Christian Fiction Scavenger Hunt STOP #20

UPDATE! 

THE HUNT IS OFFICIALLY CLOSED.  THE WINNER OF A SIGNED COPY OF UNDER THE TULIP TREE WILL BE NOTIFIED VIA EMAIL.  

THANK YOU TO ALL WHO PARTICIPATED!

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 10/15 at noon MST with Stop #1 at LisaTawnBergren'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, 10/18 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!

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I'm so glad you're here! I'm Michelle Shocklee, a fellow reader, but also a writer of historical fiction. As an admitted history nerd, I dearly love digging into the past through research and by visiting musty old buildings, forts, and battlefields, always imagining what it would have been like to live in bygone days. You can find out more about me and my books here on my blog, on my website, Facebook page, Twitter, and Instagram. 

My newest release, UNDER THE TULIP TREE, is a time-slip novel based on the Federal Writers' Project Slave Narratives. It tells the story of two women, separated by age, race, and circumstance, who form an unlikely friendship in 1936. But will this bond of respect, admiration, and friendship be broken by a revelation neither woman sees coming?

"Shocklee elevates the redemptive power of remorse and 

the grace of forgiveness in this moving saga." 

~Publishers Weekly

"With its haunting message of forgiveness, this is a must-buy for 

any Christian or historical fiction collection."

~Library Journal

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If you haven't had an opportunity to read the word-for-word narratives of 1936, I highly recommend searching them out online at the Library of Congress. Reading them was life-changing for me. In the meantime, let me introduce you to a few of the people whose stories inspired some of the most unforgettable characters I've ever written.

Anderson and Minerva Edwards, Ages 93 and 87, Marshall, Texas

Library of Congress, 1936-38

Anderson and Minerva Edwards, a Baptist preacher and his wife, were slaves on adjoining plantations in Texas. Anderson was born in 1844, and Minerva in 1850. They were married after emancipation and raised sixteen children. The first "church" Anderson attended was under a big mulberry tree on the plantation. His master told him that if he was good and obeyed his master, he'd go to heaven. But Anderson felt there was more to it than that, and kept praying until "I felt the change in my heart. I was by myself down by a spring when I found the Lord."

I find their love story and their faith in God incredibly inspiring. The relationship between Frankie and Sam in UNDER THE TULIP TREE is loosely based on them.

Sam Jones Washington, Age 88, Texas

Library of Congress, 1936-1938

His smile is infectious. I can almost hear him chuckling at something the photographer said before snapping his picture. A picture that would, 82 years later, inspire the character of Sam in my novel UNDER THE TULIP TREE.

Sam Jones Washington was born a slave in Wharton County, Texas. He was sixteen years old when the Civil War ended. Like many slaves in Texas, he wasn’t aware of the war or its end until his master told him he was free and would now earn a wage for his work. After the war, he farmed and worked in a factory before retiring. I hope he doesn't mind that I borrowed his name and his smile for my character, Sam.

                                                          Unnamed Mississippi cotton sharecropper

Library of Congress, 1937

I'll never know her name, but her photograph changed my novel.

Her right hand, resting in her lap, looks different. Large and possibly disfigured. As I studied it, I couldn't help but wonder, "What happened to her hand?" That question--and the answer I eventually imagined--changed Frankie's story in UNDER THE TULIP TREE. It changed me, too. 

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Here's the Stop #20 Basics: 

• If you're interested, you can order UNDER THE TULIP TREE on Amazon, B&N, ChristianBook, or at your local bookstore!

• Clue to Write Down: that

• Link to Stop #21, the Next Stop on the Loop: Kara Swanson's site!

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Before you go, be sure to become a Subscriber to this Blog for a chance to win a print copy of UNDER THE TULIP TREE (US only) or an eBook copy of one of my plantation novels! To become a Subscriber and be entered in this exclusive giveaway, just type your email address in the box on the top-right of this page! Easy and done! I'll notify the winner Monday, October 19.

Every blessing,

~Michelle