by Roseanna White | Aug 27, 2014 | 20th Century, Remember When Wednesdays
Let’s blame it on being an American–I know little about the details of how a king (or queen) becomes a king (or queen). In my head, it’s an instant thing when the previous monarch passes away. A bit, I suppose, like the swearing-in of the vice president as president when the president dies. It happens within hours. Voila. Done.
And yes, to a point that’s how it is. Researching the Edwardian era, I of course discovered that King Edward died in May of 1910–a mere 3 months before The Lost Heiress begins. But in my head, that meant the transition was already over. His son, King George, became king. Voila. Done.
I honestly didn’t think to look into any more than that while writing The Lost Heiress. I turned it in. No biggie. Then I started my research for The Outcast Duchess, and through that reading realized the error of my ways. And saw that King George’s coronation hadn’t been before my stories started. Oh no. It was smack dab in the middle of Brook’s first Season in The Lost Heiress–June, 1911. A year after his father’s death. A year, obviously, to prepare for the momentous day. In my story–and I didn’t once mention it. Yikes!
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| King George V in coronation robes, 1911 |
Luckily, it’s early days yet in edits, LOL.
Though books set up to WWI are deemed Edwardian, King George V was the king all through my series. And though it was his father who set the standard for the extravagance and luxury that made the era famous, I have to say I think I would have liked George much better. Where Edward was over-indulgent, George was more restrained. Where Edward was uninhibited, George seems to have been composed. They were two very different men . . . and yet, in his journal after his father’s death, George wrote that on that day he lost his dearest friend–his father.
Sniff. Sniff, sniff.
I think one of the things I admire most about this man who is king during my stories though, is his own tale of love.
You see, he wasn’t always the heir-apparent. He was the second son, and his brother was the one everyone thought would be the next king. He thought his destiny was to serve in the Royal Navy, and he embraced that gladly. He fell in love with his German cousin, but the families didn’t approve the match. He proposed anyway–she refused him and married the heir to the king of Romania instead.
Two years later, George’s older brother Albert, the presumed heir, became engaged to a cousin the family did approve of–Princess Victoria Mary of Teck. The family called her May (as there was kinda still a Victoria on the throne at the time…) But only six months into their engagement, Albert died of pneumonia.
It was grief that brought May and George together. They mourned Albert together. They comforted each other. And they fell in love. Theirs was a story of socially-acceptable-matches meeting deep-from-the-heart love…and oh, how history needs those!
Though King Edward was known for his affairs and paramours, King George was known for his dedication to his wife. He had a hard time, he himself admitted, expressing his feelings out loud. So they exchanged love letters all their lives.
Sniff. Sniff, sniff.
Yes, this is a king who deserves some mention in my series! And though in The Lost Heiress I really only mention his coronation a couple times, I’m going to try to put a bit more about him in later books. Because though I’m calling this an Edwardian series, Edward was gone. George was ruling. And he was setting an example that deserves to be noted.
by Roseanna White | Aug 25, 2014 | Word of the Week
My kids made me look this one up the other day, wondering if pig and pigment were related…giving that Xoe’s been studying base words and prefixes and suffixes, this is a logical question. =)
So away to www.etymonline.com I went. To discover that, as I suspected, no. Pigment is not from the same root as pig.
Pigment, as it happens, comes from the pigmentum, meaning “color matter, paint.” Pretty much what I expected. It comes in turn from the Latin verb pingere, meaning “to paint.”
Pig, on the other hand, has obscure roots. It existed in Old English, but the experts think it might have been borrowed from the German or Dutch word for swine, which was big/bigge. They seem to agree that it was originally spelled with a B.
Interestingly, some of the nicknames for a pig–porker, grunter–came about because sailors’ superstitions forbade them from uttering the word “pig” while at sea! Can’t say as I knew that one, LOL.
Happy Monday!
by Roseanna White | Aug 21, 2014 | Thoughtful Thursdays, Uncategorized
This marked our first full week of homeschool. And I admit it–I haven’t adjusted yet. I’m still a wee bit frazzled by how much long it’s taking us this year (so far–hopefully it’ll streamline a bit), and what that means in terms of time to do other things. So I figured today, I’d just chat about some random things.
* That homeschool. Yeesh! I forgot how much longer 1st grade takes than Kindergarten. But adding in that extra amount of work for Rowyn…all of which must be hands-on for me at this point…puts another hour or so on my instructional day. I wasn’t prepared for that! But both kids are doing great with their respective work.
However, my brain is back is Edwardian Yorkshire. Because, you see…
* Last Thursday, on my birthday, I got to have an editorial call with my new editor, on The Lost Heiress. Maybe some people wouldn’t want to schedule such a thing for their birthday, but I knew well I’d have fun–and I did. I love talking story. I was emailed seven pages of notes, compiled from three different editors, and we went through them point by point. I had an hour before the call to review them and brainstorm, and oh my gracious. Such fun!
See, as a writer, I’m not a this-is-the-only-way-it-can-happen person. (Most of the time.) I’m constantly daydreaming about what ifs for my stories. Coming up with alternate ways the characters could reach the same places. So when an editor says, “This could be stronger,” I just have to tap on that door of imagination and let the ideas fly. It’s So. Much. Fun for me. =D
So in the week that’s followed, I’ve been spending all the time I can on those revisions. Of course, it being the first week of school, that’s not as much time as I would like…
And…
* I’m adding words! Yikes! LOL. I’m going to have to go back afterward and trim some other parts down, to get that word count back down on target. Not the fun part.
