If you’ve read Isabella’s novel The Little Card, you’ll remember that Teenie Burnside used her artistic talents to draw and embellish a little card on which she had written one of the Bible’s Golden Texts. Teenie hoped that by sharing the cards she could encourage someone to read God’s Word.
But when Teenie’s health prevented her from fulfilling that dream, the girls in her Sunday-school stepped in and began to make more cards. Some were exact copies of the one Teenie made; others were embellished and colored with paint. But no matter their design, the cards all included a Bible verse of God’s promises to us.
Today’s giveaway is a collection of ten Golden Text Bible verses you can color and embellish, just as Teenie and her friends did.
It’s been a busy week for giveaways here on Isabella’s blog! Thank you to everyone who left a comment to enter one of the drawings. Without further ado, here are this week’s winners:
Winners of a Grace Livingston Hill Cookbook:
Judy Pringle
Marie Schlabach
Tammy Teapot Brown
Winners of a “Yesterday Framed in Today” paperback:
MrsSmithCreations
Micah Day
Karen L. Landin
Winners of a “Let Your Light Shine” card pack:
Rebekah A. Morris
CutePolarBear
Barbara Powers
Tammy, Micah, Karen, and Barbara, you’ll receive a Facebook DM. Please reply with your full name and mailing address so we can send your item out right away.
Judy, Marie, MrsSmithCreations, Rebekah, and CutePolarBear, you’ll receive an email from Isabella Alden. Please reply with your full name and mailing address, and your item will be on its way ASAP!
Congratulations, everyone!
This post is part of our 10-Year Blogiversary Celebration! Join us every weekday in September for a fun drawing, giveaway, or free read!
“I declare!” said teenager Mate Kent to her best friend Jessie Wells. “Won’t you be kind enough to tell me what is the matter with you? Do you know you are growing very queer and strange? Now, make a clean breast of it, and tell me what on earth is the trouble.”
“I’m ashamed,” burst forth Jessie, vehemently, “that is the trouble. Mate, you and I have been professors of religion for four years, and who would know it, unless they happened to come to church on Communion Sabbaths? What have we ever either of us done for Christ? How have we been different from everybody else? No wonder the other girls think I’m a hypocrite. I almost begin to think so myself. It’s all wrong, Mate. The Bible says, ‘Let your light shine before men;’ but I’m sure you and I don’t seem to have any to shine.”
Mate was silent from utter amazement. Scarcely anything could have astonished her more than this sudden outburst from Jessie. She did not speak another word, nor did Jessie, until they reached the latter’s gate. Then Jessie suddenly turned toward her and said, in a voice choked with feeling:
“Mate, let us begin at the beginning, and try again.”
And that’s exactly what Jessie did in Isabella’s novel Jessie Wells.
Book cover for Jessie Wells by Isabella Alden.
As soon as Jessie got to her bedroom she opened her Bible, and her eye immediately met these words:
“I have loved thee with an everlasting love; therefore, with loving kindness, have I drawn thee.”
Those blessed words of assurance renewed Jessie’s conviction to let her light shine for Christ from that moment on.
The Giveaway:
We’re giving away “Let Your Light Shine” card sets to three readers of Isabella’s blog!
Each set includes 50 beautifully illustrated cards, each with a Bible verse to inspire you or someone you love to let your light shine.
Use the cards in your daily devotions, share them with others as a message of encouragement, or carry them with you as a helpful way to memorize Scripture.
To enter the drawing, just leave a comment below or on Isabella’s Facebook page no later than midnight (EDT) tonight, September 21.
The three winners will be announced on Friday, September 22. Good luck!
If you haven’t yet read Isabella’s novel Jessie Wells, click here to go to Amazon.com where you can purchase an e-book version for only 99 cents!
This post is part of our 10-Year Blogiversary Celebration! Join us every weekday in September for a fun drawing, giveaway, or free read!
What would you do if a man—a stranger—walked into your town and claimed to be the Son of God? Would you believe him?
