Welcome to the Christian Fiction Scavenger Hunt! If you’ve just discovered the hunt, be sure to start at Stop #1, and collect the clues through all the stops, in order, so you can enter to win one of our top 5 grand prizes!
• The hunt BEGINS on 10/21 at noon MST with Stop #1 at LisaTawnBergren.com.
• Hunt through our loop using Chrome or Firefox as your browser (not Explorer).
• There is NO RUSH to complete the hunt—you have all weekend (until Sunday, 10/24 at midnight MST)! So take your time, reading the unique posts along the way; our hope is that you discover new authors/new books and learn new things about them.
• Submit your entry for the grand prizes by collecting the CLUE on each author’s scavenger hunt post and submitting your answer in the Rafflecopter form at the final stop, back on Lisa’s site.
Many authors are offering additional prizes along the way!
Hi, my name is Ann H. Gabhart, and I got the writing bug when I was ten and took up pen to begin my first novel. While I never finished that adventure, I’ve been on the writing road ever since, sharing all sorts of stories. As a Kentucky country girl, I love sharing stories steeped in Kentucky history. My newest book, Along a Storied Trail, combines that love of history and my love of books with the story of a Kentucky packhorse librarian in the Appalachian Mountains during the Great Depression.
Tansy Calhoun is eager to ride the rough trails as a “book woman” to deliver reading material to her neighbors. She loves books and longs to find love like the heroines in her books. When a charming writer comes to town, she wonders if she might have found it, but happy ever after endings aren’t always easy to find. Perdita Sweet, a contrary old mountain woman, could tell her that since the man she once loved chose someone else. Perdita knows the love trails Tansy should take, but why would anyone listen to the romantic advice of an old spinster?
“Gabhart’s skillful use of period details and the Appalachian landscape lend plenty of atmosphere to accompany the lessons of hope, compassion, and fortitude amid hardship. This is her best historical inspirational yet.”–Publishers Weekly starred review
Like Tansy, I love books. I’m guessing you do too since you are chasing through this Scavenger Hunt. So, can you imagine not having books to read at your house or a library a few miles away? But many towns in the Appalachian region of Kentucky in the 1930’s did not have libraries. That didn’t mean the people didn’t want the chance to learn new things. The Packhorse Libraries met that need.
The Packhorse Library was a WPA project during the Depression that got books and magazines to people who had never had access to reading material. The WPA paid local women $28 a month to be bookmobiles on horseback in their mountain counties. The book women, as they were called by the mountain people, had to be tough to carry out their duties. After they filled their saddlebags with books they mounted up on their horses or mules and took off through the rugged hill terrain, fording creeks and rivers. The same as the postman, they didn’t let rain, snow, ice or heat keep them from their book routes.
Books with illustrations were favored since some mountaineers had never had a chance to learn to read. Often their children or grandchildren would read the books to them. At times, the packhorse librarian would stop long enough to read aloud to someone along their route.
“‘Bring me a book to read,’ is the cry of every child as he runs to meet the librarian with whom he has become acquainted,” wrote one Pack Horse Library supervisor. “Not a certain book, but any kind of book. The child has read none of them.”
My book woman, Tansy, loved riding out on her horse, Shadrach, to hear the happy cries of “Here comes the book woman.” I can imagine running out to meet her, eager for a book to read.
Do you think you would have liked being a book woman riding a horse or mule to carry books out to readers?
Before you move on to the next and final stop, you can enter here on my site to win this lovely mountain necklace along with one of my books set in the Kentucky Appalachian mountains. Enter on the Rafflecopter form here.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Here’s the Stop #26 Basics:
If you’re interested, you can order Along a Storied Trail on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, CBD or at your local bookstore!
Clue to Write Down: into!
Link to Stop #27, the Next Stop on the Loop: GRAND PRIZE ENTRY PAGE!
Comments 42
Bummer. I must have just missed entering the rafflecopter. Oh well. Yes I would have loved to be a book woman. I grew up in the hollers of KY. We might have went to town once a month and even then it wasn’t to the library. It’s a very secluded place to grow up. I’m definitely going to put you book on my wish list.
Yes, I would have embraced being a “book woman” for so many reasons! Oddly enough this sounds like it could have been the perfect job for me. I love learning new historical things while reading novels and am a “horse girl” so I can’t wait to dig into Along A Storied Trail. As a fearless (or maybe naïve!) teenager, I would ride off into the mountains near our farm with no idea where I was going or where I was at and enjoyed trying to “find” my way back home. At the risk of sounding weird, I actually gain satisfaction from projects or adventures that are physically challenging. This all sounds like a perfect combination for an aspiring book woman.