by Roseanna White | May 4, 2012 | Uncategorized
First, just wanted to let everyone know that today at the Colonial Quill, I’m blogging on using the Classics in my writing, and I’ve put up a fun little list of some of the literature that I’ve drawn on in my Colonial books.
https://www.roseannamwhite.com/2012/05/tools-of-trade-classics.html
And next, for anyone within driving distance of Hagerstown, MD, remember I’ll be at the Valley Mall tomorrow from 10 – 1 with other Christian novelists Rita Gerlach, Loree Lough, Dani Pettrey, Jeannette Windle, and Eileen Rife! We’ll each have gift baskets we’re raffling off at noon, just for an added bonus. 😉
by Roseanna White | May 3, 2012 | Thoughtful Thursdays, Uncategorized
Blinders–we all wear them. Those things that keep us from seeing things, or at least from seeing them clearly. With horses, they’re used to keep the animals on track, to keep them from getting distracted. But for us? Hmm . . .
I often find myself with blinders in relation to my writing, especially when I’ve been working hard on a project. In those times, we tend to get too close, too involved. We go cross-eyed. What do you expect when you read through the same three chapters eight times in two days, right? I was just there last week with a proposal I was readying for my agent. “It’s probably rough,” I told her, though I honestly couldn’t be sure. “I can’t really see it at this point.”
Then there’s my house. I can honestly say that after something has been in the same place for a week or so, I just don’t see it anymore–even if that means it never gets puts away, LOL. This is why the mess remains so long here. Mommy just doesn’t pay attention. And the others in my family are even worse about this so . . .
The cure for blinders, in my experience, is distance. After a week or two or away from a project (a month is even better), I can evaluate weak spots and strong spots. I can see where work needs to be done. (In the case of this particular proposal, my agent acted as the distance, showing me where to tweak and otherwise assuring me that, whether I could see it or not, it was ready to be sent.)
The same goes for my house. After a few days away, I come in and go, “Hey, why is that still sitting there? I should put that away . . .” I can see what I haven’t been able to see. Where I need to work. What I need to do.
But what about me? See, I can never get distance from myself, LOL. I can’t take any time away from me. So how do I clear my vision and know where I stand? How can I know where to improve?
It’s tough–and not a new problem. I’ve been reading through the Gospels (just finished the fourth one last week), so I’ve seen over and again all those occasions where Jesus has to call somebody out. Ever stop and really think about the Pharisees? Wonder why they couldn’t just see what He was trying to tell them?
I’ve got to think it might have something to do with this same phenomena. They’d been doing things the same way forever. Had things in the same places. And even if those places were wrong, they were too involved, too much inside it to notice. It took Someone new coming along to point it out.
We can’t get distance from ourselves, no–but we can find some quiet. Some distance from the rest of the world that might be influencing or overwhelming us. We can have some communion with our Lord and say, “Show me, Father. Show me where I am and what I need.”
I can see, right now, what I need in terms of work, in terms of housekeeping (a maid would be nice, LOL)–but as for me? Well, there are the obvious places where I have, ahem, room for improvement. But my prayer today is that Lord shows us each what we really need. That He shows us where we’re strong and where we’re weak. That He whispers His truth in our ear and gives us the ears to hear it. And that doesn’t just mean pointing out where we need to change–sometimes it also means having our eyes opened to where we’re really doing well.
See, blinders don’t just keep us from seeing the truth of what’s bad. Sometimes they can keep us from seeing what we’re doing right too.
Where are yours today?
by Roseanna White | May 2, 2012 | Remember When Wednesdays, Uncategorized
It’s been a looooooooong time since I’ve gotten to give a character a car. A horse, yes. Picking out a type of carriage, sure. But a car? I haven’t written a story with a car in years. So when I began to ponder turning my Victorian trilogy into an Edwardian one, one of my first thoughts was, “Oh wow–I need to pick out a car for Justin!”
Perhaps I should give you a little history first. Way back when I was twelve, I had this idea for a book. Which, I said, I would write until I finished it! A little over a year later, I scratched the words “The End” enthusiastically across the last of my hundreds of pages of notebook paper. The book was called Golden Sunset, Silver Tear. It was about Brook, who was raised as a princess in the fictional country of Bratinburg before discovering through the help of her best friend Justin, future English duke, that she was really British. Her bead necklace contained clues to what led to her parents’ deaths and her own fate.
Two years after that, I discovered Monaco. So Brook became an adopted Grimaldi. Another three years, and I gave the book a major overhaul to update the writing but kept the plot in place. Another three years and I was out of college, had my first baby, and was determined to make this book as good as the others I’d written in the intervening years. So I chucked pretty much every scene, kept the premise, changed names where necessary, and retitled the book Fire Eyes.
