by Roseanna White | Jul 18, 2016 | Announcements, Book News
While I’m at the Montrose Christian Writers Conference this week and away from normal blogging, I thought it would be the perfect time to let the blog do some work on its own. 😉
And so, it’s time to build the Launch Team for Giver of Wonders!
Giver of Wonders is a couple things–it’s my first Christmas story. It’s a biblical novel. It involved the same Visibullis family readers have come to love through A Stray Drop of Blood and A Soft Breath of Wind, but 150 years later–so none of the same characters, no related plots. Instead, we see what one branch of the family has turned into as Christianity has spread throughout the Roman Empire. Cyprus and her sisters end up in Patara, Lycia (present-day Turkey) when a Wonder Worker lives there . . . a Wonder Worker the world now knows as St. Nicholas.
Official blurb:
A miracle once saved her life ~ will another give her a future?
Cyprus was little more than a child when a fall left her paralyzed…and
when the boy known as the Wonder Worker healed her. Ever since, she has
wondered why the Lord spared her, what he has in store for her. But her
pagan father thinks she was spared solely so she could be introduced to
the wealthy Wonder Worker, Nikolaos.
Nikolaos has never
questioned that his call in life is to dedicate himself to the church
and to God. Never, that is, until he and his cousin Petros meet the
compelling Cyprus Visibullis. For years he struggles with the feelings
she inspires…and with the sure knowledge that Petros loves her too.
Petros knows he will never be good enough for Cyprus’s father to
consider him as a match for his favorite daughter ~ not as long as
Nikolaos is there. But when tragedy strikes the Visibullis family, he
will do anything to save his beloved. Unfortunately, his beloved is
determined to do anything to save her sisters ~ even at the cost of
herself.
As the festival of lights bathes their Greek city in
beauty, Cyprus, Petros, and Nikolaos celebrate the miracle of their
Savior s birth together one last time. And in remembrance of their
Lord’s greatest gift, one of them will make the ultimate sacrifice for
the others…and a centuries-long tradition will be born.
L A U N C H T E A M B A S I C S
For those who have been on previous launch teams, you probably already have an idea of how this will work. I will:
- Create a private Facebook group for all launch team members to join
- Send you complimentary copies of the book prior to its release
- Have a special giveaway for you guys only
- Share lots of behind-the-scenes info and come to you first for opinions and with ideas
Members of the team will:
- Write reviews to post to social media/online retailers
- Consider asking local libraries/bookstores to stock the book
- Share ideas with each other on ways to promote
- Promise to help spread the word through word of mouth, online postings, etc.
There will be two different options you’ll be able to sign up for. These are:
Thank you all SO MUCH for you interest in helping me spread the word about Giver of Wonders! I couldn’t do it without you amazing readers!!!
(You can also fill out the form here.)
by Roseanna White | Jul 14, 2016 | Announcements, Book News
Thank you for your interest in helping me promote A Lady Unrivaled! I’m so excited for this book to release, and so blessed to have readers like you who want to help me spread the word. =)
At this time I only have 15-20 slots open for paperback reviewers, so I’ll have to make a decision based on who I feel will best help with the promotion efforts. How you plan to help will play a role in deciding this, so get creative. 😉
For those who prefer digital copies, or if you don’t have a U.S. address, you can sign up to receive a digital ARC (advance reader’s copy) via Netgalley; my publisher will send you a widget. Fill out this form instead.
And don’t forget that I’ll be building my influencer team for Giver of Wonders next week!
Ready? Set . . . Fill!
by Roseanna White | Jul 13, 2016 | 17th-19th Centuries, Remember When Wednesdays
Sometimes the questions a novelist asks leads to answers a novelist didn’t anticipate.
Today, I had the thought that a character should be flipping a coin into the air. So I headed to Google to determine with British coin my character should be flip in 1914. And ended up with an interesting lesson in coinage.
Being not British, I didn’t realize that there was a fairly huge change to the currency in 1968. These days, they use “decimalization” much like we Americans do, with 100 pence to the pound. But prior to that–so certainly in 1914–there were actually 240 pence to the pound. Twelve pence to a shilling, and 20 shilling to a pound.
I’m not sure how I’ve managed to write so many book with English or British characters and settings without looking this up before! Sheesh!
These are the current coins, of which I imagine I’ll collect a few while in England this fall to add to my foreign currency collection (by which I mean the bowl we’ve tossed Euros, Pesos, Canadian coins, and Bulgarian coins into).
These are not, of course, what my mysterious villain would have been tossing into the air in 1914. No, I think he’d be tossing up a George V florin, worth 2 shillings and nearly an inch in diameter.
