Guest blog: Felicia Ferguson Journal Prize to...Winner: Laurie Sibley
- ChristinaSinisi-Author
- Jan 22, 2023
- 3 min read
Updated: Jan 29, 2023
Dear Readers, please join me in welcoming Felicia Ferguson! I've posted on several Christian author sites asking for bloggers, and have forgotten how I "met" Felicia. I am excited to meet another Christian author.
My name is Felicia Ferguson. I currently live in the Florida panhandle, but I grew up on a horse and cattle farm in Kentucky. I polled some of my closest, but also newest friends and I was surprised by their responses. They agreed that while it may not be the first thing someone would notice, my deep faith in God and commitment to following him is what struck each of them.
Tell us about your book?
The Choices She Made is a split time contemporary women’s fiction book following the main character when she is seventeen and then thirteen years later.
In 1997, seventeen-year-old Madeline Williams is torn between continuing her family ranching legacy and accepting her Army-bound boyfriend's marriage proposal.
But when an assault by John David Billings, the son of a wealthy rancher, leaves her pregnant, Madeline sacrifices both options, choosing to leave town and raise the child alone.
It's been several years, and when she returns to her hometown to meet with her father, rumors circulate about John David's trial--for assaulting other women. Madeline struggles with the secret she's kept from her daughter—and everyone but her father—all of these years.
If she testifies, John David could be put away for good. Doesn't help that he's hired a killer lawyer, and it would take a testimony like hers just to put him behind bars. But if she unveils her past, that could have some dangerous repercussions for her daughter.
She has trusted God throughout her entire life, but can she trust him to carry her through this trial?
Share one thing that you found difficult or challenging about writing this book.
Oddly enough, Madeline herself was the easiest to write despite everything she experienced. It was like she sat down with me and just opened up her life and all I had to do was transcribe her story. The one who gave me the biggest challenge was her English teacher, Mrs. Hastings. I really wanted to make sure I honored a good, kind woman who was the wife of a pastor and possessed a deep faith, but couldn’t have children. And here was Madeline who was pregnant as a teenager out of wedlock. One my friends and critique partners is an adoption attorney and so I really picked her brain to make Mrs. Hastings feel authentic in her desperation as she approached Madeline with the option of adoption.
Ask the blog reader a quirky question or two?
Madeline saddles up a horse and goes trail riding when she needs to think. Where do you go? Do you go for a drive, a walk, or have somewhere special to sit and be?
What is the first book or story that caught your heart as a child?
I was an avid reader, but Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time in my fifth grade reading textbook was the one that lit the fire of my imagination. Interestingly enough, the fifth grade was also when I knew I wanted to be a writer.
Share your social media and buy links!
Facebook: feliciafergusonauthor
Instagram: @felicia_writes
Twitter: @felicia_writer
Pinterest: felicia_writes
To buy the book:
Kindle: https://a.co/d/il9Aj2s
She also has a website www.feliciafergusonauthor.com and a quarterly newsletter that readers can sign up to receive there.
Thank you, Felicia, for joining us! Love your questions--and I'll answer below. :)
I have a question. Whenever you have done research for your stories, what is the most fascinating fact you have uncovered?
I was an avid reader as a child and am still one at 70. I enjoyed so many different books and can’t really state a favorite. I enjoyed biographies in my early years but now love clean biblical based romances and mysteries.
I loved a book titled Gina about a girl who lived a nomadic life with her parents. Just yesterday, I was thinking of that story when she colored on the waxy packaging from bacon. (She lived in poverty.) Quite often, when cooking bacon I remember Gina's story.
Going on a walk is my favorite thinking get away.
I don't remember the first book that caught my attention, but I do know my favorite book as a child was The Island Stallion by Walter Farley (who more famously wrote The Black Stallion). I loved the idea of a secret island and horses in a hidden valley. In real life, the neighbor behind us had gotten too old and his ponies went a bit wild--and I had a horse romance with Shylock, the paint, one summer. Loved that horse--and when we came trick or treating for Halloween, the stallion raced along the fence, whinnying for me. :)
When I need to think...I go for a walk or, if the weather is nice, I sit on one of my porches, depending on what is in bloom. I have a front porch with rocking chairs and a screened porch in the back that is next to the roses. Of course, there is always a bubble bath if the weather is rainy and chilly like it is now. :)