by Roseanna White | Jul 2, 2013 | Uncategorized
Day 1 Winner of Ring of Secrets is:
Bonnie Roof!
If that’s not you, no worries! Your name’s still in the hat for today–and you can enter everything again! Plus, the whole week’s entries will be eligible for the $15 Bath & Body gift card. The form is still at the bottom of the post.
I had a blast yesterday reading some of the creative nicknames you guys have gained over the years. =) Mine of “Boat” came about like this: Roseanna Banana…became Banana Boat…became Boat. My sister also dubbed me “Pooky” in high school, and her kids now call me “Aunt Pooky.” That one’s pretty special too. 😉
Now, for those of you new to Writing Roseanna, I usually take Tuesdays off. BUT, whenever I have a book review to post, that goes up on Tuesdays. Used to be called Story Time Tuesdays, back when I actually read a book a week. These days… 😉
But as it happens, I do have a few book reviews that need posted on here anyway, so you’re in luck! Today is one of my all-time favorites, a young adult novel by my best friend and critique partner, Stephanie Morrill. I posted a bit about it when the book came out, but not a full review. Here it is, complete with links to Amazon and Smashwords.
And in case I don’t stress it enough in the review itself: THIS BOOK IS AWESOME. As in, awesome. I’ve read it a gazillion times and loved it more each time through–which is saying something. Buy it for your teens, buy it for yourself, doesn’t matter. It’s just too amazing to pass up!
The Revised Life of Ellie Sweet
by Stephanie Morrill
Out of five stars, I give this book a seven. Maybe an eight.
Stephanie
Morrill has an amazing way of breathing life and sass into her teen
characters, of creating a world and a life that I not only click with,
but which feels like MY world. That’s exactly the feeling I got as I
read THE REVISED LIFE OF ELLIE SWEET.
I love this book. I love
Ellie. I love Palmer and Chase and the cast of snippy friends, I love
the family that stood behind her when it mattered, I love the dreams and
crushed hopes and sometimes-cruel reality that made her grow into a
person I could love even more.
This is a book I would recommend
over and again. Definitely for any teens out there, who will fall in
love with Ellie…and Palmer…and Chase. And also for any adults who
know what it is to chase a dream. This is seriously one of my most
favorite books ever, of any genre. Ellie Sweet is my new best friend–I
can’t wait to see more of her in the sequel!
Buy the Paperback
Buy for Kindle
Buy for all other devices
My question of the day to you is:
What’s the best book you’ve read so far in 2013?
(Quick note on the technical side of the giveaway–I’m using the same widget for one week, so entering on Monday could win you a book on, say, Thursday. This is so the whole week’s entries are good for the bonus prize [this week’s being that $15 gift card to Bath & Body Works]. After I do that drawing, I’ll start with a fresh widget for next week though. Capice?)
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by Roseanna White | Jul 1, 2013 | Giveaways and Contests, Word of the Week
Much as I can’t believe it, there is only ONE MONTH before the release of Whispers from the Shadows, book 2 in the Culper Ring Series!
Man, the last six months have flown by!!
And you know what? I still have boxes and boxes of Ring of Secrets sitting here, just waiting to find happy homes. So…how better to get them into eager hands than with a massive giveaway??
Excellent question. Answer: there is no better way. 😉
So [insert trumpet blare here], allow me to introduce the great, the magnificent
30 Days of Giveaways!!
Each and every day for the month of July, I’ll be giving away 1 copy of Ring of Secrets (if you already own RoS, you can have another of my books. If you have them all, then someone else’s). PLUS, once a week (drawn on Friday), I’ll be giving away a bonus gift. First up:
A $15 gift card to Bath & Body Works
Now…confession. This giveaway has an ulterior motive *gasp*. No, not that I want to suck you into my series with book 1 and thereby cajole you into ordering book 2. Well, I man, obviously that, but it’s not what I mean. 😉 I’d also love to get y’all talking more on the blog. So. If you think I’m discontinuing my normal blogging…think again.
Did you know that Mondays are Word of the Week days around here? Seriously! And this is the sort of fun we have on Mondays.
Today–nickname. Ever wonder where that word came from? No, not from all the Nicholases that came to be called Nick. 😉 Nope. It’s from eke.
Wouldn’t have guessed, would you? But it is. Eke, which means “to lengthen or supplement” (usually laboriously), was added to “name” back centuries ago as an “additional” name. But over time, “eke-name” got shifted and mispronounced and became “nickname.”
Fun, eh?
So my question to you today is:
What’s the funniest/strangest/sweetest nickname you’ve ever been called?
My answer: Boat. Wanna figure out how I got that one?
Now–get entering! And don’t forget to come back tomorrow for Day 2, and more fun stuff. =)
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by Roseanna White | Jun 27, 2013 | Thoughtful Thursdays, Uncategorized
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| The Dentist by Gerard van Honthorst, 1622 |
I can say in complete honestly that yesterday evening was just terrible. As in, took me all night to recover. Why, you ask? Because my daughter has a loose tooth.
Now, Xoe has lost four teeth already, and they were FINE. No pain, little bleeding, no prob’m. Yesterday, this tooth twisted into a very funny position and hurt every time she touched it. And my brave little princess who withstood a broken elbow with nary a whimper had a complete meltdown over this. As in, four solid hours of crying. And what really got me was what she was crying: “Get it out, get it out–but don’t touch it.”
