I know scams authors and doesn’t bother with editing. We used to never review a book done by a “vanity” publisher and a few of those are still around preying on people.

I usually look at the summary, table of contents, and then I critique in my mind as I read. With fiction, I jump into the story and watch to see whether I like the lead character and whether the person has a worthy goal. The minor character doesn’t need to be likeable, but even if he is the villain he needs to be developed enough to make me either like him or hate him early. With non-fiction, I’m looking for a great premise and a fresh way of approaching a significant subject.

The core of my review revolves around whether it is squeaky clean (even non-fiction can have unsuitable language, goals or suggestions) and in fiction I want enough plot to keep me reading.

During the course of working through the book, I take notes, and if I own it, I’ll turn down pages and underline sections I like, don’t like, or don’t understand. Then I’ll make notes in the front of the book giving page numbers and a brief explanation for indexing purposes. If it’s not mine, I make notes on little piece of paper and insert where I have a comment.

Great writers keep me reaching for my pen to write down sentences and phrases I might want to quote in a review. I usually don’t use them because of space limitations, but I might share them with my writers’ group and further advertise a good book.

Yet, there is something else important to me. I’m not looking for perfection. I want to know what the writer did exceptionally well, and I usually find it if I like the book well enough to read it to the end. Most of my reviews are 5-star because I focus on the one thing I can rave about. I don’t review books I can’t give at least a 4-star rating.

I take my notes, sit down to the computer and make myself think about the story and start writing. It’s amazing how fast it usually flows because I narrowed my focus. I never reveal important twists or the ending in a fiction book and no reviewer should.

The important thing is to sit down and write the review. Anybody can do it. Truth is, all you need to do is say, “I enjoyed it!”

I rarely write a review now since I’m cutting back on writing because of my age. Yet I still read, and read, and read.

Here’s my new book, Following the Tracks on my Amazon Author page. https://www.amazon.com/Ada-Brownell/e/B001KJ2C06

 Among others, The Lady Fugitive,  an historical novel; Imagine the Future You,  a motivational Bible study; Joe the Dreamer: The Castle and the Catapult, a suspense novel for middle school up; Confessions of a Pentecostal; and Swallowed by LIFE: Mysteries of Death, Resurrection and the Eternal, a popular Bible study. Purchase the books on Ada’s author page: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001KJ2C06

Ada’s blog: http://www.inkfromanearthenvessel.blogspot.com

HOW TO HELP YOUR CHILDREN GET TO HEAVEN

By Ada Brownell

One of the first things I learned about parenting was that as a child of God, I didn’t have to do it by myself.

God calls others to help. Ephesians 4:10-12 says, “⁰He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fulfill all things.¹¹ And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.”

Our children had great pastors, youth pastors, Sunday school teachers, evangelists, as well as great Christian friends who influenced them in the choice to give their lives and talents to Christ.

To help your children make the choice to “go to heaven” here are a few things my husband and I did when they were young.

·       Attend a full gospel church where the gospel is preached and rightly divided. Full gospel churches usually teach salvation comes only when we believe Jesus died for our sins, and resurrected on the third day. Full gospel churches believe in the divine inspiration of the Bible as God’s Word, the baptism in the Holy Spirit with the evidence of supernatural speaking in other tongues. They also believe in Divine Healing, the Catching away of the church in the rapture, and the Second Coming of Jesus.

·        Scriptures for you to share: “If thou will confess the Lord Jesus and believe in thine heart that God raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved” (Romans 10:9). “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

Another: “But you will receive power after the Holy Ghost has come upon you. And you shall be witnesses unto me …” (Acts 1:8). “And while they watched, he was taken up and a cloud received him out of their sight. .. While they looked steadfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold two men stood by them in white apparel who also said, ‘This same Jesus who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you have seen him go into heaven” (Acts 1:9-11).

·       Become a student of the Word of God, the Bible yourself. “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. But shun profane and vain babblings: for they will increase unto more ungodliness. (2 Timothy 2:15-16).

·       Teach them to become students of the Word. “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness” (2 Timothy 3:16)

Hopefully your church has programs for youth like Royal Rangers, Missionettes, Bible Quiz, Talent contests, and services where young people can use their talents and ministries.

·       Watch who their heroes are. Expose them to great people—Bible characters and adults as well as teens who are living for God.

