by Roseanna White | Jan 30, 2012 | Announcements
If you want a word of the week today, I’d have to with “surreal”–which is how this big news feels to me. (But did you know it wasn’t a word until 1927??? I guess before that people may have just used unreal. But that doesn’t quite capture it, so special thanks to Monsieur Apollinaire for coining it in French.)
Many of you probably saw my announcement on Facebook on Friday, but if not, I can finally announce the big news I’ve known about since October–
Harvest House just bought a three-book series from me!
Now, here’s why this is so surreal. Some of the first Christian fiction I read was by Lori Wick. I discovered her books when I was twelve, and my mom and I would both read all of them, even sharing them with my piano teacher. Those books were what inspired my first novel (finished at age 13). And as I finished that first novel and started dreaming of publication, my eyes naturally moved to the spines of those books I so loved.
Harvest House. Oh, the wonders of a publisher like Harvest House! It seemed everything on my shelf was either from Harvest or Bethany. Surely, surely I could find a home there!
But as the years went by and I learned more about the publishing world, I started to think that, while I would find a great publisher (surely!), it probably wouldn’t be those ones I’d dreamed of for over a decade. And that was okay.
Still, when I had the chance to meet with an editor from Harvest House at the 2009 ACFW conference, I was excited. I pitched to her a contemporary romance, and she read the first few pages right there in the appointment, and declared that my writing was great. I was now excited but also guarded. I knew how long these things could take, and how an enthusiastic editor didn’t always mean anything.
Sure enough, a year went by without hearing anything. I got in touch with this editor and discovered that she’d misplaced the manuscript, so I resent–along with a slew of other proposals for historicals she’d asked to see when I inquired about historical romance possibilities.
But after many months, I got the bad news on that contemporary–they just weren’t doing straight-up contemporary romance. So I said, “Well, what about a historical romance set around George Washington’s first spy ring, during the Revolution?” I’d just had this idea, you see, knew it would be a great follow-up to
Annapolis, which had recently been contracted.
She said, “Oh, I’d be interested in looking at that!” So after finishing up a couple other projects, I got to work researching this idea I had. I titled it
Ring of Secrets and came up with one of the best one-line blurbs I’ve ever managed:
For a Patriot daughter in Loyalist New York,
opening her heart could mean a noose around her neck.
I sent it off totally unsure that those first three chapters were any good, but I said, “Eh, it’ll take her a good while to get to it, anyway. I can always send her a revised version . . .”
An hour later I get an email from this editor. I opened it up thinking it would be, “Thanks, got it!” But no–it said, “Call me!!!” Uh . . . okay. 😉
In short, she loved it. Loved it so much that we agreed then and there to meet at the conference we’d both be attending in Oregon in August, and that I’d deliver whatever I had finished at the time. She warned me she wasn’t the type to take things to committee before she’d read the whole thing, but I was so excited to hear her talking of taking it to committee that that didn’t bother me at all. 😉
So in August, she read the 75% of the book I had finished, and her enthusiasm for it left me giddy. In September, she told me when the committee meeting would be, in October. The day of, she emailed me several times making sure she had every detail of information right, and to tell me to pray. Warned me it would be two weeks before I heard.
Then it came–the email from her, to me and my agent, with the words I’d waited 15 years to hear: “Harvest House wants to buy this series!”
My first three-book deal, with a publisher I’ve admired since my introduction in Christian Fiction! I could hardly believe it then, and I can still hardly believe it now, three months of negotiations later. =)
But it’s real.
Ring of Secrets (assuming the title doesn’t get changed, which is always a possibility), a fictional account following the real-life, documented activities of Washington’s most trustworthy spies, will release 1 January 2013. Just less than a year from today. Here’s my unofficial description. =)
Winter Reeves is a Patriot daughter forced to hide her heart amid the Loyalists of the City of New York. Though she has learned to don a mask to hide her thoughts, she has also learned to keep her ears open so she can pass information on British movements to her childhood friend and his Culper Ring. Never before has she had a problem hiding her true heart behind an image of brainless beauty. But then, never before had someone seen straight to her soul.
Bennet Lane returns to New York from his Yale professorship with one goal: to find Washington’s spy hidden among the ranks of the elite. Romance was supposed to be nothing more than a convenient cover story for his search, a way to gain entrance to the world he had so long shunned—though women are terrifying, baffling creatures that inevitably render him bumbling. But when he meets Winter, with her too-intelligent eyes under her too-blank face, he finds a mystery too intriguing to be ignored.
In a world where loyalty can be bought and sold, where no one can be trusted, and where threat dangles ever before them, Winter and Bennet must find a way through the snares of intrigue . . . before their secrets can swallow them whole.
