by Roseanna White | Feb 19, 2014 | Ancient World, Remember When Wednesdays
One of the most interesting aspects of my current biblical fiction is its position on the historical timeline. Not that anything particularly riveting happened in known history in the months during my story. But that’s kinda the thing. Big things had happened a few years before.
And really big things were coming.
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| Nero |
Now, we all know me. One of my greatest loves in fiction is explaining historical facts through my characters, or at least having my characters interact with that fact. In
A Stray Drop of Blood, my pivot obviously focuses on the crucifixion. I wrote those scenes with my Bible always open and lots of website visits to check historical facts. And at the end of the book, when Menelaus finally makes his way to the villa, I had to toss in a few other historical references. Just for fun. I state that the expulsion of the Jews from the city of Rome was largely because of Abigail angering the emperor.
Oh yes, great fun. Except that now I’m writing the sequel, LOL. So now I have to actually deal with all those things I threw in just for fun. And I also have to look at the current emperor.
Nero.
Shudder. Nero is so infamous. So known for all his evils. In fact he did a lot of good for Rome too, but no one remembers that quite so well. I had never learned before that, in the aftermath of the great fires that swept through Rome, he was out in the rubble looking for survivors, right beside the common citizens. All I knew was that old saying that “Nero fiddled while Rome burned.” That some historians actually accused him of having the fire set so that he could build his new palace. We know for a fact he blamed the fire on the Christians.
But why? To blame the great fire on the Christians (this is about ten years or so after
A Soft Breath of Wind will end), he must have already hated them. But, again…why?
Mwa ha ha ha. Insert Roseanna rubbing her hands together. I get to do my favorite thing. I get to explain the hatred of an emperor, of an empire, through my characters!
I toyed for a while with different ways, considering bringing Nero himself into my story in a critical role I already had planned out. But the more I thought about that, the more I decided it was too much. So I kept reading about him. And I hit on something else. One of the most important things Nero did in his early reign was oust all the old advisers and counselors, the ones loyal to his mother (whom he killed, by the way), and bring in young advisers of his own generation. Nero was young when he took the throne. In my story, he’d be in his twenties. He was handsome, with that rare golden hair you don’t often associate with Romans (much like two of my characters). He had a thing for prostitutes and enjoyed a good party. He was young, with the passions of youth. With friends now serving beside him, taking on important government functions.
I can totally work with that. 😉
I’m not going to give away exactly how, of course, LOL, but I’m really enjoying this part. I’ve twice now had Nero pass by on the streets, on his way to a harlot’s bed. (Stray Drop readers will perk up at this section of the book, with a certain name dropped.) And one of those friends of his (a fictional one) will take on that role I already had planned out. And then, when the climax of the story comes, Nero’s fury will be ignited.
And the readers will all know that this, then, is why the Christians later pay.
Oh yes. Such fun. I love writing historicals. =)
by Roseanna White | Feb 17, 2014 | Word of the Week
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Now this is fantastic!
C&E Dragon by David Revoy |
One thing I often flag when I’m editing and have to think about when I’m writing are those words that we use today in a rather un-amazing sense. Words that have come to mean an ambivalent “okay” or “nice.” Words that used to mean a whole lot more.
The first one is fantastic. This is a word we commandeered to mean anything
great or amazing. But it began with a very specific sense of “that
belonging to the world of fantasy; imaginary.” It wasn’t until 1938 that it was trivialized to mean “wonderful, marvelous.”
Next is fine. Fine has become a meaningless answer to the question “How are you?” We all reply “Fine.” It’s therefore taken on a “Meh” connotation. Sure, we still use it in a more pointed sense when talking about a fine point on the tip of our marker, but in general? I think if you ask most kids what the word means, they’d say it’s a synonym with “okay.” So-so. All right.
