Roseanna White - Roseanna M. White

Thoughtful About . . . Legacies

by Roseanna White | Nov 21, 2013 | Thoughtful Thursdays, Uncategorized

On Sunday, I had the pleasure of attending my great-grandmother’s 100th birthday party. Most of the family was there, including some of her great-nieces and nephews that I’ve never even met. Everyone, it seemed, wanted to come and celebrate this amazing milestone.

I admit it–I didn’t want to leave home so early that day. I was in a writing groove, and Rowyn had been under the weather the day before, and I was afraid he’d crash back into exhausted at the party. I didn’t want to prepare a dish, I didn’t want to stop writing. But of course, I did. And oh, how glad I was.

Because as I sat in a metal folding chair beside my mother and sister, my kids right in front of me playing with the gourds used as decoration, I listened to the stories everyone told of this woman I’ve known all my life. And I realized I’m a part of a legacy.

Over and again people told the same stories. The stories of how she loved–and how she loved all, without distinction, without bias, without favoritism.

(Grandma says, “Well, you’re all just swell!”)

Stories of how Grandma’s old house was always an oasis of safety, a place everyone loved so much that we didn’t mind imitating sardines on Christmas Eve to get to spend time there.

(Grandma says, “It isn’t as big as I remember, is it?”)

Stories of how she always, always welcomed each addition to the family, whether through marriage or birth or adoption, with the exact same love and embrace as she had her own children, always remembered each one, always took care that they all received the same consideration.

(Grandma says, tearfully, “Thank you all so much for all your beautiful kids. Welcome to the family.”)

And my dad, tears in his eyes, reminded us all of the passage in one of Paul’s letters where he says, “Imitate me, as I imitate Christ.” To us, Dad said, “We can say ‘imitate Grandma, as she imitates Christ.’ She has always been a shining example of Jesus’s love for us.”

I don’t know what my legacy will be. I don’t know what people will remember me for. I don’t know how many would gather to celebrate a milestone with me. I certainly don’t know what milestones I’ll reach in this life.

But whatever age, whatever place in life, whatever people cross my path, I pray I can share in my grandmother’s legacy. I pray that they see even a morsel of her strength and goodness and kindness in me.

I pray, with tears in my eyes, that I can be like Grandma.

Remember When . . . We Hit the Turning Point?

by Roseanna White | Nov 20, 2013 | Remember When Wednesdays, Uncategorized

Okay, so A Soft Breath of Wind is taking me longer to write than usual. Life right now is just not allowing much writing time. But I’m so, so excited to be at my big middle turning point right now. Might not be quite as interesting to you, who don’t know what’s going on in the story here (yet, LOL), but it’s all that’s on my mind, so…

So. For the first half of the book, my main characters are working toward and then in a four-year separation. The guys, Benjamin (the baby in Stray Drop) and Samuel (the slave boy who becomes a son), go off adventuring, one of them to recover from a loss and the other to slake his wanderlust. They’re visiting the churches. Main character, female lead Zipporah has always yearned to travel too–but that’s denied her. Instead, she get to stay at the villa outside Rome.

As in, at the villa. Within the walls. She’s forbidden to leave.

So now, finally, I got to bring my guys home. Which is joyful news…but as they bring with them the other female lead, Dara, who’s pitted against Zipporah, it’s getting real interesting. And a bit intense. =)

Yes, Roseanna is having fun. I finally get to start diving into the love story I’ve been itching to tell. I get to start exploring the difference between loving someone despite their faults and loving someone faults and all. And what happens when you marry the wrong person, disobeying what the Lord has told you.

And as a member of a family divided, how do you know what side to take? And how do you knit it back together in the wake of that rift?

In the part I just wrote, the whole church is basically given the same challenge: who do you believe, when two trusted sources tell you something different? When only one can be right and compromise isn’t an option?

Have you ever been in a position where family, either blood or church, is divided? Was it what you deemed a big issue, or were you baffled at why it became so important? Looking back, do you think you made the right chance in which side you took?

Word of the Week – Dash

by Roseanna White | Nov 18, 2013 | Word of the Week

First of all, I did do the drawing last week for the winner of the digital of one of the Ellie Sweet books, and the lucky duck was

Kirstin Whitener!

Congrats, Kirstin! I know you’ll love them!!

This week I’ll be starting a giveaway for a signed paperback of The Unlikely Debut of Ellie Sweet, so if you were holding out for the hard copy, stop back by later!

And now on to our word of the week. =)

Any historical writer knows that a big challenge in writing authentic dialogue is trying to find era-appropriate exclamations…especially when writing for the Christian market and wanting to avoid any that venture toward cursing. And one can only use “blast it” so many times, LOL. I’ve looked up a lot of these over the years, and figuring out their etymology is always fun.

