Christian Fiction Scavenger Hunt Stop #11

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 25 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.
• 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, 10/22 at midnight MST)! So take your time, reading the unique posts along the way; our hope is that you discover new authors/new books.
• Navigating from site to site should be super simple, but just in case you get lost along the way, you can go here to see the full list of all the stops, in order, with links.
• 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 Stop #25. Many authors are offering additional prizes along the way!

I'm thrilled to host Melanie Dobson as part of the Scavenger Hunt. Melanie is a prolific author who writes historical, timeslip, and suspense novels. She has a wonderful heart and a compelling voice. Here is a bit about her book, Enchanted Isle:

In the spring of 1958, Jenny Winter embarks on a two-month adventure to one of the most enchanting places on earth, a quaint village in England's magical Lake District. When Adrian Kemp, a handsome and enigmatic local, shows Jenny his late father's abandoned dream, a deserted island amusement park, she glimpses a kindred spirit in this reckless, haunted young man. Yet as she opens her heart to Adrian, the two stumble into a labyrinth of mystery leading back a generation to an unforgettable romance and an unsolved murder that still casts a shadow over the lakes. As long-held secrets come to light, it's left to Jenny and Adrian to put the past to rest and restore a lost dream.

Take it away, Melanie!

If These Walls Could Talk ...

by Melanie Dobson

The house in Virginia hadn’t been occupied in decades, but someone left clothes hanging in the bedroom closet, plates on the kitchen table, the rusty hood of a Chevy buried in what was once a yard. I was twenty-five at the time, exploring this clapboard home for a newspaper article about forgotten places, and I wished, more than anything, that its crumbling walls could tell me what had happened here.

The house kept its secrets, but this experience changed my life. Abandoned places, I discovered, fueled my imagination. I wanted to know who had lived there, why they left, and where they had gone. When I couldn’t find the answers, I began to create stories of my own.

In the two decades since I trekked through that forgotten house, I’ve written novels inspired by a number of deserted places—a manor home, lighthouse, English cottage and medieval French chateau—but for Enchanted Isle, my latest historical novel, I wanted to write the story of a different sort of place. An amusement park that harbored its secrets well like the abandoned park called Geauga Lake that I visited often as a child.

My main character in Enchanted Isle is an aspiring photographer named Jenny who sees beauty in unexpected places. With pencil and paper, I started building an amusement park from the 1930s for her to explore, set on an island in England’s magical Lake District with a dozen old rides inspired by the sea—a wooden roller coaster that once surfed through the trees, a boat excursion around sunken ships in an ocean cave, and the Magic Lagoon, a merry-go-round with brightly colored sea creatures instead of horses, the eaves of the carousel plated with gold leaf and stained glass.

In the novel, Jenny and a British man named Adrian search together for ancient coins his father purportedly hid on the island. As she learns the legends in this district, Jenny begins to discover beauty among the ruins of the park and she ultimately determines to restore all that’s been lost—the hidden treasure, shattered dreams, and relationships broken in years past after one of the park’s owners disappeared.

Abandoned spaces continue to inspire me today. Because of their secrets, but also because I think of them now in terms of restoration, symbols of hope that God can rebuild the broken walls in all of our stories.

*****

Writing fiction is Melanie Dobson's excuse to explore abandoned houses, travel to unique places, and spend hours reading old books and journals. She enjoys stitching together time-slip stories, and her novels have won awards for historical romance, romantic suspense, and historical fiction. Melanie loves connecting with readers—the best places to find her online are on her website and on Facebook.

Thank you, Melanie, for sharing what inspires you!

Here’s the Stop #11 Skinny:    

You can order Melanie's book on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, CBD or at your local bookstore! 

Clue to Write Down: authors

Link to Stop #12, the Next Stop on the Loop: Melanie Dobson's own site!

*****

But wait–before you go, as a fun addition to the Scavenger Hunt, I'm hosting my own giveaway! Enter to win a Reader's Gift Basket (pictured below), which includes a Reader's Journal, two of my signed books–My Brother's Crown and A Pocket Guide to Amish Life–Amish stationery, an inspirational necklace, a candleholder, an Echoes of Titanic keychain, a Don't Take Any Wooden Nickels wooden nickel, a My Daughter's Legacy porcelain box, and more!

To enter:

1) Like me on Facebook 


2) Click on the button below and complete the entry form. 

Deadline to enter is 11:59 pm on October 22, 2017, so don't delay. Thanks for participating, and best wishes on completing the Scavenger Hunt!

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