But of course, when we think about it, we realize that fine actually means “unblemished, of superior quality.” Hence why in England it became an expression of unmitigated approval. Which we then took and overused until it ceased to mean much of anything, LOL. So next time someone asks you how you are, only say “fine” if you mean it. 😉
by Roseanna White | Feb 13, 2014 | Thoughtful Thursdays, Uncategorized
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| The Vision of Ezekiel by Francisco Collantes, 1630 |
In my year-long read-through of the chronological Bible, I’ve been covering the Babylonian exile. Interesting in many ways to me, given that I’ve already written one book set not so long after that (Jewel of Persia) and I have a few other ideas that tie in with it. But this week I’ve been reading Ezekiel, and one of the historical notes got me thinking.
The commentators introduced this section of Ezekiel by saying how this period of time became a huge shift for the Jewish faith. Up until the exile, Israel and Judah–long since fractured–identified their religion by their place in the world. The knew when God was angry because the tides would turn against them. They knew when He was pleased because they flourished. Yahweh set them apart from the other nations. His promises kept a Davidic king on the throne without fail. As long as Israel or Judah were a nation, then they were the beloved of God.
But suddenly that nation was nothing but crumbled stone. They were destroyed. Ripped to shreds. No Davidic prince sat on the throne. Their God, it seemed, had forsaken them. The other nations would mock them. Would revile their God and say He was nothing but another of the pantheon, weak and worthless. And if He was weak and worthless, then they were even less. They were exiles. They could do nothing but sit by the waters of Babylon and weep.
Yet in this destruction came a hope that redefined them. A hope that took faith from a cultural level to a personal one. Prophets like Ezekiel led the way in helping Israel redefine itself. He spoke of hope. He spoke of trusting in God to preserve them even amid the heathen nations. He spoke of a future Israel that would be united, and of a people stronger than ever.
I love watching this change unfold. I love seeing how faith had to go from a set of rules more often forgotten than obeyed to a belief to be written on the heart.
And as I read these sections the last few days, I felt that resonate. I look around me today and I see a world that has forgotten what the point of morality is. We’ve forgotten why we should keep sex sacred. Why we should put God first. Why we should not speak His name in vain. Why we should honor our parents.
That’s where Israel was, in a lot of ways. Rereading the Old Testament has shown me how often the Law and the Prophets were utterly forsaken. Forgotten. How many times they had to be rediscovered in some hole in a temple wall for even a semblance of obedience to be restored. How a king or prophet would try to get the people to follow His ways again…for a while…until it got too hard and they gave up.
Because it’s easier to live how the rest of the world lives. It’s so, so much easier. It’s more fun.
Until destruction comes, and God calls us to accounts. Then He finally gets our attention. But how many times did He call Israel to repentance before it came to that? Frankly, I lost count. He gave them so long. Hundreds of years. He would hold back His wrath when they made a small effort, perhaps sparing them for the sake of a few. For the sake of His covenant with David.
But the people…the people just wouldn’t learn. Because it’s more fun to sleep around, and really, what’s the point of abstinence? Why in the world should they release their Israelite slaves every seventh year? Keep the Passover—pssh. Maybe when it was convenient. So what if the next thing they knew they were under a siege so bad that time and again it’s reported that women were eating their own children? Surely it was worth it. Surely.
Where are we now? How many times has the Lord already called us to accounts, called for repentance? How many times have we ignored Him, because it’s easier to live however we want?
I pray He holds off His wrath. I pray the faithful’s prayers are enough for now. I pray enough are turning to Him. And yet I look at the rebirth of Israel, at the giant leap faith took because of that exile. And I know that no matter what may come, He’ll use it. He’ll use it for His glory. He’ll use it to show the nations He is God.
He’ll use it to bring His people to new levels of faith in Him.
I know in my heart this will still hold true today. Not just for nations where Christians face persecution, but in individual lives. No matter the siege we’re under. No matter the destruction we face. Maybe sometimes it’s a result of our decisions, maybe sometimes we’re caught in the world’s crossfire. But no matter what, He’s there. He’s there in the exile. He’s there in the battle. He’s there on journey, when we sit by the waters of Babylon and weep.
