The Scavenger Hunt Stop #9
Welcome!
Christian Fiction Scavenger Hunt Stop #9
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 31 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, 11/6)! So take your time, reading the unique posts along the way; our hope is that you discover new authors/new books.
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 #31. Many authors are offering additional prizes along the way!
It is my honor to host the amazing Rachel Hauck. She and I have become good friends over the past few years and she is truly one of the most extraordinary 
women I know. Rachel is a New York Times, USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestselling author. Her book The Wedding Chapel won the 2016 Christy Award.
She is a graduate of Ohio State University, with a BS in Journalism, and lives central Florida with her husband and outdoor cat, Hepzibah. Rachel is also a worship leader, speaker and avid Ohio State football fan.
Here’s a brief summary of her newly-republished The Wedding Shop:
It’s the early 1930s, but Cora Scott is walking in stride as a career woman after having inherited her great aunt’s wedding shop in Heart’s Bend, Tennessee, where brides come from as far away as Birmingham to experience her famed bridal treatment. Meanwhile, Cora is counting down the days until her own true love returns from the river to make her his bride. But days turn into months and months to years. All the while, Birch Good continues to woo Cora and try to show her that while he is solid and dependable, he can sweep her off her feet.
More than eighty years later, former ?Air Force Captain Haley Morgan has returned home to Heart’s Bend after finishing her commitment to military service. After the devastating death of her best friend, Tammy, and discovering the truth about the man she loved, Haley is searching for her place in life.
When Haley decides to reopen the romantic but abandoned wedding shop where she and Tammy played and dreamed as children, she begins a journey of courage, mystery, and love.
As Cora’s and Haley’s stories intertwine through time in the shadow of the beloved wedding shop, they both discover the power of their own dreams and the magic of everyday love.
Here’s Rachel and her post, Diamonds Come From Pressure.
Pink Jewel
Since June of last year, I’ve written three books. I’ve learned to write fast, but three books in 16 months is an Olympic pace for me. Ha!
It started when my editor asked if I could write two books in a six months. I would’ve laughed if I hadn’t known she was serious.
I considered her request, breathed deep. “Diamonds come from pressure. Let’s go for it.”
The first of those “diamond” books was The Wedding Shop, which released August 16th! The second was A Royal Christmas Wedding which hit the shelves October 18th.
The third book, The Writing Desk, will be coming your way next summer.
I’m a contemplative writer. I like to think things over. Mull. Look for symbols and metaphors. Find places where the story pings with itself.
Writing fast impedes that process. At least I think it does.
On the other hand, too much mulling and thinking can dim the light and squish the spontaneous inspiration of a book.
While I’m confident of God in me, I’m not always confident of my ability to access Him. Though isn’t that really on His shoulders as well?
About midway through every book, I wonder if “this will be the book that disappoints everyone.”
I’ve read a few beloved author reviews. “Looks like she phoned this one in.” Or, “I loved her other books but pass on this one.”
No author wants that reaction to a book.
So as I entered the “diamond” season of writing two books last fall, I leaned heavily on Jesus.
He was the one who had to take my heat and pressure season and pull out a couple of sparkling gems. Flawless D quality if you please.
Diamonds really do come from pressure.
Reading Wikipedia I learned:
The diamond have superlative physical qualities due to the strong covalent bonding between its atoms. Diamonds are hard! More than any of it’s counterparts.
It can’t be contaminated. Diamonds have very few impurities. Only boron and nitrogen can impact the material and affect imperfections.
Sapphires
But even those “impurities” can make the diamond beautiful. Blue comes from boron. Yellow from nitrogen. Green, purple, pink, orange and red come from radiation exposure.
A pure diamond disperses light of different colors. The prism. Which I write about in most of my novels!
Here’s the kicker. “Diamonds are brought close to the Earth’s surface through deep volcanic eruptions by magma, which cools into igneous rocks known as kimberlites and lamproites.” — Wikipedia.
Huh? Ya lost me. Translation. Diamonds come to the surface through heat and rumbling and pressure!
Well, imagine there was some “diamond” like story in my gut and the pressure of deadline pushed the stories to the surface.
I think God used that season to push me. He wanted me to believe in His process working through me.
He placed the materials that create “diamond stories” in me. It was up to the process of writing and sweating and praying and begging and believing that brought the stories to life.
Most of us run from pressure. We don’t like being under the gun or squeezed. But it’s often in that process God forms diamonds in us. If we let Him!
Warning! Conditions for creating diamonds must be exact. They come from a specific layer of the interior earth. The heat and pressure must be at the right place at the right time.
Same with us. God provides the right time, right place and right “heat and pressure” to form in us His Son.
Don’t let life and expectations drive you away from Him. Out of His will. Or with such busyness you can’t be formed. Sometimes we just need to sit and be.
We are a ring on God’s finger and He wants to show us off.
In early 2014, I couldn’t have written two books. Because of a physical issue, I was struggling to write one!
God knew that… He kept me in a pressure situation but one I could bear. With Him.
Funny thing…
I was in Barnes & Noble the other day and notice the books written under pressure—How To Catch A Prince and The Wedding Shop were my biggest books!
Wow!
Both earned starred reviews from Booklist.
Jesus is the diamond material in those who believe. But it takes time to form His light in us. But oh how we shine and sparkle! We are multifaceted, showing off the prism of His heart and character!
I trust the process of God in me more than my own abilities. While I hope each book delights readers more than the last, I must leave it up to Him.
I went on to write the third book in the summer and early fall. Still trusting that “diamonds” are being formed and will come to the surface.
What about you? Is there a God-forming diamond process going on in your life? Let Him work and see how you shine!
***
You can order Rachel’s book on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, CBD or at your local bookstore!
The Wedding Shop at Barnes and Noble
Thank you, Rachel, for stopping by…
Here’s the Stop #9 Skinny:
The Clue to Write Down: 
The link to Stop #10, the Next Stop on the Loop: Rachel Hauck’s own site!
But wait! Before you go, I’m offering two books to two entrants—any one of my books, including the new release A Portrait of Emily Price. All you have to do is leave a comment, sign up to get my newsletter (lots of places on my website) or note that you’re already a subscriber.
Thanks and I hope you’re enjoying the hunt!
