Word of the Week – Cameo

Word of the Week – Cameo

by | Dec 5, 2011 | Word of the Week

I can’t tell you how much time I spent chasing rabbits down trails (literarily speaking) for a one-line mention in my books. Like, did they have bells over the doors in 18th century New York? Hard to discover.
This last week, one of my random questions was, thankfully, easily answered. I wanted a character to mention a cameo necklace, which I was pretty darn sure were around and popular by the 1860s, but I’ve been wrong before. So I looked it up.
I was pleased to see that cameo, by which I mean a carved stone with two layers of color, has been around since the 16th century. Cameos maintained a steady popularity for centuries–Elizabeth I had a sizable collection, as did Catherine the Great. And since Queen Victoria favored them, they even stuck around during the fast-changing fashion of the 19th century.
In 1851 the word was attributed to “a short literary sketch or portrait.” Very much related to the pendant, which commonly depict a bust or figure (though not always). And so this sense was also transferred to the stage/film in 1928, when it came to mean “a brief role that stands out from other minor parts in a performance.”
I have a cameo necklace I inherited from my great-grandmother, and I love it. =) There’s something so very romantic about those treasures from times past . . .
Thoughtful About . . . RELEASE DAY!!!

Thoughtful About . . . RELEASE DAY!!!

by | Dec 1, 2011 | Thoughtful Thursdays, Uncategorized

It’s December 1. As in, December 1, 2011. As in, the official release day of Love Finds You in Annapolis, Maryland. Give me a moment.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Okay, I’m back. 😉
So this is technically my third Release Day. But it’s the first one that was ushered in by a call from my mom that went like this:
Mom: “So do you want the news?”
Me: “What news?” as Rowyn is sitting on the counter with a giant spoonful of yogurt that’s threatening to glop its way all over everything.
Mom: “I was in WalMart today, and they had Annapolis out!””
Me, totally ignoring pending yogurt catastrophe: “THEY DID????!!!!!!!!!! Did you take a picture?”
Mom: “Well, I did, yes. Problem is, I can’t get it off my phone. So I called your Aunt Pam and told her to go with her iPhone and take a picture and email it to me.”
LOL. So it’s been spotted. Woot!
Yep, that’s my thoughtfulness for the day. =) I’m going to be trying to set up signings here and there and everywhere, which will involve some phone calls today and tomorrow. Which I didn’t set up already because November was writing challenge month–not doing THAT in the month before a release again! LOL
Okay, happy day. I have big plans for organizing my basement today, folding laundry . . . all that fun stuff I neglected while trying to write and organize some media stuff. 😉
Happy Release Day, everyone! And remember to check out my Great Annapolis Giveaway (linked above) and check out the ways you can rack up those entries! (Including sending me pictures of Annapolis on a shelf in your local store. Yes, I just want to see it for the pure Joy, LOL.)

Remember When . . . The Language Changed?

by | Nov 30, 2011 | Remember When Wednesdays, Uncategorized

My poor hero just got shot. Fell overboard. Washed up on a Cuban beach in the Pinar del Rio province, near a few tobacco plantations.

And his poor author suddenly realized that the people there he’d be interacting with would be speaking–gasp–Spanish!

See, I took French in high school. I took French in college (and Ancient Greek). The many, many times I’ve had characters dealing with French-speaking folk, I do okay. Sure, I’m rusty, but I have that giant, unabridged French-English dictionary sitting on my shelf. I make do. 😉

Spanish though . . . yeah, my Spanish is limited to what I’ve learned from Dora and Handy Manny, and the obligatory mannerly phrases. But there’s no way around it. Cuba in the 1860s was, quite simply, Spanish. So I must dig out my limited knowledge, pull up an online Spanish-English dictionary, and also call on the help of some fluent Facebook friends who have proven themselves happy to jump into a conversation on which word for “shattered” I should use. 😉

But the hilarious thing is that, even when I want to pepper in a Spanish word that we all know, I keep messing it up. My thoughts sound something like this: “Okay, ‘please.’ I know the word for ‘please,’ obviously. It’s s’il vous pl–aggggghhh! Por favor, Roseanna–Spanish. Not French, Spanish!”

