INTERVIEW WITH ADA BROWNELL

Connie Stevens, Author

Today, we’re chatting with Ada Brownell, multi-published author of several non-fiction books, and long-time journalist.

ADA BROWNELL is the author of Swallowed by LIFE: Mysteries of Death, Resurrection and the Eternal, and Confessions of a Pentecostal (Gospel Publishing House, out of print but recently released as an e-book, and the soon-to-be released teen novel, Joe the Dreamer: The Castle and the Catapult. She has been writing for Christian publications since age 15 and sold approximately 275 articles and fiction stories to 45 Christian magazines. She also is a retired journalist from The Pueblo Chieftain in Colorado. She and her husband, Lester, have five children—one of them in heaven.

Where to find Ada:
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/#!/AdaBrownellWritingMinistries
Twitter: @adellerella
Blog:
http://inkfromanearthenvessel.blogspot.com

I normally feature fiction authors on my website, but Ada writes both fiction and non-fiction, and brings a wealth of experience to the table.  In addition, Ada and I share something in common–we both have a child in heaven and are intimately acquainted with that special kind of grief. Let’s take a few minutes to probe some of the circumstances of writing about painful topics through the eyes of Ada Brownell:

Do you have any favorite or unique ways of coming up with book ideas? Think. Watch. Listen. Remember. Read.

Some writers love research. Others, not so much. How do you approach research? My latest book, Swallowed by LIFE: Mysteries of Death, Resurrection and the Eternal, is a non-fiction book, and non-fiction requires research. I gathered facts for several years, but also learned so much with my job and received handouts about related subjects, that I could have written three or four books. But fresh research in the Bible was necessary, too. At first I went through the New Testament and underlined every scripture that had to do with eternal life. Biblegateway.com is a quick way to find the exact wording and reference to scriptures. But for this book I also picked brains on my medical beat. I imagine this will surprise you, but deep thinking also is research. What is obvious  about our bodies that show we’re more than flesh? Some of that evidence is so simple, but we don’t notice. I also do research for my novels.

Has anything you’ve found during the research process caused you to make major changes in your book?  Medical knowledge is quickly outdated, so I needed to check sources before going to publication and Swallowed by Life includes medical facts that show we’re more than a body. The main research I needed to update the continuous cell death and regeneration that shows our bodies are constantly dying and being renewed. But fiction needs to be accurate, too. For example, although I knew quite a bit about the brain and seizures from interviewing neurologists and neurosurgeons, when I was writing my teen novel, Joe the Dreamer: The Castle and the Catapult, I had to recheck the latest treatments for difficult-to-control seizures because in my book someone wants to steal a seizure-control brain chip design.

They say to write what you know, but sometimes we’d rather forget what we know! Have you ever drawn upon your own gut-wrenching life experiences and injected them into your fiction as well as your non-fiction? I frequently use illustrations from my life in my writing for Christian publications and in my first book, Confessions of a Pentecostal, but I used what I’d heard about my grandparents for my historical romance, The Lady Fugitive. It’s entirely fiction because Grandpa was dead before I was born. But I’d heard many stories about their lives and they were fascinating people.

Do your fictional characters ever take over your story and do things you hadn’t planned? That happened in both my fiction books. Late in The Lady Fugitive an orphan latches on to my leading lady and he adds humor, emotion and other wonderful dimensions to the story.

Has a character ever made you laugh out loud? Yes. That surprised me. The humor caught me during the editing process, and I had a great chuckle.  I had forgotten that part.

Do you have a favorite character? It can be from a book you wrote years ago or last month, or it can be from a story you wrote that has not yet been published. William, from The Lady Fugitive.

How do you work through writer’s block? As you know from my bio, I’m a retired journalist. News writers seldom have writers block. Deadlines keep you going. When I’m writing free lance, I often stop in the middle of a sentence without completing a thought because then my brain will pick up my thought line. Sometimes I read over my notes (I have notes, even with novels) that tell me where I should be going, or what I need to change.

Can you give us a peek into your latest book?
SWALLOWED BY LIFE: Mysteries of Death, Resurrection and the Eternal
Do you know evidence shows we’re more than a physical body?” The above book speaks about this mystery and the evidence; the wonder of life with all its electrical systems; the awesome truth about cell death and regeneration; brain death; 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 also 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.

Where you can find Swallowed by Life:
Amazon: http://amzn.to/Jnc1rW
Barnes and Noble: http://bit.ly/JnbKVL
Booksamillion.com http://ow.ly/cJmx8
And you can see reviews on GoodReads http://ow.ly/cJmMe

 ♥

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