by Roseanna White | Sep 2, 2013 | Word of the Week
Leave it to Roseanna to browse through the dictionary for fun on the weekend. 😉 Sunday as I was beginning to think about the Word of the Week, I popped over to
www.etymonline.com and accidentally bumped the O section. Then thought, “Sure, go with it” and browsed through a few pages. Randomly clicked on page 11 and soon was learning something. =)
Operative as an adjective is from the 15th century, meaning “producing the intended effect.” The weakened sense of “important” (i.e., “challenge being the operative word in the speech”) is very new, from 1955. But it’s the noun version that intrigued me. =)
Since 1809 operative has meant “worker; one who operates.” Sure. No problem. But obviously the more interesting is its meaning of “spy.” I’d never looked up this one before, but it’s so right up my alley that I’m kinda surprised I hadn’t, LOL. This meaning came about around 1930, directly from the Pinkerton Agency. They would refer to their detectives as “operatives,” and since much of their work was undercover–spying–it was soon applied to any secret agent. Fun, eh?
by Roseanna White | Aug 29, 2013 | Thoughtful Thursdays, Uncategorized
A while back on another blog, I read a post about how, if we’re honest, we all have the reader-we-wish-we-were and the reader-we-really-are. Like, we might want to think we’re going to read some scholarly, high-falutin’ piece of literature for pure fun one summer…but when it comes down to it, we opt for the romance novel with the pretty gown on the front instead. I really appreciated the thoughts the blogger put forth, because I have totally done that.
It’s a thought that stuck with me, and which translates to a lot more than my reading pile. Because it’s tough sometimes. We should own who we are…yet be improving. We should be happy in our skin…but want to be healthier, in better shape. We should take pride in our work…but not be too proud to take advice.
The more I think on these things, the more I think that finding a balance for each of those circumstances is what helps me discover who I really am. Years ago, I posted about how, when I spend time with some of my best friends, I sometimes come away thinking, “Why am I not like them?” I don’t make food from scratch much anymore. I don’t sew my own clothes. I don’t debate the morality of one brand over another. Should I? Well, hearing their philosophies, I often think I should. But if I give my attention to that…
And one of those friends replied to that blog saying how she leaves those same visits wishing she could develop stories that others want to read, wishing she could be confident in her clothing choices without getting hung up on the why of things, wishing she could be the kind of person to express those very doubts with eloquence.
We all have those I wish I were… moments. We all look at the way our friends parent, dress, exercise, cook, write, read, worship, or [fill in the blank] and think, “I need to be more like them.” But how often are they looking right back at us and thinking the same?
Sometimes this makes me laugh. Sometimes it makes me shake my head. And always it makes me pause and think. Because I can’t be Kimberly or Karlene or Stephanie or Jennifer or Paige or Erin. I can’t be Francine Rivers or Ted Dekker or Laurie Alice Eakes or MaryLu Tyndall or Julie Lessman. I can’t be the college professors who sat around thinking about Aristotle for fun.
There are things I wish I could improve about myself, especially when I reflect on these people I so love. I wish I were more proactive about my homeschooling choices. I wish I were more educated on the medical choices available to us. I wish I knew (and cared) what was in my food. I wish I studied the changing tides of the industry to which I belong. I wish I kept my house clean. I wish I always answered my kids with patience. I wish I could organize my time.
And it’s so incredibly weird to me to be talking to a friend and here her say, “I just keep telling myself, ‘You need to be more like Roseanna. Keep your cool.’ You’re the most laid-back person I know, and I need that.”
I wha…?
LOL.
What I take from that is that we need to learn from each other, yes. We need to grow. We need to stretch ourselves out toward knowledge, as Aristotle would say, and come to a better understanding of our worlds.
But we also need to recognize that we can only do what we can do. We can only be who we can be. We only have so much attention, so many hours, so many days. How do we really want to spend them?
For me, it comes down to this. If I have to decide between working out and writing, I’m going to choose writing. But if I can combine working out with brainstorming…well, that’s awesome! So rather than doing videos that demand my full attention, I’ve been walking. It gives me much-needed time to think in peace, and that makes my writing time for fruitful.