And He has something new waiting for us even then. We might feel like the dry bones Ezekiel saw in the wilderness. But He is the God who breathes new life into us.
Breathe on me, Lord. That is my constant prayer, whether I’m sitting by the waters or soaring through the clouds. Breathe on me.
by Roseanna White | Feb 12, 2014 | Books, Remember When Wednesdays, Uncategorized
I designed this cover quite a while ago, but hey. Why not do the step-by-step for my own book, right? =)
I’d had the idea for A Soft Breath of Wind for years. As in, years. Even before I rewrote and re-released A Stray Drop of Blood. The idea for the story came to me all at once, in an idea-swirling two days that saw it go from germ to full-fledged in my mind. I frantically wrote it all down in a few pages of notes, knowing it wasn’t the time to write it yet back then in 2007. But as I sat in a class at my very first writers conference, the teacher asked, “If you could only write one more book–if you knew you only had one more year to live–what book would it be?” My answer: this one.
Still, six years passed. Many other books came to me and were written down. This one was always there, waiting, but the time wasn’t right yet. After a Skype chat with a bookclub in July of 2013, though, I knew that time had come. So to inspire myself, I opened up Photoshop and got to work on the visuals.
My inspiration was a photo I had discovered some months earlier in my various searches through iStock and Shutterstock. I always save compelling images to a lightbox, either the one called “Random” or the one called “Historical.” =)
Loved, loved, loved this the moment I saw it. The photographer’s description is that she’s a Spartan queen. Sparta-loving me highly approved…though I didn’t have another book with Spartans in my plan. 😉 When I considered images for this sequel, though, this one came to mind. So I looked at the model. And I thought, “Is she too pretty to be Zipporah?”
Well, yes, probably. But this is a book cover. If you’re going to err any direction, err toward too-pretty, right?
There are quite a few images in this photographic series, but I chose this one because of the wind. I knew I wanted the wind to represent the Holy Spirit in this book, so having it on the cover would be awesome. But I didn’t want her bare leg showing. I got to work with my copy and paste and clone stamp tool to cover that up.
And while the hair blowing in the wind looks great, it’s also really tricky to get right when I’m taking out the background. I spent hours with a teensy-tiny eraser, going in between each strand to make it look right.
I didn’t save this image separately, so have to show you the layer from the final version, which also has lighting effects put in. You can’t actually see the super-dark part on the final cover, but the shadowing as she goes down is just what I was looking for.
You’ll notice I actually deleted some of her hair. There was one piece “catching” that flying curl that bugged me, and it didn’t look right as I was deleting the background, so it went bye-bye. But I did keep a few key wisps, and that main flying curl. Love it. =)
But I still had to work on her pretty factor. See, Zipporah is scarred. The first scar she receives in the very first chapter. It runs from her left temple down to her chin, along the side of her face. She could easily cover it with her hair, but more often than not she doesn’t. And as I looked at this model’s oh-so-lovely face, I realized that it works perfectly with the way she’s squinting into the sun, doesn’t it?
Now, how did I make that scar? Actually, I just found an image of someone with a nasty scar, copied the scar, adjusted it’s size, and faded it. This layer is at at 54% opacity, so that it looks like an old, healed-up and fading mark.
But I also wanted to show a scar she gets in the course of the book. This one is cross-shaped and on the opposite side of her face. So I took the same scar image, duplicated and moved the two parts around into a cross, and left it at 100% opacity so it’s bright and new.
There we go. I actually love how she looks with the scars (terrible thing to say, I know, LOL. I would never wish them on the model!), so it was time to move on to the background.
I searched iStock for Roman countryside or Roman villa or something like that and came up with this one. It’s of the Italian countryside, and I really liked the hazy look. Plus, the buildings in the back have an old-world feel. Perfect.
I adjusted the color a bit toward the pink/orange range, blurred the entire image to make it look out of focus, and added the same lighting effects I used on Zipporah.
