Dreaming on Daisies (33 page)

Author’s Note

Why I Wrote This Story

A question many authors are asked is, “What prompted you to write this particular book?” Naturally I hoped to find a story line that would entertain readers, and I wanted to continue with the characters created in the first three books of this series. But each book needs a theme. I don’t ever want to write a simple romance without something that drives it. In this case, it was a young woman who’s been emotionally damaged by a father who turned to alcohol and abandoned her emotionally, and a mother who abandoned her physically.

In my years of counseling women, I’ve discovered that alcoholism, abandonment, and depression impact even the strongest Christian families, leaving deep scars that can linger for a lifetime. My hope is that women who have encountered a similar situation might find some aspect of the story that would minister to their heart. Jesus is our Great Physician and is able and willing to heal every broken and wounded heart that’s brought to Him.

I dedicated this book to my father, Curtis Gould, who was nothing at all like Charlie, Leah’s father, except that he loved his children. Daddy was old-fashioned in many ways, including not caring for the use of “Dad,” but he was comfortable showing appreciation and love and enjoyed receiving it in return. He passed away when I was in my late thirties, and I still miss him and think of him often. I’m so thankful I had him in my life.

I created Charlie Pape after a conversation with my publisher, Don Pape. I had used my copy editor’s last name, Carlson, for my heroine, and Don wanted to know who I planned to name after him. I responded that I was working on another book that contained a gambler, and would that be all right? He chuckled and said as long as he was a three-dimensional bad guy, that was fine. It got me thinking and digging, as I’d not planned to give Charlie Pape a different name from Leah’s, or his own point of view, but suddenly, I knew he needed both, as well as some deep issues that only God could resolve.

Don Pape is about as far removed from Charlie Pape as two men could be, so I hope he’ll forgive me as I wandered into areas of pride and overindulgence—and I hope he’ll get a chuckle or two from the romance between the two most stubborn and opinionated people in this series, Charlie and Frances. Thank you, Don, for challenging me to dig deeper without even realizing you did.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this fourth book in the Love Blossoms in Oregon series and will join me again in the novella I hope to write about Tom and Mei Lee, the young Chinese woman befriended by Julia McKenzie in
Forget Me Not
, my other novella in this series.

Great Questions

for Individual Reflection and/or Group Discussion

1.
Have you, like Leah, ever been on the receiving end of empty promises from someone you love and count on? If so, when? In what way(s) can you identify with Leah’s emotions?

2.
How has that situation in the past influenced your current relationships and the way you perceive other people in general?

3.
When Steven meets Leah, he is judged wrongly by her as being her father’s drinking buddy. How does he choose to handle the misunderstanding? Would you have handled it differently? And, if so, how?

4.
Charlie believes no one has a “right to tell him what to do or how to live his life. It is his business if he drinks, and nobody else’s.” Do you agree? Why or why not?

5.
What qualities of Leah’s do you consider admirable? What traits cause her trouble? In what ways are you like Leah? Unlike Leah?

6.
Have you ever found yourself working in a job you originally thought you’d love, but didn’t fit your personality long term, as the bank job was for Steven? If so, how have you handled that situation?

7.
All around Leah, her friends seem to be getting married and having babies. She admits sometimes she feels envy, wishing for what they had, but she continues to involve herself in the lives of her friends. When have you found yourself jealous of what a friend has? How have you dealt with that envy? Has it changed anything in your relationship, and, if so, what?

8.
Why does Leah fight the attraction she feels for Steven Harding? Are her feelings based on facts, feelings, fears, or a combination of those three things? Explain.

9.
Steven feels lost, ignored, forgotten, and petty now that his mother has found her daughter again. Do you think his feelings are valid? Why or why not? Imagine you are Steven for a minute. How would you relate to your now-reconciled mother and sister?

10.
Leah can stand up to just about anyone without batting an eyelash, but her father always makes her feel as though he is waiting for her to do something wrong and that she can never measure up, no matter what choice she makes. What was your relationship with your father like when you were growing up? In what way(s) can you identify with Leah’s experience? In what way(s) is your experience with your father different?

