_Railway_Poster,_1905.png)
by Roseanna White | May 14, 2014 | 20th Century, Remember When Wednesdays
A week ago and a half ago, I typed the final words In The Lost Heiress. I still have some major edits to do, but the first draft is done. Again. 😉 Always a great feeling.
And this is the first time in a long…long…long time that I’ve finished a book that has some things that are decidedly modern. I got excited when, in Circle of Spies, I could include things like telegraphs and trains.
|
| Poster for the Tube, 1905 |
In The Lost Heiress, advances have kept on hurdling their way into the world. In 1911, the wealthy had things like electric lights. Automobiles. Telephones.
Telephones!! LOL
This changes so, so much for a historical writer. One of the challenges has always been pacing myself to their rate of life, where it took days or weeks or sometimes months for communication to go from one person to another. Even with telegrams, you have to get to town and a telegraph office to send one. But suddenly I have characters who can call the police from their phone. Who can hop in the car to chase someone through the streets rather than saddling a horse. Who can steam their way across the Channel. Life is moving more swiftly again!
But there are checks, too. Things I have to remember as I’m indulging in this modern history. I have to remember that roads weren’t yet made for cars. They were still mostly dirt, which means mud when it’s rained. Which makes them impassable for automobiles–horses were still very much necessary much of the time.
I have to remember that though there were phones, there were also operators necessary for making the connections, who were rather notorious for listening in, as could anyone else on the same line–far from private!
I have to remember that though the wealthy had these advancements, the general public did not, not yet. Rural areas were largely still without electricity. Phones still hadn’t reached the masses even into the 20s. Cars were far too expensive for anyone but the rich.
But then, I can mention a few other fun things, like the Tube in London. I had a character riding this underground train and was pretty excited to get to include it, especially since it was new to her and quite amazing.
And that, really, is where the real Joy comes in. These advances were all new. They were exciting and uncertain and sometimes more than a bit dangerous. They were racing toward modernity at a pace that was often quite literally break-neck. They were discovering and failing and trying different approaches, by sea and land and even in the air.
Given that my characters are the type to embrace these new things and ride them rather recklessly into tomorrow (okay, one of my characters is…the other is a bit more cautious, LOL), it made for a fun story. =)
![Word of the Week – Shoulder]()
by Roseanna White | May 12, 2014 | Word of the Week
Okay, so no, I wasn’t just looking up shoulder. 😉 But in looking up the origins of the phrase cold shoulder for my recently-finished Edwardian, I found several of the uses interesting, so I thought I’d share.
Shoulder itself has been in English approximately forever. But did you know the word (which comes from German) is likely related to shield? I sure didn’t.
Then there’s the use that means “side of the road”–that’s from 1933. I suppose that makes sense, because until roads were widened for cars, I’d never heard of any shoulder to them…still, it’s a bit later than I would have thought.
And then there’s cold shoulder. This is what sent me to etymonline.com to begin with, and I’m glad I paused to look it up! The phrase dates from 1816, first from Sir Walter Scott. It actually didn’t indicate a human shoulder, but rather a shoulder of mutton–which was considered a poor man’s dish. Make it cold, and it was an unpleasant dish that you would only serve someone you were put out with or decidedly not welcoming to your home. So to give someone “the cold shoulder” meant to give them something distasteful and insulting, to show you have no regard for them.
Not what I expected from that one, gotta say!
by Roseanna White | May 8, 2014 | Thoughtful Thursdays, Uncategorized
I reached a major milestone on Sunday–I finished my book, for the, er… (one…two…three) fourth time. And I’m talking the fourth total, complete, toss out every scene previously written and start from scratch rewrite.
It’s a pretty awesome feeling to finish a book any time. But when it’s a book you first wrote “The End” on at age 13? Yeah–I’m still a little shocked that I’m doing it again, LOL, and so incredibly thrilled that I’m doing it again because that book, the one whose premise I came up with at age 12, is contracted by Bethany House. I can’t think of a much better example of how God leads us on some crazy paths that last a lifetime! (I had a guest post up on the rather amazing journey of this book on Go Teen Writers last week. If you haven’t seen it yet,
Read It Here.)
Making the feeling even better is that I really love the new setting I gave the story, and the new elements and plots that got worked in–or worked back in. In every previous version, Brook (my heroine) was an orphan. The legalities of that were tricky though, for things like inheritance laws, so I decided in this version that her father still needed to be alive.
 |
Whitby Abbey ruins – close to the new setting of the book
and where a big scene happens
Photo by Chris Kirk |
And oh my goodness. That changed everything–in ways I love! She now reunites with him in the first couple chapters, and their journey added such depth to the story–it just makes me grin to think about it.
In the first two versions, I put a great deal of emphasis on Brook’s maid. That’s something I took out in version 3 and its various revisions for a number of reasons. But I re-introduced the below-stairs point of view in this one, and I was so happy to get to do so. I love that dichotomy too, of the two different perspectives who both get to realize that family is family, no matter the circumstances.
