Welcome to the Spring Christian Fiction Scavenger Hunt!
The Scavenger Hunt runs from Noon (eastern) March 22 until March 24. If this is the first stop on the hunt for you, you will need to go to the HOME page to start and to get the complete instructions. You can also return there if at any time you need to read the instructions again.
Hello! Welcome to my site. I’m Carla Stewart and I’m thrilled to be participating for the second time in the Christian Fiction Scavenger Hunt! My upcoming book is titled Sweet Dreams, and I’ll be sharing an excerpt from it below.
About Me – I’m the award-winning author of three novels. My fourth, Sweet Dreams, releases in May from FaithWords. I have a passion for times gone by, and my desire is to take readers to that place in their hearts called “home.” I believe in Jesus, the power of the written word, and a good cup of coffee. My husband and I have four adult sons and delight in the adventures of our six grandchildren.
About My Book – It’s 1962, and Dusty Fairchild, daughter of a self-made millionaire and oilman, wants to go to college. Instead she is sent to a private finishing school in East Texas. Although she’s never wanted for material possessions, Dusty longs for independence and adventure. The only upside to attending Miss Fontaine’s is having her cousin and best childhood friend, Paisley, join her. Paisley has traveled the country with her bohemian mother, but she dreams of putting down roots and living a settled life. At Miss Fontaine’s, their loyalty to each other binds them, but when they fall in love with the same handsome young man, their relationship teeters on shaky ground. Only after a tragic accident do they learn where their true hearts . . . and dreams . . . lie.
An Excerpt from Sweet Dreams –
PROLOGUE
Two Forks, Texas, 1947
She found the stones the day they buried her mama. Three of them catching the sunlight, twinkling beyond the grave site. Her daddy clamped her small hand in his beefy, calloused one while she busied herself with sniffing the air, ITS smell of fresh earth tickling and sweet, mixed with the heavy perfume of roses. She itched to break free, to muster her way through the skirts that swished this way and that, to run past the stiff black britches of the men who stood like wooden soldiers at the ends of the box they said held her mama.
She craned her neck, keeping watch on the shiny stones. They winked back from their nesting place along the fence row.
When her daddy’s hand went slack, she dashed for it and dropped to her knees on the grass, the scent of sage sharp from the field next to the graveyard. With plump fingers, she reached out shyly and touched the stones. They were warm like the summer sun, one of them full of sparkle with rough edges that bit into her fingers, another smooth, the size and shape of a pecan, black on the top and bottom with a ribbon of white through the middle. And the last one, dull brown and rough to her fingertips but flecked with a million black dots. When curled in her palm, it had a perfect indentation to rest her thumb.
“Whatcha got?”
She jerked her head around, then smiled. Her cousin, Paisley, stood with her hands planted firmly on her narrow waist, the taffeta of her dress noisy.
“Nothing.” The spiny stone, the prettiest one, bit into the palm of her balled fist.
“Yes, you do. Show me.”
One by one, she uncurled her fingers. “Here, you can have it.”
“Really? Oh, look, it’s covered with diamonds.”
They plopped their bottoms on the grass and had just gotten settled when a shadow crept over them. Aunt Edith reached down and snatched Paisley up by the arm. “Come on. You’re getting your dress dirty. It’s time to go. Tell Dusty good-bye now.”
When Paisley offered the stone in her open hand, Dusty shook her head. “You can have it and bring it tomorrow when we play.”
Aunt Edith had already started toward the iron gate, pulling Paisley with her. Just one quick wave, and they were gone.
Paisley didn’t come over the next day. Or the day after. Dusty’s daddy said it was good riddance, and the way he spit the words out, she knew Paisley was gone for good. She squeezed her eyes to shut out the tears. Daddy didn’t like crying. No tears for her mama. None for her cousin. All she had left was two stones—one with a skunk stripe, the other dull brown. She carried them everywhere in her pocket, the lumps as familiar as the dimple in her chin and the blue of her eyes when she stood on the bathroom sink and looked in the mirror.
She knew as sure as her name was Dusty Agnes Fairchild that the earth that swallowed her mama had given the stones in exchange. There was no other explanation. Later, when she told her daddy about them, he said she was mistaken about when she got them, that no three-year-old child could remember such a thing. He said there were a dozen places on the ranch she could’ve picked them up and that her imagination would get her in a heap of trouble.
She left him to his opinions and didn’t mention that she also knew someday Paisley would return. She didn’t know how or when, but the feeling never left her, like a tiny suitcase packed by the door, waiting for the day when the door would burst open and life would return to normal.
You can see buying options for the book by clicking here.
My Own Contest – I’m giving away an additional copy of Sweet Dreams on my site here. To enter, comment below (1 entry) and tell me if you have followed me on Twitter (1 entry), liked my page on Facebook (2 entries), tweeted about the contest (1 entry) or shared on FaceBook (1 entry).
And now it’s time to move on to the next stop on the Scavenger Hunt! Adina Senft is next on the list. Click on her name to take you there.
Thanks! Hope you’re having fun and GOOD LUCK!