·       Go to missions services. When they’re just forming opinions and finding people to “worship” let them know the difference between fantasy, fiction, reality, and history. They may adore Spiderman and Star Wars characters, but they should understand they don’t exist, and when God enabled David to kill Goliath, David wasn’t a vegetable from Veggie Tales, he was a real person who lived, loved God and did great things in His name.

The three young Hebrews who survived the fiery furnace after refusing to bow down to the king, were real people like you, but God was there to protect them.

* Teach your children God loved them from the beginning of their lives. “I knew you before I formed you in your mother’s womb” (Jeremiah 1:5).

However, when Jesus was born as a baby in Bethlehem, he was different from any other baby because he is God’s son. Jesus was in heaven before he came to earth. Jesus was there when the world and people were created. Jesus, God’s only Son; and the Holy Spirit were there in the beginning. “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth” (Genesis 1:26).

 Buy them great books that support your values, and if your child is in a public school, survey assigned books, which sometimes can be X-rated and ask for a substitute. If your student is required to study propaganda and false doctrine, survey it and teach your child why you don’t believe that. Don’t be afraid to approach a teacher, a principal or a superintendent of schools with your protests, and do it in writing. Yet be Christ-like not only as a witness to the educator, but also to your child.

Always ask for them to be excused from sex education classes, but teach them from the curriculum of a Christian School. Ask homeschoolers and Christian school workers for recommendations. Abeka has online Christian texts.

WILL YOUR CHILDREN GO TO HEAVEN?

By Ada Brownell

When I became a parent of a darling little boy, two big goals crossed my mind—I wanted my child to be healthy physically, and even when he was tiny, I wanted him to know God loves him, and to love the Lord back so he can make heaven his home.

Later, I would be the mother of five sweet adorable children and wanted the same goals for all of them. Praise the Lord all five our children, their spouses, and I pray their children all have repented of their sins and made Jesus Lord of their lives.

What a comfort it has been when cancer stole away our oldest daughter, Carolyn, she was serving the Lord and she went to heaven talking to her Savior and singing praises to him in her heart.

I was fortunate enough to grow up in a full gospel church that had Bible preaching pastors who knew how to rightly divide “the Word of truth,” and other teachers did the same.

It was in the Beginners’ class where any child under school age could come, that I began to learn about God. “Sister McPherson” was my teacher, and right off, I knew a secret. We sang “Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so,” and that was good news to me. The teacher also talked about God’s love and she was so excited about it.

You see, I barged into my family, becoming the fifth girl and eighth child and my siblings weren’t excited about another baby. They’d been beat up by the Kansas Dust Bowl and the Great Depression, and my oldest sister, Marjorie, was so mad about bringing another kid into the house she wouldn’t even look at me for a week.

Later, the family told me about it and thought it was funny. I didn’t. I always felt I didn’t deserve to be there. So someone loving me warmed me all over, and I loved Jesus right off.

Then something happened to our family. They had just moved to Colorado, and Marjorie’s new friend invited her to the little white church on a corner in the middle of Fruita. Marjorie accepted Jesus as her Savior, and changed into the most joyful, loving person in the family. My mom and the older children knew about Jesus, but they went further than that and invited the Lord into their lives. Our house was full of love and joyful singing about the Lord and his love.

I understood before long that when you live for Jesus you’ll live forever. I also discovered by listening to preaching that when I asked Jesus, he saved me from my sins, hell and Satan’s devices. I knew at an early age, "For God so loved the world that he that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him will not perish, but have eternal life (John 3:16).

So I wanted my children to know God the way I did. As the other children were born, they also filled our house with joy and music. Yet I knew going to heaven doesn’t happen just because you go to church and have a Christian family. God expected each of us to decide ourselves to give our lives to Christ. He doesn’t force us. I can’t force it on my children. They must make their own decision. Anyone who listened to Billy Graham knows you “make a decision to follow Jesus” and then when you repent and accept him as Savior, you’re born again—a new creation in Christ Jesus!

Do your children understand salvation—how you are saved from sin, hell, and given eternal life? Ask them! God has no grandchildren. He’s merciful and loving, but will He reward your sons and daughters for rebellion, and refusing to obey His word? Ignoring His knock on their heart’s door, or slamming the door in His face?

Yes there is grace. Grace is what Jesus thought about when He willingly went to the cross, suffered unbearable pain, embarrassment, and agony of rejection by the people he came to save from hell and death. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:16).

 But the same Lord who provided a way of escape from death and judgment, also said, “And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the Book of Life: And the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works .And whosoever was not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire” (Revelation 20:12,15).
Yet it is not our works on earth that save us. It is work of loving God, accepting Jesus as our Savior, turning from sin, and to living for Jesus.