Interesting note for Americans who are as ignorant of all this as I was, LOL–each monarch had the coins redesigned with their profile upon ascension. So while Victorian coins would all have had the Queen upon them, all new coins during King George V’s reign, for instance, would have had him. A bit different from our Jefferson nickles and Washington quarters and Lincoln pennies that never change. =)
That concludes your very short lesson in historical British coinage. Now back to the man flipping a florin… 😉
by Roseanna White | Jul 11, 2016 | Announcements, Book News
It’s that time again! I’m filling out my influencer list for A Lady Unrivaled! I will be posting a public link to the sign-up form on THURSDAY, 14 July at 2 p.m. EDT. There will only be 15-20 slots available for paperbacks, so in the interest of giving everyone a fair shot at them, you’re getting advance warning. 😉
I’ll also be doing a Celebrate Lit tour for this book, so if you’re part of that blog team, you don’t need to try to get a copy via this list. =)
ALSO…
Next week, I’ll also have a sign-up form for my very first Christmas story, Giver of Wonders, launch team! I’ll only have 15-20 paperbacks available for this one too, but will have various digital options for interested readers, including beta readers who will get to read the book in August or September instead of November. Stay tuned!
by Roseanna White | Jul 7, 2016 | Thoughtful Thursdays
A few weeks ago, I heard an analogy about the kind of life we should live; that we should be an oak tree, solid and tall, a pillar of the community, the kind of person people respect and will miss when we’re gone, etc. That we shouldn’t be a tumbleweed, aimless and despised and dismissed by everyone.
I got the point of the story. And I certainly love oak trees as much as the next person. But this analogy also bothered me. Maybe that’s a fine image for the world, but for a Christian? I’m not so sure. Not that there’s nothing to learn from an oak, but that we should dismiss tumbleweeds so quickly. I think . . .
I think that we need to be tumbleweeds when it comes to our faith.
In our homeschool science, we read about these plants, and they’re pretty amazing. The tumbleweed bush can grow with very little water. The seeds can lie dormant until moisture comes, then bang! Up the plant sprouts. Quick, but also firmly rooted. The wind doesn’t rip it from the ground. Oh, no. When it’s time to reproduce, the tumbleweed, its seeds ripe and ready, breaks off from its roots. It’s so light that the wind can take it anywhere. Everywhere. And it rolls around–but not aimlessly. It’s spreading its seeds. Seeds which can lie dormant until that little bit of moisture touches it. Then bam. A new bush springs up.
How perfect an illustration is that of what Christians should be? Yes, we need to be firmly rooted in God–but not in one particular place. Our faith isn’t tied to our geographical location, like a tree. Our goal shouldn’t be just to reach ourselves toward heaven, right? Our purpose here isn’t to stand strong and tall and thick, to drop our seeds right by our feet, where maybe one or two eventually grow a bit . . . if they’re not gobbled up by the world or denied water and light by our shadows and thirsty roots.
Our purpose is to spread the Word. Spread those seeds of faith. Far and wide. Our goal is to go and make disciples. Our faith should be fast to spring up in Him, should be able to survive even the driest spells. And oh, if those seeds we planted could spring up so readily!
Now, I’m not saying there aren’t lessons to be learned from an oak tree. Their nuts feed the forest creatures–that’s important. And the cycle of acorn crops is pretty amazing too, the way they go through lean cycles to actually decrease the animal population that feeds on it, then produces a bumper crop that’s way more than the animals can eat, so that some acorns have the chance to grow.
But oak saplings are easily choked out by other species.
May our faith not be like that.
Oak trees can’t move.
May our faith not be like that.
It takes an oak 20 years to mature enough to produce acorns.
May our faith not be like that.
I say, let’s give those things called weeds their due. Why are they called a weed?
Because they grow everywhere.
May our faith be like that.
Mankind can never get rid of them, because the seeds are so numerous and spring up so readily.
May our faith be like that.
Tumbleweeds break off from their roots to spread their seeds.
May our faith be like that.
They roll far and wide, spreading those seeds.
May our faith be like that.
They can flourish with the smallest bit of nourishment.
May our faith be like that.
It takes a single season for a tumbleweed plant to grow, reach maturity, and produce.
May our faith be like that.
Animals feed on tumbleweeds where no other plant can grow.
May our faith be like that.
When a tumbleweed breaks off, the dying of the original plant is the fuel for new life.
Our faith is founded on that.
I really pray that Christianity be what the world terms a weed–that we spring up everywhere. Quickly, incessantly. That we constantly get in the way of the ideals the world is trying to sew. That we are so numerous we cannot be counted. That we spread our seeds of faith far and wide, caring not about our selves, but about the message we’re spreading. That we care little for where we are, so long as we’re where He planted us.
There’s beauty, yes, in that grand oak tree planted and fed by the water. There’s beauty in the strong and sure, in the fact that such a huge tree can grow from a little seed. There’s beauty in the scads of animals that eat of it and rest in its shade.
But don’t dismiss the weed. The weed is vital to nature–it’s just to man and his desire to control his environment that it’s a nuisance. Exactly what Christianity should be. Make me a dandelion, Lord. Make me milkweed. Made me a tumbleweed. I don’t need man’s praise and glory–I need only to spread Your word.
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.