Christian Fiction Scavenger Hunt Stop #13

Ann H GabhartAnn's Posts, One Writer's Journal 96 Comments

 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 10/15 at noon MST with Stop #1 at LisaTawnBergren.com.
  • Hunt through our loop using Chrome of Firefox as your browser (not Explorer)
  • There is NO RUSH to complete the hunt—you have all weekend (until Sunday, 10/18 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, I’m Ann H. Gabhart, and I’m living my dream of writing stories for readers like you. I started writing when I was ten and I’m still at it all these years later. I’m a happy writer when my characters start coming to life and take off down a story trail with me chasing after them. Those trails have led me through some small towns, my fictional Harmony Hill Shaker Village and up into the Appalachian Mountains. You can learn more about me and my stories here on my website, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. I did love writing about the mountains and headed back there for An Appalachian Summer. 

An Appalachian Summer by Ann Gabhart

In 1933, debutante Piper Danson, craving more from life than simply an advantageous marriage, jumps at the opportunity to volunteer with the Frontier Nursing Service in the Appalachian Mountains. The work is taxing, the scenery jaw-droppingly gorgeous, and the people she meets along the way open up a whole new world to her. With romance and adventure in the Kentucky mountain air, Piper must be ready for anything, but will that include true love?

Piper’s character was inspired by the many first person stories I read about Frontier Nursing Service couriers. They went to the mountains looking for something different and they found it.

A BURNING DESIRE TO DO SOMETHING DIFFERENT

Photo Courtesy of the Frontier Nursing University Archives

Imagine a young woman from a society family living a comfortable life. She has a closet full of fancy dresses ready for a summer season of parties. She has every privilege a young woman could want even during the Great Depression. Sounds pretty nice, doesn’t it? Now think about that young woman volunteering to spend her summer as a volunteer in Eastern Kentucky instead. That’s Piper in An Appalachian Summer with her burning desire to do something different. Piper came to life for me as I read about actual young women who embraced the challenge of spending weeks or months as volunteer couriers for the Frontier Nursing Service. This midwifery service, founded by Mary Breckinridge to provide healthcare for mothers and children in the Appalachian Mountains, sent nurse midwives on horseback up into the hills to deliver babies in their patients’ rustic cabins.

The Big House

The volunteer couriers assisted the midwives by running errands, caring for their horses, or doing whatever was needed. With no electricity and few conveniences, they bunked in outbuildings near the Big House, Mary Breckinridge’s log home that was the FNS headquarters. Each morning these adventurous young women got up and pulled on old blue jeans to go water the horses. After that, they never knew what they might be asked to do next, but the chances were it would be something different.

While the poverty in the mountains surprised the volunteers, they admired the strong sense of community the mountain people showed and how the families rarely seemed unhappy in spite of their struggles. The young women returned to their lives away from the mountains but they were never the same. They so treasured their time as FNS couriers that when they had daughters, they often signed them up on the courier waiting list as soon as they were born.

Do you ever think about what happens next when you come to the end of a story? If so, then perhaps you can imagine Piper having a daughter and signing her up for an Appalachian summer of adventure.

Here’s the Stop #13 Basics:

If you’re interested, you can order An Appalachian Summer on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, CBD, Baker Book House, or at your local bookstore! 

Clue to Write Down: and

Link to Stop #14, the Next Stop on the Loop: Olivia Newport’s site!

But wait! Before you go, I’m offering a special prize here on my site – my first Frontier Nursing Service Appalachian book, These Healing Hills, along with a neat secret puzzle box shaped like an owl. Piper heard screech owls for the first time when she went to the mountains. Enter on the Rafflecopter by signing up for my e-newsletter (blue box top right on my website) or note that you’re already a subscriber or follow me on BookBub! (Entries USA  & Canada only)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Comments 96

  1. I’ve signed up and thank you. I’ve enjoyed your books especially as a retired nurse.
    I’ve also enjoyed murder at the courthouse, Hidden Springs mystery.
    Love and blessings
    Robyn

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      I always get a little worried when somebody tells me she is a nurse and has read one of my Frontier Nursing Service stories. I do hope I told the nursing part of the story in an okay way. So I appreciate you saying you enjoyed the stories, Robyn. Glad you enjoyed my first Hidden Springs mystery too. If you haven’t yet, you can go back to Hidden Springs and help Michael solve a couple more mysteries there in Murder Comes by Mail and Murder Is No Accident.

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      The cover is very eye-catching, Abigail, and has brought a lot of compliments. Revell Books, my publisher, always does a great job with the covers of the books they publish. But my favorite is still the cover of Angel Sister. Love the little girl on that cover. Hope you’ll enjoy the story when you get a chance to read it.

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      Thanks for stopping by and subscribing to my newsletter, Audrey. So appreciated. I hope you had fun on the Scavenger Hunt. I went through and read all the posts and I had fun too but I left the prize chances up to all of you doing the real hunting. 🙂

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  5. Signed up for your Newsletter, Thank you for Introducing me to your Books. Also thank you for the wonderful Giveaway, I Love OWLS!

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      I’m glad I picked a prize that looks good to you, Grace. I’ve always been fascinated by those puzzle boxes. I have a heart one that belonged to my mother and inside it was a little stone my father found back when they were dating that was shaped like a heart. Now how sweet is that!

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      Wow, Phyllis. I should give you a bonus star or something. Thank you for following me in all those places. I probably need to update my Amazon bio. Goodreads is such a great way to keep up with the books you’ve read. My sister has a notebook where she keeps all the books she’s read listed, but I’m not that organized. Thanks also for signing up for my newsletter. So appreciated.

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      Thanks, Becky. I hope you’ve enjoyed my newsletters. And I really enjoyed writing about the Frontier Nurse midwives and learning about their history as I did my research for the story.

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  12. I’ve read An Appalachian Summer, it was great, I’d like to read more of your books! I signed up for your newsletter and followed you on BookBub.
    Thank you.

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      So glad you enjoyed An Appalachian story, Tina, and I do hope you’ll get the chance to read more of my stories. I do book giveaways often in my newsletters and on my blog here, so you might win a book sometime. You might win this giveaway. Good luck.

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  13. I’m back. Always enjoy your books, FB posts, blog posts. You capture your audience and hold them with your stories. Thank you for sharing.

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      Glad you came back, Becky. So good to have you join in the fun here. I really appreciate your kind words about my stories. I’m hoping to find a way to capture readers again as I start on a new book. Research time right now.

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  15. Ann, I already have your book and highly enjoyed it! Thank you for this fun scavenger hunt, a bright spot in these crazy times!

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  18. Hi Ann!! I am already a subscriber. Your email is how I learned about this scavenger hunt today. I have read many of your books and plan on reading more. These Healing Hills is on my list, of course, so I’d love to win a copy, if I were chosen. Thank you for this opportunity.

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      Great, Ann. Glad the newsletter brought you over to have some fun with the Scavenger Hunt. I need to go read the posts too. That’s one of the best parts for me. Oh, and thank you for reading my stories and having more of them on your plan to read list.

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      Thank you, Tashia. Hope you’ll enjoy my next newsletter. I usually send one out around Thanksgiving with a Christmas giveaway. I did send out a notice about the Scavenger Hunt today.

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