30 Days of Giveaways ~ FINAL DAY!

by Roseanna White | Jul 30, 2013 | Uncategorized

Yesterday’s winner is:

Wow, it’s been a whole month. Can you believe it? I’ll be doing a wrap-up post tomorrow, announcing the final two winners and sharing my closing thoughts, but on this, the last official day of the giveaways, I just want to say a big…

It’s been so wonderful to make some new friends through this month of giveaways and blog posts. I hope to keep you seeing your around ye olde inter-web. 😉

And while I still have your attention, I figured I’d make an announcement about a decision I’ve made. Which ties into:

Last Thursday, I had the amazing honor of Skyping into a book club that was discussing my first published novel, A Stray Drop of Blood. Hearing these ladies talk about the book and ask me questions got me thinking about it again, and the next day a question of theirs kept plaguing me.

Is there a sequel?

Excellent question. Is there one written? Um, no. But there’s been one planned for years. In fact, I remember at my very first writers conference in 2007, a presenter asked, “If you only had enough time left to live to write one book, what would it be?”

My silent answer: the sequel to Stray Drop.

And yet I’ve written a dozen books since then, none of them this sequel. Largely because I couldn’t figure out how to start the thing, though I’ve got copious notes on the storyline, which burst into my head nearly full-grown six years ago.

Now, I have a biblical penciled into the WhiteFire fall schedule for 2014–over a year from now. I was planning on writing Song of Solace for them, about an Egyptian princess who journeys with the son of Melchizedek to Salem, in the days of Abraham. It’s going to be an amazing story to work on, I know. But after giving it some thought and prayer and discussing it with David (hubby and publisher at WhiteFire), I think that in fall 2014 we’re instead going to release this one:

Set in 58 A.D., just outside of Rome, A Soft Breath of Wind will bring some familiar characters back to the page for those who have read A Stray Drop of Blood–as well as some new ones who take over as main characters. In the first, the blood of Jesus was the pivot of my entire book. In this one, it’s the mighty wind of the Spirit that will take center stage.

I’ve yet to write anything resembling a blurb, but here’s my ten-minute toss-together:

 A gift that has branded her for life

Zipporah is thirteen when the Spirit descends upon her, opening her eyes to a world beyond the physical goings-on of the villa outside Rome she has always called home. Within hours, she learns what serving the Lord can cost. Forever scarred after a vicious attack, she knows her call is to use this discernment to protect the Way. She knows she must serve the rest of her life at Tutelos, where the growing Roman church has congregated. She knows her lot is set.

Yet is it so wrong to wish that her master, the kind and handsome young Benjamin Visibullis, will eventually see her as something more than a sister in Christ?

Samuel Asinius, adoptive son of a wealthy Roman, has always called Benjamin brother. After Samuel’s wife and child die, he is eager to escape Rome and travel with Ben to visit the brethren in other parts of the world–and to be sure the legal owner of Tutelos comes to no harm before he can marry and produce an heir, ensuring the safety of all the Christians and Jews in Rome.

When their travels take them to Jerusalem for Passover, the last thing he expected was to cross paths with the woman who had sold him into slavery as a child–the mother he had long ago purged from his heart…and the siblings who carry a dark mantel on their shoulders. His sister, Dara, seems determined to learn more about him, going so far as to join them on the return trip to Italy.

But when Dara, a fortune-teller seeking the will of a shadowy master determined to undermine the Way, comes into the path of Zipporah, a whirlwind descends upon Tutelos. Though some would call it jealousy, Zipporah knows the truth of this woman that Benjamin and Samuel have brought among them…and fears it may be the undoing of them all.

Only the soft wind of the Spirit can heal their scars…with a love neither divination nor discernment could foresee.

Yeah, that’s gonna have to be streamlined and rewritten before it’s back-cover worthy, LOL. But you get the idea. If you look closely at the cover, you can even see the scars on Zipporah’s face. I tried to make her nose crooked too, but my Photoshop skills couldn’t pull that one off. 😉 The model’s a little too pretty, but we’ll forgive her. Because, well, she’s so pretty!! LOL.

 And though this blurb has no hint of it, the story is set against the New Testament timeline that will climax with the arrival of Paul in Rome–where the Asiniuses and Visibullises will finally get to meet the apostle with whom they’re been corresponding. =)

So my last question for you this month!

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