Monday, February 17, 2014

Miralee Ferell ~ Wishing On Buttercups


It's a pleasure to welcome Miralle Ferell back to Ink Dots, once again. Miralee and her husband, Allen, live on eleven acres in the beautiful Columbia River Gorge in southern Washington State, where they love to garden, play with their dogs, take walks, and sail. She combines two other passions—horseback riding and spending time with her grown children—since her married daughter lives nearby, and they often ride together on the wooded trails near their homes.

Her novel Love Finds You in Sundance, WY, won the Will Rogers Medallion Award for Western Fiction, and Universal Studios requested a copy of her contemporary debut novel, The Other Daughter, for a potential family movie. 

After serving five years as the president of the Portland/Vancouver chapter of ACFW (American Christian Fiction Writers), Miralee now volunteers as a board member and belongs to a number of writers’ groups. She is an accredited lay-counselor with The American Association of Christian Counselors and also speaks at women’s groups, libraries, historical societies, and churches about her writing journey.

www.miraleesdesk.blogspot.com  --  includes newsletter signup form
  

Wishing on Buttercups – Book two in Love Blossoms in Oregon series

Can Love Survive When Secrets Collide?

She’d kept her secrets safely hidden—those from her past, and those in the present. Some things, Beth Roberts knows, a lady simply doesn’t share, even in the 1880’s West. The townspeople would never understand. No one ever has.

Jeffery Tucker, a handsome young writer, has kept his own secrets. He doesn’t have a right to pry into Beth’s affairs but finds himself strangely drawn to her and intrigued by the whiff of mystery surrounding her.

Beth knows that one day someone will unravel the threads of her past. And when two men from her past arrive, the truth might just hurt . . . Beth’s future and her heart.

As shadowy memories surface, Beth sketches the scenes she sees and is shocked by what—and who—her illustrations reveal. Dare she risk her heart again?

Miralee says...

If I could explore anywhere in the world tomorrow, it would be...going back in time to the Old West, especially the cattle towns with large ranches nearby, during the era of the trail drives, booming mining towns, gunfighters and cowboys. You didn’t say I had to limit it to the present day. Ha, that's too funny, Miralee! I'm with you, a little time travel to Colonial Australia would just about make my modern day!

The best thing I did today is... fixed dinner with my hubby—we worked side-by-side in the kitchen, and when we were done, he cleaned the kitchen and vacuumed while I worked on this interview. It’s Valentine’s Day, and I think I’ll keep him a few more years! That's very sweet. 

A secret pleasure of mine is...I have a bag of dark Dove chocolates & Ghirardelli sea-salt caramels hidden in a cupboard, and when a chocolate craving hits, I don’t even try to resist.

I wish I could relive the day when I...brought my babies home from the hospital. I had no idea at the time how fast they would change and grow. Now my granddaughter is almost a year, and it seems like my own two should still be young. I would treasure those years even more, if I could go back and live them again. Yes, I'm with you on the newborn baby memories. Gone too quickly...

When I was a child I dreamed I would... grow up to marry a rancher and own lots of horses. It didn’t quite happen, as my husband had no desire to ranch. But we do own 11 acres in the country, and I’ve owned at least one horse (sometimes several) for over 40 years. 

I probably shouldn’t tell you this, but... I just finished writing a historical romance novella that fits in the Love Blossoms in Oregon series called Forget Me Not, which I’ll be self-publishing in mid to late March. I’ve very excited about completing it, so I’m eating a chocolate caramel right now to celebrate! Another great title. My garden is full of foget-me-nots in the spring. A perpetual gift from my mother-in-law's garden. 

*****

If you'd like the chance to win a copy of Miralee's Wishing on Buttercups, leave a comment below. She's inspired one of my favourite discussion topics: 

Where would you go, if time travel opened a door into any century ... and why? 

For me it's Australia in the 1870s. And I'd land on Phillip Island, the setting of my current stories-in-the-making. 

Cape Woolamai ~ Phillip Island

How about you? The winner will be drawn on Friday.

Good luck and happy reading,