* I need a haircut. I have an appointment for next Thursday, but I have no idea what I want. Right now it’s about 3 inches below my shoulders. I like the length, but I want some life in it. Suggestions??
* My poor cat has had UTI for two months now. She’s been on antibiotics since mid-June. The oral ones made her puke, and the injections don’t seem to be helping. Which means she’s showing me her pain by making messes. I’m about at my wit’s end there…
* I’m making French onion soup tomorrow! Woot!
* And I should probably go take a shower before it’s time for school again. So until next time, there’s the randomness from the brain of Roseanna.
by Roseanna White | Aug 20, 2014 | Uncategorized
Not exactly a book cover design, but the same general idea. 😉 I had the pleasure a week or so ago of designing a header for a new blog by the awesome Sandi Rog, and I thought it would be fun to break it down for you like I do the book covers.
The blog is called The Lord’s Lady: Women Growing in the Word, and it’s dedicated to study and meditating on Scripture. I’ve subscribed and am looking forward to digging deeper into faith with other women who share my heart.
For anyone who doesn’t know already, Sandi is a cancer survivor–a miraculous one. A few years ago she was diagnosed with an extremely aggressive form of T-cell lymphoma. She underwent treatment after treatment, course after course of chemotherapy and radiation that left her body weak and broken. I can’t tell you how many times I got an email saying she’d ended up in the hospital again. Then we thought she was on the mend…that the treatments had worked…that healing had come–only to learn from a Good Friday MRI that she had 5 new tumors.
Sandi knew she wouldn’t survive another round of chemo or radiation. She knew that she couldn’t turn into that shell again, the one that couldn’t get off the couch to take care of her young children. So when the Lord whispered that she should try the natural route, she obeyed, and asked others to step out in faith with her. I joyfully joined the prayers for my dear friend, believing with her that this would work.
Her cancer has been in remission for 2 years now, thanks to faith and vitamin B17. And though Sandi has had a hard time getting back to writing novels, she wants to pour her heart into this blog, and I’m so excited to join in.
So. The header. =) Sandi emailed with details on exactly what she was looking for. A medieval looking woman in the foreground, most of her face not visible. She wanted her to be cradling a sword in her lap. Reverently, almost tenderly. And in the background, a castle.
Armed with those instructions, I went on the hunt for images. I came back with a few possibilities.
The one on the bottom wasn’t holding a sword, of course, but we both liked the lighting and the soft look of her, so she won.
Which meant I had my work cut out for me, LOL. I started, as always, by deleting her background.
I played around a bit to figure out how to input a sword–first trying to have her holding it out before her, in her lap, like Sandi originally envisioned, but the sword got lost against the pale background of the model’s dress. So Sandi said, “Can she be holding it up like the woman in the other picture?”
Could she? Hmm. I thought I could get it close. So I chose a medieval sword that I could use for free from Wikimedia Commons:
And then I posed the model by copying her arm, rotating it, and filling in the empty space it created with her veil.
The hand here isn’t perfect, but I knew it would be covered up once I put the sword into place.
As you can see, the sword stands out far too much…and looks she’s just balancing it on one hand. The image would be cropped to fit on the header, but I still needed to do some playing. I ended up up cutting and pasting the part of the sword that goes off to the left and then changing its opacity so that it looked like the veil was overtop it, and thereby meeting up with her invisible right right.
I also adjusted the color balance on the sword layer, yellowing it to give me the same lighting effect as the model.
And for fun…a little gleam on the blade.
Well, that was the hard part! Next was filling in her background. I found a free image of a castle. There were a ton, but I picked one that looked fairy tale pretty.
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| Chateau Sully sur Loire |
Then, of course, I deleted the background and changed the color balance to match the buttery tones of the rest of the picture.
Isn’t that pretty as a picture? 😉
Now to put the two together. I did a simple blue-gray for sky (adding some low-opacity white for clouds) and green for the ground and plopped them together.
Believe it or not, we’re almost there. 😉 I chose a texture layer to put overtop the whole thing. I wanted something that conveyed light and flame, so I went with this one.
Taking it down to 75% opacity and choosing Lighten as my blending mode, we end up with this.
I want a bit more detail though…a pattern to add into the corner. I waste some time looking for medieval symbols or engravings, and eventually find, of all things, a free vector with tattoo designs, LOL. In that package I found a fun cross-in-a-circle that hit the right note. So I add that in.
Now all that’s left are the words! I tried a few arrangements and colors, before Sandi said “This arrangement, but how about burgundy? Which was perfect. She also requested that I link the letters together, so voila.
We added the subtitle, and there we have it! I put all those elements together, and we have our lovely final product, ready to be the header on a blog I know will touch hearts.
Check out Sandi’s blog at: http://thelordslady2.blogspot.com/ !!!!
by Roseanna White | Aug 18, 2014 | Uncategorized
I’m interrupting my normal schedule for a special announcement:
The Kindle Version of A Soft Breath of Wind
Is Available for Pre-Order!!
Woot!
Fun stuff. =) Hopefully Nook version is soon to follow.
Okay, back to your Monday. Today begins our first full week of school, plus I’m doing revisions on The Lost Heiress, so forgive me for not posting anything else today, LOL.
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.