by Roseanna White | Feb 7, 2017 | Author Interviews and Guest Posts, Books, Scavenger Hunt
Welcome to the Lost Girl of Astor Street Scavenger Hunt!
We’re here today to celebrate the release of the most awesome young adult novel I’ve read in years: The Lost Girl of Astor Street by Stephanie Morrill
What makes the book so awesome? Well, I’m glad you asked.
Your clue for Stop #25: motives.
If you’ve gone through the entire Hunt,
then this is the last clue,
and you ought to have created a sentence.
Enter it here
for your chance at the prize!
by Roseanna White | Feb 6, 2017 | Word of the Week
My daughter asked about this one as she was cutting up some paper doilies for valentines she was making. It was a quick answer, but one I’d certainly never investigated before, so I thought I’d share.
So doily as we know it is a shortening of doily-napkin, and dates from 1714. It refers to the light, lacy item made from doily–a thin, woolen fabric. It’s supposedly named for a dry-goods dealer in London. The surname comes from Normandy, and before it was specific to thin, lightweight woolens, it was used to mean “genteel and affordable woolens.” So whoever the Doily [d’Oilly] family was, they apparently carried textiles worthy of fame!
Now, stay tuned! Tomorrow I’ll be participating in a fun scavenger hunt to kick off the release of The Lost Girl of Astor Street!
by Roseanna White | Feb 2, 2017 | Thoughtful Thursdays
So wow, it’s been a week of political opinions again, hasn’t it? Reporting and misreporting, deciding, shouting, threats of protest.
I have sworn years ago that you’d never hear me shouting my political views from my writing platform. And in part it’s because I have very little respect for people who make a show of shouting…who may even march in a protest…but who then deem that “enough” for their beloved cause and sit back and take such
Joy in bemoaning the state of affairs. (And this goes for opinions on both sides of the fence.)
Though I hadn’t even realized it, this theme worked its way a bit into
A Song Unheard. I have the magnanimous Davies sisters in it, known even today for their generosity. But at the point of the story, it was limited to donating money. During the Great War, however, they decided to put hands and feet to their conviction–they
went. They became active in what they were so passionate about. They didn’t march in a protest to stop the war–the served the men fighting and dying for them, and then set up an estate to rehabilitate them when they came home.
Do we put that kind of action to the beliefs we shout about?
Today’s big thing is the refugee ban. I’ll not tell you where I come down. It really doesn’t matter. What does matter is this:
If I think we should let them in, if I care about their plight–does that mean I’m willing to take those families food? Give up room to house them? Am I willing to give them jobs? And what’s more–if I care about their plight that much, what will I do if my country doesn’t let them in? Will I seek them out where they are? Donate to refugee camps if I can’t go there? Will I see which camps in Europe are forever short on food and figure out a way to send some?
If I think we shouldn’t let them in because of the risks they bring with them–am I making any effort to change that risk? Am I supporting ministries that minister to these people groups? Am I spending time on my knees in prayer for them, that the Spirit will draw on their hearts? If I make my decisions because I fear the terror that might come with them, am I then doing anything to counteract that terror? Am I helping those who are terrorized?
If we’re all words and opinions and no actions, what is the point? A literal translation of the Greek of James 2:26 isn’t just faith without works is dead. It’s actually faith without works is naught. It’s nothing. It doesn’t exist. Because my friends, faith is not an idea–it’s the substance. It’s the being. It’s the doing.
Whatever our views, I don’t think God needs to hear about them on social media. I don’t think He wants to see protests marching in support of them. What I believe He wants is for us to work for them. To sacrifice for them.
If we’re not willing to give up anything for our stand, have we really stood at all…or have we just made noise?
by Roseanna White | Jan 30, 2017 | Word of the Week
I’m always so intrigued when words have come to mean the exact opposite of what they used to. And that, apparently, is what happened (metaphorically, at least) with ace.
Round about the year 1300, the word ace entered English. It was taken from the Latin as, which meant “one”–and is thought to be borrowed by Latin directly from the Greek eis, which means the same.
When it entered English, though, it wasn’t just to mean “one.” It was to particularly refer to the sides of dice with only one mark. Because of this, ace in Middle English was used metaphorically to mean “bad luck.” That stuck around for quite a while…until cards became popular.
In cards, ace was also used to the “one” card…but of course, in cards, that’s usually the highest, rather than the lowest. So as games switched popularity and cards began to rule the day, the metaphorical meaning of ace changed too. From “bad luck” to “top of the deck–the best.” This total flip had happened absolutely by the 18th century.
Phrases like “ace in the hole” came around by 1907; during World War I, ace became applied to the best pilots. From there, it moved into verb form–in the 1920s, you could ace in sports, which meant to score a point. In the 1950s, this sports sense was extended via student slang to mean, “score high marks.”
So there we have it–a four hundred year evolution from bad luck to the best, and then a slow move from being a noun to a verb. Ace has always meant “one”–but whether that’s a positive or negative has done an about-face.
by Roseanna White | Jan 27, 2017 | Announcements, Sales
Apparently I totally forgot to blog on Thursday–but for good reason. I was finishing the set-up of my new online store, from which you can purchase signed copies of my books!
I’ve been wanting to set this up for months but kept shying away from the time commitment–and figuring out how to redo the site in general. But after fiddling with all week, it’s finally live.
And to celebrate, I’m offering a free gift on all orders that come in on or before Sunday 29 January 2017 ~ a WhiteFire book that I’ll handpick to go along with each order.
So feel free to browse through my new site and check out the shop ~ if you’ve been thinking you need a paperback copy or are looking for a great gift, signed books are always good choices. (Any books are good choices. Rarely do I give a gift that doesn’t involve a book. LOL.)
Roseanna M. White is a bestselling, Christy Award winning author who has long claimed that words are the air she breathes. Having successfully launched two homeschool grads, she now spends her time writing fiction, 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, as well as a fantasy series and contemporary mysteries and romances. Spies and war and mayhem always seem to find their way into her books…to offset her real life, which is blessedly ordinary.