So I decided to make another character share my difficulties. 😉 See, one of the primary people in these scenes is a well-educated British man. Who would be fluent in what other language? French! So he, too, gets to keep lasping into the wrong secondary language. =)

Poor Phin will be stranded on Cuba for a couple months. Poor Roseanna will be done writing those scenes in the next couple weeks. But until then, that dictionary tab will stay open in my internet window. Those Facebook friends will remain on call.

And I’ll be trying my best not to make a Spanish planter say “Merci, monsieur.”

~*~

And don’t forget to check out the first blog review of Love Finds You in Annapolis! (Which has a few French phrases! LOL) You can leave a comment for a chance to win a copy. =)

Word of the Week – Morphine

by | Nov 28, 2011 | Word of the Week

I know, I know–what a strange, bizarre word of the week. And now y’all are probably wondering what I got into this weekend! 😉

Actually, it comes up because I’m a cruel author who just seriously injured her hero. I need him to be out of it for a while so said, “Hmm, they had some powerful drugs by then. Was morphine one of them?”

Yep.

And the name is just too interesting not to share. Did you know that morphine is named after one of the Greek gods as brought to us by Ovid in his Metamorphosis? (Not to be confused to Kafka’s book by the same name . . . and not to get into how much I despised said book-by-the-same-name each of the three times I was forced to read it . . .)

Anyway. Apparently Ovid gave the name Morpheus to the god of dreams. When the Germans named this lovely drug in 1816, they called it morphin in allusion to Morpheus, because of its sleep-inducing properties. The French, of course, changed it to Morphine. Which we borrowed in 1828 and have been using ever since.

Now to make sure my hero doesn’t develop a dependency–he has enough problems to deal with, I don’t wanna go there! LOL

And for those of you who are amassing those entries into the Great Annapolis Giveaway and/or interested in winning a free copy of Love Finds You in Annapolis, Maryland all by its lonesome, hop right back over to the Colonial Quills and leave a comment on my very first full-length blog review. =)

https://www.roseannamwhite.com/2011/11/review-of-love-finds-you-in-annapolis.html

Thoughtful About . . . Being Thankful For . . .

by | Nov 24, 2011 | Thoughtful Thursdays, Uncategorized

Thank you, Lord, for all You do for me. For sending Jesus to save me, for knowing me from eternity, for setting me on this path, surrounding me with friends and family, and holding my hand all through it.

Thank you, Lord, for placing me in a loving family, one that encourages and cheers me on, that holds me when I cry, that dusts off my knees when I fall. For amazing parents and a sister whose smile brightens my day. For nieces and in-laws and extended family that I love so very much.

Thank you, Lord, for my husband. Thank you, thank you, thank you for bringing our lives together so early, for the ten wonderful years of marriage we’ve already had, and for the future still stretching before us.

Thank you, Lord, for these precious children with whom you’ve entrusted me. Sweet little Xoe with her generous spirit and creativity, energetic Rowyn with his whole-hearted approach to life. They are blessings beyond compare.

Thank you, Lord, for the friends to whom You’ve led me. Those from my childhood who helped me grow, those from college who will always be so dear, those I’ve met through my writing that have become close as family.

Thank you for the one I’ve lost this year, for the time you gave us together and all the lessons she taught me. Thank you for the ones still fighting, still holding on.

Thank you, Lord, for a year of blessing after journeying through the valley last year. Thank you for a year of five contracts, which just baffles and awes me after working so hard for so long. Thank you for this new book that is even now sitting beside me, and for the ever-increasing success of the ones that came before it.

Thank you, Lord, for all You do for me. For sending Jesus to save me. For knowing me from eternity. For setting me on this path. For surrounding me with friends and family. And for holding my hand all through it.

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