Welcome to the Christian Fiction Scavenger Hunt—spring edition! This time around, the hunt has 32 stops and runs from 4/4 (noon MDT)–4/6 (midnight MDT). It’s a great way to discover new books from some of your favorite authors (and maybe meet some new authors you haven’t yet heard of). The grand prize is a Kindle Fire HDX and a $100 gift card, plus two chances at a 32-book prize pack (somebody’s going to have some seriously heavy bookshelves if they win). AND some individual stops have an additional prize, so read each post carefully!
There will be a red clue at the bottom of each post that you’ll need to write down, and that clue will guide you to the next stop. It’s best to begin the scavenger hunt at stop #1, Robin Lee Hatcher’s blog. Then after you’ve gone through all 32 stops and collected all the clues, fill out the Rafflecopter form on Robin’s site. Be ready to provide the completed clue quote within 24 hours of email notification from Robin, or another will be drawn randomly. The contest is open internationally, so everyone is welcome to participate! Let’s get started!
By the way, we have prepared a page with direct links to each author’s post in case a site goes down or a link gets broken. We’ll be working on getting all of the links prior to the start of the hunt, but sometimes there are still issues even after the hunt starts, so make a note of the URL for the Participating Authors & Stops page so you can check back and be able to complete the hunt.
Meet Lorna!
I’d like to welcome my fellow author and hilarious friend Lorna Seilstad to my blog! Lorna brings history back to life using a generous dash of humor. After her first child was born, she quit teaching and became a professional wiper. She says she wiped noses, tears, skinned knees, and baby bottoms, but at nap time, she wrote. Today, she writes from her home in Iowa where she lives with her husband and three children. Find out more at her website or connect with her on Facebook and on Twitter. Read on to find out about her new book, While Love Stirs, which releases later this month!
As a graduate of Fannie Farmer’s School of Cookery, Charlotte Gregory is thrilled to have the opportunity to travel, lecture, and give cooking demonstrations on the very latest kitchen revolution–the gas stove. And she certainly doesn’t mind that the gas company has hired the kindhearted Lewis Mathis to entertain at her lectures.
Lewis encourages Charlotte’s work, especially her crusade to introduce fresh, appetizing, nutritious food to those convalescing in hospitals. But young hospital superintendent Dr. Joel Brooks is not convinced any changes should be made—especially by this outspoken young woman.
I love the history behind Lorna’s new book and how she got the inspiration for it. It makes me thankful for our modern-day appliances (and I think you will be, too, after reading her post!).
Modern-Day Appliances
What’s your favorite kitchen gadget? Think about all the items in your kitchen designed to help you save time, keep food fresh, or assist you in meal preparation. Which one could you not live without?
Maybe you’re thinking about your microwave or your dishwasher, but I’m guessing a lot of us would skip over the humble but invaluable gas or electric range.
Until the advent of the gas stove, a lady spent an at least an hour a day just tending to her coal or wood-burning stove. They had to be blackened, the dampers and flues adjusted, fires stoked, and ashes removed. For a wood stove, that is nearly fifty pounds of fuel a day to cart in.
Gas ranges stepped on the scene in the 1880s, but consumers were slow to accept them. Not everyone had gas service, and women weren’t sure how to cook on the new device. Besides, the safety dangers of gas headlined the newspapers in cities where gas was available with stories of explosions or life-threatening gas leaks.
By the 1910s, the gas companies had a better handle on gas service, and they wanted to increase number of households using gas. Meanwhile, thanks to women like Fannie Merrit Farmer, cooking had become more of a science. Not only were ladies examining new cooking methods, but they were also privy to food nutrition.
Some gas companies capitalized on homemaker’s desire to learn more about food preparation and hired ladies to lecture on the subject. Of course, if you were representing the gas company, you would need to use a gas stove to prepare the food and educate women how to use them.
In While Love Stirs, which is set in 1910, Charlotte, a graduate of Fannie Farmer’s Cooking School, is offered a position as one of those lecturers. She visits several cities in Minnesota teaching culinary skills and touting the gas range’s easy to clean enameled surface and its time saving features, including being able to have a hot bath in only twenty minutes.
With more free time, women began to step out of the kitchen. Their new knowledge gave them confidence, and they embraced issues that were important to them like fighting for a woman’s suffrage and children’s rights.
Times were changing, but if you wanted a thermostat on your gas stove, you’d have to wait until 1915.
You can purchase Lorna’s novel, While Love Stirs, at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, CBD, or your local bookstore.
The Scavenger Hunt Skinny
Thanks for stopping by my site/blog! Before you move on to Stop #11, Lorna’s own blog, to pick up your next clue, be sure to write down this Stop #10 clue: IF YOU ONLY.
Bonus Prizes!
I’ll also be giving away two copies of The Promise Box. Use the widget below to enter!