Winter and Bennet (and Robert Townsend, Benedict Arnold, and a host of other historical figures) will be a reality soon. Followed every six months by their sequels, which will follow the next generation of both Culper Ring and the family in the War of 1812, and then next-next generation in the Civil War. 😉
Yep . . . definitely surreal. But oh, how I praise Him for it!
by Roseanna White | Jan 26, 2012 | Thoughtful Thursdays, Uncategorized
Another thoughtful day as a result of our home school reading. =) This week we saw Elisha take over for Elijah, and during his stay with all the young prophets-in-training, we got to a story I remembered from when I was a kid but forgot the context of.
So one day, while all the young prophets are off in the woods so they might chop down enough wood to build new houses, an ax head flew off one of the shafts. Landed in the river. Kerplunk. The young man wielding it looked on with distress and cried, “Oh no! That was borrowed! Aaaaaaggghhhhh! Now what am I supposed to do??”
Now, I’ll admit I don’t know every nuance of the Law, but I suspect that the penalty for accidentally losing an ax head wasn’t death or anything. 😉 But the guy was upset. He’d borrowed something, borrowed it for a noble cause, no doubt promising to return the tool in the same condition in which he’d gotten it. Which was certainly not at the bottom of the river.
Still, it’s a little thing, isn’t it? An ax head. Kind of akin to lost keys. Or a broken down car. Vital things, but not really life-and-death things. Yet seeing the young prophet’s distress, Elisha picks up a stick, goes to the exact spot in the river where the ax had fallen, and tosses it in.
Up floated the ax head, as if it were made of wood.
When reading this to Xoe, this is where I stopped and said, “Now, what are axes made of?”
Xoe: “Metal!”
Me: “Does metal float?”
Xoe, laughing: “No, it sinks!”
Me: “And that’s why this is a miracle.”
Simple. Little. Wasn’t it?
The more I thought about this “little” miracle, the more I realized it wasn’t so little. Perhaps it wasn’t as showy as parting the sea, or the river. Perhaps it wasn’t as over-reaching as feeding thousands with a few loaves (Elisha did both of those just before this too). But it required rewriting the laws of physics. And you know, that’s a pretty big deal. Making an ax head float . . . well, you might as well make the young prophet fly. Pretty much the same amount of miracle needed.
So I sat back, and I chewed on it. God, through Elisha, rewrote the laws of physics–for one lost tool.
And yet still people doubt that He cares, especially about the little things. Still people doubt what He can do. Still people will say, “Why didn’t He just stop the ax head from flying off??” instead of looking at what He did do.
When I first heard this story, I couldn’t have told you what “laws of physics” were, LOL. Sure, I knew metal didn’t float, but mostly this story fell into the category of “Wow, isn’t God nice?” in my little-kid mind. And He is. He is so, so nice. So good. So loving.
So much so that He’ll do the impossible just to restore peace of mind to one who loves Him.
I’m going to be clinging to that ax head a lot. As a reminder of how far the Lord will go for the little things. As a reminder of how quick He often chooses to act. As a reminder of the “small” miracles that He does that we often probably don’t even notice. But that require just as much miraculousness as the big ones.
With God, there really is no big or small. He doesn’t weigh and measure like we do. I believe he sees a need, measures the faithfulness of the asker, not the task itself. And does what needs to be done.
Thank you, Lord, for caring on a scale I can’t fathom. For the ax head as well as the Red Sea. Thank you for the big things you do to save lives and nations . . . and for the little things that let us get through each day.
by Roseanna White | Jan 25, 2012 | Remember When Wednesdays, Uncategorized
This past week, I’ve been doing a lot of research. I downloaded about a dozen free e-books to my Kindle, all from the Civil War, mostly memoirs and first-hand accounts. And, of course, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, which I deem it a gross oversight on my part that I’ve never read. (Though I was in The King and I in high school and can’t think of the book without breaking out into song: “Small house of Uncle Thooooooomas, small house of Uncle Thooooooomas, writ-ten by a wo-man, Harriet Beecher Stooooooooooooow-eh.”)
When I first started writing this Civil War book, I thought, “Oh, good. I’ll have two books to write in the next year set in this era. My research will get to double up.”
Except, of course, that these two books are about as different as you can get when set in the same era. In my current one, both hero and heroine and Confederates. From Savannah, with its unique Georgian culture. Under their unique Georgian laws. The other one will have hero and heroine who are both Union sympathizers, though my heroine will be a widow of a secret Confederate. It’s set in Maryland, which had many who left the state to join the Confederacy, but the state itself was basically not allowed to, given the military presence.
Okay, so my fashion research will be able to double up. Otherwise . . . LOL.
And though it means more work for me, I really love how different stories can be when set in the same time. My colonials are good examples of this too.
