What inspires author Ada Brownell?

By Ada Brownell

What inspires my writing? I’d say it’s the Lord and my family. More than one wise writer has said an author can’t be successful unless he or she experiences life, and what better way than with family?

My husband and I had five children. He was a railroader and often came or went at midnight because he worked shifts. For a number of years I did my research and writing between the children’s bedtime and the time he came home or left for work. For much of the rest of the time, I thought about what I might write. I was seldom alone, yet ideas flittered through my mind.

I authored (yes, in typewriter days) a book while my husband sat at the same dining room table working on records for his part-time job. Sometimes I managed to write when the kids were home and Dad was at work. Once I had sudden inspiration while rocking a colicky baby: I scribbled the article on a piece of paper covering the arm of my rocking chair. And yes, that article was published.

During my stay-at-home mom period, I had articles and short fiction published in more than forty Christian publications, plus book reviews in The Denver Post. Being able to work in a noisy environment at home helped me not to be distracted in the newsroom when I returned to a job as a newspaper reporter in Colorado.

Raising our family had its special challenges. For example, one child had severe allergies that required many trips to the hospital and doctors and elimination of dust or mold in the house. Often our son needed different food. But even the challenges contributed inspiration for me. I often dwell on James 2:17, where he writes, “Faith without works is dead.” In other words, “faith with works is alive!”

So whatever your goal, work toward it, always keeping an eye on priorities: God and family first, and then ministry and what I want. Ephesians 3:10 says it best: “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory.”

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Ada Brownell is a retired newspaper reporter who also has written for Christian publications since age 15. She is author of five books, two fiction and three non-fiction: The Lady Fugitive; Joe the Dreamer: the Castle and the Catapult; Imagine the Future You; Swallowed by LIFE: Mysteries of Death, Resurrection and the Eternal; Confessions of a Pentecostal, out of print but now available for Kindle. Ada’s Amazon Author Page: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001KJ2C06 . Her blog: http://www.inkfromanearthenvessel.blogspot.com

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