So adding her in overtop…
Now, this is a sequel, so I wanted it to have the same elements as the cover of A Stray Drop of Blood. That includes a texture layer over the entire cover and flourishes sprouting out behind the cover model. I stared at Stray Drop’s cover REALLY closely to dissect the fun elements Tekeme put in. He used a distressed leather texture and a nice subtle flourish.
I wanted something new for this one, so I went with a parchment texture. I loved how it added a softness to it, a kind of glow.
Then I put in some flourishes. Similar style to the ones used in Stray Drop, but not identical.
Then it was time for the border. Again, not identical to Stray Drop’s, but the same feel.
Okay, so now we’re looking at the main front cover. The only thing left to add is the words. Again, I wanted some consistency with Stray Drop, so I knew I’d use the same fonts, and the same box thingy around my name at the bottom. I adjusted the color so it was purple instead of deep red.
But we’re still missing a very key element, right? The title, LOL. I actually struggled with this even as I designed the cover. My original title was Who Quickens the Dead. Which is, um, not good, LOL. Thematically it worked–in that God gives life to the lifeless. But it doesn’t exactly sound good. So I decided I wanted something that speaks to wind. I toyed with a few ideas.
The Wind of the Spirit. Okay, but not quite what I was wanting. Especially because I’d seen other books with the same title, LOL, and I like to be original. For a while I liked The Whisper in the Whirlwind. But I had Whispers from the Shadows coming out, and two Whisper titles in different series seemed like a bad idea. So I decided to keep the same rhythm as A Stray Drop of Blood. And my mind settled on A Soft Breath of Wind. So I went with it. =)
Ah yes. There we go. Just one tiny thing missing. On the cover of Stray Drop, there’s the blood drop behind the title, which I loved. I wanted a similar element here, but I’m working with wind instead of blood. Sheesh, how was I supposed to do that?? Well, I did a search for wind vectors at www.all-free-downloads.com and came up with this.
Fading that out to 30% opacity, I plugged it in behind my title and had my front cover!
But of course, the back cover of Stray Drop was just as beautiful as the front, and I wanted that to be true of this one also.
So I used my background image again, my parchment texture to get that layer under the words (using one of the funky erasers to get a torn-looking edge), and for the image on the back, I headed to Wikimedia Commons. There I found an image of a man in ancient garb reading a scroll. I also found a picture there of an ancient villa portico. I put the two together, blurred and faded them, and otherwise carried over the same elements from the front cover–the border, the purple shade of the box for the author area. I created some back cover copy, and ended up with this.
I haven’t yet put in my About the Author, but you get the idea. =)
And there we have it! My full cover for A Soft Breath of Wind, which I’m hoping to finish up in the next couple weeks. I’m getting excited!
by Roseanna White | Feb 10, 2014 | Word of the Week
We have so many beautiful color names, that all describe beautiful shades–which surely existed forever, right? Maybe…but the words sure didn’t! So today, a few quick lessons on when some of those shade names joined the English language. =)
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| Indian Pigments (image by Dan Brady) |
Cerulean is for the blue-green family, and dates from the 1660s. So we historical writers will want to use that one instead of…
Teal – not used for a color until 1923! Before that, “teal” just meant a small duck, whose head is said color. We took the color name from the duck name, not the other way around.
Fuchsia, which I can NEVER spell without the help of a dictionary, was the name of a plant in the 1700s, but didn’t get applied to the reddish-purple color in general until 1923.
And don’t think you can instead use magenta! Magenta was so-called in honor of a battle in a town called Magenta in Italy in 1860, where a rich dye was discovered soon after the fighting ended.
Turquoise – again, the stone has been known and named a goodly while–since the 1560s. But it wasn’t used to describe the color until 1853.
Lavender has the same story. The plant has been a word since the 1300s, but apparently people didn’t use it for the color until 1840.
Aubergine is an eggplant–the original word for it. The deep purple color we associate with eggplant was also first called aubergine (the first veggie called “eggplant” was apparently a white variety, oddly…). But keeping in this pattern, it wasn’t actually applied to the word until 1895.
Okay, that should do us for today. 😉 Have a colorful one!
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.