Titus 3:5

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.

No matter how much they’ve gone to church, we need to tell our children and grandchildren Jesus is the only way to Heaven, and when we accept Him as Lord, our name is written down in Glory--in the Book of Life.

NEXT ON THIS BLOG, I'LL HAVE A LIST OF THINGS TO DO AND TELL YOUR CHILDREN SO HOPEFULLY THEY'LL CHOOSE TO FOLLOW JESUS AND GO TO LIVE IN THE PLACE JESUS PREPARES FOR THOSE WHO CHOOSE TO ACCEPT HIS SACRIFICE. WHEN HE LEFT EARTH HE SAID, "I GO TO PREPARE A PLACE FOR YOU...I WILL COME AGAIN AND RECEIVE YOU TO MYSELF, THAT WHERE I AM, THERE YOU MAY BE ALSO" --(John 14:2,3).

Following the Tracks

By Ada Brownell Here is the summary:

Ever wondered how trains going different directions on the same track arrive safely at the destination despite rock slides, derailments, and other hazards?

How in the era before Centralized Traffic Control railroad employees communicated and prevented accidents?

Following the Tracks is a true story of a young couple who enjoyed the challenges of a career with the D&RGW Railroad. Lester C. Brownell was age eighteen when he started working for the Rio Grande, after earning a certificate from Gale Institute’s telegraph school in Minneapolis.

But an unknown stomach ulcer ready to rupture worked on his insides, and he didn’t even notice when he stood beside the rails, his pants flapping in the breeze, meeting a train going 50 miles an hour. With a Y-stick in his hand, he delivered urgent paper telegraph messages to the engineer.

When he married Ada Belle Nicholson, she became the support and companion he needed. With the Lord’s help, after they married in 1953, together they conquered challenges of moving twelve times the first three of their 66 years, finding places to live in the desert or snowy mountains, and making a boxcar, a depot, and shacks into homes.

Enjoy the history, the humor, the romance, the suspense, the rewarded faith—a true story.

https://tinyurl.com/y9ky7vn5

Working With Soldiers During a Pandemic in 1917

Danger from war, a pandemic, and a wicked man spurned in love

By Ada Nicholson Brownell

Mama had spunk to match her beautiful long red hair.

When I arrived, she already had her heart full with my daddy and other seven siblings, but I squeezed right in anyway. Mama had a year of college, unusual for a woman born in 1900, and she had a purpose in life. She survived the 1918 flu pandemic that killed millions in the world including her beloved brother, married Daddy when he said it was either him “or the other guy,” went through the Kansas Dust Bowl, the Great Depression, the resulting poverty, and other huge trials. I was fascinated by her stories of my parents’ loving romance, and how God’s intervention in our lives kept the house full of joy and singing.

So I created a fictional character to live Mama’s life and find a way to get through what she did, and to come out like a peach blossom covered with dew, which is much more than meets the eye.

Love’s Delicate Blossom, an historical suspense

By Ada Brownell

Third in the Peaches and Dreams series

Edmund Pritchett III wants to marry Ritah Irene O’Casey, but his intended has just begun her fight for the future. The beautiful redhead stands between Henry Hunter and Tulip, the orphan girl he kidnapped to work in his brothel, and he’s not giving up.

Excited about being one of the few women to go to college in 1917, Ritah hopes to become a teacher who can help widows keep their children when something happens to their husbands. She also wants to enable mothers to know more about prevention and treatment of disease, in an era when few have access to a doctor. Instead, she ends up fighting for the lives of injured soldiers in a WW I Army health clinic, and finds her own life threatened by illness as well as sorrow.

When Ritah takes a teaching job, Joe Nichols, a handsome farmer, edges his way into her heart. But Edmund Pritchett III isn’t giving up, and neither is Henry Hunter.

Will Rita be able to continue to fight for women and families, understand enduring love, decide on the man she loves, and defend herself and her students when Henry Hunter bursts into the school shooting a pistol?

COMMENT FROM A READER: Your book set a tone and world from your grandmother’s time, the historical elements are what readers read the genre for.

Buy Here: http://ow.ly/PKJ130mP2I7

BIO

Ada Brownell blogs and writes with Stick-to-Your-Soul Encouragement. She is the author of nine books, more than 350 stories and articles in Christian publications, and she spent a large chunk of her life as a journalist, mostly for The Pueblo Chieftain in Colorado. She and her husband L.C., have five children, one of them in heaven, eight wonderful grandchildren. and three great-grandchildren.

