Christian Fiction Scavenger Hunt Stop # 26

Christian Fiction Scavenger Hunt Stop # 26

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 33 stops, in order, so you can enter to win one of our top 3 grand prizes!

·         The hunt BEGINS with Stop #1 at Lisa Bergren’s site. http://lisatawnbergren.com/2016/04/christian-fiction-scavenger-hunt-stop-1/

·         The hunt is BEST VIEWED using Chrome or Firefox as your browser (not Explorer)

·         It is open to INTERNATIONAL entrants.

·         PRIZES include 3 sets of all 32 books, $500 in Amazon gift cards and many authors are offering additional prizes!

·         There is NO RUSH to complete this hunt—you have ALL WEEKEND. So take your time, reading the unique posts along the way; our hope is that you discover new authors/new books you might want to learn more about!

·         Submit your ENTRY for the GRAND PRIZE at Stop #33 (back on Lisa’s site) by Monday night (4/25) at midnight mountain. http://lisatawnbergren.com/2016/04/christian-fiction-scavenger-hunt-stop-33-prize-entry-form/

I'm delighted to host my good friend Carolyne Aarsen for the Scavenger Hunt. Carolyne is an accomplished, widely-published author, and she'd like to share some the strange twists that memory takes when sisters look back at their childhoods.

The Evolution of a Story Idea

by Carolyne Aarsen

When my sisters and I share stories of home, I am always surprised how differently we see the same event. We each have our unique filter through which the stories are told. I thought this might be an interesting dynamic to delve into: three sisters who share memories of home but see them all through their personalities.

Because most of my stories deal with people coming home to family and faith, I needed a reason for each of these three sisters to return to their childhood home, Saddlebank, a community I had already established in a previous series.

After their parents’ acrimonious divorce, Jodie, Laura and Erin and their mother moved from their father’s Saddlebank ranch to Tennessee to live with their maternal grandmother. After their mother’s death their grandmother sent the girls to stay at the ranch with their father over the summer. The sisters' two-month stay with their taciturn father, still embittered by the divorce, created mixed feelings  and memories for each of them. When they turned eighteen they stopped going to the ranch.

I wanted the sisters to come unwillingly back to the ranch, a place that holds varying memories for each of them. I also needed them to stay long enough to meet their hero and fall in love. Because….romance…..

But how could I make that happen?

I decided to give their poor estranged father incurable cancer. Faced with imminent death he wanted  to make peace with his daughters. So he willed his estate to them stipulating that two of the three sisters stay at the ranch for two months each. He guessed the girls would sell the ranch on inheriting it and he wanted them to give their old home another chance before doing so. Trouble was a truck accident killed him before he had a chance to talk to them about his plans and find a way to make peace with them.

I now had the backstory set up all I needed was to get the girls home.

Wrangling the Cowboy’s Heart is the first in this series and is Jodie McCauley’s story. She’s the freewheeling younger sister, part-time musician, part-time waitress. In her youth she and the hero had dated but had a falling out that had much to do with her father. My hero, a horse trainer and deputy is a by-the-books kind of guy who is still hurt by Jodie's flight in the past.

As the story develops secrets come out and healing takes place across past and present. Jodie's perceptions of her life at the ranch are challenged.

And Jodie is the first of the sisters to discover that the best journey takes you home.

The other sister’s stories will come in following books, but I hope you have a chance to read this first one.

Carolyne Aarsen has written over 50 books with three different publishers. Find out more at www.carolyneaarsen.com or check out her Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/CarolyneAarsenAuthor.

Here’s the Stop # 26 Skinny:

You can order Carolyne’s book on Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Wrangling-Cowboys-Heart-Big-Sky/dp/0373719418/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1455932161&sr=8-1&keywords=Wrangling+the+Cowboy%27s+heart, Barnes & Noblehttp://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/wrangling-the-cowboys-heart-carolyne-aarsen/1122539760?ean=9781488007101 , CBDhttp://www.christianbook.com/wrangling-the-cowboys-heart/carolyne-aarsen/9780373719419/pd/719412?event=ESRCG or at your local bookstore! 

Clue to Write Down: to experience

Link to Stop #27, the Next Stop on the Loop: Carolyne Aarsen’s own site!  http://www.carolyneaarsen.com/blog/christian-fiction-scavenger-hunt-stop-27

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But wait! Before you go, I’m offering a three-book set of any of my series to one entrant—your choice. All you have to do is send me an e-mail with the words "Scavenger Hunt Prize" to mpjohn@ptd.net. Thanks for stopping by! Enjoy the rest of the hunt!