I have a few books on sale right now! The Swiss Courier and Chasing Mona Lisa are only $1.99! The Promise Box is only $3.99! And Generation NeXt Marriage is $2.99. You can also get my four World War II novels in the Liberators Series for $13.99.
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Thanks for being a part of the scavenger hunt. I love online scavenger hunts – totally brings out the kid in me! This book you’ve highlighted looks like so much fun!
I don’t know if you ever participate in linky parties, but if you are ever so inclined, I’d love for you to join our book-loving community at Booknificent Thursdays on Mommynificent.com. We gather every Thursday and share posts about books we’ve been reading or writing and how books are impacting our lives. We’d love to have you join us anytime!
Blessings,
Tina
That sounds so fun, Tina! Thank you for inviting me!
I love my blender, I don’t know what I would do without it. haha I know a lame one but hey I love my blender 🙂 Thank You! 🙂
I love my Microwave. Not a day goes by without using it unless the power is out.
Thanks for being a part of the scavenger hunt.electric range.
Thank you for participating in this lovely giveaway, I’m having so much fun! And I have to say, it’s a tough pick but I think I love my fridge the best. Sorry to all the people of the past, but spicing my meat so you can’t tell if its rotting? Not really my type of food storage,
An electric mixer sure is handy! That you for the hunt!
My mixer need an new one though but still can’t do without it.
I am most thankful for indoor plumbing if that counts…if not I am thankful for a dishwasher!
Air conditioning
I am most thankful for the stove/oven definitely!
I love my dishwasher.
The most modern day appliance that I am thankful for would have to be my refrigerator. I would love to have have and cook on a wood cook stove.
I would have to pick my dishwasher.
I am must thankful for my dishwasher! If I didn’t have it I would spend several hours a day washing dishes!
Excited about this giveaway!
Air Conditioning has to be my favorite!
Thanks for participating in the hunt, it’s been great fun so far! It’s hard to imagine life without an oven, but I think I love my refrigerator better. 🙂
I don’t want to do without my washing machine! I can do without a sewing machine or dishwasher, but spare me from the rub board!
My two most favorite modern kitchen appliances would have to be a microwave and toaster oven.
I couldn’t live without my crock pot or emersion blender. I use them often and they make life SO. MUCH. EASIER!
My 2 fave modern Kitchen appliance would have to be my dishwasher and my microwave! Could not imagine life without them! Thank you so much for this awesome hunt!
Love my microwave, especially for making frozen dinners and boiling water for coffee. A refrigerator is great, too. We used to have an old green stove from 1922. I remember my mother had to light the burners with a match.
My mixer. I don’t know what I’d do without it. I honestly don’t know what people did (with arthritis) back in the day. And thank you, for this fun Scavenger Hunt. I always look forward to them.
I love my fridge. I think I could cook on a wood stove…I love my freezer too! 🙂
Love my dishwasher!!!
I’d have to say I’m thankful for my refrigerator. It seems like I’m always grabbing something from it.
I love my mixer. I love to bake so it is my prize mixer!!
Coffee maker, although I have a percolator !
Linda Finn
I love the refrigerator/freezer and then the microwave. Thank you for participating in the scavenger hunt and for the opportunity of the giveaway.
The food processor can do so much.. A gas stove is also a must….
Microwave
Thank you for the giveaway of your book The Promise Box
I’m thankful for my stove and refrigerator
I love my dishwasher! I’m just getting to know my new convection/microwave oven but I have a feeling I’m going to love it, too!
I am thankful for washing machines & dryers especially during cold, winter months. Would love to win…thanks for the opportunity…Linda
The washer, dryer and the oven!
I am thankful for a washer/dryer, a microwave and my Crock Pot.
I would have to say the Shower! I could never picture myself outside bathing in a tin bucket. LOL.
I’m thankful for all my electric appliances, stove, refrigerator, microwave, wAsher/dryer, and especially my dishwasher.
I would say the microwave. Although I couldn’t get by without any of my appliances!
I am thankful for my washer and dryer. Also, love the dishwasher.
Hi Tricia! Thanks for participating in the Scavenger Hunt! I love doing this every time it comes around. SO MUCH FUN! I think the one thing that I wouldn’t want to be without is indoor plumbing. As much as I hate the cold, I just can’t imagine having to go outside in the middle of the night in the dead of winter. Brrrrrrr!!!!! See you over at Avid Readers. 🙂
My BlendTec blender ;). It’s the most awesome thing since sliced bread–really! One appliance that makes both soup AND ice cream?!
Thanks for all the fun you have provided with this scavenger hunt. I love my glass top stove.
Thanks for doing this. I have read a couple of your books and really enjoyed them 🙂
I love the microwave and the refrigerator.
Kitchen appliance-oven & refrigerator! Household? Washer/dryer . . . and indoor plumbing . . .toilet! : ) Thanks for the scavenger hunt! Love your books and your blog!