11.
Which character in the book did you feel the most empathy for? Why? What about this character resonates with your personality and life experience?

12.
Why do you think Steven Harding has a soft spot in his heart for Tom Pape that makes him want to go the second mile to reconcile him with his family? How might looking through Steven’s or Tom’s eyes give you perspective for a family situation you’re facing right now?

13.
Why do you think it took someone like Frances Cooper to break through Charlie Pape’s tough shell? What qualities is he drawn to in her? What qualities is she drawn to in him? What makes their highly unusual relationship—between two prickly personalities—“work”?

14.
Frances Cooper uses life lessons she’s learned—even recently—to try to make a difference in someone else’s life who is hurting. How might you use the unique life lessons you’ve learned to help others?

15.
When Leah tells Steven that “God will make a way,” he responds, “Don’t you suppose God has the ability to answer in a way that’s not what you expected?” Has God ever answered a prayer of yours in a way you didn’t expect? If so, share the story.

About the Author

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 spend time with family. She is also able to combine 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 home. In early 2013 the family welcomed a baby granddaughter, and Miralee is totally in love with being a grandmother to Baby Kate, who will be close to two years old when this book releases.

Ironically, Miralee, now the author of eleven novels and novellas and a contributor in four compilations, never had a burning desire to write—at least more than her own memoirs for her children. So she was shocked when God called her to start writing after she turned fifty. To Miralee, writing is a ministry she hopes will impact hearts, and she looks forward with anticipation to see how God will use each of her books to bless and change lives.

An avid reader, Miralee has a large collection of first-edition Zane Grey books that she started collecting as a young teen. Her love for his storytelling ability inspired her desire to write fiction set in the Old West. “But I started writing historical fiction without even meaning to,” Miralee says, laughing. She’d always planned on writing contemporary women’s fiction, but God had other ideas. After signing her first contract for the novel
Love Finds You in Last Chance, California
she decided to research the town and area. To her dismay, she discovered the town no longer existed and hadn’t since the 1960s. Though it had been a booming town in the late 1880s, it had pretty much died out in the 1930s. So her editor suggested switching to a historical version, and Miralee agreed, although she’d never even considered that era.

It didn’t take long to discover she had a natural flair for that time period, having read and watched so many Western stories while growing up. From that point on she was hooked. Her 1880s stories continue to grow in acclaim each year. Her novel
Love Finds You in Sundance, Wyoming
won the Will Rogers Medallion Award for Western Fiction.
Blowing on Dandelions
, the first book in the Love Blossoms in Oregon series, achieved bestseller status on the ECPA list in early 2014.

Universal Studios requested a copy of her debut novel,
The Other Daughter
, for a potential family movie. Another movie production company is currently considering her book
Love Finds You in Sundance, Wyoming
as a made-for-TV family movie as well.

Aside from writing and her outdoor activities, Miralee has lived a varied life. She and her husband have been deeply involved in building two of their own homes over the years, as well as doing a full remodel on a one-hundred-year-old Craftsman style home they owned and loved for four years. They also owned a sawmill at the time and were able to provide much of the interior wood products. Miralee has done everything from driving a forklift, to stoking the huge, 120-year-old boiler, and off-bearing lumber, to running a small planer and staking boards in the dry kiln.

Besides their horse friends, Miralee and her husband have owned cats, dogs (a six-pound, long-haired Chihuahua named Lacey was often curled up on her lap as she wrote this book), rabbits, and, yes, even two cougars, Spunky and Sierra, rescued from breeders who didn’t have the ability or means to care for them properly.

Miralee and Allen have lived in Alaska and the San Juan Islands for just under a year each, where she became actively involved in women’s ministry. Later, she took a counseling course and earned her accreditation with the American Association of Christian Counselors.

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 also speaks at women’s groups, libraries, historical societies, and churches about her writing journey.

www.miraleeferrell.com

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