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. đ
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. đ So now, without further ado, Andrea.
~*~
Previously published on My Book
Therapyâs
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 âkeepers.â
Sometimes another authorâs book
sparks an idea for a novel of my own. Other times it hatches a plan for a blog
article. Still other times thereâs a line on the pages that can be applied to
other parts of my life besides just writing.
This novel of espionage in the
late 1700s captured my interest from the get-go. What really connected with me,
though, was Bennet Laneâs thoughts from chapter three: âExplore, discover,
document.â He used these three steps to root out a spy hidden among New York
Cityâs 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 storyâall must be
uncovered in order for me to fully understand the time and place and characters
of my novel. Itâs 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 youâll discover while youâre 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 itâs 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 readersâ hands. Thatâs 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 arenât the only
ones to use Bennet Laneâs âexplore, discover, documentâ method!
What line from your favorite
book can be applied to another part of your life beyond reading? How do you use
the âexplore, discover, documentâ method?
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!!
by Roseanna White | Nov 11, 2013 | Word of the Week
Last night my poor little Rowyn had a toenail come off (ouch!), and his papa said that that surely deserved as much consideration as losing a tooth. So Rowyn got to pick dinner. Hence how the White family ended up eating waffles, macaroni and cheese, and grapes, LOL.
And hence why I thought to look up waffle this week. đ It’s pretty interesting!
The waffle we know, love, and eat comes directly from the Dutch wafel, which comes in turn from a very, very old German word, wabila, which means “web, honeycomb.” It made it into English by 1744–and waffle iron in 1790! I had no idea they were that old.
But then there’s the verb, the one that means “to vacillate.” I’ve always wondered what in the world that had to do with a tasty breakfast food. Turns out, NOTHING. They’re from completely different roots. Waffle, the verb, came around in the 1690s as an imitation of a bark or yelp (like “woof”). By 1701, it meant “to talk foolishly.” That’s the meaning that led, a hundred years later, to the one we use today. It was first used in Scotland and northern England…while the Dutch deliciousness was making
its way to us from a different direction. đ
~*~
Now onto some business! The Veterans Day Sale on
Ring of Secrets and
Whispers from the Shadows will be over on Tuesday, November 12, at 11:59 p.m., so if you’re looking for that perfect time to buy a digital, it’s here!
And don’t forget that I’m running a giveaway for a few more days of one of my favoritest books, The Unlikely Debut of Ellie Sweet (or the first book, The Revised Life of Ellie Sweet, if you haven’t read that one yet). These books are amazing! Check out the giveaway here.
by Roseanna White | Nov 8, 2013 | Uncategorized
Just a quick announcement to let everyone know that if you’ve been waiting for the right time to buy Ring of Secrets or Whispers from the Shadows, it’s now!
Digitals of Ring of Secrets are only $1.99!
Digitals of Whispers from the Shadows are only $3.99!
This is a Veterans Day sale, so it’s a limited time only–hurry, hurry! đ And feel free to share.
And don’t forget that I have a giveaway running of one of my all-time favorite books, The Unlikely Debut of Ellie Sweet!!
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, sheâs 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 booksâŚto offset her real life, which is blessedly ordinary.