Love Finds You in Annapolis, Maryland is set in 1783. Hero and heroine are Patriots, and the heroine even observes that she’s scarcely seen a Tory since the war began, which would have been true of Williamsburg, where she grew up. But in my next book, set in 1780 New York City (or rather, the City of New York as it was called at the time), my heroine is literally surrounded by Loyalists after growing up in a Patriot household on Long Island. Who had control of a place played an enormous part in what that place was like.
In either the Revolutionary or Civil War.
Well, that’s what I’ve been thinking about this past week. 😉 Do you have a particular era you love–and have you noticed the amazing spectrum of perspectives available in it? I’d love to hear about it!
Now back I go to my manuscript. My heroine has just gotten word that the hero is dead. Poor Cordelia!
by Roseanna White | Jan 24, 2012 | Uncategorized
The Merchant’s Daughter
by Melanie Dickerson
All Annabel Chapmen has ever wanted is to become a nun. To set her hands upon a Bible, to read the Holy Writ with her own eyes. To discover if it really says what their village priest claims, that all women are evil, nothing but a snare of Satan. But when her merchant father’s ships were lost, her dream sank too. And when her father died in the pestilence, it seemed the whole future wavered. And now, now the Chapmans are to be held accountable for the last three years of shirking their duties to the lord of the demesne. Her uncaring brother tries to arrange a marriage for her with the nasty Bailiff Tom so that he will pay the fine they owe, but Annabel cannot. She simply cannot.
She would rather accept the penalty for her family and become a servant at the manor of the newly-arrived lord. At least there, no one can force her to become the wife of a lout. Although that lout is far too close for her peace of mind, and continues to follow her around with his lechery and threats. Praise be to the Lord that there is always someone there to provide safety–usually the beastly-looking Lord Ranulf le Wyse.
Ranulf may have lost his eye and injured his arm through an act of heroism, but the resulting injuries have made him repulsive to any female–something he learned the difficult way when he made the mistake of marrying a woman he thought loved him, but who had instead tread upon his heart before succumbing to the pestilence. Best to turn it cold and draw upon the fierce temper everyone expects anyway, given his ghastly appearance. And best to steer clear of all beautiful maidens–especially the lovely new servant who seems to find trouble every time she moves. He will do his best to protect her from those who would hurt her.
But who will protect his scarred-over heart from her?
The Merchant’s Daughter is a retelling of Beauty and the Beast, so there are certain elements you know without doubt will be there. The beastly-looking man whose outside appearance goes hand in hand with a fierce temper . . . but a protective, fair heart. The lovely heroine with a desire for books rather than a husband. The full cast of supporting characters that range from delightful young boy to the menacing would-be suitor.
But it’s also so much more. This is a story that plunged me directly into a world long-since gone, into the heart of a girl who just wanted to see the Scriptures. Just wanted to read them, and couldn’t find a way . . . until she’s forced into a situation she thought could render nothing good. Annabel and Ranulf’s story is one of yearnings restrained and fears made manifest, of sacrificial love and tender emotion. Compelling from the very first page, these characters will win your heart.
It’s been a long, long time since I’ve been able to find the time and energy to read a book in less than a day–in the last year, even really excellent books take me weeks to read. But The Merchant’s Daughter stayed in my hand all morning last Sunday, and I scarcely put it down until I’d finished it. I knew when I spotted it on the shelf that it would give me exactly what I needed–an interesting, involved, beautifully transporting read–and it exceeded my expectations. I read this book in one gulp and loved every second of it!
Billed as a young adult novel, this is one I intend to give to my teenaged niece for her birthday, for sure–but it’s also one that women of all ages will enjoy, especially if they have a love for fairy tales. Melanie Dickerson has done it again with this amazing medieval romance, and I just can’t recommend it enough.
So go! Order one, pick one up off the shelf, borrow one–whatever you have to do to get your hands on it–you’ll thank me. So I’ll just say “you’re welcome” now. 😉
by Roseanna White | Jan 23, 2012 | Word of the Week
This ranks as one of those “who’d a thunk?” late arrivals to the English language. Not in every sense, of course, but I think you’ll be surprised by some of the years on this!
Okay, so “show” as in act or performance is as old as you might expect, coming from the 1300s. And an appearance put on to deceive, or an ostentatious display are from the 1500s. As a verb, it’s even older, though with a twist unique to English. Ours evolved into a meaning of “to make known” in the 1200s, but the correlating word in other languages still carried its original meaning of “to look at.”
But some of the meanings we use most often are the ones that’ll get you.
Did you know, for instance, that “show up” didn’t come along until 1888? That’s after “show biz” which is from the 1850s! And it’s even after “I’ll show you!” That particular meaning comes from the 1820s.
Interesting, huh? =)
Hope everyone has a great 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.