Could not survive without my fridge or microwave, Having fun on the scavenger hunt. Thank you.
I love my clothes washer and dryer!
The stove , refrigerator, and washer and dryer.
A dishwasher and washer & dryer. These are the two greatest appliances 🙂
Most thankful for the icemaker in our GE Profile fridge! Use it all the time. sm
I am having such a good time learning of all these wonderful authors through the Spring Scavenger Hunt!!!
Loving this hunt. I really love my microwave – at least as much as my husband loves his grill. crystalbluern at onlineok dot com
I love my microwave
The kitchen appliance I am most thankful for is my oven!
I have an electric glass top stove and I’m very grateful for having it. My fridge is another.
I don’t know that it counts as an appliance, but I am very thankful for indoor heat!!
Probably my washer and my oven!
I am thankful for my refrigerator/freezer.
I’ve begun to get hot flashes so right now my FREEZER holding all of my refreezable ice packs that I also use in my cooling vest when it gets warm outside that I got for my MS is the appliance I cannot live without. Otherwise, it would be my TOASTER OVEN. I’m single so I don’t need to get my home hot by turning on the full sized oven for small meals – which is also more energy efficient and keeps it cooler inside my home!
Oh my…that’s a tough one…probably the microwave and W/D! 😀
I’d have to say my rice cooker — not as necessary as a stove though!
I would have to say the microwave would be #1 on the list. Next on my list would be the mixer and stove/oven because I do a lot of baking!
well, would have to say the clothes washer….the days of boiling water either on stove but likely over flame in yard, soak , bluing, self agitating, and then spin cycle to get rid of excess water, yea, love the washer but still hang clothes out on line
I would have to say the refrigerator is the modern appliance I am most thankful for. Thanks for the giveaway!
I guess it is a toss up between the refrigerator and the stove. They are both so important. Thanks for being a part of the scavenger hunt. I’m having a lot of fun on it.
I would have to say air conditioning, fridge, stove, car, clothes washer! 🙂
Thank you so much for participating in the Hunt!
Stephanie C.
Only One? Very hard to do. Can we even exist without many of our modern marvels? Would not want to go back to living without them.
Air conditioning.
As you have stated “Kitchen Appliance”, I suppose the washing machine doesn’t count, as it is NOT in my kitchen. hahah… But,. I am SO grateful for my stove/oven, my dishwasher, and my REFRIGERATOR… Oh, my… not to mention running water, but that is not an appliance. and, electric light!!! So MUCH to be thankful for! ps… the giveaway was not specific about it being or not being open to internationals… I am participating, since I don’t know, but I understand if I am not counted. 🙂
my refrigerator
After having read this, I would have to say my stove is wonderful. I am also thankful for my refrigerator/freezer and microwave. And, having been without one for a few years now, I will be thrilled when someday I can once again have a dishwasher!
Thanks for participating in the Hunt. It’s a great way to find authors I haven’t read before.
Oh and is definitely the microwave.
Running water and the refrigerator are my favorites in the kitchen! 🙂
Thank you for being part of the scavenger hunt. What a fun way to be introduced to more authors!
I would have to say that the appliance I couldn’t leave without would have to be the microwave.
Thank you for the scavenger hunt this is a wonderful way to discover new authors. I must say the appliances I am most thankful for are my stove and refrigerator.
I think I would have to say the fridge and the stove. However, I certainly appreciate my small appliance – my coffee maker 🙂
Central air and heat. I don’t know how I’d live in TX without them. Always love your work.
The toilet!
Hmm that’s a tough question, but I think I’m going to say air conditioning! Living in the south, it can get pretty hot!!
We had a stove like that in our garage for a long time before we finally sold it. Great to see you here, Lorna. I’m thankful for a coffeemaker that you ready the night before and wake up to the smell of coffee.
Washing machine & dryer, refrigerator and toilet.
SO thankful for the diswasher!
Love my Kindle. I am able to read many new authors and have found so many authors I enjoy reading that way!
I am most thankful for my washer and dryer!
Couldn’t live without dishwasher.
I cannot live without my refrigerator! In the past several years we have had some major snow and wind storms and have power knocked out for 3-6 days! I couldn’t eat!!!! Not because the stove wouldn’t work (electric) but because I had no “cold” food like butter, milk, eggs, or frozen tv dinners! lol
my dishwasher
The modern appliance I am probably most thankful for is my microwave. I don’t have to turn on the oven every time, just to heat things.
Having been without one of these amenities at one time or another…i would have to say indoor plumbing/toilet would be missed the most! 🙂
My dishwasher!
It’s hard to choose just one! I guess I would have to say the gas range. I’m assuming I’d have an ice box–not just the creek to keep things cold.