And what if he could heal the sick and perform astonishing miracles? Would you give up your life to follow him?
That’s the premise of Isabella’s 1898 novel Yesterday Framed in Today: How would you react if God’s Son came to your home town today?
The new stranger in town is David Holman’s last hope. An old injury has confined David to bed for years; but David has heard rumors about a stranger in town—a stranger who can perform miracles and heal the sick. If David can only get close to him, he’s certain the stranger will heal him, too. But David’s family doesn’t trust the stranger, and they search for logical explanations for the miracles they see. Is it possible the stranger truly is the Son of God? Or is he the evil enemy of man, who must be stopped at all costs?
The Giveaway:
We’re giving away three paperback copies of Isabella’s thought-provoking novel Yesterday Framedin Today.
To enter the drawing, just leave a comment below or on Isabella’s Facebook page no later than midnight (EDT) on Thursday, September 21. (Unfortunately, we can only mail books to readers who live in the United States.)
The three winners will be announced on Friday, September 22. Good luck!
This post is part of our 10-Year Blogiversary Celebration! Join us every weekday in September for a fun drawing, giveaway, or Free Read!
Isabella Alden and Theodosia Foster were not just best friends—they were writing partners, too.
Like Isabella, Theodosia was a prolific writer, and published her work under the pen name “Faye Huntington.”
When they got together to write a story, their styles were so similar, and they were so in tune with each other’s talents, it’s impossible for us to tell which of them wrote what chapter or scene.
Today’s free read is a novel they wrote together about the love of money and how it can change (or reveal) someone’s true colors.
Lawrence Brenholz always knew he would inherit his grandfather’s millions once he satisfied the provisions of the will. But on the eve of that momentous day, when all the Brenholz millions would be his, Lawrence’s ornery old Uncle Amos—long thought to have died in the wilds of Colorado—makes a shocking appearance that threatens Lawrence’s inheritance.
With Uncle Amos’ unreasonable demands disrupting every area of his life, how can Lawrence ever again find peace for himself and those he loves?
“And you think the Lord gives attention to such little details as how long a potato should cook?” asked Ruth earnestly.
“Why, yes, dear,” answered the mother, “if you put a matter, even a little matter, into the Lord’s hands to guide you, and trust that He will, of course, He will.”
—Chapter 7, The Substitute Guest
Oh, those wonderful meals! The ones that make you want to put down the book and head straight for the kitchen! In Grace Livingston Hill’s novels, the magnificent aroma of home cooking fills the air in boarding house and humble home, alike. Quite often, they have a mission all their own.
Grace Livingston Hill did more writing than cooking, but she knew her way around a kitchen and you can tell. Her heroines could put together a full meal at a moment’s notice, pull a hearty lunch out of thin air with the aid of a jar of beef-extract, a can of baked beans, and another of tomatoes or they could single-handedly extinguish flaming pork chops in the midst of buying a tiny house!
If they couldn’t manage it themselves, they could always depend on someone like Aunt Hannah or Molly Poppleton to create a feast that was unforgettable. Then afterward, the dishes were marshaled into the kitchen sink, carefully washed and left to dry (scientifically, of course!) and the buckwheat cakes were set for tomorrow’s breakfast.
As an avid reader of all things Grace Livingston Hill and Pansy, I was fascinated by their detailed descriptions of home life. I could just imagine myself snowed in with my family and welcoming The Substitute Guest into our home and hearth. Just one catch—our home was an apartment and our hearth was an electric stove! Nevertheless, I was determined to somehow recreate that wholesome fare for my own family!
I chanced upon my very first vintage cookbook, a 1931 copy of The Settlement Cookbook, at a quaint roadside stand and began looking for recipes that would have been served on the tables of Grace’s characters. Many more would follow! I wanted to learn how to really cook, instead of relying on cans and boxes and take out.
