Miralee Ferrell: Impacting the Lives of Young Adults

Greetings Readers! Today I have the blessing of hosting my friend Miralee Ferrell on Everything Writerly. 

Miralee and I go back a ways. Both of us wrote for the now-defunct fiction line called Summerside Press and its Love Finds You imprint. She began her writing career at Kregel Publications and I am presently under contract with Kregel. It's fun to see our career parallels.

Here's a little about Miralee:

Miralee Ferrell’s debut novel released in the fall of 2007, and eighteen more have followed since. Her historical western romance, Love Finds You in Sundance, WY, won the Will Rogers Excellence in Western Fiction award in 2012, and her first book in the four-book Love Blossoms in Oregon series, Blowing on Dandelions, hit the ECPA Best Seller list, along with The 12 Brides of Christmas. Since then, she’s ventured into writing horse novels for middle-grade kids, and opened her own publishing company, publishing Christian novels. Miralee and her husband have been married over 40 years and live in the beautiful Columbia Gorge in WA State, where she loves to ride horses, garden, take walks, play with her dogs, and minister to women.

   

So how did an author of Christian romance begin writing books for young adults (YA)? Let's find out.

Miralee:  "An editor-friend read one of my historical romances set on a horse ranch and loved all the horse references and scenes. She suggested I consider writing a book or series of books for girls who are horse crazy, as so many young girls wish they could own or ride a horse.

"I didn’t think much of it, as I’d never considered writing middle-school or even YA fiction. But while praying about what I should be working on next, I felt the Lord nudging to remember my conversation with my friend. Ideas started flowing, and I started writing.

 "About a year later, my publisher at David C. Cook heard I was working up a proposal to shop to various houses, and asked to see it. The rest, as they say, is history, as they contracted a set of four books. 

"I’ve had a ball writing fun stories for kids, but most of all, investing life lessons and morals into the stories, as well as a faith thread and showing how my characters have grown in their own maturity and faith as the series has progressed."

The book sounds great! Thank you, Miralee.

Readers, you can connect with Miralee via her website: http://miraleeferrell.com/

Miralee's book is available online or at your local bookstore. If it's not on the shelf, ask for it.