The Broken Vase by Harry Watrous, circa 1900

Today, we’re taking a look at dash, which I have used a time or two. The verb dash dates from about 1300 and comes from a Danish word that means “to beat, to strike.” And so, the oldest English sense is of something getting “dashed to pieces”…including the metaphorical “dashed hopes.” Around the same time, it also took on the transitive sense of “to move quickly,” which lead to the noun by the late 1300s.

Round about 1726, it began being applied to hurried writing (to dash a letter to someone…), but it took until 1881 for it to be applied to a race, originally one run in one heat.

And now back I go to dash a few more words into A Soft Breath of Wind before it’s time to start school. 😉

Guest Post by Andrea Cox – Thoughtful About . . . Ring of Secrets

by Roseanna White | Nov 14, 2013 | Thoughtful Thursdays, Uncategorized

It’s always a blessing to get to know my readers, of both blog and books. If I remember correctly, Andrea and I began chatting over the summer. She was a frequent visitor during the big month of giveaways, and she’s been stopping by regularly ever since. She recently read Ring of Secrets and asked me if I would consider letting her do a guest post on some things she considered while reading. I’m always happy for an easy blogging day, LOL, so readily agreed. 😉 So now, without further ado, Andrea.

~*~

Previously published on My Book
Therapy’s Weekly Spark, Andrea Renee
Cox (http://writingtoinspire.blogspot.com)
cherishes God, family and writing with a song in heart and a story in mind.
This Texan girl enjoys road trip vacations with her family and trying different
dessert recipes, looking for “keepers.”

THOUGHTFUL
ABOUT . . . Ring of Secrets

Sometimes another author’s book
sparks an idea for a novel of my own. Other times it hatches a plan for a blog
article. Still other times there’s a line on the pages that can be applied to
other parts of my life besides just writing.

Roseanna White’s Ring of Secrets was no exception.

This novel of espionage in the
late 1700s captured my interest from the get-go. What really connected with me,
though, was Bennet Lane’s thoughts from chapter three: “Explore, discover,
document.” He used these three steps to root out a spy hidden among New York
City’s elite aristocratic class.

I use them in my writing.

The first step to writing a
novel is to explore. The setting, time
period, what people were like in the time chosen for my story—all must be
uncovered in order for me to fully understand the time and place and characters
of my novel. It’s a fun process that leads from one resource to another to yet
another. From books to the internet to music and movies, the places to search
and explore are practically endless.

Next comes discovery. This one always surprises me. You never know what neat,
off-the-wall tidbits of information you’ll discover while you’re exploring.
Little treasure troves of trivia wait to be uncovered and put to good use.
These things take my stories to a deeper, more realistic level because the
tidbit was a kernel of truth placed artfully within my work of fiction. Every
fiction piece has some truth to it, and it’s little wonder when these realities
are found during discovery.

Finally, we document everything. This starts with making notes from our
resources. It moves into an outline and other brainstorming techniques.
Eventually, our documentation flows out into the full-length novel we hope will
be published to reach readers’ hands. That’s the day all aspiring authors dream
about. Once it happens, the readers sometimes document their thoughts and send
them to us via Facebook, Twitter and email.

Maybe writers aren’t the only
ones to use Bennet Lane’s “explore, discover, document” method!

What line from your favorite
book can be applied to another part of your life beyond reading? How do you use
the “explore, discover, document” method?

Remember When . . . We Had Pictures?

by Roseanna White | Nov 13, 2013 | Remember When Wednesdays, Uncategorized

Last week, going over edits for Circle of Spies with my editor, she mentioned at one point how she just loved that I made my Marietta match the cover photo so perfectly, especially how I described that single curl at her ear a couple different times. I also describe the dress at one point, which was a lot of fun for me. =) And as I said to her, “Well, it’s easy to make the descriptions match when you already have the cover!” (They got this one to me really early on in the writing process.)

I’m having the same fun with A Soft Breath of Wind. My Zipporah is modeled on the cover model, and I’ve even integrated her belt and necklace into the story–additions I never would have made without the picture as inspiration.

And now that I do some design too, I keep a lightbox at Shutterstock.com and iStockPhoto.com with photos I just like or find inspiring or think might work on some cover someday. That’s actually where the one on Soft Breath came from–I’d had it saved for months, and when I decided to work on the story and design the cover, I went, “Oo, oo, oo!!!”

So today, I thought it might be fun to just look at some pictures from these sites (with the watermarks so you know where they’re from–and the photos are linked if you want to check out the original), and see if you can come up with a story premise for them. (I did this once with my authors at WhiteFire, sent them a picture of a hunky knight and said, “Use this in a story. I dare you.” LOL One of them did!!)

Just tell me which option you’re thinking about and what idea might match it. Go crazy!!