Her book, The Lady Fugitive, the first book in the Peaches and Dreams series was a finalist for the 2015 Laurel Award.

Amazon author Page: https://www.amazon.com/author/adabrownell

Ada Brownell's blog: http://www.inkfromanearthenvessel.blogspot.com



Look for her new book, Following the Tracks: Life with the Railroad – COMING SOON on Amazon and maybe online from Barnesandnoble.com. Two of her books Swallowed by Life and Imagine the Future You are available for order and store pickup from Barnesandnoble.com

SOMEONE FOR KIDS TO LATCH ONTO

By Ada Brownell

      “The police came last night to our house to get Daddy,” the little boy announced. “He hid in the back on the shelf in the closet and they didn’t find him!”
      His eyes sparkled with triumph.
      The report came during our opening moments at the Dunamis Academy, an after-school and summers program where I heard similar stories. Dunamis means supernatural power.
       I started the program at our church daycare after retirement so kids to latch onto Jesus.. A number of the elementary children in the class were Social Services children who didn’t attend our church.[1]        When I had the idea for the after-school program, I was concerned about latch-key children because I’d written about them in my work as a daily newspaper reporter. I prayed about it and thought God would raise up a  someone with the vision to use the church’s empty space during the week to reach youngsters who needed the gospel, and also bring the congregation’s children into deeper knowledge of the Word, and tutoring children not doing well in school. I hoped spiritually mature teenagers and other volunteers would help.
      Then I spoke to the daycare director and she also caught the vision because the older children already enrolled in the daycare after-school-and- summers needed something constructive to do.
      The first summer the director taught the lower grades and I took upper elementary and a few junior high youth. We continued the program after school and summer for two years. We charged a nominal fee to children not enrolled in day care. There was no charge to students already enrolled.
      Summers for three hours Monday through Thursday we sang, prayed, played, studied Bible stories, memorized scripture, did skits, saw object lessons, participated in discussion, listened to guest speakers, did crafts and learned how to operate puppets in ministry (the children’s pastor taught puppetry).  Daycare children stayed for a leisurely afternoon.
       Because we were only 40 miles away, on Fridays we went on all-day field trips to ministries in Colorado Springs to show children some of the ministries for which they could prepare. We watched a Christian radio missionary who was broadcasting the gospel around the world. We visited Focus on the Family. At David C. Cook we saw how artists create illustrations for their publications. We visited the Navigator’s castle and others. The next year we visited soup kitchens, homeless shelters and other charities in our city, Pueblo, Colo.
      We had guest speakers for the older children, two I’d like to mention. The guest teenager emigrated from Africa, and told about the differences in freedoms between there and America.  She also taught a song in Swahili: “Hold on to Jesus.”  The other guest was a public high school teacher who taught about preparing for your future, and that included through playing a game called “Virus X” that taught how quickly sexually transmitted diseases spread.
      According to the last statistics I gathered at that time, five million elementary-age U.S. children grow up with no supervision after school. Twenty-two million adolescents are unsupervised between 3 and 6 p.m. on a typical day, according to the U.S. Department of Health’s Child Care Bureau.
      That happens while thousands of large church buildings are unoccupied except for a few people working in the office.
      Large numbers of America’s youth have never heard the gospel. The church is losing young people to secularism.  Some churches have eliminated Christian education, thereby carelessly dropping their sterling silver youth down the garbage disposal. Churches that emphasize discipleship often have only a small percentage of children and youth receiving training.
      The first summer of the Dunamis Academy, the two daycare assistants in my classes put the date they accepted Jesus as Savior during that time. Most of the children and youth also invited Jesus into their hearts.
      I wrote my own curriculum, Dynamite Decisions for Youth, and that plus teaching was a great deal of work, But sharing the gospel to those young people was an amazing spiritual reward. If I were young again, I’d love to help establish more programs like it.
      One note I’d like to add. Quite a few churches have after-school programs, but the ones I’ve seen don’t emphasize the gospel. We informed parents we would teach undenominational Bible classes and had them sign their permission. We didn’t have one parent opt out. In fact, we had great feedback, with parents coming to awards ceremonies.
      I imagine they were like my dad when our family started going to church. He told Mama, “Let them go. I heard they teach children to obey their parents.”
       

     
     

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[1] Social Services ended that program, which required children from at-risk families to have supervision when their parents weren’t home.