Apple pie, gingerbread and sugary doughnuts seemed to be simple enough, to be served with a great pitcher of milk or amber coffee. But buckwheat cakes always fascinated me. They appear on nearly a dozen different GLH tables, often paired with sausage and real maple syrup. I had questions.
What exactly is a buckwheat and where do you get one? And what about hubbard squash? I love the name, but no one around here has even heard of it! Flannel cakes? Raspberry vinegar? Caraway Seed Cookies? I wanted to try them all!
Sometimes I had a hard time deciphering the vintage instructions in that little gem of a cookbook. Sometimes there weren’t any—just a list of ingredients! Sometimes I got them very wrong—like the first night I “set my buckwheats” and woke up to an explosion of batter everywhere in the kitchen! Or finally finding someone who knew what a hubbard squash was and actually had one for sale, but not telling us how to open the ugly, gray thing. We had to use a miter saw!!
That’s a photo of my first hubbard squash! I included the recipe on page 50 of the GLH cookbook, or you can download it by clicking here.
I was suddenly adventuring into the books in a way I’d never done before and I loved it!.
“But, wouldn’t it be nice to have all of those recipes in one cookbook?”
I definitely wasn’t alone. Flash back to the early days of the internet. The GLHill Yahoo Group had lots of great email discussions about the more mysterious foods that Grace’s characters enjoyed. Things like Junket (hurried up with a second tablet) or aspic (made to match the dining room) or the dreaded…tongue and peaches! What were these strange things? And could we make those, too?
A few dozen of us set out to catalog the food in all of the GLH books. I was sure this would be a quick project and a cookbook would soon appear. It certainly seemed like a lot of of those favorite foods were repeated. Except they weren’t. There were hundreds of foods, many of them appearing in only one book. This wasn’t looking good. Putting together a single cookbook on my own suddenly seemed like a herculean task.
Smaller seemed like a better approach, so I eventually decided to focus on just the holiday books and asked for help from the online family again. From Thanksgiving with the Lorrimers in The Christmas Bride to that snowed-in Christmas with The Substitute Guest, we tried to cover the festive meals from all of our favorites, right down to the maple-sugar hearts tucked into the stockings in Star of Wonder!
Tea Rolls, from a handwritten recipe left inside a vintage cookbook. Translation is on page 26 in the GLH Cookbook.
A lot of time went into pairing up menus and recipes. It was truly a labor of love. Members of our original group and many more we met along the way on social media served as “test chefs” or did proofreading. There were even a few “family secret” recipes shared for the cookbook. It was a delight to put together and it was meant solely for our GLH groups to enjoy. Much to my surprise, it’s been discovered by hundreds more kindred readers around the world!
Have you always wanted to taste those memories from yesterday? You can join in on the holiday fun, too. The Grace Livingston Hill Cookbook, Volume 1: Vintage Recipes from the Holiday Books is available at Amazon in paperback or Kindle versions, or you can purchase a personalized, signed copy by reaching out by email at stories@gracelivingstonhill.com. And by the way, there’s a GLH Christmas story tucked into the back of the cookbook that you’ve probably never read. It’s called The Half of a Christmas and it’s my gift to everyone with a copy of the cookbook.
Original illustration from The Half of a Christmas in “Our Sunday Afternoon” December 18, 1891
The Giveaway:
We’re giving away three paperback copies of The Grace Livingston Hill Cookbook, Volume 1 by Daena Creel.
In addition to recipes, this charming book is filled with vintage ads, menus from Grace’s different novels, and delightful illustrations.
To enter the drawing, just leave a comment below or on Isabella’s Facebook page no later than midnight (EDT) on Thursday, September 21.
The three winners will be announced on Friday, September 22. Good luck!
If you’d like to purchase your own copy of Daena’s book, click on the link below to go to Amazon.com:
You can learn more about Grace Livingston Hill’s life and books by visiting Daena’s website at GraceLivingstonHill.com.
Thank you to everyone who entered the “Be a Blessing to Others” prize package drawing!