I am most thankful for my electric stove and refrigerator/freezer. The microwave is nice but doesn’t take the place of the stove or oven. Thanks for participating in the scavenger hunt.
Living in West Texas I have to say that I am most thankful for first is my refrigerator then my stove and microwave.
Microwave and w/d. Thanks for being in the scavenger hunt.
Thanks for sharing your amish romances and about appliances used at the turn of the century.
I’m very thankful for the refrigerator! There are certainly many helpful appliances, but if you can’t keep fresh food…there would be problems! 🙂 Thanks for participating in the scavenger hunt and for offering the extra giveaways!
Very thankful for a washer! I couldn’t imagine hand washing my husbands grungy work clothes!! 😛
I am thankful for my microwave and washer and dryer
I am thankful for my dishwasher. 🙂
I honestly don’t know–I bake and cook A LOT, and the gas stove, gas oven, and microwave are all extremely helpful. I may have to say a refrigerator, though, as I would be extremely limited in what foods I could actually have to cook with, (and how long before we had to eat them,) 🙂 without it.
I am thankful for my stove 🙂
Hello Tricia. I really enjoyed your visit with lorna. I think I would have to say the Refrigerator would be the most needed. I can wash dishes without a dishwasher, in fact I do. Can get them done faster than the machine most times. And if we couldn’t keep our food safe thee would be no need for our stove or Microwave. I am really enjoying this Scavenger Hunt.
I do follow you already on your FB and Pinterest. Would love to be your winner. Maxie mac262(at)me(dot)com
Sorry girls but I don’t Tweet.
Probably doesn’t qualify as an appliance, but I’m thankful for the digital, database food scale I have…I need it to determine carb counts for my 5 year old son newly diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes. This thing is seriously a life saver!!
I am so excited about this scavenger hunt!!!!!
Washer and dryer
microwave
I’m most thankful for my stove/oven, refrigerator/freezer, water heater, air conditioner, and internet!
the fridge and toilet.
Love the scavenger hunt. I have enjoyed reading all the excerpts and discovering new authors. I would have to say that I am most thankful for washing machines. They just makes life so much easier.
Thank you all for sharing your most beloved appliance. You’ve made me rethink all the blessings I have. When I first posed this question, my first thought was being thankful for my Kitchenaid Mixer. My mother-in-love gave it to me when my kids were little. Not only have I used it every day, I also used it for my Christmas cookie business.
I love my microwave but I am learning to love my oven.
definitely thankful for the oven(easier to bake consistently with)
After the stove, my electric mixer.!
Geez I can not pick just one, but I guess it would be the microwave. How would we get along with out them:). Thanks for the giveaway.
This is always fun.
This is fun thanks for the opportunity to participate
May I say ALL of them ?! I guess if I had to narrow it down, it would be my hot water heater because I just hate a cold shower and my washing machine 🙂 Thank you for your participation in the Scavenger Hunt and for the link to your Pinterest board. I would love to visit Montana some day.
Washer and Dryer!
Thankful for my microwave!
My microwave!
I am most thankful for blenders! I have lots of smoothies so blenders come in very handy 🙂 awesome scavenger hunt btw!
Would love to have your book to read and add to my bookshelf!
Love my washer and dryer!
I’m a fan of indoor plumbing. 🙂 And the washer / dryer.
I am thankful for my microwave.
I am most thankful for the washer and oven.
I’m most thankful for my dishwasher, washing machine, and dryer! Wouldn’t want to live without them!
I’m most thankful for the hot water heater! I like things clean (hence my Micro. background)… A close second would have to be either the microwave or the oven. This is definitely not something I’ve really thought about until we started planning and designing our new house awhile back…the dishwasher may have to wait, due to our tight budget. ;(
I love the electrical outlets in my house. I don’t know what life would be like without them…..:)
I had to think hard about the appliance that I appreciate much. I think having a washer and dryer is my favorite. There was a time when I had neither and literally used my washboard (I bought it when I was 11 and very into antiques) and a line to dry my clothes for a year. The line dry made everything so hard. It was a rough time. Glad it is over. Thank you for joining in the scavenger hunt!
i guess the thing i would miss most in the kitchen would be my electric stove. i can’t imagine doing everything on a wood burning stove. Thanks for being a part of the hunt!
I commented earlier but didn’t say which appliance I was most thankful for. I guess the hot water tank first, then the new refrigerators with the water and ice dispencers (I really hated when no one refilled the ice cube trays.) Of course my family would be thankful for the modern stoves hee hee. Really I am thankful for all the modern appliances. I remember the wringer washer and helping mom wash the clothes, hanging them on the line, bring them in, run them thru the starch, hang them back on the line to dry, Then bring them back in sprinkle with water, roll in tight roll place them in a plastic bag, Later you would have to iron them. So I guess I am also thankful for permanent press fabric!!!
I am most thankful for the washing machine and gas stove!