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 6/15 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, 6/18 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!
Greetings from beautiful Montana. I’m Tracie Peterson, Queen of Historical Christian Fiction, or so a lot of people say. I guess with 140 books, mostly historical, the title is a good fit. For me writing is a ministry and serving God through something I love as much as storytelling is both a privilege and pleasure. I’ve been doing this for over 30 years and throughout that time, I’ve been super blessed to meet a lot of my readers and hear what they’ve had to say about how God has used the books to touch their lives. It’s so exciting to me to be able to do what I love for Him. You can always check me out at My Website or Facebook
I’m excited to tell you just a bit about my latest project with Kimberley Woodhouse. Together we’ve come up with a three book series set in Kalispell, Montana. Book one is titled The Heart’s Choice and I hope you’ll love it as much as we do.
In 1904, Kalispell, MT is privileged to get their own Carnegie Library and with it comes our hero Mark Andrews. Mark is the son of a local rancher. He’s come home to run the library, however, instead of the ranch which causes no small amount of conflict in his family.
Our heroine, Rebecca Whitman is new to Kalispell and comes to be the first court reporter. This introduces her to Judge Ashbury and his wonderful, but whacky wife Marvella. Marvella is a force to be reckoned with along with her little dog Sir Theophilus. Mayhem and murder supply additional intrigue, and Rebecca has a vested interest to see justice prevail. What neither she nor Mark counted on was falling in love.
The Heart’s Choice is book one in a new series titled The Jewels of Kalispell by Tracie Peterson and Kimberley Woodhouse. Set in Kalispell in 1904, the series highlights several of the fascinating historical facts about this wonderful northwestern Montana town.
Kim and I had so much fun researching Kalispell. Founded in 1892, Kalispell was created as a divisional headquarters for the Great Northern Railway. Set just north of the magnificent Flathead Lake, Kalispell is now Montana’s seventh largest city with nearly thirty-thousand people. Located just 33 miles from the West Glacier entrance to Glacier National Park, Kalispell offers all sorts of outdoor fun.
In our story we highlight the Carnegie Library that Kalispell welcomed and celebrated in January 1904.
The library (today home to the Hockaday Museum of Art) was part of Andrew Carnegie’s project to put libraries in places all over the world that might not otherwise have a library. Carnegie funded more than 2,500 libraries, including 1,600 in the United States and 17 in Montana. The requirements were that a town had to pledge to buy a piece of land and agree to maintain the building/library for as long as it was a library.
In November, 1901 Kalispell applied for a library grant and eventually was given $10,000. Kalispell’s library was designed by George Shanley and completed by January, 1904. Kim and I were privileged to tour the building which is now an art museum. We were able to learn about the library and the love this community had for reading.
We were also excited to tour the house belonging to Kalispell’s most famous family, the Conrads. Charles Conrad founded Kalispell in 1892. With his wife, Alicia “Lettie” Conrad they had three children and built a magnificent mansion that can be toured today. It’s a beautiful house with all sorts of wonderful historical tidbits.
At 13,000 sq. ft. the Conrad Mansion gives insight into the lives of this pioneer family. The house is three stories high with 26 rooms and sits on an entire city block. It included electricity as well as an elevator, making it quite innovative for the times.
Kim and I hope you get a chance to make a trip to Kalispell, Montana to see all these things for yourself. No matter what others might say, Montana really is The Last Best Place.
Here’s Your Critical Stop #9 Info:
If you’re interested, you can order The Heart’s Choice at BakerBookHouse.com, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, ChristianBook.com or at your local bookstore!
Clue to Write Down: freedom
Link to Stop #10, the Next Stop on the Loop: Mesu Andrews’ site!
And NOW for an extra chance at prizes, I’m giving away three books to three participants. Just sign up with the rafflecopter below:
