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!

I’m Roseanna M. White, author of a slew of historical romances, along with some contemporary mysteries from Guideposts. My real life is full (homeschooling mom of two teens, need I say more??) but also very … ordinary. So I offset that by writing about things like spies and nobility and war and mayhem whenever I can. And with my next book, I not only have the start of England’s domestic intelligence agency, MI5, I also have (cue all the music) some circus themes! Here’s a bit about A Beautiful Disguise:

Five years ago, Lady Marigold Fairfax and her little brother, Yates, discovered a horrible truth: the circuses and acrobats and theater troupes that had filled their childhood had also bankrupted their estate, and when their father dies, he doesn’t just leave Yates the earl. He leaves them absolutely strapped. So they do what any enterprising young people with unexpected acrobatic skills would do: open a private investigative firm to spy on their peers…for their peers. Dubbed The Imposters, Ltd., their firm promises “discreet disclosures for the most discerning.” But when Sir Merritt Livingstone hires them to help him root out who is betraying their agents in Germany, the answer will take them uncomfortably close to home. And Sir Merritt himself, with his noble soul and ability to see beneath Marigold’s carefully stitched disguises, has her asking all sorts of impossible questions about the future.

 Though there isn’t an actual circus in A Beautiful Disguise, a family of circus performers retired to the Fairfax estate…with some of the non-human stars of the show!

Did you know that the menagerie was one of the biggest draws of a circus in the early 1900s? Just take a look at some of the exotic animals advertised by one of the leading English circuses of the time!

The “modern circus” as we know it today was actually begun by Phillip Astley in 1768, when he and his wife, both skilled riders, established an equestrian school in London, where they taught lessons in the morning and then performed in the afternoons. They did trick riding and speed riding in a circle…which is how he discovered that the ideal size of a circus ring is 42 feet in diameter, because it allows one to use centrifugal force to keep one in the saddle! Astley soon put a roof over his stadium so it could remain open all year…which set the stage for the traveling Big Tops.

It wasn’t long before Astley and his competitors drew in other popular performers from fairs and festivals–acrobats, aerialists, jugglers, clowns, mimes, and so on. Some circuses in the Victorian and Edwardian eras were permanent fixtures, but most traveled not only in their home country, but throughout Europe too.

I can’t wait for readers to meet my retired circus family, the Caesars…and a few furry friends like Leonidas the Lion, Penelope the Monkey, Peabody the Peacock (who kindly donates some loose feathers to Lady Marigold’s wardrobe), and the rest of the crew!

Here’s Your Critical Stop #14 Info:

If you’re interested, you can get a SIGNED copy of A Beautiful Diguise from me right here (and shop for other fun bookish things too!) or order on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, ChristianBook, Baker Book House, or at your local bookstore! 

Clue to Write Down: the right

Link to Stop #15, the Next Stop on the Loop: Gabrielle Meyer’s site!

Special Giveaway!

But before you go, I’m offering a special prize!

One lucky winner with a US address will receive a signed copy of any of my books, plus a tote bag of their choice!
If an international winner is drawn, they’ll receive a book sent via their usual online bookseller. =)

Welcome to the Ordinary Women of the Bible Blog Hop!

The authors who have written books for Guideposts’s Ordinary Women of the Bible series are excited to team up and tell you a bit about our stand-alone biblical fiction. Each book focuses on a woman in the Bible–some named, some unnamed–and tells the familiar story you’ve no doubt read with our own imaginings added to provide depth and background. In this blog hop, you get to learn a bit about some of them.

Collect each keyword in each post and turn them in by October 11 to be entered to win a complete set of the series!* Many authors will also have an individual giveaway you can answer (like me!) You can find the complete list of blog stops and the entry form here.

I wrote book 15 in the series, The Prophet’s Songbird, and had so much fun doing it!

About the Book

WITH A PROPHET FOR A FATHER and a professional mourner for a mother, Atarah has always known the power of words and of song. But her joyful praises are silenced when she is captured in a Syrian raid along with Tavi, a young man who loses his freedom trying to protect her. However, in Damascus, Atarah soon discovers that their new master, Naaman, isn’t the monster she expected—and that her songs glorifying the Most High have a profound effect on his household.

When Naaman shows signs of leprosy, which could spell the end of his career and destroy his family, Atarah tells him of a prophet in Israel who could banish the disease with a word. Though Naaman’s enemies hope for the worst, Atarah trusts he will encounter the power of the Most High. But by faithfully serving a master who serves Israel’s enemy, has she cut herself off from her people forever? Or will the One True God use her to teach a new song of praise to His children?

When my editor at Guideposts approached me about this series, she sent a list of possible characters to focus on, and I knew right away which one I wanted to do–Naaman’s handmaiden, from the story of Naaman being healed of leprosy in 2 Kings. You see, a while back, I had an idea for a story about this unnamed young woman–a Hebrew slave to an enemy general who respected him so much that she sent him to her own people’s prophet for healing.

I was so excited to have the chance to write this story! As I brainstormed the possibilities, I decided that my heroine, Atarah, would help me explore the purpose of praise. Why do we have all those songs, the Psalms, included in the Bible? Why is it still part of our worship? Are there right and wrong ways to do it?

Atarah is the daughter of a prophet from the School and a professional mourner. When the Syrians raid their town and she’s captured, she thinks it’s the end of everything–certainly the end of her joyful songs. But even in Damascas, she finds that words of praise to the Almighty will not be still on her tongue…and through those words, she impacts the people around her.

The servant in Naaman’s story who encourages him to dip in the Jordan even when he feels insulted by the command also plays a key role in my version of the tale! Tavi, in my story, was captured in the same raid because he tried to save Atarah’s life. These two friends navigate Damascas together, and learn what it means to serve the Lord in a foreign land.

In addition to the complete set of books, you can win a copy of The Prophet’s Songbird by filling out the Rafflecopter form below!

* Due to shipping costs, the big giveaway is available only to those with a US address

My Blog Hop Keyword

Song

Visit all the partipating author’s sites to learn about their books and collect their keyword! You can find them all listed here, along with the form for submitting your answers. Best of luck!

Ordinary Women of the Bible Blog Hop Control Page

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 3/18 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, 3/21 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!

~*~

My name’s Roseanna White, and when I’m not momming, homeschooling, designing book covers, and managing WhiteFire Publishing with my hubby, I’m writing novels. Usually historical romance. Many of my books are set in England of the 1910s, but today I’m excited to be sharing about a Civil War-era novel that I actually wrote about 9 years ago, but which just released in January, Dreams of Savannah. Here’s a bit about it:

Cordelia Owens is known all over Savannah for her whimsy and her storytelling. When her sweetheart, Phin, goes missing during some of the first action of the war, her stories keep hope alive in the hearts of his mother and sister. But Phin, a casualty of betrayal that nearly costs him his life, begins to fear that if ever he makes it home to the young woman he loves, he won’t be the kind of hero she’s always wanted–not anymore. Both Delia and Phin are forced to face unwelcome truths about the lives they always thought they understood and the people who move so silently through them. They begin to dream of a new sort of future…but reaching it will take courage far greater than any even Delia could have imagined.

Well I don’t know about you, but when I look at that cover, my main thought is, “Ooooooo, a hoop dress!” I grew up watching Gone with the Wind, and it was the fashion that had me going back to it time and time again. I always loved those enormous gowns, the satin, the lace, the silk, the petticoats…ah, yes. I’ve learned a lot over the years about what actually went into wearing one of these creations on a daily basis…and I’ve also actually worn one a few times. In fact, I wore a dark-pink variation of the one on the cover to a high school Valentine’s dance, and a gold one to my junior prom! (Why yes, ahem. I was totally the cool kid. *Cough, cough.)

When dressing, the first order of business for a Victorian lady would have been a chemise and bloomers–basically a tank top/cami in a lightweight cotton and then knee-length pants and stockings. Then she would have put on her corset. Despite the reputation corsets have, very few women practiced “tight-lacing” like we see in the aforementioned famous movie. Most simply used it to hold everything where it belonged and add structure to their gowns. Next would have come the hoop itself–made up of concentric circles usually made from a thin metal, sewn into a skirt. These fold down into a circle for easy(ish) storage. Over the hoop would have gone multiple layers of petticoats. Why multiples? Because it was unseemly for the hoops to be visible through the final skirt. Only at that point would a woman have slipped the actual dress on. Often they would layer all the skirts/dress on the floor in the proper order, step into the center, and pull ’em all up at once.

My personal experience with the dresses (I also wore one to junior prom) taught me a valuable lesson about how to sit in a hoop skirt. Namely, you have to lift the skirts and make sure you’re positioning your bottom between the hoops. Because if you happen to sit on a hoop instead, that whole skirt will flip up like a bell! (For the record, I made this discovery in my own bedroom, LOL.) So there you have it. How to dress like a Civil War era lady. 😉

If you could wear the clothing from any one historical era, which would you choose?

Here’s the Stop #10 Basics:
If you’re interested, you can order Dreams of Savannah on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, ChristianBook or get a signed copy from my shop!
Clue to Write Down: with

Link to Stop #11, the Next Stop on the Loop: Cathy Gohlke’s site!

Giveaway!

In addition to the big giveaway, I’m offering this mug (also available in my store here) to a recipient with a US address!
Just enter via the Rafflecopter form below.