We’re happy to announce the winners are:
Cathy Wilusz
Luba
Sallie Borrink
Cathy, you’ll receive a Facebook DM; Luba and Sallie, you’ll receive an email from Isabella Alden. Please reply with your mailing address so we can send your “Be a Blessing to Others” prize package right away!
This post is part of our 10-Year Blogiversary Celebration! Join us every weekday in September for a fun drawing, giveaway, or Free Read!
When Isabella edited The Pansy magazine, she made sure each issue included (in addition to her own stories) a wide variety of content, such as essays on science, history, life in foreign countries, and biographies of famous people.
Her family members regularly contributed articles, anecdotes, stories, and poems.
Isabella’s husband, her son, her sister, and even her niece Grace Livingston (who, as Grace Livingston Hill, later became a best-selling author just like her aunt Isabella) all wrote poems for The Pansy.
The Giveaway
Today’s giveaway is an e-book of some of the best-loved poems from the pages of The Pansy magazine.
Sometimes soulful, sometimes charming or funny, Poems of Faith from The Pansy is the perfect read when you’re in the mood for a bit of whimsy or a quiet moment of reflection.
You can read Poems of Faith from The Pansy for Free!
Before Isabella published a new novel, she often shared the story in chapter-by-chapter installments in magazines. One example is her novel Christie’s Christmas. Before it was published in 1885, part of it appeared in The Pansy magazine under the title “Christie at Home.” Then the magazine’s publisher advertised the story in newspapers across the country:
From The Perry County Democrat (Pennsylvania) newspaper, November 5, 1884.
When Isabella’s niece, Grace Livingston Hill began her writing career, she followed suit. Several of her short stories and novels first appeared as serials in magazines before the complete story was published in book form.
In 1905 Grace’s novella The Governor’s Son was published as a serial in a Christian magazine. Then, in 1909, the same story appeared as a serial in a British magazine. Both publications included lovely pen and pencil illustrations of some of the story’s key scenes.
The Governor’s Son is about a young woman named Leslie who spends the summer with her sister and cousin at a seaside resort. Here’s one of the magazine illustrations showing Leslie befriending an elderly woman while on the train to the resort, as her sister and cousin look on.
That small act of kindness earns Leslie a new friend, and she and the elderly woman spend quite a bit of time together on the seashore.
The Governor’s Son was never published in book form, but all the complete magazine issues survived, so the story could be pieced together; and it’s now available for purchase on Amazon.com.
The Giveaway:
We’re giving away five e-book copies of The Governor’s Son by Grace Livingston Hill!
Shy, lovely Leslie Graham would rather spend her summer at home reading a book, but her parents insist she accompany her sister Anna to a seaside resort, where the sisters’ differences quickly come to light. While Anna tries to mingle with the resort’s most fashionable and wealthy inhabitants, Leslie makes friends with sweet, elderly Mrs. Hamilton, who likes to watch the ocean, quote Bible verses, and talk about her son. And when Mrs. Hamilton’s son arrives, Leslie realizes Chauncey Hamilton is just as thoughtful and handsome as his mother described. In the face of such kindness, Leslie can’t help but prefer to spend her days and nights with Chauncey and his mother, even as Anna plots to pull her in a more worldly and dangerous direction.
To enter the drawing, just leave a comment below or on Isabella’s Facebook page no later than midnight (EDT) on Thursday, September 14.
The five winners will be announced on Friday, September 15. Good luck!
If you love Grace Livingston Hill stories and can’t wait until Friday to read The Governor’s Son, you can purchase your copy of the novella by clicking here.
Remember: You don’t have to own an Amazon Kindle to read The Governor’s Son. Just download Amazon’s e-reader app to read the story on any electronic device.
This post is part of our 10-Year Blogiversary Celebration! Join us every weekday in September for a fun drawing, giveaway, or Free Read!
Reviews and giveaways for Christian fiction and sweet, clean fiction. Bringing readers information on great stories and connecting authors with their readers.
Isabella Alden 