If I have to decide between keeping my house clean and spending extra time on fun lessons with my kids, I’m going to choose my kids. Because sometimes it seems like if I spend my whole day teaching the must-dos, then the following hours cleaning up, I never get to hug them. Never get to cuddle. Never get to put puzzles together and build Lego tractors. So I prioritize. The kitchen must be cleaned, the toys have to be put away. But I’m not going to fret over every stray piece of paper.
The list goes on. Will I ever reach a place where I’m not frustrated day-to-day with some little thing? Where I don’t look at the awesome people God has put around me and aspire to be like them in some way? I seriously doubt it. Because I’m aware of my own faults, and it’s good that I want to improve them.
But I’m also aware of who I am and what’s important to me. And I have to be careful that I don’t get so hung up in bettering one aspect of myself that I neglect another. I have to be, above all, who I am.
by Roseanna White | Aug 28, 2013 | Remember When Wednesdays, Uncategorized
One of the most challenging–and amazing–aspects of writing is digging deep into issues that the author knows nothing about firsthand. That’s what research is for, and when it comes to facts, it’s pretty simple. You look things up. Read. Watch documentaries, maybe. Voila. Knowledge.
But some parts of books aren’t about knowledge so much as wisdom–how our characters would react to things, how faith grows and fades. There are ways to research that too. More books, interviews… But I’ll be honest. I don’t do that. When it comes to internal aspects of my characters, I go from the gut. Which can be a challenge, because I’ve led a beautifully boring life, LOL. I’ve never suffered even the slightest abuse, never gone without.
I love, though. And I’ve lost. I’ve fought. I’ve prayed, I’ve cried, I’ve laughed. And though losing a grandfather to cancer is far different from, say, losing a child in a lot of ways, in other ways, grief is grief. I take what I know and put a magnifying glass on it when it comes to these things–prayerfully. And thus far, the feedback I’ve gotten from people who have suffered the things my characters have suffered is that my methods work. =)
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| Holy Spirit depicted as the dove above Child Jesus in two Trinities by Bartolomé Esteban Perez Murillo |
But in
A Soft Breath of Wind, I’m dealing with aspects of the faith that go beyond imagination. And while I have some experience to go on, and have spoken with some people (not when researching, I’m just blessed to have met folks with an amazing awareness of the spiritual world), I’m keenly aware that the Holy Spirit’s movement can feel different to us all.
So today, as I’m five chapters into this new biblical, I wanted to take the time to talk to you. Would you be willing to share with me your experiences with the moving of the Spirit? How and when you’ve most strongly felt Him? What other senses came alive? Have you ever seen-with-your-eyes into the spirit world? Heard His whisper? Felt His touch? Dreamed His dream? Have you ever followed a nudge and seen so clearly why He did the nudging? Felt a call to pray at a time you thought random, but which was anything but?
You’re welcome to share in the comments if you don’t mind it being public. Or if you want to share but not publicly, you can email me at Roseanna at RoseannaWhite dot com — because this is me, I sincerely doubt I would use anything you share exactly. But I’m quite likely to take bits and pieces and aspects and weave the understanding of them into my character’s world.
On an unrelated note, it’s my day at Colonial Quills–and the blog has a new look! It’s a revision of my post about espionage in early America that I posted in July, but if you missed that one,
check it out here.
by Roseanna White | Aug 26, 2013 | Word of the Week
I looked this up the other day just for the fun of it … and because I had never paused to think why PIs used to be called gumshoes. But according to etymology.com:
“plainclothes detective,” 1906, from the rubber-soled shoes they wore (which were so called from 1863); from gum (n.1) + shoe (n.).
Obvious, yes. But still fun. =) And a nice start to the week I plan on preparing my “History of Spies in Early America” home school group class. 😉 Got the Creative Writing one mostly done yesterday. Yay!
Hope everyone has a great week!
by Roseanna White | Aug 22, 2013 | Thoughtful Thursdays, Uncategorized
It’s been quite a month. A lot has happened. Some things are up in the air that I thought were solid, other things are solid that had been up in the air. Our home school year has started, and I have two kids in my little classroom this year instead of just one.