Last night, I broke out all the philosophy and truisms I could think of. Though reasoning with a panicked 7-year-old…yeah, um, didn’t accomplish anything. But oh, how it got me thinking.
Because that, right there, is so often me. Not over the physical ouchies, those I can handle. But when we dig deeper–oh yeah. I can imagine God in the same agony I was in last evening, wanting so much to help me while I thrash around insisting He make it go away but not DO anything.
At one point last night, I said to my sweet girl, “Doing nothing will never accomplish anything. Ever. If you want something to change, you have to do something.”
Yet how often do we complain about something in our lives, beg and plead for God to change it, but then sit on our duffs and cry “Stop!” at the first twinge of unease? And much like tooth v. elbow, I’m not talking about the Big Stuff. I’m talking about the everyday.
We want to see our enterprises, our churches, our businesses, our online presences grow…but we don’t want to give up our time, resources, ideas, or prayers to achieve it. We are, in those moments, nothing but screaming children who can’t see our own hypocrisy. Caught in our own inertia, paralyzed by our own fear…or exhaustion…or hunger.
Because we’re hungry. We’re so, so hungry that we feel we can’t move. We want more…or better…or different…and we can see it. We can see the others who sell more, grow more, give more, get more. Why can’t we? Why hasn’t God given us the desires of our heart?
After dealing with a little one who refused food or drink half the day from fear, I have new insight into that. Our beloved Father isn’t withholding what we need. We’re refusing it. We’re not ready. We’re too afraid. We’re too tired. In order to take what he’s offering, we have to move. We have to say, “It’s okay if it hurts.” We have to be willing to do what it takes.
What’s your tooth today? Are you ready to say, “Get it out, Lord, whatever it takes. I trust you.” … Or are you still crying, “Make it go away–just don’t touch it!”?
by Roseanna White | Jun 26, 2013 | 17th-19th Centuries, Remember When Wednesdays
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| Who Shall be Captain by Howard Pyle |
Is there anything more fun (especially when we’re kids) than a treasure hunt?
Is there anything more fun, as we grow up and (some of us) turn to books for our adventure, than a story that includes a lost treasure?
Allow me to answer for you: nope. 😉
My vacation book was one of Nora Roberts’ latest, and I gotta say, one of my favorite aspects of it was the lost treasure. And would Titanic have been the same with the Heart of the Ocean in it? Nope. Whether it be pirate gold or a legendary gem, we folks love our bling and love the stories of trying to find it. Maybe we’re not all out with our metal detectors, but come on–even if we don’t actually hunt treasure, we love hearing about those who find it!
So it was fun to integrate a treasure into
Circle of Spies, which I’ll be turning in here in another two days or so. Best of all, a treasure people really are hunting today!
I don’t remember the first time I heard about the lost Confederate gold. I suspect it was on television. Possibly that movie with Penelope Cruz and Matthew Connelly. Then an episode of Brad Meltzer’s Decoded (the same show that inspired me to look up the Culper Ring to begin with) did one on it. They’re the ones that pointed out it’s not just about lost Confederate gold–it’s about hidden Confederate gold.
In
Circle of Spies, my bad guy is a captain of the Knights of the Golden Circle. The K.G.C. is a Southern secret society that boasted 300,000 members in the height of the Civil War. For most of those it was probably nothing but a social club, but to the higher ups…it was serious. As in, in regular communication with the Confederacy’s President Davis, receiving instructions on how to undermine the North SERIOUS. And one of the things they were charged with–burying Confederate gold.
Yep, that’s right. They hid it on purpose. Only, it wasn’t supposed to be lost. And it wasn’t just gold. These dedicated Southerners hid everything they would need for a second uprising after the Confederacy surrendered. Gold, yes. And clothes, rations, medical supplies, ammunition, weapons. You name it. There are supposedly caches of this buried all over the South. Booby trapped. And the maps–secret codes hidden in the landscape.
Folks have been searching for these burial spots for decades, and have found enough to keep them searching. How fun is THAT. So in my book, I posit that someone hid some of this treasure in my neck of the woods. In a cave in Western Maryland. Likely? No. But possible. And oh so fun to imagine. =) Because yeah, I love a good treasure story.
What’s your favorite treasure story, be it real or fictional?
by Roseanna White | Jun 24, 2013 | Word of the Week
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| Allegory of Justice by Gaetano Gandolfi |
“You’ll get your just deserts!”
Okay, confession. Because that phrase pronounces the final word as one pronounced the word for the delightful confections that make life worth living, I never once realized it’s spelled with one ‘s’ like an arid area. Hadn’t a clue. But it is. One ‘s’ but pronounced like desserts. And…why?
Well, that’s the interesting bit. =) Apparently it’s from a whole different word that either a sandy desert or a sweet dessert–it’s from deserve.
Ah!
Okay. So the word deserve is from French, and back in the day when it was entering English (as in, the 13th century), desert was used to mean “that which is deserved.” So you deserve your deserts. Which makes total sense, right? And yet it’s fallen completely out of use except for in that one phrase about just deserts. (Probably because of the confusion with sandy ground and chocolate, LOL.)
Pretty fun, eh? Happy Monday!
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.