In 2007, the book landed me an agent. But alas, though a few publishers took it to committee, it always struck out. So fast forward back to two weeks ago, when my (second) agent said, “Do you have anything Edwardian?” and I said, “No. But I could.” =)
This is so much fun because I know these characters inside out and upside down. So tossing them into a world 50 years after where I first envisioned them leads me to all sorts of fun decisions. Would Brook still have been content with stolen solitary horse rides, or would the changing times have upped her rebellion? Would she now be borrowing cars for her stunts? Oh, you bet she would. So I open now with her sliding a gloved hand along the side of a Rolls Royce Silver Ghost. And, when its owner (Justin) catches her in the act of taking the wheel, she demands a driving lesson of her longtime friend.
Thankfully, I’m married to a man who can answer all my stupid questions about first-generation cars. Like, “Okay, so you crank it to start it . . . how do you turn it off?”
Hubby: “You switch off the magneto.”
Me: “The mag-what-o?” Oh yes. It required a bit of an education, LOL.
Thus far the automobile has found many fun places in the three chapters I’ve rewritten of Fire Eyes (which has been retitled yet again). Justin has just received his Silver Ghost from his father–who bought for himself one designed by “that Bugatti chap” as my Earl of Abingdon says. Justin’s best friend, once a rogue aristocrat who chose to sail the high seas instead of attend his estates back home, is now a race car driver in the first Grand Prix and rallies. The debut Indianapolis 500 will be coming up within the pages of my book, and you can bet Lord Thate will be there. =)
For historical writers, there’s nothing truer than “If you change the setting, you change the whole book–characters included.” It’s very true. And this change of setting will cause many, many a change to this first-ever novel I wrote. But oh, isn’t it fun to see how my characters adapt to the times!
by Roseanna White | May 1, 2012 | Uncategorized
Swoon-Worthy Historical Romantic Suspense!
I admit it–I love a reprobate of a hero whose journey includes redeeming him. I love a heroine who falls for him knowing it’ll lead to heartbreak. I love a couple at cross-purposes who must find the will of the Lord in the tangle of their own webs. And I love, love, love stories with a backdrop of intrigue and adventure. So it’s no great surprise that Heart’s Safe Passage took my breath away.
Phoebe may have been a pampered gentlewoman earlier in life, but after tragedy, scandal, and disappointment, she’s determined to forge her own independence through midwifery. But when her sister-in-law has a crew of British privateers kidnap her so she’ll travel with the pregnant woman to England to rescue her captured husband, Phoebe finds her determination matched–by the heartless yet compelling captain Raphael Doherty, who has far more secrets than any Virginian lady could possibly understand. Drawn to her though he may be, he cannot give up his quest for vengeance, even if it means refusing an all-consuming love. How, after all, could he live with himself if he lets go of the one thing that has given him purpose? Both Phoebe and Rafe must face their demons . . . or be consumed by them.
Heart’s Safe Passage has an amazing setting, with non-stop action on the high seas. It has a fantastic premise of betrayal and treachery and redemption with a backdrop of the War of 1812. But what I absolutely adored about it was the compelling, believable love story. I’m not always convinced by stories of love that take place in a short amount of time, but I found this one not only believable but heart-wrenching. Eakes does a superb job of painting characters so very troubled, so very flawed, but so very needful of what the other can offer. Their love is quick, bright, but known by both to be less than enough to overcome all that is against them. Only love of the Lord can achieve healing like that.
This one goes on my favorites shelf with Laurie Alice Eakes’s other books!
by Roseanna White | Apr 30, 2012 | Word of the Week
This is a bit silly and short a word, but I was totally surprised to learn it was so new! Well, the word condominium is from 1714, but it carried the meaning of “joint rule or sovereignty” and was word used in politics and international law. Until, that is, in the 1960s it got used to mean a “privately owned apartment” (people would be jointly ruling the building…), at which point that obliterated the original use. I had no clue it was so new in that sense!
Now, as promised last week–a picture of me in my Croquet getup, featuring hat and dress both from Victorian Trading Company. =)
Roseanna M. White is a bestselling, Christy Award winning author who has long claimed that words are the air she breathes. When not writing fiction, she’s homeschooling her two kids, editing, designing book covers, and pretending her house will clean itself. Roseanna is the author of a slew of historical novels that span several continents and thousands of years. Spies and war and mayhem always seem to find their way into her books…to offset her real life, which is blessedly ordinary.