Remember when your very first novel released, or looking forward to that day? Here’s a new story on my reading list: Tamelia Aday’s The Filbert Ridge Miracle. I welcome Tamelia to share a bit of background info. And she’s offering an e-book to one fortunate commenter, too.

I started writing The Filbert Ridge Miracle when my oldest son was in grade school. I wish I remembered the exact year, but it’s one of those things where you are piecing something together little by little. And in reality, maybe I don’t want to know how long it took me. 

The Filbert Ridge Miracle is about a pastor’s family who live in a small town. They are scrutinized for their unruly children and the wife, Rose, is especially considered odd. 

I had a germ of an idea of this mom, feeling the judgement of others, trying to escape into a world that no one knew about. To have a secret life of feeding the homeless and helping the needy. I then considered what if one of her children went missing. I pictured her on the streets looking for her son. The raw parts of this story had their moments on a word processor floppy disk, marked “Free Time.” 

Years later, the whole direction of the story changed with a miracle in the church parking lot. At that moment I was in the voice of Patrick, who before had almost no part in the story. Everything shifted and Patrck’s feelings and aggravations flowed across the page becoming the first chapter which changed the rest of the book. I found my voice the same time Patrick let me use his. 

Piecing together a parking lot miracle to a missing child was a challenge, but through a lot of throwing out of material—another whole book’s worth probably—it came together.

The Filbert Ridge Miracle is published by WordsCraft Press. Available on Amazon in e-book, paperback, and hardback https://a.co/d/3n2pHkU

From the back cover

It was October 7, 1967.

The festival in Filbert Ridge, Oregon, came early, and many wondered if they had followed the usual tradition of celebrating the hazelnut harvest on the second Saturday of October, perhaps things would have gone in a different direction. 

Instead, town history and the lives of its citizens changed forever.

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