I’m now to the point where I get to let the MS rest for a little while before I dive into edits and trim it down to size (not as much trimming required as usual! LOL). For me, that means editing
A Soft Breath of Wind and a slew of WhiteFire books in the meantime. I’m putting the finishing touches right now on WhiteFire’s historical that comes out next week,
Sweet Mountain Music, and having a blast. The characters in SMM are on the hunt for a certain legendary ape creature said to haunt the Cascades, and it’s a story that will make you laugh and sigh and cheer them on.
In not so happy news, one of the reasons I forgot to blog yesterday is that Rowyn woke up with a sore, swollen knee and spent the first hour of the morning (my blog writing time) on my lap. With no injury to link to this, we took him to the doctor, who suspects it might be juvenile arthritis. We would certainly appreciate prayers about this!
Hope everyone’s enjoying May thus far, and that all you moms have a special weekend planned. =)
by Roseanna White | May 5, 2014 | Word of the Week
Short but sweet one today. =)
I grew up with a perfectionist for a father, so it’s a word I’ve known for, oh, ever. I too can be a perfectionist in a lot of things (housekeeping not among them, ha ha). Never had I thought to look up its etymology, though, until I came across it in a manuscript set in biblical days. I’d already learned that most of those “isms” we know so well came out of the psychological revolution.
Perfectionist has a different but similar story. The original meaning of the word, dating from the 1650s, is actually “one who believes that moral perfection is attainable in this life through faith.” A button topic for millennia, LOL. If you believed that, you were a perfectionist. If you didn’t, then you weren’t.
It wasn’t until 1934 that the modern meaning came around–“one who is satisfied with only the highest standards.” Pretty different! No longer is a word that has to do with theological debates, but now it’s about measurable standards.
Who knew?
by Roseanna White | May 1, 2014 | Thoughtful Thursdays, Uncategorized
 |
| Happy May Day! |
I remember this week last year. It wasn’t meant to be a busy one. But it turned into it. I’d been sick the week before–like, flu. We’d traveled to Annapolis for the weekend and had a lovely time with friends. I was well enough to do that, but still dragging.
Then on the Tuesday, the 30th of April last year, my wine rack came crashing down. I spent most of the day cleaning up broken glass and crystal and mopping up wine. It fell partially into the two trunks the kids kept their toys in. Which necessitated a complete clean-up of those, which turned into reorganization. I’d been meaning to spend the day writing. Instead, I spent it cleaning, which so thoroughly wiped me out by evening that Xoe thought to treat me to a spa day, courtesy of Fancy Nancy. She made me a foot bath, and a face mask from banana and honey.
Apparently I have an allergy to banana when it’s applied to my face, LOL. I broke out in hives and felt like I had a serious sunburn all evening. Had to run out for some hydracortizone cream. And I woke up on May 1 thinking, “Well, it can’t be as bad as yesterday. The wine rack can’t break again.”
No, it couldn’t. But bones could.
Today marks a year since Xoe ran through the yard, tripped over her too-big shoes, and broke her elbow. Xoe, who usually cries for about two minutes when she gets hurt, wailed for half an hour and showed no signs of stopping, though she wouldn’t let me really touch her arm to see what might be wrong. At last, I got her onto my lap, and I could put my hands on her elbows. That would be when we decided a trip to the doctor was in order.
It turned to a trip to the ER, which lasted all evening as they tried to find a pediatric orthopedist to send her to.
 |
| Xoe, the day after the break |
So many people prayed with us for healing, and receive it she did–the bone healed so perfectly that the doctor said that, looking at the X-rays, he wouldn’t have known there had been a break. The soft tissue, however…
She’s still in occupational therapy, and she still has a ways to go before she regains full extension. But progress is being made.
And this year, this week is a busy one–planned that way, LOL. Since last Friday when I had the Joy of speaking at the Fourth Friday Tea at my local historical society, it’s been nonstop. We’ve had field trips and therapy and well check-ups and book club talks, and today is class day for our homeschool group. And as I’m buzzing from place to place, I keep thinking back to last year.
I keep praying, Thank you, Lord, for planned busyness instead of ER trips and prescription pain relievers, hospital gowns and trips to Baltimore doctors.
This year, I’m within a few scenes of finishing up a book instead of sending a note to my editor saying I’ll be out of touch for a few days. This year, we’re planning summer camp instead of worrying about surgery. This year, I need an extra cup of coffee because I’ve been getting up early to write, not because I got no sleep because my little one was hurting.
It’s so easy to get overwhelmed in these weeks that are go-go-go. But you know…I’ll take it in a heartbeat over those weeks that force normal activities to a halt. And I’ll praise the Lord that this May Day, I can just drive along and notice all the flowers in bloom. This year, I can look back and see how brave and strong my little princess was, knowing that today she doesn’t have to be. This year, I can just be plain ol’ busy.
_Railway_Poster,_1905.png)
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.