I’m in the blissful throes of the beginning of a novel I’ve been pondering for 7 years, and in the midst of quite a few editing projects.
My thoughts are a bit jumbled, LOL. So I thought today I’d do one of the list thingymabobs that I’ve always enjoyed reading on other blogs. Just some thoughts, epiphanies, observations, and blessings I’m thinking about today.
1. My kids are well behaved. It doesn’t always feel like it when I’m with them 24/7, but I seriously can’t take these little guys out in public without someone commenting on how polite and good they are. And I think, Wow. I guess I’m doing something right!
2. Orson Scott Card is brilliant. I just finished the second book in his Gate series, and some of the tidbits that only got a couple lines were just astoundingly clever. On The Big Bang Theory, Leonard says something in an early episode about how all physicists can ever say is “Look, my theory is internally consistent, yay!” Card had some internal consistencies that make you stop and go, “Huh. That makes so much sense I kinda wonder if it’s true even though it can’t be.”
3. I love biblical fiction. Not a newsflash, I know. But digging into one for the first time in 3 years is just so darn fun.
4. There’s beauty in the boring parts. I just finished reading Leviticus. There are some places that are so redundant. Where every single tribe brought the exact same things for the tabernacle, but he names each single bowl and plate Every. Single. Time. At first, I sighed and thought Couldn’t you just say they ALL brought this, Moses? Once? But then I stopped and really looked at it. And I realized how beautiful it is to state it 12 times. Because each bowl, each plate, each ounce of gold and silver was a sacrifice. And every one deserved attention. Remembering each is so very important.
5. I love design. I’ve come to the conclusion that playing in Photoshop at least once every two weeks is crucial to my creativity in general.
6. Celery Soup is okay. How’s that for a bizarre thought? But I accidentally bought Cream of Celery instead of Cream of Chicken, and had only that for my chicken and dumplings. And you know, it added something!
7. Friends = Joy. I have some of the most amazing online friends imaginable. I love emailing and messaging y’all every day. And I’m also so, so grateful to have connected with some local families through homeschooling and Bible studies. Hanging out with other young-ish moms and talking about everything from kids to books to clothes to jobs is something I really missed for a few years.
8. Disappointments only last for a blink. I’ve had a doozy, and for about 12 hours there, all I could pray was, Whatever You want for me, Lord. I give it to You. It’ll be enough. But it wasn’t the end of the world. It wasn’t even the end of a dream. It might have been the end of one particular idea, at least for now, but that’s okay. I have a lot of ideas. I have people who believe in me. People willing to fight for me. And faith that my feet are on the path He set before me. Doesn’t mean there won’t be potholes. Just means I’m heading where I need to go despite them.
9. Ellie Sweet is awesome. I just got to read my critique partner’s next book, due out in November. I loved the first one in the series so intensely I couldn’t imagine this one displacing it, especially knowing some of the twists she was throwing in against my objections. But she made me love it. Ellie rocks more than ever. (And Stephanie too.) 😉
10. Sometimes you can compromise. Sometimes you can’t. I want to be the kind of person people love to talk to, hang out with, work with. I want to be easy and encouraging and not get my knickers in a bunch. Mostly, I can do that. I can brush away irritation or frustration or whatever. But sometimes, I have to stand where I’m put and not budge. Just sometimes. But those are important times.
11. I’m so in love with my husband. He’s been working his rear off so we can move here in the next week or so. Just one of the many things that makes me stop and wonder at this crazy love still filling me for him after 15+ years as a couple.
12. Pedicures are da bomb. Seriously. Da bomb. My hubby scheduled me one for my birthday last week. See #11.
13. Absolutely nothing beats encouragement. Nothing. Ever. Notes I’ve gotten from you guys have picked me up on days I’m down, made me laugh when I’m already smiling, and just encouraged me to keep on, no matter what. So thank you. I hope you realize that every kind word you speak or write inspires the recipient to return the favor, either to you or someone else. It’s a beautiful cycle, one that lights the world. So Shine on, me lovelies. Shine on.
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.